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Simon Calder – Profile | Circuit Components
then not to start doing business went into liquidation the company communicate with management and problems with today’s banking
together.” struggled to find a new one: “But we get buy-in.” industry were mirrored back in
Calder was moving swiftly up the did. They were difficult times and the After eight years, however, he Silicon Valley over ten years ago.
company hierarchy when he was people winding up the Italian became dissatisfied with the way his “There was a real disconnect between
approached and offered another job. company had some dubious success was being rewarded and what people were doing and the
“Palmer was looking to retire and connections.” when approached by a new start up money they were being paid. I got
we had talked about me running the Mafia, I ask? company, MMC Networks, who were tired of the Valley and it was
company. I was only 24. But when I He smiles. “There were brown looking for a sales & marketing becoming unpleasant.”
told him I had been approached he envelopes, that kind of thing. Yes, director he decided to leave. MMC As a result Calder, by now married
suggested I go away and look to they could be described as being was to become a leading provider of and with children, decided he
come back once I gained some ‘unconventional’ in their approach network processors - high- wanted to relocate back to Europe.
experience elsewhere.” to business.” performance, open-architecture, After a lengthy spell in Silicon Valley,
The next year, or so, saw him work In 1988 he found himself software-programmable processors. Calder returned to the UK in 2000 to
for Manhattan Skyline, a approached by LSI Logic. At the time people were leaving start up MMC Networks in Europe
semiconductor importer and “They liked my background at companies and starting up new and took the title ‘Head of Sales
distributor and with NEC, which was NEC and the chance to be involved ventures. Venture capital was Europe’.
then one of the world’s largest In 2002 he left the company but
semiconductor companies. within a few weeks was introduced to
“It was an experience. You could
call it glamorous, it certainly was
“An opportunity to join a start-up with
Spiratech, a UK based and VC-
funded, software business looking for
when compared to Palmers, but there
working capital, a shippable industry
someone with sales experience and
were a lot of very large egos to
contend with.”
leading product and a market set to
within three months was appointed
CEO.
Calder described one vivid
memory while he was at Manhattan explode, is not one to turn down.”
As CEO, he grew the business
expanding its customer base and
which has stuck with him. developing its presence worldwide.
“I went to visit a company, was He then successfully exited SpiraTech
late for the appointment, and in making big deals and big decisions plentiful and MMC was offering him selling it to Mentor Graphics.
stumbled over my presentation. I was was very appealing.” share options, something he’d been His decision to join Cambridge
responsible for a far wider range of Offered the position of Product denied at LSI. Mechatronics, 1 Ltd as it was then
products than I’d known at Palmers. Marketing Manager for Northern “An opportunity to join a start-up called, came after a meeting with Dr
When I tried to follow up on the Europe he jumped. Over the next with working capital, a shippable Martin Knight, the company
meeting I was told, bluntly, that eight years he worked in the UK, industry leading product and a Chairman and currently Chief
they’d be buying nothing as ‘you Italy and ultimately the US. market set to explode, is not one to Operating Officer of Imperial
knew nothing about the product and “It was one of those ‘no-brainer’ turn down. I was with them for six College, just a few months after
wasted my time.’” decisions you get from time-to-time. years. I deepened the relationship leaving SpiraTech.
A fair comment? I was going to be working with with Cisco and started fresh ones “We met at Imperial College and
“Absolutely! It highlighted the people of real calibre and get the with Compaq and Intel. In that time hit it off straight away. We do have a
importance of having a good chance to go to Silicon Valley.” there was an IPO and we were great working relationship. He liked
technical knowledge. That gives you Daunted? acquired by AMCC.” my direct approach; my experience
the ability to strike up a rapport “Not in the slightest.” of Silicon Valley and the
based on trust and respect. As a entrepreneurial drive I
salesman it just gives you more Silicon Valley could bring to the job of
opportunities. It has to be my biggest Hard working and commercially able CEO.
complaint about skills in the UK - Calder worked on a wide range of “The work at
sales and marketing. There are not deals with companies as varied as Cambridge is interesting
enough people that have that Amstrad and Nokia. However, a clash but also very
combination of technical knowledge, with a senior manager saw him challenging. The team
market perspective and formal ‘offered’ the role of ‘fronting’ a new cares about the product
training or experience in product factory in Sidcup. with a real passion and
definition and promotion.” “I was certainly intrigued by the in fact it’s that passion,
Palmer called Calder, as he’d offer. It was a massively or belief, that is key to
promised, after a year or so and told dysfunctional factory but the time I any successful company.
him that he wanted to retire and spent there was possibly among the People want to believe
wanted him to come back and take most valuable that I’ve ever
over the running of the company. So experienced. It showed me how the
CML's technology is used in loudspeakers for audio and
in what they’re doing, in
at the tender age of 25 he found stuff I sell is made. I can still work
TV systems
what the company is
trying to achieve. In a
himself running a business. out yield curves and how much a Yet he readily admits that while he small business like Cambridge
“When I’d left they had really chip will cost.” was working for the company he was Mechatronics that success can be
struggled and when I came back it After a brief stint over in Italy miserable. communicated and people can
got a lot better. I’m not saying there Calder got the call he’d been waiting “We had such high expectations quickly see tangible results.”
was no luck in that – but you make for – to go to Silicon Valley. that every success wasn’t good When Calder joined the company
your own luck and you seize the The following years saw Calder enough while every setback was a was struggling with a bloated cost
opportunities presented to you.” manage and co-ordinate commercial disaster. We started to lose structure and within his first three
Calder rejuvenated existing activities on a global basis. He held perspective.” months he began restructuring the
relationships and established new various sales and marketing His relationship with the CEO was business.
ones. management positions and was also a strained one. “It meant redundancies but the
“We build a strong relationship responsible for negotiating and “I wasn’t a classically trained people who cared about the
with ICL but we also benefitted from closing several $100m+ deals. These salesman, he was. His focus was on company and its products
a having a strong economic deals had a significant impact on ‘slicing and dicing’ markets while I understood it was necessary. We’re
environment in which to work. Sales what was still a relatively young was all about relationship building. now running at what I would call
boomed but it all went ‘tits up’ in career and helped catapult him into To begin with we had some terrible optimal efficiency. The confusion,
1987. Colour displays began to an ‘elite’ within the company. development problems, the the ‘flabbiness’ the conflicting
appear and all our main suppliers “LSI was a truly professional architecture was fundamentally strategies that existed have been
were focused on monochrome, so organisation. I learned a lot but one flawed.” replaced. I think we’ve come up with
there was a real mismatch. Our main thing that stands out was the need to However, out of this functional the right strategy and there’s a lot of
supplier was a family-owned Italian communicate effectively; it was as creative chaos came success and positive energy around.”
company over in Milan. They much about co-ordinating your own MMC was bought at the peak of the With the agreements signed this
weren’t investing in new products so people as it was talking to the dotcom frenzy by AMCC. year with Cirrus Logic, Texas
we couldn’t supply what the market customer. You have to build up a While he stayed with the company Instruments and Seiko Instruments
wanted.” private and very personal network of for a few more years he became that positive energy has certainly
The company was Palmer’s biggest contacts within a large organisation. increasingly disillusioned with begun to bear fruit for both Simon
supplier of components and when it You need too in order to Silicon Valley. In many respects the Calder and Cambridge Mechatronics.
www.cieonline.co.uk Components in Electronics September 2009 13
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