In a recent exchange with a leader of a chip company, he talked about how they plan products not one chip at a time, but by series. Each product series will be planned in a pipeline manner, setting indicators for the types of new products to be launched each year. This planning method is obviously more professional.

Since the marketing department plans in units of product series, chip projects are inherited. At this time, the stability of the R&D team is very important. If the personnel are unstable, it will be difficult to complete the series of products on time and at low cost. In the continuous iteration, the series of products need to inherit the previous advantages and modify the shortcomings. In the product planning from high-end to low-end, or from low-end to high-end, mutual reference and inheritance are the key. Without these inheritances, the product may be delayed, the performance may not meet the standards, or even the functions may be defective.

As I said in my previous article, if a chip company boasts that its team is very young, then the company is pathetic; and if a chip company has many old employees, then the company is very likely to be a good company.

In a company in the industry, the new CEO made a major personnel adjustment after his arrival, resulting in the resignation of a large number of senior employees, which eventually caused huge losses to the company. This shows that the loss caused by an unreliable company leader is incalculable. Moreover, an unreliable leader often leads a group of unreliable second-in-commands, further amplifying such losses.

It is understandable that a new official takes office with three fires, but if he does not respect the rules of the newly established industry and makes major personnel adjustments, such a leader must be incompetent and unsuitable for the chip industry.

In addition to ensuring the stability of the technical team, enterprises also need to pay attention to market planning. Many chip companies of a certain scale do not have a professional marketing department. Product planning depends on sales to define specs after user feedback, or directly relies on the CEO's personal experience for planning. These practices are very dangerous and unprofessional. Therefore, chip companies must have a professional marketing team.

Of course, you may think that other departments are also very important, such as the quality department, testing department, human resources department, etc. These departments are indeed important, but here we are talking about departments that directly face competition, that is, departments that represent the company's competitiveness. Auxiliary departments only need to be relatively good, and the competitiveness department is what really determines the quality and profitability of the company.

So, which department do you think is the most important department in a chip company?

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