Create an identity
Lam needed to redefine its strategic objectives and create new values by which it could operate, so Newberry took the team off-site for
a few days to establish these necessities.
Business was spread across the semiconductor industry as well
as manufacturing flat-panel display equipment. They recognized
that the company’s core competencies were in its etch technologies, so they exited other semiconductor businesses as well as the
flat-panel equipment manufacturing and focused on developing
that one facet, even if that meant turning down short-term opportunities.
Now, with a focus, they identified what success looked like:
being No. 1 in customer trust and market share, being a place successful people wanted to work and being profitable enough to
finance solutions to customers’ problems. They also decided it
wasn’t merely enough to do these things — they wanted to be
world-class in doing so.
The leaders then asked how would they achieve those successes.
“The how part, being core values, really speaks to behaviors that
we wanted,” Newberry says. “We started that off with ultimately
recognizing that whatever those core values are, it needs to be
what we practice, we believe in and we reward.”
This was important to him because he didn’t want Lam to be one
of those companies that just gave lip service.
“In most companies, they have a bunch of core values that sit on a
wall, but the degree to which the senior leaders practice those values can be pretty inconsistent, and sometimes, senior leaders will
stand around and say, ‘Those core values are for the rest of the people in the company, but we don’t necessarily have to practice that
(ourselves),’” he says.
Some people didn’t want to be held to such high standards, so the discussion became the most heated one of the retreat. When a couple of the executives continued to resist, Newberry laid it on the line
for them.
“I didn’t leave where I came from to come to a company that wasn’t going to believe in being values-driven,” he told them. “The leadership team, in essence, defines what a company is going to be. If you
guys don’t want to do this, fine. Then I’m not going to be the chief
operating officer for this company, so you guys need to decide what
do you want to do because if I’m going to be a part of this team, this
is what we’re going to do.”
With that, people realized that he meant business, so they committed to it. Wanting to avoid confusion by not having too many
values, they settled on eight.
“It was a group of eight that we thought were representative of
what was important to us — not somebody else, not some author
out of a book,” Newberry says. “Essentially, a senior leadership
team — particularly the CEO and president — you have to bring
your own core personal philosophies of what you’re doing in a
company. For better or for worse, the company is going to align to
that. … You basically choose what really is a makeup of who you
are as a leader.”
Newberry says that as long as you’re not choosing odd values,
people should align with them.
“Choose a set of values that aren’t off the wall,” he says. “If you’re
choosing a set of values that are off the wall and people don’t
understand or relate to … those can be very effective, but then you
have a culture that is very individual-oriented. If the values system
that you choose, people can relate to and can ultimately make
their own, then it doesn’t become the CEO’s culture — it becomes
the company’s culture.”