.jpg)
Academia Română a fost creată în 1866 pentru a cristaliza cele mai înalte valori intelectuale din provinciile românești într-o societate erudită menită să consolideze identitatea națională pe baza a patru componente esențiale: limbă și literatură, istorie, etnografie și cultură. La...
Infineon Technologies Romania: 5 years of excellence in the semiconductor market
Michael Neuhaeuser
Infineon celebrated in early June the 5 years anniversary in Romania, during which the company has established itself as a top player of the R & D private market. Furthermore, the company supports the romanian higher education system and gets involved in leadership activities, in order to strengthen the local electronic industry. Market Watch magazine talked to Michael Neuhaeuser, the man who struggled and succeeded in gaining the organizing of the 2013 European Conference on Semiconductors in Bucharest, not only about Infineon Technologies’ history, present and outlook in Romania but also about the possibility of building a high-tech field in our country (nanoelectronics).
Which were the main factors that helped Infineon’s development through the five years of presence in Romania, even in a tough economic climate?
The major factor for the success story of Infineon in Romania was and is the availability of well educated people in the technology fields which are of interest for Infineon. Beside this we could achieve an environment where the fluctuation rate is low in comparison to other companies and therefore our long term strategy to invest in people pays off. During the crisis we decided not to lay off our people which is a strong signal for them and for the labor market that Infineon is a reliable employer. Now, in the phase of market upturn because of this measure we are better positioned than our competitors and we can fulfill faster the demands of our customers.
Over the 5 years what were the most significant moments in the history of the company?
Oh, this is a nice question! It’s very difficult to answer because over the years each day was for us a significant one. For sure we had some major milestones like the opening of our offices, bringing in the first expensive laboratory equipment, opening our laboratories at the universities Polytechnica and Iassy, and celebrating our 5 years anniversary with more than 200 employees, top management from Infineon and important local partners and politicians.
After five years of presence in Romania, which do you think are the values most often associated with Infineon brand?
High quality products and high quality people, both are equivalent and valid for us. Everybody knows that we are a high performance company and we are driving for zero defect products. We are an innovation driver not only in Romania and our strong belief is “innovation is all about people, the rest is technology”.
What are the key areas of expertise developed by Infineon in Bucharest?
Infineon Technologies focuses on three central challenges facing modern society: energy efficiency, communications and security and offer semiconductors and system solutions for automotive and industrial electronics, chipcard, and security applications as well as applications in communications. Our activities in Romania are focusing on research and development for automotive and security applications. We are working together with other Infineon R&D centres for example from Villach, Graz, and Munich. Infineon technologies is the no 1 semiconductor suppiler in the field of automotive and security and therefore we are working with all major players in this market . For example we are working close together with Renault in Bucharest which has here the biggest R&D centre outside of France.
A company's success largely depends on the quality of management. You lead Infineon Romania for almost one and a half year now. What is your business philosophy? What is the model of management, strategies, new directions of development that you succeed or intend to try out for consolidation and expansion of Infineon?
The 21 th century is the century of knowledge based societies and therefore only innovative companies like Infineon with a broad access to knowledge can compete on the international high tech market. To be successful in this kind of business you need to build up strong partnerships and networks in all directions and to use the available knowledge in an intelligent way. More specific in the Romanian market I think that involving more players, universities, R&D institutes and companies within our markets (automotive and security) can create a higher value for all involved parties. Therefore we can increase long term the living conditions of the Romanian society by creating more high qualified jobs.
You are asking me about my management style and I can tell you that I am a big friend of a team approach. Usually all my decisions are made together with my team and only in exceptional cases I’m using a top down style. I see my task to define the general framework and the mid to long term strategy of my organization and to give my people the necessary freedom for their own decisions. In the high tech business time to market is a very critical factor and flat organizations with distributed decision makers are a key success factor. Beside this I see my role to be also a mentor of my young managers and to support them in their own development.
Concerning our new direction of development I can tell you that the situation in our core markets is improving continuously after the worldwide economic crisis and the demand of our customers continue to be very strong across all segments. Therefore we expect further growths of our activities in Romania within the next 12 months. To realize further growths in Romania and to use the synergies of the local market we are working close together with universities, research institutes and local customers. We are engaged and driving a lot of activities here. For example, we are one of the initiators of the nano-electronic cluster in Romania.
You are one of the initiators of the action to create a high-tech sector in Romania: Nanoelectronics. For this you organized in the spring the Summit called: "NanoElectronics in Romania: Research-industry-education ", thus trying to accelerate the achievement of a network that brings together the major players in the field. What is the potential of Romania in terms of micro and nanoelectronics, and how will you continue to support this ambitious project?
As said earlier the semiconductor industry is an industry which is driven by the knowledge of people. Therefore this industry is always going to places where they find well educated and motivated people. Beside Infineon there are also other semiconductor companies in Romania and therefore I think there is a chance for this country to grow further in this field. But we need to be realistic the future growth depends strongly on the fact if the universities will be able to deliver well educated people in the field of microelectronics and to set up research activities which can compete on international level. I took over in the last year to drive many activities like the nano-electronic cluster idea and I can tell you that we have further ideas available to strengthen the local activities.
You collaborate with the most important faculties of electronics in the country. How do you sustain the practice of laboratories, research work? How involved is the company in the transfer of knowledge and skill development, in offering themes of Masters and PhD, in preparing highly qualified and suitable to the specific needs of market human resources?
Infineon Technologies Romania will continue to invest in the collaboration with Universities from Bucharest and Iassy. We had in the past a good collaboration and Infineon showed a lot of interest in developing students by sponsorizing both Universities with lab equipments. We are thinking to approach also other Universities from other regions to improve the local teaching system resources. We have our dedicated master at the University Polytechnica of Bucharest: “Advanced Microelectronics” already since 1 year ago. We are working close together with the universities to adapt their curricula to our needs. Quarterly Infineon is bringing also German experts to lecture on dedicated subjects. Currently we have set up an own PhD program to keep the best researchers in Romania and offer them access to high end equipment and important research topics. These experts are also paid on a competitive level.
Parerea ta conteaza: 
Constantly investing in the latest technology, Urgent Curier achieved 33% turnover growth during crisis year
