EMS@C-LEVEL
As Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and SCOOP writer, Philip Stoten, continues to talk to EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) executives he learns more about their individual and collective experiences and their expectations for their own businesses and for the entire electronic manufacturing industry.
EMS@C-LEVEL
IPC at Electronica 24: Unifying the Electronics Industry with Sanjay Huprikar
Join me for an engaging conversation with Sanjay Huprikar, President, Europe and South Asia Operations at IPC, as we explore the vibrant and collaborative atmosphere of the IPC booth at Electronica 2024. You'll gain insights into how IPC is making waves with its strategic efforts to unify European EMS and PCB industry leaders and foster bilateral learning with the EU. With hands-on activities for engineers like the World Soldering Championships, CEO panels, and insightful political discussions, the booth was a hub of interaction and forward-thinking presentations. Sanjay and I discuss how IPC's commitment to standards, education, advocacy, and innovative solutions is shaping the future of the global electronics landscape.
We also shine a light on the power of storytelling and collaboration in transforming the industry narrative. Learn how panel and meetings foster openness and shared vision. Throughout our discussion, the joy of serving the industry and the personal fulfillment derived from it are recurring themes, underscoring the IPC's dedication to the industry's progress and the dynamic exchanges that fuel it.
EMS@C-Level at electronica 2024 was hosted by IPC (https://www.ipc.org/)
Like every episode of EMS@C-Level, this one was sponsored by global inspection leader Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com).
You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.
Hello, I'm Philip Stoughton. I am on the IPC booth at Electronica 2024, and I'm joined by Sanjay. Sanjay, first of all, thank you for hosting us here. It's been an absolute pleasure. We've had maybe 35 people through here.
Speaker 2:It's been fantastic for us to watch.
Speaker 1:Fifteen or so EMS CEOs which has been great for some of the largest companies in Europe, so really enjoyed that. Thank you, but also congratulations. A great exhibit here. What I've loved about the exhibit is we've had hands-holding competition here, so we've had the operators doing their thing. We've had CEOs on the stage there. We've had people from the European Union here talking about the politics it's the full gamut of services isn't it.
Speaker 2:It's a bottom and belly. It's the three-ring circus, but I mean that in the most positive way. Of course, we're the Global Electronics Association. Our duty is to serve this industry. We're in Europe this week, we'll be in Asia in a few weeks. We'll be back in the US in March.
Speaker 2:Having the ability to bring a member of the European Commission here was a big coup on the part of IPC. It's something that's been two years in the making. We've been steadily building our profile in Brussels, educating the policymakers on the importance of viewing electronics not just through the eyes of a semiconductor but through the entire ecosystem, as we like to say silicon to systems. As part of that buildup of relationship with the EU, getting the executives of the EMS and PCB industry in Europe to start thinking about it from a one voice standpoint instead of multiple voices. That's been a separate, parallel track, and now we're seeing the merger of those two tracks, and what you saw on Tuesday was really exciting A member of the commission talking about the philosophy of what he would like to do in terms of influencing the new government that's coming in. Four highly credible, reputable CEOs representing different portions of the supply chain, talking about what the needs and the challenges are.
Speaker 1:And then that audience behind them, just asking questions, championing, cheering them on, it was just magnificent to see that it was an absolute joy to watch and what I was taken by was the Q&A session. And what I thought was really interesting is when I think about the work you do and when I talk to Chris and I talk about the work you do in politics, I kind of think of it as being in the direction of informing government of how we as an industry operate. But what was awesome was to actually have the industry listen to the guy from eu and him explain some of the ways things work there and some of the way reasons things take time and the importance of getting 28 states to agree on exactly right thing and it's it's not the united states of europe, it's quite a different thing it is. So there was learning in both directions. That's usually.
Speaker 2:Progress can only happen when both sides or however number of sides are are communicating effectively. It cannot be one-sided. You know, you know, we would get certain members that would come to us and say you need to, you need to, you need to do this, so it doesn't work that way okay and the government on their side of it.
Speaker 2:You know well we need this company and that company. I I'm sorry government. It doesn't work that way. It's a project. There's a feeling out process, you know, there's an understanding of what their needs are and what your needs are. How are we going to reconcile sometimes diverging needs? And we're happy that we've inserted ourselves into that situation. We think that we're effectively the right type of association to lead that type of effort.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, you absolutely are, and I think scale is absolutely essential there, and the fact that you're doing similar work in Washington. You're doing similar work elsewhere in the world. You're not doing it exactly the same way because you're tailoring it to the environment you're in.
Speaker 2:There is no, unfortunately there is no cookie cutter one size fits all here. You have to look at each region, understand what the challenges are, understand who the personalities are and then kind of weave together a story that allows us to navigate through that process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the booth has been vibrant the whole time. You've had lots of people visiting, talking to you lots of activity there stuff going on here. It's got a really nice stylish European feel, so I congratulate Philippe and the team on achieving that.
Speaker 2:They deserve a lot of credit. He deserves a lot of credit for leading. I think. What's remarkable about it? We had a little bit more size of booth this year, which allowed us to accommodate you. Thank you for being here. That's been fantastic for us, please, which allowed us to accommodate you. And thank you for being here. That's been fantastic for us. Please come back when you can. Um, I think I think, as you pointed out earlier, the kind of the balance between, if you think about what we do as the global electronics association we're, we're, our legacies are very focused on standards and education. Well, that's kind of what's being played out here on the hand soldering side right and training and training Right.
Speaker 2:We've kind of leaned into advocacy now and that's what you saw a little bit in the forum. But we're also thinking about what are the solutions we need to help define the future. So some of the technical presentations that were done this week the Thomas Marksheffel presentation from ASMPT on what the factory of the future looks like, the GPV presentation on sustainability and the implications of the future looks like the GPV presentation on sustainability and the implications of that. Otto's basically portraying kind of a world view because he's got facilities all over the world, what a world view of ESG really looks like and how each of his individual factories takes that three-letter acronym and turns it into something vibrant for their culture and their geography. Just amazing content we've seen this week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the other thing I see you leaning into is the whole data stream that supports this. And when I look at all these pillars that you have in terms of research and you know I talk to Sean DeBravec every month about the data that's coming out and I really enjoy that and actually I know our viewers do as well when I look at all those pillars, they all feed each other so well. You know, you're learning so much from grassroots. You're learning from management. You're learning from the trends in the industry. You're getting groups of CEOs together to talk to you but also to your audience, and it's hugely valuable in planning your business as well as everything else.
Speaker 2:It helps us plan the business. The key is that it helps us tell the story. One of the areas that we are looking to improve in and I think you'll see us take a step function forward in the next few years is we have to be better storytellers, because at the end of the day, when you're dealing with government, you're dealing with industry. Yes, you can bombard them with the hard facts, but if you can't paint the story around those facts and narrate a logical conclusion, working backwards from that, saying here are the key milestones we need to get through, if you can't paint that picture, you're going to lose your audience very quickly, and I think that's the learning lesson not only from attending an event like this. Some of the lessons we've learned in some of our other events in the previous to these is storytelling is very necessary right now. Well, you know that's music to my ears. Of course it is.
Speaker 1:But actually what I think is really interesting is you're able to bring storytellers along with you. So when you look at putting someone like an auto book on stage, or you look at having the panel we had in Gdansk with Marcus Aschenbrenner and Hoyta from Vidal Comics, peter from Keytron, all those different people together.
Speaker 2:Matthias from Hansa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was. Those. People know their own story, but when they're in your environment they're so open in their narrative that so they share so much. It's really nice to see what the industry believes is going to be going forward, rather than just an individual company.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, more storytelling, more doing what you're doing and, as someone who isn't a geek anymore, even more hand soldering competition. That's right, it's really important and it's really valuable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we published our 2025 event schedule for Europe. It's already out. So people know One of the fundamental learnings is, when you're trying to attract a CEO audience, 90 days advance notice doesn't work. You've got to give those guys 9 to 12 months, and so we took that message to heart and we published our schedule and they were all very appreciative of that.
Speaker 2:The reason we do that is because, again, we want their voice. We want them to buy into what we're doing to serve the industry. My job is to serve the industry and if I'm not doing that, then I need to be thinking about doing something else. That's the joy of this business is serving this industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely, and I I just love being embedded in it, love being involved with you guys and and helping, helping tell you your story about, helping exactly helping find out what's going on. Great, so much for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you, fred, thanks.