Cover Story
The power within
How T.J. Rodgers grew Cypress Semiconductor by incubating innovative ideas — no matter the source
By Leslie Stevens-Huffman
Smart Business Northern California | May 2008
Page 1 of 4
Silicon Valley is known as the birthplace of new business
ideas and the home of the entrepreneurial spirit. The challenge
is that even tech companies with entrepreneurial roots can
struggle to maintain a competitive edge and a penchant for
innovation as they grow.
Several times, one of the most famous, colorful and outspoken
founders in the Silicon Valley, T.J. Rodgers, faced these same challenges.
“What’s important to sustaining growth is that you have to
continue to learn as a CEO and as a company, you have to continue to drive things forward,” Rodgers says. “We started as an
SRAM company, and we had a single-minded focus, which
caused us not to diversify. That made us very vulnerable in
2001. What I’ve learned is that as a company, you exist to serve
your customers, and you can evolve and change or simply disappear.”
Rodgers, president and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor
Corp., has become famous for his business success and his
expert opinions since founding the company in 1982. He testified before a senate committee in 1997, a senate judiciary committee in 1998 and, later that same year, he spoke to the Annual
Cato Institute-Forbes ASAP Conference on Technology and
Society about why the Silicon Valley should not normalize relations with Washington D.C. In addition, somewhere along the
way, he’s grown a billion-dollar business with more than 6,000
employees, invented and patented new technologies, written a
few books, and received numerous recognitions.
Given that Cypress’ core business was originally built in the
ultracompetitive semiconductor industry, achieving revenue of
$1.56 billion in 2007 — up from $1.09 billion in 2006 — is proof
of Rodgers’ innovative tenacity.
At Cypress, the incubator switch is always in the on position
and the company has become famous for its continual quest for
new ideas. In addition to product diversification, Rodgers has
sustained growth by creating and sustaining a visionary culture
within the organization.
