Innovation as a baseline
Recently, Sivers IMA changed name to Sivers Semiconductors. It took hard work from a lot of people within the company to find the right branding for the “soul” of our company. Our employees are proud to work with the latest and coolest technology and we have been able to deliver cutting edge state-of-the-art products over time. Hence, one of the defining keywords that was easiest to agree on was innovation. From this we built our new slogan “At the heart of innovation”. It sounds nice, but many say they are innovative, how can we be certain that we really create long lasting innovation?
The boring answer is that we have done our homework. At our core, we have 20 Ph.Ds who have done years of training. On top of this, we have all the hard work from our dedicated employees and a strong long-term process that allows for innovation.
Understand the market
We have identified a strong underlying market trend to build our innovation on; the exponential growth based on mobile data traffic growth.
It has been well established for many years and is well described in the Ericsson Mobility Report [1].
When you have such a strong trend you need to make the right product with the right specification to hit the market at the right time at the right price.
To make a product with the right specification, we believe you need to build a partner network within your eco-system around your products. In the best case you will be able to integrate your products with these partners’ products to further strengthen the partnership and increase the barriers to entry.
A successful example is the way Sivers has worked for many years with the Renesas company, IDT [2]. By working close to the eco-system, you learn a lot from your partners and will be able to create more innovation within your partner network than you can do by yourself. By using your partner network, you will also be able to see much further into the future, than you would otherwise do on your own.
Standards and regulations set the scene
Another way of looking far into the future is to look at standardizations and regulations within the data and telecom market. For example, the major success in the data and telecom business is thanks to standardization that has been done by
IEEE (for WiFi) and GSMA (for 4G/5G etc).
These organizations work on specifications for a very long time before they hit the market. If you do this correctly you will be in a very good position to reach the market at the right time. Also, regulations set the conditions for how you can use your 5G products.
US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is one of the main bodies that are always early to allow usage of new technology.
For example, they were first out with 57-64 GHz and when they in 2016 allowed the extended band of 66-71 GHz, Sivers was first into the market, simply because we followed FCC and viewed their pre-consultations and hence could launch a product very quickly.
Another “regulatory” body is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) who is organizing the World Radio Conference (WRC), which for example sets global frequencies. In Europe, we have the Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), that created the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). ETSI has also approved the use of the 57-71 GHz band for unlicensed 5G services, which now paves the way for this technology to be rolled also in Europe from January 1, 2020.
Sivers Insights
When you put all these things together and when by you understand and use these dynamics you will be able to deliver the most innovative products at the right time.
But it is easier said than done… on top of this you, of course, need the right team to be able to deliver high performing technology at the right time and at the right price, which also requires great skills and knowledge. But these topics are in themselves worthy of their own Sivers Insights.
Above, we have shared some insights into Sivers’ way of working to create innovative products. Sivers’ employees and management obviously have a great passion for this and passion comes from the heart. Therefore, we will keep on being at the heart of innovation.
REF 1: https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/reports/june-2020
