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How ready are you to invest “skin in the game”? Successful companies know that getting to know your customers’ needs, issues, pain points, strengths and weaknesses results in a long term and growing business relationship. Each side demonstrates a willingness to invest time, money and resources into learning more about one another in order to realize the competitive and monetary gains that come as a result of putting your respective “skin in the game”—combining talents and sharing resources, expertise, knowledge.

Well, Sherry’s blog set me off again…..not in the sense that I was jealous of her spur-of-the-moment holiday in the Mediterranean. I was thinking about how ubiquitous smartphones and 3G technology have become. Mind you, I’m not a Luddite and, as an engineer, you would think that because my work enables so much change in other people’s lives that I too would embrace the latest tech trends as an early-adopter. Instead, I prefer to wait for the technology to mature, age a bit like fine wine, so you can separate the “Beta” from the “VHS”. And not that I need a clear winner as I’m perfectly happy with a world of iPhones and Blackberry’s (although, we do need a support group to help SOME people put them down when they are on vacation). But let’s face it: 3G technology is reshaping what we do with mobile technology.

Gosh, what happened to June? IMS came and went and for AWR it was very successful, so I opted to take a spur of the moment vacation to the Mediterranean Sea. On the flight over, I bought Business Week, Time, etc. for "blog" inspiration. Once there, I read the Herald Tribune and my Blackberry for more inspiration. I asked friends for thoughts, ideas, ...anything, but nothing grabbed me. Maybe I need more exciting friends? My vacation came and went, and there I was on the return flight, still thinking....huh, what shall I write about...energy harvesting and scavenging? I am intrigued by that concept but not sure the microwave/RF community shares my passion:-) Open-access and the quagmire of EDA databases offered by vendors...snooze-fest! 3D glasses and my MWJ video interview? But then it hit me, as I was walking through the front door of my home back in Manhattan Beach--I'll write about what I did on my vacation!

Creative destruction. On a flight two weeks ago on American Airlines, I read an article in their May 15th issue of American Way called "Trend Spotter" In it, Marian Salzman listed her Ten trends that are changing everything from consumerism to the business landscape throughout the modern world.

Reading Sherry Hess’s blog got me to thinking about Paul Harvey and “the rest of the story.” For those of you who haven’t lived in the U.S. Heartland or don’t listen to AM radio much anymore, Harvey made a career out of the kind of human interest stories, historical vignettes, or short biographies that are out of fashion today by feeding you an anonymous, out of context story-line only to reveal “the rest of the story” later in the program to make a point, teach you some history, or touch your heart. Sherry’s discussion of productivity makes me think of the rest of the story: the technical side and where some people are on the design “productivity curve”.

I guess not a lot is keeping you all up at night since no one fessed-up. I lose sleep frequently given my type A personality but that’s a whole different thought topic for a separate blog. However, this “all is quiet” response reminded me of another article I read recently in the Harvard Business Review. My favorite passage, which I think describes what’s happening amongst us is this... “This hesitancy to make waves becomes stronger in times of general economic turmoil.”

Do you seek to consolidate your position as an industry / niche leader, strike off in a bold-new market, invest in a new IC process or foundry, or finally bring that great new technology to market? I call these the evolve options for a tough economy. Or do you hunker down and wait for things to blow over? "But doing nothing beyond hunkering down simply isn't an option. I feel like I'm sitting in the middle of a railroad track,” says Mr. Davis of Umpqua Bank in the BusinessWeek article , Smart Management for Tough Times, that we've been discussing over the past few weeks. “Standing still is how you kill the company.”

Thanks to the many of you who clicked in to read Week One of my blog! I appreciate Jorge's comment about President Obama and the US collective voice to change the status quo. And I like David's comments as well. Especially his final line, "So I agree it is a good time for action, provided the action either helps reduce costs or helps win business." In fact, that was the direction I had already planned for this week's discussion.

Even before a colleague at work shared an article, " Smart Management for Tough Times ," in the March 12 issue of Business Week with me, the conversation in my own head and with peers and colleagues was quite simply this: Status Quo? Is this the right strategy for turbulent economic times?