The Importance of Industry Organizations

Note: Many thanks to EE Times Europe for publishing my viewpoint last week “Industry Organizations Are the Mainstay of the Semiconductor Ecosystem.” It seems fitting to repost it here as SEMICON West (a SEMI event) and the collocated Design Automation Conference open next week.

A recent conversation with a colleague took us down a path on the importance of industry organizations. His company does not belong to any, and he wondered if it should. The short answer is “absolutely.” I quickly drew him in by explaining the value of belonging to industry organizations for semiconductor companies large and small, startup, emerging and public.

It’s not one-way, however. Industry organizations serve an important role, perhaps now more than ever, in the world of geopolitics, the U.S. CHIPS Act and the EU Chips Act and other similar efforts in global geographies. A semiconductor industry organization’s mission is global advocacy and serving as a central voice for the industry. In one example, the organization represents the interests of the semiconductor industry’s design, manufacturing and supply chain throughout the global electronics industry. Another describes its global advocacy as a focus on taxes; trade; legislation; technology; environment, health and safety (EHS); and workforce development (more below).

By joining an industry organization, companies and their executives show their commitment to being good corporate citizens. They also need to be more connected to their ecosystem, including both industry peers and customers, and that can be accomplished through networking events, technical conferences and high-level summits. What better way to socialize and engage with other thought leaders and become a visible industry player? Sales groups often support belonging because events hosted by industry organizations present informal access to potential customers and partners.

Industry organizations offer value to all groups within a company through a variety of programs. They can often assist with raising a company’s visibility and presence, especially for small and emerging companies whose marketing presence is limited and budget is minimal. They are sometimes able to offer marketing and public relations advice and willingly draft news releases announcing a new member company or develop blog posts on the company or with the company at no cost. Most have savvy marketing groups that will promote member companies through social media.

Events bring other company executives, venture capitalists, journalists and analysts. Member companies can be part of the speakers’ program, exhibit their products if the event is more technical, or host lunch, dinner or a coffee break. Either way, they are able to present the company in a more personalized way than a website or webinar.

Many industry organizations are doing important standardization work and are always on the hunt for contributors to help with the effort, a great chance for a company’s engineering group to get involved and make a difference. The semiconductor industry is full of standards successes that would not be possible without the combination of industry organizations and the volunteers who drove standardization efforts. Industry organization SEMI has developed more than 1,000 standards that are maintained by more than 5,000 volunteer experts representing more than 2,000 companies, working in 23 technical committees and 200 task forces.

Market research reports are often part of the offerings. CEOs, CFOs, market analysts and business development executives are beneficiaries of data compiled by many industry organizations to help them plan their product roadmaps, budgeting and forecasting.

Workforce development has become an increasingly important area, as Deloitte predicts that more than 1 million additional skilled workers will be needed in the semiconductor industry by 2030, equating to more than 100,000 annually. Industry organizations are stepping in with talent development programs and, in one case, a standardized process to identify technical competency and certifications relevant to college-level coursework.

Industry organizations are a mainstay of the semiconductor community. Once the collection of benefits is considered, the value of belonging to one or many is priceless. I look forward to seeing you at the next industry-organization–hosted event.

A few examples of industry organizations include:

• SEMI: It is comprised of companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain providing equipment, materials and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, LED and flat panel displays, MEMS, printed and flexible electronics, medical/biological electronics and related micro and nanotechnologies.

• ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technical Community: An international association of companies providing goods and services throughout the semiconductor design ecosystem, it is a forum to address technical, marketing, economic and legislative issues affecting the entire industry. It acts as the central voice to communicate and promote the value of the semiconductor design industry as a vital component of the global electronics industry.

• Accellera Systems Initiative: An independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to create, support, promote and advance system-level design, modeling and verification standards for use by the worldwide electronics industry. Its members support the work of the technical committee to develop technology standards to benefit the worldwide electronics industry.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2023 at 8:27 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.