Speaker 1: This is Master's in Business with Barry rid Holts on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. This week on the podcast, I have a
Speaker 1: special guest. His name is Christiano Alman. He is the
Speaker 1: president of mobile semiconductor giant Qualcom. UH. This is really
Speaker 1: a fascinating conversation. His career has taken him all over
Speaker 1: the world. UH, from Brazil to Tokyo to San Diego.
Speaker 1: He has been both an engineer and a team product
Speaker 1: leader all the way up to UH corporate managers as president. UH.
Speaker 1: Really fascinating guy with a lot of interesting um background
Speaker 1: of material. I think you'll find it intriguing. With no
Speaker 1: further ado, my conversation with Christiano Aman. This is Master's
Speaker 1: in Business with Barry Riddholts on Boomberg Radio. My special
Speaker 1: guest this week is Christiano Aman. He is the president
Speaker 1: of Qualcom. Previously, he has worked at such August firms
Speaker 1: as NYC Electronics and Ericson. He has a unique mix
Speaker 1: of business, engineering and operational skills. He ran qualcom semiconductor
Speaker 1: business for five years. He successfully built the chip set
Speaker 1: strategy and business in China, and he has been managing
Speaker 1: Qualcom's product roadmap since two thousand and eight. Christiano Aman.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you very very happy to be here.
Speaker 1: So let's uh trace your career back to the mid nineties.
Speaker 1: You joined Qualcom as an engineer. Um, you were born
Speaker 1: in Brazil, you grew up in San Paulo. How did
Speaker 1: you find your way to Qualcom in the US after college? Oh?
Speaker 1: It's interesting, I you know, I, you know, I've been
Speaker 1: fortunate enough. Since I graduated in engineering school, I was
Speaker 1: working similar I was working wordless and started my career
Speaker 1: in Brazil working in the first settler systems they've been
Speaker 1: UM implemented in Rasil. Those are the analog days. Uh
Speaker 1: and uh for a Japanese company NBC. Actually I first
Speaker 1: left Brazil, will go to Tokyo. So and uh it's
Speaker 1: about uh. You know, I was working as an engineer.
Speaker 1: They decided to transfer me to the headquarters in Japan,
Speaker 1: and off I go, uh, exactly from from Brazil to Japan,
Speaker 1: exactly on the other side of the globe. So, if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, ANYC is Nippon Electronics, What part of
Speaker 1: Japan was that located? I moved to Tokyo. So first
Speaker 1: time I left Brazil, Yes, I went to Tokyo. I
Speaker 1: was for about a year and when when I was
Speaker 1: working to any C, we're thinking about going to Digital Settler.
Speaker 1: I work in their system engineering group. We knew of
Speaker 1: this small company out in San Diego, California, qual Quantcom
Speaker 1: that had this UH c d m A technology for
Speaker 1: Digital Settler and we needed to talk to Qualcom to
Speaker 1: understand how we could build c d m A UM
Speaker 1: base stations and explain to the listeners what does c
Speaker 1: d M A stand for? What does it do well?
Speaker 1: C d M A is actually the technology they put
Speaker 1: qualkon on the map. It's UM. It stands for cold
Speaker 1: division multiple access. It's a complicated term, but really what
Speaker 1: does it actually do in in the world? Uh? You
Speaker 1: know UH in the two G settler remember we're we're
Speaker 1: now we're now in five G now, but in two
Speaker 1: G seller yellow UH Selller to become UH digital and
Speaker 1: increase the capacity. UH. The the the that was claimed
Speaker 1: to fame they claim to fame of c d M
Speaker 1: A was when UH settlers started and people realize everybody
Speaker 1: wants to have a phone. Existing original one G systems,
Speaker 1: the analog system, walkie talkie time, you couldn't really get
Speaker 1: anybody unless you have ten X improvement and city and
Speaker 1: that's what they made did. But going back to your question,
Speaker 1: So I was in Japan, UH, working in Tokyo UM
Speaker 1: and UH and I traveled to San Diego back in
Speaker 1: kind of late nine and UH met this company, Qualcom,
Speaker 1: and UH start having a business relationship with Qualcom and
Speaker 1: a technical relationship about c d M A and then UH,
Speaker 1: you know that led to Qualcom to make me a
Speaker 1: proposal to join the company to joun qual So you
Speaker 1: moved to San Diego? Is that where you're working? I
Speaker 1: moved back to Brazil. Helped them set up the operations
Speaker 1: in Brazil and Latin America during the year of UH
Speaker 1: later part of and ninety six, because because Brazil had
Speaker 1: such an advanced sell your system, they wanted to then
Speaker 1: upgrade to to UH the second next level in the
Speaker 1: In the mid nineties UM. UH, when Qualcom developed the
Speaker 1: c d M A technology, all of the around the globe,
Speaker 1: all of the analog one G systems was going to
Speaker 1: upgrade to two G. So then Qualcom set up officers worldwide,
Speaker 1: including the headquarters for Latin America was in Brazil. UH
Speaker 1: really try to get spectrum allocated in UM in the
Speaker 1: systems to upgrade to c d M A. So Brazil
Speaker 1: covered all of South America. Um, it was the Brazil office,
Speaker 1: UH coverall South America when I was when I was
Speaker 1: back then in UH and in the and ninety six,
Speaker 1: at the early part of ninety six, I was, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: going all over the place to Argentina, to Chile to
Speaker 1: UM two at the time were to Mexico. We we
Speaker 1: have cm A projects everywhere. And then uh, the later
Speaker 1: part of ninety six, I moved to San Diego and
Speaker 1: and that's where now? And what was your title when
Speaker 1: you moved to San Diego? What was your job? Well?
Speaker 1: I started Welcome as as an engineer, and when I
Speaker 1: moved to San Diego, that was back in I was
Speaker 1: a manager of technology. So you've other engineers reporting directly
Speaker 1: to you. Uh back in I believe, so back in
Speaker 1: UH in the ninety six time frame. Yeah, I joined
Speaker 1: Welcome as an engineer in and been going through the rinks.
Speaker 1: So so now you moved to you relocate to the
Speaker 1: United States. Is that any culture shock? Following Brazil and Japan?
Speaker 1: What was that? Really? Nice? Nicer weather than Japan? Um,
Speaker 1: you cannot complain about San Diego so we're very spoiled
Speaker 1: in San Diego. There there's nothing like it. But uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just it was no culture shock, I think,
Speaker 1: and especially I I you know, today after all those years,
Speaker 1: I you know, San Diego is home to me. You know,
Speaker 1: everything feels home. So you've been in charge of the
Speaker 1: QCT product roadmap. Explain to us exactly what that is. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when you think of a company like Qualcom, Quacom
Speaker 1: has to business. UM. One business we call qt L
Speaker 1: the Qualcom Technology Licensing. And in the business it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we do a lot of advanced research UM.
Speaker 1: Unlike other companies that UM, they're you know, developed products, uh,
Speaker 1: based on on different standards. We are a creator of standards.
Speaker 1: We create a new technology. We created like three G
Speaker 1: and four G and five G, and we licensed the
Speaker 1: technology so anybody can build. That's the licensing business. WelCom
Speaker 1: created each of the cellular standards beyond one, they created
Speaker 1: two G, they created three four or five And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask you later what comes after five G. Will
Speaker 1: will get the way to think about it. Every standard,
Speaker 1: every generation of wireless it's uh, whether it's two G,
Speaker 1: three G, four G and now five G. It's it's
Speaker 1: based on a standard. UM there's a standard body that
Speaker 1: is standardized. This for contributions for many companies. UH through
Speaker 1: all the digital sellular generations has started with three G
Speaker 1: all the way to right now in five G that
Speaker 1: we're building, Cocoon has been the largest contributor of fundamental
Speaker 1: technology of the standards. So in a way, yes, many
Speaker 1: of the things that we do today with our phones
Speaker 1: is in part bays of qualk and inventions and has
Speaker 1: been part of every single standard. So that's the licensing business,
Speaker 1: the license that technology, the QCT it's Qualcom, c d
Speaker 1: M A Technologies is the chip set business. So when
Speaker 1: you think about phones with QUALKM processors and quok on
Speaker 1: chips is snap Dragon, So snap Dragon is the chip
Speaker 1: set that and so what that goes into Samsung, Android, Apple, everybody.
Speaker 1: Qualcom chips go to the majority of the phones. Yes,
Speaker 1: he goes into her Sandsung phone. But also beyond phones
Speaker 1: are chips. Not all of the chips are label Snapdragon,
Speaker 1: but our chips go to WiFi routers, go to UH,
Speaker 1: the infantainment and dashboard in your car, U goes to
Speaker 1: many things in your home. I think we go through
Speaker 1: a smart watch. We have chips now in a variety
Speaker 1: of products. That's what q c T does. Quite fascinating.
Speaker 1: So what was your sense of the environment in the
Speaker 1: es you joined qualcom in? Uh did you have any
Speaker 1: sense that the whole tech sector was in the bubble
Speaker 1: and we're gonna see a pretty big drop? So I
Speaker 1: joined qualcom in and there was a lot of growth
Speaker 1: in the wordless anders. It was different than the dot
Speaker 1: com bubble because the wordless it was really growing and
Speaker 1: continue to grow. I think people wanted to go south falls. Yes,
Speaker 1: however I did left Qualk. I had a short period
Speaker 1: of time. I went to Ericsson and then I joined
Speaker 1: a VC right before the dot com bubble burst and
Speaker 1: joined the VC. I moved to Colorado and uh we
Speaker 1: we we had raised a lot of money, we had
Speaker 1: a lot of investments, and then with the bubble burst,
Speaker 1: I you know, I had to do with it and
Speaker 1: and it was interesting. It was a different phase of
Speaker 1: my career. One of our investments we have was an
Speaker 1: operator in Brazil, cell phone operator that actually went bankrupt
Speaker 1: and because when the bubble burst, a lot of the
Speaker 1: investors uh you know, pulled out. It was early days
Speaker 1: is still you know, building. So I took a completely
Speaker 1: different changing my career. I went back to Brazil. I
Speaker 1: was the c t O of this operator and then
Speaker 1: later c O O doing a restructuring UH work and
Speaker 1: UH it was fun. It was in about I learned
Speaker 1: a lot. It was about three years and when we
Speaker 1: turned that to positive Abida and A SOLDI the operator
Speaker 1: and and that's when qualk And asked me, hey, har
Speaker 1: are you board? Do you want to come back to
Speaker 1: San Diego? And I came back in all four, So
Speaker 1: qual come recruit you back in two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: only this time the company you left and the one
Speaker 1: you rejoined somewhat different. Enough time has passed that things
Speaker 1: have changed. What sort of role did you come back
Speaker 1: to and what sort of company did you find when
Speaker 1: you when you got there? That's a good question. So
Speaker 1: when I came back, company was very different. We UH
Speaker 1: company had started as a as a company that was
Speaker 1: developing CDM, a technology at that time UH tree g
Speaker 1: wash you know more mature company was also going into
Speaker 1: another technology. There was a very and called w c
Speaker 1: DM A wide bann c d M a UH making
Speaker 1: strides into other market also developing into the multimedia capabilities
Speaker 1: of the chip set so and the chip business at
Speaker 1: the time, UH started to to grow significantly. It was
Speaker 1: a very smaller part of Qualcom when when I left,
Speaker 1: and started to be more significant at the time so
Speaker 1: I joined, I was asked to to run the c
Speaker 1: d M A business for Qualcom in the chip division,
Speaker 1: and uh it was interesting. It was interesting time because
Speaker 1: if you remember a little bit of, uh of what
Speaker 1: I have done in my career before that, right, I
Speaker 1: have uh you know, I had a worker Qualcom and
Speaker 1: kind of the early days. Then I went gained some
Speaker 1: you know, uh work at ericson and the infrastructure, I
Speaker 1: gained uh some VC experience. I did a difficult restructoring job,
Speaker 1: and and I had a lot of operator experience. And
Speaker 1: at that time will happened is many of the c
Speaker 1: d M A operators we're considering a bandoning the technology
Speaker 1: and switching to g s M and Qualcolm wanted uh
Speaker 1: somebody to take over the business to find out how
Speaker 1: we could uh you know, reverse that trend and generate
Speaker 1: growth again for c d M A. So that's like
Speaker 1: the that was the problem statement for me and UH
Speaker 1: and maybe my experience at the time in solving difficult problems,
Speaker 1: has some operator experience, you know. Uh, they said, you know,
Speaker 1: he could probably can do that. So so I did that.
Speaker 1: Uh it was uh, it was great. It was a
Speaker 1: successful journey, and I think my success and that ended
Speaker 1: up putting me in a position to manage all the
Speaker 1: different products of qualcom roadmap in the chip division A
Speaker 1: couple of years later. Well, that's interesting. How quickly do
Speaker 1: those chip sets um turn obsolete? Or or ask differently,
Speaker 1: Given how fast we've gone from two G, three G,
Speaker 1: four G, five G, it seems like the lifespan of
Speaker 1: each one of these new generations is much less than
Speaker 1: five years. So are these chips practically obsolete when they
Speaker 1: leave the factory? What? How? How long are they good
Speaker 1: for before the new hotness comes along? Okay, very very
Speaker 1: interesting question, especially uh uh you know, I like that question,
Speaker 1: especially because how we think about our business. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you I'm going to answer you a question with
Speaker 1: an interesting metaphor. I promise will make this interesting. So
Speaker 1: the answer to your question is, in the today's mobile environment,
Speaker 1: the chip the chip business is it's very competitive. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's very capital intensitive. But when you buy,
Speaker 1: when you do what chip? The way for you to
Speaker 1: think about it, and I will ask you a question.
Speaker 1: It takes we have before we have to think about
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do in a chip two years before
Speaker 1: the chip. So two years before the chip is done,
Speaker 1: we need to decide what capabilities this chip will have.
Speaker 1: Like think about a Snapdragon in your Sansung phone? How
Speaker 1: how good does the graphics? How good is the camera?
Speaker 1: How good is the gaming capability? And all of them?
Speaker 1: It takes two years to develop. Then you launch into
Speaker 1: a device and let's say you go by your Sansung Galaxy. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I got the new Apple eleven with the
Speaker 1: big camera um only because I wanted that really nice
Speaker 1: uh camera quality and zoom. And I've never had a
Speaker 1: competitive since smartphones come out. I've only have an Apple,
Speaker 1: so I have no experience. We need to get you.
Speaker 1: We need to get you with a five G phone.
Speaker 1: It's more more important than Samsung. Apple. You need to
Speaker 1: get to a five G phone. But when when did
Speaker 1: they become ubiquitous? Win or five G everywhere? You everywhere?
Speaker 1: Probably in uh? I think oh metropolitan areas will have
Speaker 1: five you covered twenty. But I want to go back
Speaker 1: to your question. I go back to your question. So
Speaker 1: two years to do a chip, you launch your phone,
Speaker 1: six months ste phone is absolute and there's another model. Right.
Speaker 1: So so it's a very interesting business because you have
Speaker 1: to you have to decide what to do two years
Speaker 1: in events and you launch a flagship, state of the
Speaker 1: art smartphone and uh and in six months to an
Speaker 1: ear you have to all over again. So the metaphor
Speaker 1: that I use, I feel like chip business like gladiator business. Uh.
Speaker 1: You you have you and your competitors. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: no matter how successful you are, you always want chip
Speaker 1: away from losing your success, right, so you have to
Speaker 1: build the best possible chip I can build. And it's
Speaker 1: like a gladiator. You go to the colors, You're going
Speaker 1: to fight and uh, if you lose, bad outcomes. Um.
Speaker 1: If you win, you just read you eligible to go
Speaker 1: to the color SEO one more time. So the winners,
Speaker 1: the winners are in the right to fight again and
Speaker 1: the losers are dead. That that's challenging. So let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about some of the competitors in the chip space.
Speaker 1: There's a video and there's a m D and who
Speaker 1: else is the hot chip of the moment these days?
Speaker 1: The chip industry is very that verse and depend on
Speaker 1: this segment. In the space that we are uh, we
Speaker 1: end up, you know, we compete with different people depending
Speaker 1: on what we're doing different things. So for example, in
Speaker 1: the space that we are doing smartphones, we compete, uh
Speaker 1: sometimes with Samsung their own chip a lot, they make
Speaker 1: their own chip. We compete with Huawei phones that they
Speaker 1: use their own chip. Now when we go to PCs,
Speaker 1: we compete with Intel. We just entered the PC space
Speaker 1: the new Microsoft Surface Access qualcome Microsoft chip on it.
Speaker 1: So we compete with Intel. When we go into end
Speaker 1: up competing with m D. When we go in the
Speaker 1: automotor space, and and we're doing the chips that does
Speaker 1: your dashboard and entertainment, we compete with Nvidia. So we
Speaker 1: compete with different companies. One good thing about Quacolm is
Speaker 1: that we're now expended to so many industries. So so
Speaker 1: we we we are going from phones to cars, to
Speaker 1: Internet of Things, to compute and many other things. So
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about leadership um from the
Speaker 1: top of a company, how does one go from being
Speaker 1: an engineer to a manager. Those seem like very very
Speaker 1: different skill sets. Uh yeah, I you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: maybe the way to think about it is as an engineer,
Speaker 1: especially if you're during complex systems, you have to learn
Speaker 1: how to manage teams because you cannot do everything yourself.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's how the whole thing starts. But at
Speaker 1: least for me, I think, uh, the success in my
Speaker 1: career was also uh the have this balance of understanding
Speaker 1: the technology because of my engineering background, because of my
Speaker 1: engineering experience, but also understanding the business and I and
Speaker 1: I think once you once you do both, you have
Speaker 1: both the business uh and the technical understanding. It's uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of easier uh for you to go
Speaker 1: to a manager role and be able to lead teams
Speaker 1: and make sure you know, you have the right strategy,
Speaker 1: we're working on the right things, were doing the right products.
Speaker 1: But you know, I I also think that the unique
Speaker 1: personality things as well. UH. Like the approach that I
Speaker 1: always took is I al was going to make sure
Speaker 1: that the people and my team are are doing the
Speaker 1: thing uh that they can do better than I can
Speaker 1: do myself. It's about multiplying the ability for you to
Speaker 1: multiply your capabilities by having better people than you are,
Speaker 1: you know, doing the job. And I think that that
Speaker 1: made good managers. And I and and and one of
Speaker 1: my recipes for SUCCE as well been Qualcom. We were
Speaker 1: very unique culture. We're very matrix in a way. It's
Speaker 1: uh it's the ability you know to uh exercise leadership
Speaker 1: but also recognizing, you know, tweeting all the people my
Speaker 1: team are spears and uh and and I think that's
Speaker 1: you get a little bit of that as working on
Speaker 1: engineering teams and developing projects together. So how does the
Speaker 1: role of president differ from that of chief executive officer
Speaker 1: of the CEO of the company. Uh, Molnenkoff has been
Speaker 1: there for quite a while. Yes, Steve and I have
Speaker 1: been working together for a long time. Actually, Uh it
Speaker 1: was uh if you look of you know the uh
Speaker 1: Steve as the CEO, Jim Thompson, which is our CTO.
Speaker 1: And UH when I joined Qualcom uh for the second
Speaker 1: time back in night in two thousand four, I was
Speaker 1: wanting to see the May business. Mollenkov was in the
Speaker 1: UMTS business or the Double City the May business. So
Speaker 1: we've been talking for very very long time. The way
Speaker 1: it works today, UH, Steve is the CEO. He has
Speaker 1: uh you know, Alex Rogers which runs our licensing business. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, reporting to Steve Malinkoff, and you can look
Speaker 1: at me as probably run all of the operating business
Speaker 1: of the company. So all the other business of the
Speaker 1: company are under the president and I and I and
Speaker 1: I and I run them. So it's the president role
Speaker 1: within Qualcom. It's uh, it's the personal responsible for the
Speaker 1: operating role of the management. So you guys now seem
Speaker 1: to have resolved all the outstanding issues with Apple. There
Speaker 1: was a fairly contentious lawsuit, there was a hostile takeover
Speaker 1: at Temple. What was it like within the company when
Speaker 1: all this what was previously I think a pretty good relationship,
Speaker 1: How did it go off the rails and how did
Speaker 1: it eventually get resolved? There's a lot in there. We've
Speaker 1: been to a We've been to a lot. We have
Speaker 1: two years of unbelievable turmoil, and I would say it
Speaker 1: was a great opportunity for the company to become stronger.
Speaker 1: I think show how the company is resilient. Specifically to
Speaker 1: your Apple question, Uh, yes, we had our disagreements about
Speaker 1: you know, they the licensing and the value of the
Speaker 1: technology we we we produce. As I told you before, Uh,
Speaker 1: we we none of those standards will be possible. None
Speaker 1: of the generations of wireless will be possible to Qualcom technology.
Speaker 1: We license for everybody to build, but we want to
Speaker 1: you know, get paid on antell actual property and uh
Speaker 1: and we stand by that principle. But we're glad we're
Speaker 1: resolve it and uh and the good thing about it
Speaker 1: resolve in a way that there's a win for Apple,
Speaker 1: win for Qualcom. We're back in business together. We have
Speaker 1: a multi year agreement. We're working you know, day and
Speaker 1: I to make sure they have a great you know,
Speaker 1: iPhone or a five G technology and business continues. That's
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. So you're at the top of the
Speaker 1: food chain and Qualcom, who do you turn to when
Speaker 1: you're looking for advice? You know, when I need advice,
Speaker 1: I talked to a lot of uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: other members of the Qualcom management team. Uh. Uh you know.
Speaker 1: I also we have a good relationship of our board
Speaker 1: of directors, so we have a lot of experience people
Speaker 1: on our board. But I also have uh great uh
Speaker 1: relationship to many seniors actors across our partners and customers
Speaker 1: and uh and many of those uh some relationships are
Speaker 1: helpful when you look at a different perspective how to
Speaker 1: do things and uh, you know, I'm I'm somebody that
Speaker 1: really value relationships and also personal relationships and I make
Speaker 1: full use of those. One of the names that always
Speaker 1: seems to come up is Saudia and Nadela, who's now
Speaker 1: CEO of Microsoft. How did that relationship interesting? There was
Speaker 1: a there was a there's an interesting uh article that uh.
Speaker 1: Uh they came out when I answered exactly that question,
Speaker 1: uh Walster Journal. Yes and uh in fact they specifically
Speaker 1: mentioned Nick Cowser, ROBERTOI and Robert along with Saudio Nadela. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I can tell a little bit about why those
Speaker 1: are all technology rock stars. Some are somewhere in the
Speaker 1: different categories. So so Roberto, yes, and uh that's the
Speaker 1: answer to your question. Uh, and I'll walk you why
Speaker 1: those four think. Roberto, Uh, when I came back to
Speaker 1: Qualcom in the second time around, Qualcom, as I talked to,
Speaker 1: was a different company when I when I left, and uh,
Speaker 1: Roberto was the CTO at that time. Somebody I have
Speaker 1: a lot of respects is uh. You know Alexander Grumbl
Speaker 1: Prize winning for the Art POI has done tremendous Uh,
Speaker 1: contributions to engineering the wireless industry and he helped me,
Speaker 1: uh you navigate through Qualcom also provided me a lot
Speaker 1: of sound advice uh to my career. The other one
Speaker 1: was Nick Calser. Nick Alser was earlier in my career
Speaker 1: when I went to a VC at work for Nick.
Speaker 1: Nick is another one of those very famous individuals in wireless.
Speaker 1: Nick was the first CTEO of Macaws Settler, which is
Speaker 1: the first settler operator in the world period and later
Speaker 1: became the City of eight and T wireless. And it's
Speaker 1: a few people have as much experience in wireless as Nick.
Speaker 1: Roberto sa Tubo was different. One of the other things
Speaker 1: that I do besides my job at Qualcom, I and
Speaker 1: I am on the board of a really largest retail
Speaker 1: bank in Brazil, banking industry very different than the wireless
Speaker 1: and tech industry. The chairman of the bank UH is
Speaker 1: Roberto Stubo. He's also a board member of Shell uh
Speaker 1: uh an oil company and very experienced individual. UH. Our
Speaker 1: relationship is kind of new, there've been over two years
Speaker 1: now and and us in the bank board. But it's
Speaker 1: another person also to give me interesting perspective. How he
Speaker 1: look at things, how he look at things within the bank,
Speaker 1: and uh, sometimes it's good to have a different viewpoint.
Speaker 1: Satia is different. It's ah, we have a business relationship
Speaker 1: with Microsoft, therefore, uh, you know, we have a relationship
Speaker 1: with Satia. But Satia is more about, uh, what he
Speaker 1: needs to do with Microsoft to change Microsoft from a
Speaker 1: Windows client company into a cloud enterprise cloud company. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit like the change I have been doing
Speaker 1: a qualcom from a mobile only company into going into
Speaker 1: all of the other industries that are being transferred by mobile.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of uh, the Satia is like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it can be done. It was done, so we can
Speaker 1: do it. That's kind of along those lines. Quite interesting.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about um new versus potential or existing products.
Speaker 1: How do you balance what you're working on today with hey,
Speaker 1: we have a new idea for something that it's six
Speaker 1: G or seven. How does internally how does a company
Speaker 1: balance between what they need to sell to bring in
Speaker 1: revenue today and how they think about the next couple
Speaker 1: of years of products. Uh, that's actly the uh recipe
Speaker 1: for welcome success. We have teams that are working on
Speaker 1: the products that we're gonna launch next year. We have
Speaker 1: teams that are working on the on technologies and products
Speaker 1: for the next five years, but we have teams that
Speaker 1: are looking like ten years out, ten years out. So
Speaker 1: so really think about a decade ago versus today two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, did we have any idea about how
Speaker 1: popular drones would be? You barely had smartphones out there.
Speaker 1: A decade seems like a lifetime in technology, you know
Speaker 1: bury two thousand and ten. Um when when we launch uh,
Speaker 1: you know, four G and you're buying your four G smartphone,
Speaker 1: that's where we start working on five G and uh
Speaker 1: and I, like I said, that's the recipe thing for
Speaker 1: Qualcom success. Like right now we're very excited about five
Speaker 1: G transformation five G and it's we're just the beginning
Speaker 1: of that. It's gonna last for ten years. We have
Speaker 1: technologies coming for multiple years and five G, but we
Speaker 1: also needs to start thinking right now, what's gonna come next?
Speaker 1: And that's six G. I think so so five G
Speaker 1: is I mean three four five have three two to
Speaker 1: three to four each have been pretty nice steps up,
Speaker 1: but it looks like four G two five G is
Speaker 1: a giant leap in bandwidth and the ability to stream
Speaker 1: video almost instantly over cellular that was unimaginable ten years ago. Yes,
Speaker 1: but uh, if I may, five G is bigger than that.
Speaker 1: Here's how you should think about five G. And that's
Speaker 1: why you get so much attention, while you get so
Speaker 1: much conversation going across uh multiple industries. Today, we we
Speaker 1: have pretty much everything everything in this room, UH that
Speaker 1: uses electricity. You just assume is there. No, No, they
Speaker 1: has electricity. You connect to the wall because you need electricity,
Speaker 1: and you assume you're gonna find a plug. It's to
Speaker 1: be there, ubiquitous. This is what five G will do
Speaker 1: to the Internet. So five G is the technology has
Speaker 1: been designed not only to provide massive bandwidth to your phones,
Speaker 1: but to connect everything else to the Internet. So once
Speaker 1: five G is done, when we're done through this decade
Speaker 1: of five G and the networks full deployed, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna be having conversations about what the use cases. Internet
Speaker 1: is going to be there and you're gonna assume is
Speaker 1: they're like electricity and everything will be connected to the Internet.
Speaker 1: So it's being designed to connect billions of devices around
Speaker 1: us in addition to our phones. That's why this transformation
Speaker 1: is so big. So let me push back against that.
Speaker 1: So if you've traveled to Asia or Europe, you know
Speaker 1: that the cellular system seems much more robust. You don't
Speaker 1: drop calls, there aren't one bar or no bar spaces.
Speaker 1: The broadband is bigger and cheaper. The thought of internet
Speaker 1: everywhere in the United States wireless. Hey, they still haven't
Speaker 1: figured out how to make sure I can make a
Speaker 1: goddamn phone call in Manhattan without losing the single I mean,
Speaker 1: the biggest city in New York. We haven't figured that
Speaker 1: out yet. Why should I think that the that everything
Speaker 1: is going to connect away? We had very good service
Speaker 1: in San Diego, But have I said that? Let me
Speaker 1: tell you this, um uh, I hear you, And this
Speaker 1: is exactually one of the biggest optics obstacles in five
Speaker 1: G in the United States right now. And that's how
Speaker 1: unique to United States. In Europe, that's actually one area
Speaker 1: that still have a lot to be done. Is that
Speaker 1: just a function of not enough cell towers or no
Speaker 1: no there no other, no other fault. Here's what's happening.
Speaker 1: For example, China, uh, China is going to build one
Speaker 1: million UH five G base stations by the end of
Speaker 1: twenty one million. That's equivalent to ten times the number
Speaker 1: of total based stations across all generations of a single
Speaker 1: UH you know US carrier. Here's what the issue is.
Speaker 1: In the United States and in Europe too. Carriers need
Speaker 1: to build UH infrastructure. But for that they need to
Speaker 1: build new sites, and they have to negotiate city by
Speaker 1: city to get permits and zoning to get the sites up.
Speaker 1: And especially five five G you need to densify the
Speaker 1: network because some of those five G base stations they
Speaker 1: look like WiFi access points and and they're very small,
Speaker 1: and you need many of the them, and you need
Speaker 1: to put sites everywhere. And UH. The number one if
Speaker 1: you ask every carrier in America right now, what's the
Speaker 1: number one struggle to get five G everywhere? Is can
Speaker 1: I get the approval to get new sites? And I
Speaker 1: think we have to do something about it. I you know,
Speaker 1: I it's okay. It's understandable that in China they will
Speaker 1: issue a document and then on milliand sites will be built.
Speaker 1: Essentially planned economy if you want to have you know,
Speaker 1: I prefer our system, but we have to find a
Speaker 1: way that we can accelerate the process of building new
Speaker 1: sites because I think the US economy will benefit from
Speaker 1: vibrant and competitive to five G infrastructure in place, we
Speaker 1: help so many industries. We talked about thirteen points to
Speaker 1: trillion dollars of goods and services of economic growth just
Speaker 1: based on five G. And if you remember, if we
Speaker 1: didn't have four G built, the United States pioneer four
Speaker 1: G was the first country to deploy four G nationwide.
Speaker 1: Because of that, we've got Instagram, we got Uber, we
Speaker 1: got Amazon, We've got all those companies the Europeans don't have,
Speaker 1: and UH five G is going to be no different.
Speaker 1: So we need to get the infrastructure built. Can we
Speaker 1: stick these five G M receivers or transmitters on the
Speaker 1: old towers? Can guess you can put in all the
Speaker 1: old towers in any new towers. So or and I
Speaker 1: noticed that a lot of especially when you're high up
Speaker 1: in any sort of office building in New York and
Speaker 1: you look down on the lower towers, you see the
Speaker 1: roofs are just festooned with wires and and antenna. Are
Speaker 1: those four G and five G type? Um, those are
Speaker 1: four G. You're gonna upgrade those to five G and
Speaker 1: and you need to add what we call UH five
Speaker 1: G small cells. They look like WiFi routers but you
Speaker 1: just need to sprinkle them everywhere everywhere. UM, So they
Speaker 1: don't have to be a pie. They could be at
Speaker 1: street level. That's that's quite that's quite interesting. UM. So
Speaker 1: we've been talking about innovation and how new ideas come along.
Speaker 1: Are they primarily driven by the engineers? Are they driven
Speaker 1: by leadership? Where does innovation come from? Um? The answer
Speaker 1: is both, and I think it comes it comes from
Speaker 1: a company like Qualcom from understanding what are the problems
Speaker 1: that need to be solved on on the business side,
Speaker 1: you know, And I'll go a little bit in history.
Speaker 1: Uh if when we when we started, for example, three
Speaker 1: G from two G. Uh when when we put our
Speaker 1: shelves in the map? When two gee them in three G.
Speaker 1: We want to solve one problem, which is we need
Speaker 1: to connect phones to the internet. UM. And you know,
Speaker 1: after that was done, you probably remember using your BlackBerry
Speaker 1: and people doing emails and all the great things you
Speaker 1: can do when you had Internet in your phones. So
Speaker 1: the first thing we need to do how to get
Speaker 1: phones internet. That's how three G got created. We need
Speaker 1: to get Internet. We need to solve that problem. Four
Speaker 1: G was a bigger challenge for g S. We have
Speaker 1: now two problems to solve. One problem to solve as
Speaker 1: we needed to bring mobile broadband broadband to mobile, but
Speaker 1: then what happens Berry When you have broadband for mobile,
Speaker 1: you need a computer. So we need to make those
Speaker 1: phones into computers. So we needed to develop We we
Speaker 1: didn't have a processor business. We need to create a
Speaker 1: business of the Snapdragon business. We need to create a
Speaker 1: processor because and we were the first company to a
Speaker 1: giga hurts clock. See you in a battery powered device.
Speaker 1: Because now they have broadband, you need a computer to
Speaker 1: deal with it. And it's fascinating. It transforms society today.
Speaker 1: The smartphones where all of us with our mobile computer
Speaker 1: in our hands, and that's our most loved and inseparable device.
Speaker 1: Five G innovation. We have more problems to solve. People
Speaker 1: want unlimited data. People don't want to talk about I'm
Speaker 1: on do I I'm gonna put this on the cloud
Speaker 1: and i am gonna leave it over there because I'm
Speaker 1: always going to be connected. So problems still in five
Speaker 1: G s Can I make your wireless reliable? You are
Speaker 1: going to trust that you're going to be connected. You
Speaker 1: can leave all this stuff in the cloud because it's
Speaker 1: always going to be able to get it because it's
Speaker 1: gonna have a reliable connectivity. Can I build a system
Speaker 1: for a society that wants unlimited data and want to
Speaker 1: connect everything to the Internet and and also allow you
Speaker 1: to have mission critical capability and wireless So we take
Speaker 1: it to other industries like autonomous cars, those are problems
Speaker 1: to solve. From that, Qualcom creates fundamental technology. That's how
Speaker 1: innovation gets done. Quite quite interesting. So, technology, at least
Speaker 1: in the form of Facebook and Amazon and Google and Apple,
Speaker 1: has become under assault from society in general, but but
Speaker 1: also from regulators who have been complaining. The politicians complain
Speaker 1: it's too big. It sense like competitive via monopoly. But
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on the state of the giant
Speaker 1: players and technology and what might the future of of
Speaker 1: policy and regulation look like for the Googles and Amazons
Speaker 1: and facebooks and Apples of the world. Huh, It's a
Speaker 1: difficult for me to comment on those companies. Uh, but
Speaker 1: I'll say from a Qualcom perspective, Uh, we're not that
Speaker 1: big yet. We wanted we wanted to continue growing. But
Speaker 1: I'll give you a general answer about technology. Uh. Technology
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, it's a very important part of the
Speaker 1: economy and uh and in too many aspects. I look
Speaker 1: at the technology transition is really a force for good. Um,
Speaker 1: if we look at what we do as a company. Uh.
Speaker 1: While like with everything that uh, if you don't have
Speaker 1: boundaries and you know, you can have problems like we
Speaker 1: everything it's like uh uh if you spend too much
Speaker 1: time on social media on your phone, or if you
Speaker 1: eat too much, it's gonna be you know, everything in
Speaker 1: excess is a problem. But if you look at how
Speaker 1: the technology we create transform society, like and how how
Speaker 1: we can connect people and a do no matter where
Speaker 1: they are, how people run their business out of their phones,
Speaker 1: how increase productivity, I think it's been not only an
Speaker 1: economic engine, but a force for good. And I feel,
Speaker 1: you know, our mission is to continue developing technology to
Speaker 1: transform society and many of the things that you do.
Speaker 1: It's uh, you know, it's inevitable. It's just part of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, continue innovation and evolution of uh of what
Speaker 1: we all do. Quite quite interesting. We have been speaking
Speaker 1: with Cristiano i'men, president of Qualcom. If you enjoy this conversation,
Speaker 1: well be sure and come back for the podcast extras
Speaker 1: where we keep the tape rolling and continue discussing all
Speaker 1: things technology related. You can find that at Apple, iTunes,
Speaker 1: Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever your finer podcasts are sold.
Speaker 1: We love your comments, feedback and suggestions right to us
Speaker 1: at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Check out
Speaker 1: my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at rit Halts. I'm Barry rit Halts. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Masters and Business on Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the podcast, Christiano.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this. I know you
Speaker 1: have a plane to catch. So what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: is take the standard questions we ask all our guests.
Speaker 1: We're gonna turn this into a speed round. We're gonna
Speaker 1: I'm ready, you're ready. First car you ever own, you're
Speaker 1: making model? Uh it's a Fiat people, it was I
Speaker 1: bought that car in te Um. What's the What's the
Speaker 1: most important thing people don't know about you? Uh? The
Speaker 1: most important thing they don't know about me? Uh? I
Speaker 1: martial arts eves where I was probably Oh no, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. I am fascinated with cars, especial classic cars
Speaker 1: and muscle cars, and uh, every car I have I
Speaker 1: end up mortifying a lot, give us a give us
Speaker 1: a car that you have, and I'll tell you one
Speaker 1: that I'm looking to pick up from your hometown. And
Speaker 1: I think, I think this will kind of uh yes,
Speaker 1: it will be in the category of a fascinating thing.
Speaker 1: But I don't know about me. Like I drive to
Speaker 1: work Volkswagen Golf. I modified that Golf. I change everything.
Speaker 1: It looks like uh from the outside, it looks the same.
Speaker 1: From the inside is like they will scars from Fast
Speaker 1: and Futures movie. So so that's it, and then I
Speaker 1: am I have another project. I can tell you later
Speaker 1: that I'm restoring a car that's so believe it. So
Speaker 1: there's a car I've fallen in love with from the
Speaker 1: nineties seventies, and the best examples of them are from
Speaker 1: your They're either in Colombia or Brazil. The Toyota f
Speaker 1: J forty that that truck sort of like a Jeep,
Speaker 1: and they're everywhere in South America and there there's no
Speaker 1: rust on them down there. So I'm going to your
Speaker 1: backyard to pick up car. That's a good car. They're great. Um.
Speaker 1: Who are your early mentors who influenced your career? Um? Uh,
Speaker 1: there's many say in starting at ANBC had uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the the president of ANBC in Brazil. It was a
Speaker 1: big influence on me. What's his name? It was Gioberto Garby.
Speaker 1: He's uh, he's a professor. Now. Um. I also had
Speaker 1: people that I met throughout my career, and I always
Speaker 1: been like that. Every every different job that I have,
Speaker 1: I had people that I look up to and say
Speaker 1: I can learn something from that individual. It's been a
Speaker 1: constant history to my career. Uh. Tell us about some
Speaker 1: of your favorite books. What are you reading? What do
Speaker 1: you like to read? Comic books? Really give us some names?
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you enjoying Watchman on HBO? I am
Speaker 1: enjoying that, and I also I am I'm now starting
Speaker 1: Gotten as well on Netflix. And uh do you like
Speaker 1: the whole Marvel universe and tracking Avengers or you like
Speaker 1: a Spider Man sa guy? Uh No, I like Marvel? Um?
Speaker 1: Where was I going with that? Uh? Tell us about
Speaker 1: a time you found and what you learned from the experience.
Speaker 1: You know, I when I was doing the restructuring of
Speaker 1: a bankrupt operator in Brazil, plenty of uh attempts that
Speaker 1: didn't work, but uh and uh, you know, until we
Speaker 1: get it right. It was a difficult environment, but I
Speaker 1: learned a lot from that. I think, uh, ability to
Speaker 1: learn from mistakes, UH, it's invaluable. You can never get
Speaker 1: that in any NBA training, and that's a very good tool.
Speaker 1: I think for managers, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time with my kids. I
Speaker 1: also do mortial arts. I've been uh training martial arts
Speaker 1: for a number of years. And actually my my buddy
Speaker 1: that I trained for eight years and as my sparring
Speaker 1: buddy is uh the San Diego Harbor Police Chief. Quite
Speaker 1: quite interesting. UH. Tell us what you're most optimistic about
Speaker 1: and most pessimistic about within the world of technology today.
Speaker 1: I'm very optimistic about five G. I think five G
Speaker 1: will have an impact even greater than you know what
Speaker 1: people are talking about it right now. I think the
Speaker 1: transformation will be tremendous. I think what I'm pessimistic about
Speaker 1: it is, UH, you know, the complexity that it will
Speaker 1: take UM to build those networks. It's one of the
Speaker 1: topics we talked about it. You have to build infrastructure
Speaker 1: with and it starts with you build and then they
Speaker 1: will come. And I think we still have a lot
Speaker 1: of work to do to get that done. What sort
Speaker 1: of advice would you give a recent college graduate who
Speaker 1: is considering a career in either technology or engineering. Okay,
Speaker 1: um was very valuable for me. Uh, try to understand
Speaker 1: and it's the early day you can understand is the
Speaker 1: more successful you're gonna be. Try to understand one of
Speaker 1: the things they're really good at in what are the
Speaker 1: things that you're not And trying to focus your career
Speaker 1: in in the areas that you can put you know,
Speaker 1: your skills and quality to work, and try to get
Speaker 1: together with people that can help you in the areas
Speaker 1: that you are not. And it's interesting the the one
Speaker 1: of the greatest tools that helped me a lot and
Speaker 1: managing my career is really not focusing on one of
Speaker 1: the things that I can do well, but understanding one
Speaker 1: of the things that I cannot do so I can
Speaker 1: overcome those challenges. And our final question, what do you
Speaker 1: know about the world of technology and mobile and semiconductors
Speaker 1: today that you wish you knew twenty five years ago
Speaker 1: when you were first getting started. Uh. I, that's a
Speaker 1: very profound question. What I'll say is when if I
Speaker 1: had the understanding of how broad mobile I would have become,
Speaker 1: will probably made some bets in different segments earlier, but
Speaker 1: you know, everything has it's time. I know that was
Speaker 1: the last question, but I am intrigued by what you
Speaker 1: told me about the f J forty. So. Uh. So
Speaker 1: there's a car that I always loved as a kid.
Speaker 1: It was It's I loved them, the muscle cars. And
Speaker 1: it was a Chevrolet. There was designed in Brazil for
Speaker 1: the Brazilian market. Is a chevrolett Opala. It's in bittwen
Speaker 1: the Camaro, and the chevel is bigger than the camarow
Speaker 1: it's smaller than the Chevelle. But it's very unique and
Speaker 1: uh and I just found one, uh in a tiny city.
Speaker 1: I took it to California, took a nine months to
Speaker 1: come here, and I'm rebuilding it. I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 1: It's a nine six Opala Chevrolet SS and uh Opala
Speaker 1: O P A l A and I think there may
Speaker 1: be the first SSH in California. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1: That is sort of an unusual car, not quite an
Speaker 1: Opal not quite Uh. I don't even know how else
Speaker 1: I would describe that. Is not a Nova, not a Camaro.
Speaker 1: Is something different, huh, quite quite interesting. Uh And does
Speaker 1: it use standard Chevy parts? Is the original engine? Is
Speaker 1: the in line six? There wasn't a Camorrow, so the
Speaker 1: way to nine. So I'm gonna say that's probably the
Speaker 1: thing that people don't know about you that we have
Speaker 1: been speaking with Christiano Waman, president of Qualcom. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation, be sure and look up an inch
Speaker 1: or down an inch on Apple iTunes and you could
Speaker 1: see any of the previous three hundred or so such
Speaker 1: conversations we've had over the past five years. We love
Speaker 1: your comments, feedback in suggestions right to us at m
Speaker 1: IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Go to Apple iTunes
Speaker 1: and please give us a review. Be sure and check
Speaker 1: out my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at rit Halts. Sign up for the Daily
Speaker 1: Reds at rid Holtz dot com. I would be remiss
Speaker 1: if I did not thank the crack staff that helps
Speaker 1: me put this little conversation together each week. Mark Siniscalchi
Speaker 1: is my audio engineer. Sam Chivraj is my producer. Michael
Speaker 1: Batnick is my head of research. I'm Barry Ritolts. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.