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Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International Inc.: Providers of End-to-end Product Life Cycle Solutions

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Some companies are not the mainstream ones, but without them, other mainstream companies may fail. Celestica International is an example of such a company that has been enabling the world’s best brands. The company equips its clients with the simplest solutions to their most challenging problems. It is a Canadian electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company with a huge client base across the world. Celestica provides its clients full-fledged services from the ideation of the product to full-scale production and renders its support even after the launch of the product.

Celestica International Inc.

Celestica International is a Canada-based EMS company. The company came into being as the branch office of IBM in Canada, but later it became an independent company. The company headquarter is located in Toronto, Ontario. The services of Celestica include design and engineering, hardware platform solutions, after-market services, precision machining, manufacturing services, logistics and fulfillment, supply chain services, etc.

Celestica International Inc.
Image Source: tangentia.com

Celestica International serves clients from different categories, i.e., enterprise, communications, consumer, aerospace, defense, industrial, alternative energy as well as healthcare across the globe. As of 2018, the company’s annual revenue was US$ 6.6 billion, and 28000 employees are serving the company worldwide.

History of the Company

The history of Celestica differs from most of the technology companies a bit. In the beginning, the current office of Celestica was the Canada branch of IBM. IBM used to manufacture the metal boxes for their mainframe computers at its Canada branch. Later, in the mid-90s, IBM was transitioning from a hardware manufacturing company to a software development and service company. This led to a spin-off of the Canada branch of IBM, and Celestica was formed in 1994.

Though IBM was still owning Celestica, it was unable to focus on the company entirely. So in 1996, IBM decided to sell Celestica and started to look for potential buyers. IBM held an auction between five companies, and with a bid of $750 million for a 69% share of the company, Onex Corporation acquired Celestica International.

Going into the hands of Onex Corporation, Celestica expanded as an independent company. The company in the very next year of its acquisition, in 1997, acquired the manufacturing unit of International Computers Limited, the Design to Distribution. The same year it went to buy a major share in the manufacturing lines of Hewlett-Packard followed by the acquisition of Ascent Power Technology.

In 1998, the company had its first IPO in the EMS field, where it rose $414 million. The very IPO is known to be one of the largest technology IPOs in Canadian history. The IPO made the company turn a revenue of around $3.2 billion annually. In 2005, Celestica became the first EMS provider to win the prestigious Shingo Prize for Lean Manufacturing award.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Celestica, starting with International Manufacturing Services (IMS), made around eight acquisitions in 1998. In the year 2000, the company partnered with Motorola for the manufacturing of wireless telecom products. The next year, Celestica had another agreement with Lucent worth up to US$10 billion as an EMS provider. The company also made its largest acquisition in Asia by acquiring the Singapore-based EMS provider Omni Industries Limited. Celestica also announced its Global Design Operation in the same year.

With the acquisition of Manufacturers’ Services Limited (MSL) in 2004, Celestica was able to reach an even more expanded customer base. In 2005, the company acquired the flat-panel display repair services provider Displaytronix, followed by the acquisition of CoreSim, a leader in advanced design analysis and redesign services. In 2008 Celestica partnered with Microsoft to develop the BEE3 platform prototypes. In 2010, the company went on to take over the AlliedPanels and Invec Solutions, followed by the acquisition of Brooks Automation in 2011 and D+H Manufacturing in 2012.

The CEO: Robert A. Mionis

Robert A. Mionis is the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Celestica. He was appointed as the CEO of the company in 2015. Before that, he was working as the President and CEO of StandardAero. Mionis started his career at General Electric (GE), followed by holding many powerful roles in companies like AlliedSignal, Axcelis Technologies, and Honeywell. Mionis has also been on the board of various companies working in different fields, including industrial, aerospace, healthcare, and automotive segments.

National Instruments

National Instruments: The Success Story of a Company Running After Innovation

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Necessity is the key to invention. This is the statement that has been the basis of most of the inventions and innovation that has taken place in the world. There have been many stories of success that are the result of need, need to bring about change, and need to get the best technologies for solving the most complicated problems. NI aka National Instruments Corporation is also one of the success stories whose foundation based on the need to turn things simpler and make work easier for people.

National Instruments Corporation

NI is an American technology company which is based in Austin, Texas. The company is known for its automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software. The popular software products from NI include LabWindows/CVI, LabVIEW Communication System Design, DIAdem, VerusStand, NI TestStand, NI Switch Executive, NI Multisim, etc. NI builds programs to help people do their programming even faster and better by providing them with easy to use automated programming environment.

National Instruments
Image Source: ni.com

For example, LabVIEW is a graphical development environment, whereas the LabVIEW Communications System Design Suite is built to provide its users with faster deployment of the communication systems. Similarly, NI’s NI DIAdem is used for data management, and NI VeriStand is designed for real-time testing. The company has also introduced many hardware products as well. These products include NI CompactRIO, NI roboRIO, NI CompactDAQ, STS, PXI and PXIe Platforms, etc.

History

NI’s history is as old as forty years.  The company was founded in 1976 by three colleagues, James Truchard, Jeff Kodosky, and Bill Nowlin, working at the University of Texas at Austin Applied Research Laboratories. The three co-founders were part of a team that was researching for the US navy during the 1970s. While working together, the three realized that the technology they were using was quite outdated and took way too much time to complete a task. The three thought of developing a new data analysis product that would be faster and would be easy to use.

For the purpose of developing a new product, like many other technology companies, the three founded their company working in the garage of James Truchard in 1976. After a lot of brainstorming and discussion over names like Longhorn Instruments and Texas Digital, they finalized National Instruments (NI) for their new company.

The three were still working at the university and were handling their company work through the garage only. They took a loan of $10,000 from the Interfirst Bank. For the marketing of their company they used the method of cold calling and bagged their first contract from San Antonio based Kelly Air Force Base. They also hired Kim Harrison-Hosen for all their office work, and by the end of the year, they had successfully connected with three clients.

In 1978, the three moved the company to a real office at Burnet Road in Austin. The co-founders focused on the marketing of their company, and through mails and cold calling, they were able to get orders worth $400,000 in the next two years. In 1980, the profits made the co-founders confident enough to leave their jobs and focus solely on company operations.

NI then started to take up new projects so that to expand the scope of the company. By 1983, the company had changed two offices, and in the same year, it produced its first GPIB board used to connect instruments to IBM PCs. The latest discovery of that time was the Macintosh computer, and NI wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.

NI, in 1986, introduced its first flagship product, i.e., LabVIEW graphical development platform for the Macintosh computer. Later, in 1991, NI got the patent for LabView. This software was easy to use as the programmers did not have to write the code, but they could program graphically by connecting the icons given. After Macintosh, the company released LAbWindows for Microsoft DOS. In 1987, NI opened its first international office in Tokyo, Japan. NI also launched the National Instruments Alliance Partner program to connect with third-party developers and engineers to enhance the capabilities of NI products.

NI had $100 million in annual sales in 1993, and by 1998, the company had hired 1000 employees, such that they had to move to a new office. This new office boasted an employee-friendly environment that included play areas and a gymnasium for its employees.

Though NI had already appeared on the web, at the beginning of 2000, the company started its website with the domain ni.com. With the widespread of the internet, NI started to work on web technologies. It also launched the NI Developer Zone, where users could access the sample codes and sample programs and seek help from the NI engineers. The company launched its first international manufacturing unit in Debrecen, Hungary, and by 2006, it had around 40 sales offices opened globally. In 2013, NI acquired Digilent Inc.

The CEO of the Company

National Instruments CEO
Image Source: ni.com

Eric Starkloff is the current CEO of NI. He is also one of the board members of NI and the President of the company. Starkloff is a graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia. He started his career with NI as an application engineer and has been working at NI for more than twenty years.

NI Today

NI is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. After moving to different size offices, the company now headquarters in Austin, Texas. Michael E. McGrath is the current Chairman of the company, and Eric Starkloff serves as the CEO at NI. The company has got over 7500 employees globally, and the annual revenue of the company, as of 2019, is recorded to be $ 1.353 billion. NI went public in 1995 and is listed on NASDAQ as NATI.

TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity: The ‘Not So’ Popular Global Industrial Leader in the World of Connectivity

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Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are the names that are well known to us and have become an inseparable part of our lives. We all use their products and know well about them. But there are a few companies that are continuously providing us with their services, but still, we don’t know much or anything about them. These companies are not very popular but are touching our lives, and in some cases, we can’t even manage without their products. One such company is TE Connectivity, which has been there for more than a decade providing its services to us without caring about if its customers know about it or not.

About the Company TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity is an IT and electronics company that manufactures sensors and connectivity equipment that are capable of working in a harsh environment. From the internet to the cloud structure, from drones to space rockets, and from the vehicles on the roads to aeroplanes in the sky, TE Connectivity has its part in every other field that exists in the world.

The company works in three main fields, i.e. Communications Solutions, Transportation Solutions, and Industrial Solutions. So as the names suggest, TE connectivity provides its connectivity solutions in the field of communication, transportation, and in various industries.

The communication solutions include the manufacturing of electronic equipment that is used in home appliances like dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditions, etc. The transport solutions by TE Connectivity are focused on automotive, industrial, and commercial transportation, and these products are used in high-speed metros, light rail vehicles, locomotives, etc.

This segment of the company also works on building sensors for various industries like medical, aerospace, commercial transportation, and defense, etc. With the Industrial solutions, TE Connectivity manufactures equipment that provides connectivity, power, and signal to automate the operations in various fields, including transportation, industries, medical, defense, and others.

The Foundational Story of TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity is a spin-off of Tyco International Ltd., a company with a history that dates back to 1960. Arthur J. Rosenberg founded Tyco International in Ireland with its operational headquarter in Princeton, New Jersey. It was a security system company and was mainly focused on semiconductor manufacturing for the government and did research work for the military.

TE Connectivity
Image Source: commons.wikimedia.org

In 1964, the company went public, and in 1970, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. By the year 1980, Tyco International had acquired companies like Simplex Technology, Grinnell Fire Protection Systems, Armin Plastics and was spreading its services. The company then divided its operations into three categories, i.e., fire protection, electronics, and packaging. Tyco continued to work in the three fields until 2007, when the current CEO of Tyco International, Ed Breen, spun off the company into three companies. TE Connectivity was one of the three resultant companies.

The CEO of the Company

Terrence Curtin is the current CEO at TE Connectivity. He was born and brought up in Mount Penn, a city in Pennsylvania, USA. According to one of the interviews of Curtin, he wasn’t good at academics but was one of the star players of the gridiron and the baseball team of his school. He wanted to do better at academics, so he used his talent of gridiron and baseball to get into a good college to get an environment where he could improve at his studies. Eventually, he got admission into the Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated with a degree in accounts in 1990 and immediately joined one of the biggest accounts firms of that time, Arthur Andersen.

After working for a few years with Arthur Andersen, Curtin joined TE Connectivity as its Chief Financial Officer and later, held the position of the corporate controller of the company. In a few years, he was appointed as the president of the company. In 2016, he got elected to the Board of Directors of the company. After a year, in March 2017, Curtin was appointed as the CEO of TE Connectivity.

TE Connectivity Today

TE Connectivity is one of the biggest technology companies that are into connectivity and sensor products manufacturing. The company has got 150 branches in 40 countries, and over 7000 engineers working for TE are connecting to its customers every day to solve their problems. Other than that, the employee count for the company as of 2020 is 80000, and the total revenue for the same year was recorded to be USD 12 billion.