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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

July - 2012 - issue > Management

The Importance of Teamwork in Challenging Times

Jaswinder Ahuja
Corporate Vice President & Managing Director-Cadence India
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Jaswinder Ahuja
Headquartered in San Jose, California, with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics.

I have had the privilege to lead many teams in my 24 years at Cadence and I have found that irrespective their size, composition or location, winning teams tend to follow a set of principles that make them successful. Many authors have talked about the principles behind high performance teamwork; amongst them are noted experts Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto who sum up the principles into eight "characteristics" that include goal setting, a results-driven structure, recruiting the best people for the job, unified commitment, promoting collaboration, setting standards of excellence, rewarding performance, and principled leadership. (LaFasto, 1989)

Think of any team that you consider successful – whether in sports, business, academics, or any other field – and you will find these characteristics at the core. During challenging times especially, applying these principles can be critical to success. The importance of good teamwork in testing business circumstances cannot be underestimated.

In this article, I will discuss how Cadence leadership used some of Larson and LaFasto’s characteristics to steer the company through a rapidly changing business environment. The challenge was to both redirect the company and re-energize employees during a time of uncertainty.

Redirect by Communicating Clear Goals


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