Gone are the days of relying solely on analyst reports to define product road maps. Meeting the needs of end users requires the identification of synergies between every level of the chain, from silicon vendors and manufacturers to service providers and consumers. But understanding the end user alone won't ensure a company's place among industry leaders. Companies must also be agile and flexible enough to act on market intelligence to quickly deliver products that align with consumer demand.

Delivering products under a compressed design cycle requires effective use of core competencies. For example, SiGe Semiconductor's core expertise is the application of silicon germanium technology to deliver ICs that optimize performance and power consumption of wireless, cable telephony and optical networks. Leveraging its core competencies, SiGe Semiconductor created a diverse portfolio of silicon that is also continually innovative, to support the requirements of several market segments.

The ability to evolve a product portfolio to address several markets while staying true to a company's core competencies is critical to success. Just as with investment retirement accounts, diversification allows a company to take calculated risks.

For instance, SiGe Semiconductor quickly entered the emerging WLAN market by leveraging wireless power amplifier intellectual property to deliver solutions with the best price and performance. A portfolio of ICs targeting established opportunities, such as optical networking, mitigated the risk of competing in emerging markets. We addressed established markets with products intended to replace competitive solutions by enabling OEMs to realize compelling cost and performance efficiencies.

Today's compressed product cycle requires silicon vendors to go beyond chip design and deliver solutions that enable efficiencies at the system level. Through collaboration with customers and partners, SiGe Semiconductor helps deliver reference designs that simplify the development of next-generation WLAN, Bluetooth, cellular and optical equipment. Reference designs allow system OEMs to significantly reduce cost and time-to-market by eliminating the resources required for complex high-frequency development.

Once balance is achieved between supply and demand, industries will resume a gentle growth replacement pattern. The companies that will endure are those that practice the fundamentals of smart business. SiGe Semiconductor survived the downturn using these strategies, and we are poised to prosper during this recovery.