An interview with AMD's new CEO Lisa Su: Creating innovative technology-oriented companies

October 27, 2014, Lisa SU (Dr. Su-Feng) appeared in the Office of the Beijing Financial Information Center. 20 days ago, she had just been named the new CEO of AMD, who previously served as AMD COO (COO). Lisa SU (ph. D.) has a bachelor, master and doctorate degree in electrical Engineering from MIT and has written more than 40 technical publications and was elected as a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2009.

Lisa Su tells us that in the past few weeks she has spent 80% of her time communicating, and one of the most important purposes of this visit to China is to communicate with the parties, including government, AMD customers, employees, channels and other partners.

"I would like to send a signal to the greater China that China is the first stop for my global visit in just a few weeks as CEO, because the business in Greater China is a core part of our strategic deployment, We attach great importance to the development potential of Greater China and will further expand our strength in the Chinese market. Lisa Su says.

CEO's three strategic missions

In fact, AMD with its old rivals Intel is currently the world's only two PC processor manufacturers. Over the past few years, AMD has cut more than 30% per cent of its operating expenses and has kept its cash holdings at around $1 billion trillion through a series of financial adjustments, and forecasts that the company is now making a profit. On the other hand, data from IDC, the market research firm, point out that Intel still has more than 80% market share in the PC processor market. But in recent years, AMD in some emerging market areas (such as game host Chip) to achieve the reverse attack, become the most successful manufacturers.

In this case, will amd follow the old strategy after Lisa Su took over the post of CEO? What changes will she bring?

"The transition strategy of the past 2 years is right, the next 2 years will accelerate the deployment of technical capacity, the focus of the strategy will be on technology." My tenure will focus on three tasks: building great products, building deeper partnerships, and simplifying operations. "Lisa Su says that in the past AMD gave the impression of a very powerful technology company, but many times it was considered a suboptimal product provider."

As CEO, Lisa wants to apply many of the technologies that AMD has to the area of adaptation. For example, in the past few years, AMD for Sony, Microsoft these companies to provide a semi-customized products, in the future she hopes to be in the semi-customization field more exploration, and the company as an exciting innovative technology-oriented enterprises.

Lisa Su revealed that under her leadership strategy for AMD's semi-customized products is to help partners provide one-stop solutions and differentiated products.

Both the traditional PC market and the emerging market

In July this year, AMD announced that it will integrate multiple business units into two large business groups, with a view to delivering unique value to customers in the traditional PC market and in the proximity of high-growth markets.

The computing and graphics Business group will incorporate AMD clients, consumer graphics cards, professional graphics cards and related product design and sales functions; enterprise, embedded and semi-customized business groups will combine AMD server, embedded, high-density server, semi-customized business and related product design and sales functions.

This shows that AMD's traditional PC business and emerging market technology and business equally valued.

Lisa Su says: I think the focus of the work is on putting technology into areas where the highest value can be produced. In High-performance computing, as well as in the visual experience of the higher requirements of the graphics application areas, are our technology can highlight the advantages of the place. We are concerned about areas such as data centers, cloud computing, and traditional PCs where technology availability is high, and we see a tendency to share a lot of technology in flat-panel, two-in-one products and morphing. We believe that future technologies will be more common in these areas.

In the past few years, we have achieved good results in the transition and have been progressing well. As we have said before, AMD has established a more solid financial base, and we are still quite satisfied with the current process. A very important part of the transition strategy is the diversification of the market and its expansion into emerging markets in order to further boost business growth while improving AMD's overall performance.

As the new CEO, one of the tasks that will inspire me and really move forward is to continue to build a great product for AMD and to push our technology forward. Of course we will continue to invest in the traditional PC market that attaches great importance.

In emerging areas, such as 64-bit arm, server, and embedded product markets, there are good opportunities for growth. We will continue to invest more in these areas and accelerate the development process. AMD's first 64-bit ARM server processor has now made a sample, code-named Seattle, and has received positive feedback from all parties ' partners.

Lisa Su revealed that in order to further narrow the distance with the technicians, she called herself the Geek CEO. The best way to motivate technicians, as Lisa Su sees it, is to put themselves in their ranks and position themselves as engineers, which can accelerate the transfer of technology to the market.

Most value the growth of the Chinese market

If the traditional PC business and the expansion of emerging markets is the new AMD strategy two support points, then the core of these support points is: the Chinese market.

Lisa Su believes that the Chinese market in the future will give AMD a series of opportunities, in the past AMD in China's main business or traditional PC industry, in the next 2-5 years, China will become the data center, cloud computing Innovation countries, and a large number of people will bring more business opportunities. At present, AMD and China's existing partners to maintain a stable cooperative relationship, in the future she hopes to have the opportunity to work with more Chinese partners to create more strategic level of cooperation.

"China is rich in engineering resources, AMD will expand the deployment of engineering resources in the future, to create end-to-end products, to enable Chinese engineers close to the market." I can make it clear that the growth of the Chinese market is what I value most, the Chinese area is the main battlefield of AMD. Lisa Su says.

In the semi-customizable business, Lisa Su also admits that greater China has many opportunities. AMD has been discussing potential customization with some OEM vendors, she said, and she hopes AMD will understand the needs of Chinese customers and understand the needs of the market and make products that are suitable for China on this basis.