Pros

There are smart people peppered throughout the company. However the talent is not consistent throughout the organization with certain groups definitely below average. For a company that has been profitable for more than 10 years and that has been working with the leaders in the consumer electronics space such as Apple, IBM, LG, and Sony, one would expect more. The company does have great technology embedded in its ASICs. Also, the company is vertically integrated on the technology side. The company fully understands all aspects of touch sensing from the mechanical aspects of the actual product, to the electronics, to the firmware, and to the driver. The company thrives due to the dedication of several long term employees and extremely intelligent individuals who know the product well and have applied the technology to many products over the last 10 years.

Cons

The company is not very forward thinking. Technology is driven by demands of the customers. With other companies joining the touch sensing space, Synaptics's leadership position has been eroded, particularly by Apple. Sales driven company. If the sales teams wants it, engineering has to bend over backwards to meet the goals. The engineering team will often come through (a great strength of the company) but with little recognition. To meet goals, engineering and build teams spend late days at work. Several employees lose vacation days on a regular basis due to running into accumulation limits. HR like at most companies unable to address inconsistencies in work load and company culture. The company is not a meritocracy at the director level. This has lead to a reactionary approach to problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Truly become the human interface company! Don't be a turnkey hardware company. Show some leadership and innovation in human machine interaction and maybe you'll be a leader in this space again.