Tektronix Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

- Great set of people
- Challenging problems
- People eager to help out others
- Flexible work conditions
- Good practices brought in b y Danaher

Cons

- Innovation is somewhat stifled after the Danaher acquisition
- Lack of recognition for managers and above
- Seems to be all about turning the crank these days

Advice to Senior Management

Allow innovation to run it's course, bring back some of the spirit of Tektronix. Recognize good people for the contributions they make. Create a less political environment.

Pros

good co-workers and technology, great location

Cons

poor management and vision, too many meetings, not enough R&D investment

Advice to Senior Management

stop looking out for yourselves and pay attention to managing

Pros

Tektronix' glory days of the late 20th century have waned, but in spite of its corporate takeover and loss of original vision by its founders, the DNA of the company continues on. The individual contributors working here in the form of amazing engineers are still some of the smartest people on the planet.

While the problems Tektronix focuses on are miniature (by definition - electronic instruments focus on the very small), the technology is nothing short of amazing.

Cons

Tektronix management, starting at the very top with its current and most recent President, are driven by Danaher financial and manufacturing mentalities. This form of corporate management works well in reducing "waste." It is not nearly as effective in creating the future. R&D operations are substantially more costly and "wasteful" than manufacturing.

In spite of Danaher's "DBS" (modeled on Toyota's approaches) promotion of the company as a "learning organism," Tektronix has been eviscerated since the take-over in the name of cost cutting and the bad economy.

Pruning and cost cutting may be a necessary evil in today's environment, but the specific choices Tektronix has made to meet Danaher's goals speaks to the current state of mis-management. For example, when the current trend in almost every corporation around the world is to increase design thinking, Tektronix (and many of Danaher's other operating companies) have laid off entire departments of designers - mostly because they don't know what to do with them or where to "put" them.

Advice to Senior Management

Top-line growth does not happen without radical thinkers and innovators. Take a look at successful companies across all industry segments and note: breakthroughs come from cross-functional teams of highly gifted individuals with divergent modes of thinking. Your "innovation council" is heavily weighted to engineering and manufacturing - get your creatives on that thing to quickly spin up the engine of innovation into a semblance of the powerhouse it once was.

Pros

+ proximity to dining options & movie theater
+ learn about kaizens
+ one end of campus (near Nike & Comcast) is well cared for
+ after hours fight club

Cons

- leadership pipleine blocked up with middle managers lacking panache, foresight & market insight
- executives are trying to drive growth with dull tools
- outdated technology tools and underfunded R&D limit organic growth
- low-quality benefits & perks for employees so Tek is unable to attract/retain top technical talent
- too isolated from real-world

Advice to Senior Management

- Design tools: uninspired product portfolio --- listen to customers & stop developing test gear for Tek engineers;
business needs to develop a revolutionary position on electronic test & execute

- SSO: sensible choice to form a services division, hope SSO does something besides equipment calibration, field maintenance, and leasing

- CSO: decades of under-investment have resulted in an undifferentiated market position and reliance on 2-3 customers; CEO ignoring this atrophied arm which has become non-strategic for Tek; need to replace execs who have failed to position company for growth; need to acquire some leading components/technology companies in 2011 to feed the instrument business

- Other: need to add custom test set development at Tek & Keithley for growth and to appease strategic customers!

Pros

good pay. Easy work, you were stereotyped into your job and there was no way out. If you did a job good there was no hope for moving up.

Cons

Too many primadonna's riding the shirt tail of their old manager protecting them for their ignorance.

Advice to Senior Management

ride the wave

Pros

Flexible, great work environment, decent pay

Cons

New ownership providing challenges, very senior workforce limiting advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Be open to new ideas and keep a open mind. Business needs and challenges evolve over time. Listen to the people they are in the trenches eveyday

Pros

the people
the campus
the work
the benefits

Cons

The company is being reorganized and your job may not last long.

Advice to Senior Management

Not sure

Pros

It is nice to be surrounded by talented, knowledgeable individuals.
You get to work with advanced technology, great test equipment.
You get to develop state-of-the-art products.

Cons

Most employees are constantly concerned about job security due to continuous down-sizing.
Corporate management is constantly changing, and changing the company organization and project leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit trying to turn a high-tech, quality company that produces the best products in the world into just another revenue generating, mediocre company producing me-too, ticky-tacky products that are "just as good as the competition".

Pros

The work is challenging and the engineers are very qualified and fun to work with. Its also a leader its its field.

Cons

Benefits and pay are subpar and morale is quite low since aquired by Danaher. Information is rarely shared with employees promptly.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and communicate openly and promptly of anything that concerns employee with regards to layoffs and leader changes, etc.

Pros

Top name in test and measurment

Cons

The new owners (Danaher) are presently in a mode where the employees are demoralized and unsure of their next paycheck. Senior employees are targets, which is affecting technology and products

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to have more experience in Tektronix. Agilent got rid of hime because he couldn't hit numbers.