Tektronix Reviews

Pros

Will be able to work on exciting technology.

Cons

Development can be a little slow-moving.

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

Oportunities tolearn and grow and flexibilites etc.

Cons

Poor and being unfair manager.....

Advice to Senior Management

Being fair and recognize thier hard workers

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

Great benefits and perks such as box office seats at the Rose Garden

Cons

Layoffs occur pretty often as products are moved offshore. Due to the age of the company, employees can be pretty clique-ish.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect both new and long-term employees alike

Pros

Some of the Great talents and if you get to work on some new platform with Engineers in US then you get to learn a lot. People are working in this organization for 25 yrs or more and have a great knowledge base.

Cons

Not all Managers in India deserve to be in that position..

Advice to Senior Management

Stop changing and chopping groups in the name of Strategy.

Pros

Good job training, technical mentoring.
Nice colleagues to work with, nice working environments. Direct managers manage the team well.
Company database is great.

Cons

It's difficult to get job promotion.
Lunch food is terrible.
Danaher management... Many people in HQ were laid off during economic crisis.

Pros

One of the best processes in marketing function among hi-tech companies in the world. Excellent leadership in Marketing function across globe.

Cons

non- exisitent HR function . non responsive to employee issues.

- work culture
- Nepotism
- non exisitence of ownership among associates . Not my job attitude

Advice to Senior Management

I'm sure the management is aware of the reality and will take necessary actions to bring back Tektronix to a leadership position among all stake holders - Employees, Customers, Vendors and etc.

Pros

Better than average compensation and benefits, prestige brand, respect in marketplace

Cons

Micro-managed by Danaher squeezing the bottom line for share holder profits at the expense of long-serving quality staff

Advice to Senior Management

The wise ones have already left.

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!