Cleanroom.net Exclusives : Interview With SolTec’s CEO Dawn Gluskin

Dawn Gluskin CEO of SolTec Electronics

Cleanroom.net Exclusives talks to Dawn Gluskin, Soltec Electronics’ CEO. Dawn has over 12 years of sales and marketing experience with educational background in business administration and marketing. 7 years of sales experience has been in the Electronic Components sector. Consistently top sales producer at all former employers before taking the “plunge” to open own company in 2008. The company (SolTec Electronics) has since seen strong and steady growth, even in a slow economy.

Cleanroom.net : Soltec Electronics was established in June 2008. What were the major challenges in starting up an electronic components company?

Dawn : Starting a new company is challenging in itself, but doing so in a down economy might even seem a little crazy to some! It’s working for us, though. We’ve just stuck with our core values of having a strong customer focus, delivering quality parts, and doing so on-time. Our clients appreciate this! So, while our competitors might be experiencing a huge decline in sales, which in turn can lead to downsizing, cutting back on benefits & an overall low morale in the work environment, we’ve experienced just the opposite & I think our clients have picked up on it. We’ve also been strategic with our spending. For example, social networking is a great cost-effective form of marketing & advertising that we have taken advantage of & seen great results with. We have gone with a “slow & steady” overall growth plan & I believe we are now positioned very well for when things really start to let loose in 2010!

Cleanroom.net : What is your take on the semiconductor industry at the moment?

Dawn : Right now, we are starting to see allocation & lead-times being pushed way out: 30+ weeks on many fast-moving items. Ouch! When the economy slowed down, all the major semiconductor manufacturers had to scale back production. Now, things are picking up & the demand has begun to surpass the supply. In times like this, our clients really rely on us to pull through with the materials that they need. My advice to my clients is to look ahead as far as possible & try to plan accordingly. Otherwise, the dreaded production line-down could be a harsh reality in the months ahead. In particular, we have seen allocation on TI Opamps, Freescale processors, Tyco high-density connectors, NXP logic & Infineon & Fairchild voltage regulators, to name a few. We try to work with our clients by procuring the material for them well in advance & holding it at our facility under contract until their ship date arrives. This helps to guarantee their parts will be their when needed without putting an immediate crunch on their cash flow.

Cleanroom.net : Is sourcing hard to find semiconductor parts becoming more difficult?

Dawn : I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is getting more difficult, but certainly the same challenges of years past continue to be a concern. Counterfeit components have always been a huge concern. SolTec Electronics is proud to say that not one single counterfeit component has passed through our facility. Not one! We contribute this largely to our strict vendor approval policy. We don’t do risky deals. Period. If there is a vendor out there with any strikes on their record, than we will not do business with them. It’s just not worth it in the long-run. There are plenty of reputable vendors out there & so we don’t even entertain buying from any of these questionable vendors (and there are a lot of those too!). As a secondary precaution, we inspect everything under high-powered microscope upon receipt & look for any signs of potential counterfeit. If we ever run into a questionable part, then we send them off to be electrically tested prior to shipping to our customer. We will never ever ship questionable materials to our clients, no matter how badly they need the parts. Their protection is our top priority. And, this is why we have clients for life!

Cleanroom.net : Cleanrooms are very important to the semiconductor industry. Have you noticed any trends in relation to cleanrooms in the semiconductor industry?

Dawn : Cleanrooms are very important at the semiconductor manufacturing level, especially when highly sensitive components are being assembled. It is important to keep the room clean of any contaminates or bacteria which could possible disturb the sensitive components. The use of vacuum pumps seems to be pretty standard in semiconductor clean room environments. They assist in constantly cleaning the air, which is very important in microchip manufacturing. More recently, we are seeing an increase in the use of technology, specifically robots, to handle sensitive materials as opposed to personnel in hazmat suits.

Cleanroom.net : Soltec offers an Electronic Component Cost Reduction Program. How does this work?

Dawn : This is a great program! And, it is so simple to. Our clients share with us their BOM (bill of materials) and standard cost on items. Sometime they will send the entire list & sometimes they will ask us to focus on their high-dollar material. We import their data into our database & compare it to the inventory that is available to us. We then go & try to procure that material at a lower cost than what our clients are currently paying. We send a report listing what material we can save them money on. We will typically run the report once per quarter, since the market & pricing is always changing. It’s as easy as that! It’s a very simple opportunity for some of our clients to save money, especially in a slow economy when many are forced to cut back.

Cleanroom.net : Soltec also offers Excess Inventory Buying for semiconductor companies. What are your requirments in this program?

Dawn : Yes, we buy excess materials. Actually, we offer a couple different options. We can buy the material outright with cash, or we can list the material on a consignment program (the parts can either held at our facility or our clients). As the parts are sold, we send a monthly or quarterly commission payment. It really depends if our clients are looking to get the best return on their dollar, or if they are more interested in a quick sale to free up warehouse space, as to which program is best for them. We just ask for a spreadsheet listing all available part numbers & quantities. Our buyer analyzes the data and assesses the market value. Then, we can go from there to help our client determine the best way to turn their old inventory into cash!

Cleanroom.net : A recent study showed that women account for just 3% of CEO’s in the semiconductor industry. Being a female CEO in a male dominated industry. What are your opinions of attitudes towards women in the industry? And why do you think there are so few female CEO’s in the semiconductor industry?

Dawn : Wow, I did not realize the number is quite that low. That’s amazing. I think a lot of that has to do with the technology sector, in general, being male-dominated, especially when you start to look at things like engineering. I’ve never seen this as a bad thing for us at all, though. As a matter of fact, working some of these trade shows and such, I think some people are more apt to talk openly with you when you stand out, being one of the few women in the crowd. We look at it as an opportunity more so than a hindrance and have always been treated warmly by others in the industry. Government contracts are another positive in our favor. A certain percentage of contracts are required to be awarded to minority businesses (woman-owned included), so we definitely try to take advantage of that!

We continue to see an upward trend in the number of woman-owned businesses out there and in the amount of revenue dollars generated by them. This is great! There are some excellent organizations out there dedicated to helping women in business. Count Me In has the “Make Mine a Million” program, which helps woman business owners grow their micro businesses into million dollar enterprises. I signed up with them in the beginning of 2009 & have received coaching, advice, and am in the running for their grand prize of business capital money. We’ve seen our revenues grow over 600% this year! I’ve also signed up with Big Fish Nation for a year-long business development & coaching program available exclusively to women. I’m very excited to get started with them in January. So, again, it’s all about finding the opportunities out there that help with your individual strengths and weaknesses … and never feeling intimidated by it all. I hope more & more women get involved with technology at the executive level!

Kind regards to Dawn from the Cleanroom.net Exclusives team