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Thinking small is beautiful SATURDAY INTERVIEW : BILL MILLER Man with Microemissive Displays' big picture in mind tells Simon Bain that self-belief is everything
(The Herald Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ON Bill Miller's desk sits the tiniest TV screen in the world, reported to be the size of a postage stamp, but actually it is smaller than that: a sharp-image display no bigger than his thumbnail.
That sounds crazy, until you see two binocular screens housed in a wearable headset - recently predicted by both Samsung and Orange to be the must-have device of the future - which can be plugged into a game machine, or even a handheld multimedia player.
Miller, 49, the man aiming to turn Alternative Investment Market-listed Microemissive Displays into Scotland's next microelectronics success story, epitomises the fortunes of Silicon Glen.
A key driver of Motorola's great survivor semi-conductor plant in East Kilbride, he was sent in to lead, and then close, its operation in South Queensferry. Last summer, still vice-president and general manager of Motorola's dollars-1.5bn UK semiconductor operations, he left to join the tiny university spin-out as chief operating officer, becoming chief executive in October.
"I was under a lot of pressure to move to the US but was unable to do that for personal reasons, " Miller says. "I had been approached by two or three companies, bigger and smaller than Motorola, to potentially join them. Then, by chance, I met Peter Denyer (director of the company and vision technology pioneer) who showed me the technology. It blew my socks off, and particularly the fact that we had this worldleading technology in the UK, developed in Edinburgh."
In typical tech start-up style, Microemissive Displays had f loated on AIM a year ago at 150p per share - raising GBP14.7m - and announced in April that all was on track for volume production of its technology for two lead customers.
Then, in June, suddenly it was not. Production yield issues had emerged, and the shares lost 10-per cent. Next, Japanese group NHJ, which had ordered 200,000 screens as viewfinders for its new digital cameras, went bust. The shares gradually lost another 40-per cent, and last week Bill Campbell, who had led the f lotation as chief executive, left the company.
This month finance director Alan Bennie is leaving, though Miller says it is "entirely of his own volition" and a new finance director will be appointed before the end of the month.
But at the close of 2005 came what Miller says is a "significant milestone": the company shipped its first product, prompting a 10-per cent recovery in the shares and hopes that Microemissive could have turned a corner on the bumpy road to becoming Scotland's next Wolfson.
Miller was initially asked to advise on why the pilot manufacturing process at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre, the incubator facility at Edinburgh University where Microemissive is based, was not delivering.
"They didn't know. That was the exciting part for me because I got to be an engineer again after 10 or 15 years. Very quickly I hired people from Motorola and Intel, we have added to the existing team and significantly changed the experience profile . . . Our predecessors had done an outstanding job in developing the technology and taking it to a point where we could demonstrate the capability, but how do start-ups fail? You need to recognise when you require a different skill set and a different approach."
He goes on: "Since July, we have taken things forward significantly, culminating in the successful shipping of product to first customer, and we have made substantial inroads into fixing the yield issues." Miller says there could be more business from its first Hong Kong-based customer which has bought 13,000 screens for night vision leisure products, and "interest levels have cranked back up again" in the wider market.
He adds: "We are in the final stages of putting together a comprehensive and achievable road map of how we get to volume manufacture." Plans included "talking to a number of different potential manufacturing partners - there is a lot of interest in partnering with us . . . The only thing right now that is preventing us from shipping more product is the capability of our operation here."
The management team includes Dr Ian Underwood, one of the developers of the technology at Napier and Edinburgh universities, and Miller comments: "We have a large amount of expertise built up over six or seven years."
Microemissive's screens use light-emitting diodes made of polymers, powered by a silicon chip.
Rival technologies based on VIEWPOINT Best moment: Record-breaking yields from very difficult technology at South Queensferry in 2000.
Worst moment: Having to see good people leave an organisation that you spent a lot of time working with to be successful.
Childhood ambition: Racing-driver. I have spent 12 years restoring a Triumph TR6.
Current ambition: To turn Microemissive into a roaring success.
What drives you: I hate losing.
What do you drive: I replaced a Mercedes which kept breaking down with a Lexus.
liquid crystal display need an extra power source to drive them, requiring a bigger screen and more battery power.
"We firmly believe our product and our technology gives significant advantages in cost and quality, " Miller says.
"It offers much lower power consumption, which is the holy grail for hand-held devices . . . That is part of a number of discussions we are having at the moment . . . We are working to make sure we have an order backlog to fill that capability."
What are the secrets of making that elusive transition from startup to scale player?
"Knowing and understanding how to access the market-place, seizing the opportunity, " Miller replies.
"One of the strengths Microemissive has is our board of nonexecutives, who have experience in a wide range of applicable industries. Networking is important."
Miller is reluctant to soothsay on the future of the old Silicon Glen, but observes: "If you look at the way the industry is moving, the big foundries in Taiwan and now China are increasingly becoming the volume producers of semiconductors for the world.
"Where companies have true niche capabilities and can provide unique services to support customers, they will have a case."
The survival of jobs in Scotland so far was "a credit to the strength and depth of the expertise and a lot of experience and knowledge".
But on the emergence of the new breed led by Wolfson, he says: "Our model is very similar to theirs, albeit with a different technology. The high value-added research and development jobs will be here in Scotland, and we will outsource volume manufacturing. Wolfson has been an extremely positive success story for Scotland."
Miller, 21 years at Motorola, says his best moment was the "open weekend" for employees' families which he initiated and staged at South Queensferry.
"It is important for people to understand what you do when you go to work. It can help them understand and be more forgiving when you come in late or disappear early."
His worst was having to break bad news to those same families. Downsizing in electronics, he says is "a necessary evil".
Early shareholders will be hoping the same is true for Microemissive's 2005 slump, as it tries to turn miniature screens into outsize returns.
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