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A '7,000-person start-up:' CEO tells story, strategy of Cree [The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.](Herald-Sun (Durham, NC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 16--DURHAM -- Several years into his position as CEO of Cree, Chuck Swoboda said the company would never go into the business of LED light bulbs. By March of last year, Durham-based Cree was making and selling LEDs. And that change is the essence of the company, Swoboda said in a speech at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School on Monday night. "Luckily for me, despite the fact that the CEO says don't do something, you're also encouraged if you have a really good idea to keep working on it," Swoboda said. "One of the things we've learned is that if you're not prepared to change what you're doing, adapt to new information, look at how the markets evolve from what you thought and keep moving, you become irrelevant pretty fast." Swoboda joined Cree in 1993, about six years after its founding as a company focused on developing silicon carbide products. Since that time, the company has grown in revenue from about $6 million to nearly $1.4 billion. Swoboda said that even though Cree's commercial customers showed no interest in buying or developing LED light bulbs around 2006, a scientist at Cree never gave up on the idea. And by the time Cree decided to start selling and making LED light bulbs, Swoboda said the company realized it would make little money, but it was a way for the company to gain brand recognition against its well-known competitors like General Electric. "We're the guy no one ever heard of," Swoboda said. "We've got to create a story that's so different, so unexpected to get people's attention." Cree launched a campaign to get people talking about LEDs, with things like a commercial that shows a funeral for the old light bulb invented by Thomas Edison. "Lighting is a category that is so low-interest, people don't think about it," Swoboda said. "We had to create a conversation that no one was paying attention to." About a year after the launch of the bulbs, Cree was in 80 percent of the measured conversations and articles about LED lighting and there were two-and-a-half times more people writing and talking about LED bulbs, Swoboda said. "Our low-margin light bulb strategy became what I like to say a high-margin brand strategy," he said. Swoboda said the 7,000-employee international company tries to retain a "start-up culture" by attracting passionate employees and although he doesn't know what's in store for the company's future, he said it is never afraid to keep innovating. "At the end of the day if innovation is your competitive advantage, you have to make it work," he said. ___ (c)2014 The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) Visit The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) at www.heraldsun.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |