Talking Points: Patrick J. Byrne

Since taking over the helm of Intermec Technologies Corp. in
2007, Byrne has boosted research spending and accelerated product development
to exploit an expanding market for the Everett companys hardy mobile devices. The
devices are used for everything from issuing parking tickets to reading the
barcodes on package deliveries.

Early Education: I grew up in Silicon Valley when it was
still apricot orchards. My father was a research scientist at Stanford Research
Institute. Once, he bought a broken Volkswagen engine, took it apart and laid
the pieces out on the kitchen table and showed us how each part worked as he
put it back together. Because of that experience, my brother became a heart
surgeon: He repairs engines while they are still running. I became a design
engineer at Hewlett-Packard [HP].

Management Training: To develop its managers, HP would
rotate people through different areas. I worked internationally and in
marketing. I learned that often the highest tech stuff doesnt sell. Its not
about technology; its about customers. You have to get close to customers to
know what problem you are solving and what value you are offering. [At HP] I
saw the customer demand for the Windows platform and ended up managing that
transition.

The Mobile Future: At Agilent, an HP spinoff, I managed a
several-billion-dollar operation that included testing cell phones. I chose to
be CEO at Intermec because it was clear to me that the cellular network would
become a major IT platform. Everywhere in the world, you have this incredibly
pervasive, interoperable, always-on data network thats consumer-subsidized but
can be used as a business asset.

The Great Recession: Everybody has gone through significant
restructuring and reductions in forces. Now, they are asking how to grow the
business with the workforce they have. How are they going to differentiate
themselves? CEOs are compelled by what they can do to create competitive
advantage by using mobile technologies.

The Mobile Worker: There are tens of millions of mobile
workers around the world. Think of the cable guy. After installing the cable,
maybe he offers you an upgrade package. Suddenly, a transaction becomes an
interaction. The blue-collar worker becomes a white-collar worker. He becomes a
salesman. Every interaction with the customer becomes a sales opportunity. The
educational level of the people who use our products might not be high, but
they are sharp. Offer them a tool and they know how to maximize their pay like
any salesperson.

Product Cycles: Since I joined Intermec, weve transformed
every function in the company. We leverage commercially available technology by
partnering with Qualcomm and large Asian contract manufacturers. We partner
with them on design and manufacturing. But core design elements that are a
source of sustainable competitive advantage remain in Intermec. We can now
develop products in 15 months instead of 3 to 4 years as we used to.

New Market: We are developing products we call prosumer.
They work in the enterprise, have high uptime and low total cost of ownership
and are ruggedized, but they are smaller and come out on consumer cycle
rhythms. The total market may be $5 million to $10 million, but each niche is
in the hundreds of thousands. Customers include postal services, product
delivery and field service reps from utilities, home health care and other
businesses. A home health care provider tried using iPhones and they [the
phones] had a 40 percent failure rate. People drop them. When a field workers
device fails, the company doesnt collect money. Our products dont break even
if a truck rolls over them. We increased R & D by 20 percent in the second
quarter from the previous quarter, so we can address those markets.

Exports: Today, we are 50 percent export but we expect it to
go to 60 percent. The Royal Mail system of England is using 35,000 of our
devices. They are looking for ways to turn their postal delivery people into an
asset to boost revenues. With the right devices, they could do eBay deliveries.
They could read meters. They could report potholes to government agencies so
they [the potholes] can be fixed before they cost 10 times more to fix.
Alibaba, the eBay of China, creates huge demands on transportation, warehousing
and logistics. But since its consumer spending drives transactions, you want to
do it without duplicating hubs like warehouses. They use delivery like UPS
instead of warehouses. We have an advantage because we can provide technology
for mission critical applications, on global scale in large and small
organizations flawlessly. If you are Pepsi, you dont want 10,000 [delivery]
people on the wrong piece of software.

Mobile Revolution: We are on the cusp of a significant
transformation in the way business is done. New businesses are going to emerge
from this. If a companys delivery people are twice as productive, the process
that makes them productive becomes a source of competitive advantage.

A Bright Future: I joined the U.S. tech
industry in 1982 and in the first 10 years, made my living in semiconductors.
Then I went into computers and printers. The period from now until I retire
will be more exciting than any of those changes. The developments that will
come from wireless technology intersecting with software development
intersecting with consumer dynamics are incredible. The future has never been
brighter for the technology leadership of the United States.