Writings
Readings
Books
Press
Conversations – Essential Skills for Effective Leadership
MIT Gordon Engineering Leadership Program – June 2016
Tom Malone, CEO of Milliken, a leading textile manufacturer, once invited Analog Devices’ senior leadership team to visit and learn how they had won the Baldrige Award for quality. In his closing remarks, Tom made an observation which has always stuck in Ray’s mind.
Ray Stata on the evolution of the semiconductor industry
McKinsey & Company – Abhijit Mahindroo and Nick Santhanam – March 9, 2016
The cofounder of Analog Devices looks back on his long career and assesses the state of semiconductors today.
The History of Converter Products
An Interview by David Mindell for the Computer Museum, 2012
A discussion of the origins and evolution of converter products – analog-to- digital and digital-to- analog – and the role which Analog Devices played in the growth and development of this category of semiconductor products.
Ray Stata's Commencement address at MIT in 2010
The spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship applies not just to business, engineering and science, but to every aspect of work and life.
MIT 150 Infinite History Interview
Ray Stata interviewed by Toby Smith, 2009
In an interview celebrating MIT’s 150th anniversary, Ray reflects on his experience at MIT, both as a student and then later in life, the impact which MIT had on his life and career, and how MIT has evolved over the decades when he was involved. He also talks about entrepreneurship and how his company, Analog Devices, got started and developed over many decades. He describes how the Stata Center came into being, how the quality of student life has improved and his aspirations for MIT in the future.
What Leaders Really Do
John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Review, December 2001
John Kotter’s work deepened and extended insights into the distinction between management and leadership. He advocated they were complementary systems of action, both necessary for success, but that most companies were over managed and under led. Good management is about coping with complexity and bringing about a degree of order and consistency. Leadership is about coping with change in a dynamic environment.
Creating a Competitive Strategic Advantage
Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, Journal of Innovation Management, Winter 2000/2001
Through the lens of systems thinking, Russell Ackoff, the foremost pioneer in this field, explains five kinds of changes that will create strategic advantage in a more competitive world. He first lays out systems thinking concepts and then through numerous examples reveals the extraordinary wisdom he accumulated over a lifetime of studying how to improve the performance of organizations.
Building a High Performance Organization
MIT Enterprise Forum, November 2nd, 1996
Ray shared with the Forum some of his experience in building a high-performance organization. He emphasized employee satisfaction as the key driver of business success. If you have talented, motivated, happy employees and great leaders, the rest will take care of itself. He outlines ways to achieve employee satisfaction and to develop leadership skills. Purpose and values play a major role in creating a culture and environment where people come and stay and do great things.
The Human Side of New Enterprise
MIT Enterprise Forum, May 20th, 1999
In starting new companies, we mostly think about creating new products and technologies that address unmet market needs. But we must also be explicit in thinking about the human side of enterprise and about creating a culture and environment that achieves employee satisfaction and motivates ambition and productive behavior. At Analog Devices we adopted the Theory Y style of management that takes a positive view of human nature, believing that people want to do the best job possible and develop to their full potential. Our goal was to develop trustful relationships through openness, honesty and integrity and by a commitment to employee well-being and their personal success. We stressed conversation competence as a skill to improve the quality of relationships and effective coordination of work.
Organizational Learning: The Key to Success in the 1990s
Ray Stata, Prism, Fourth Quarter 1992
The rising standards in the rapidly changing technology and world markets are driving a paradigm shift with regard to performance improvement. TQM highlights four levels of learning – individual, team, organizational and societal. Beyond TQM there is a need to transform managers into leaders who have the knowledge and skills to manage change. It is often necessary for leadership to discard old assumptions and beliefs that have become impediments to progress and growth.
Organizational Learning – The Key to Management Innovation
Ray Stata, MIT Sloan Management Review, April 15, 1989
When we think of innovation it is mostly about product and process innovation. Japanese companies have demonstrated that management innovation can have even more impact on performance. This article points out that the rate of organizational learning is a key factor in management innovation. Approaches to accelerate the rate of organizational learning are drawn from experiences at Analog Devices and other companies that participated in MIT’s New Management Style Project.
The Innovators: Rediscovering America's Creative Energy
A Book by James Botkin, Dan Dimancescu and Ray Stata, 1984
The Innovators focuses on the principles and practices that drive successful innovation within organizations. Drawing on his extensive experience as a co-founder of Analog Devices, Stata provides insights into the critical factors that contribute to a company’s ability to innovate and sustain growth over time.
Global stakes: The future of high technology in America
A Book by James W Botkin, Dan Dimancescu and Ray Stata, 1982
Global Stakes explores the competitive challenges faced by the United States in maintaining its leadership in the global high-tech industry. Drawing from his experience as a co-founder of Analog Devices, Stata offers insights into how the U.S. can secure its technological future.
Some examples of people quickly accomplishing ambitious things together – Patrick Collison
A collection of historical examples showcasing how small groups of people, when working together effectively, have achieved significant and ambitious accomplishments in a short time.
Guide to Startups – Marc Andreessen
A comprehensive guide offering practical advice and insights on the challenges and strategies of starting and scaling a successful startup.
On the Nature of Progress - H.B. Phillips
A philosophical exploration of the concept of progress, examining how societies have historically advanced and the factors that drive meaningful progress.
It’s Time to Build – Marc Andreessen
A call to action urging people, especially in the United States, to invest in building infrastructure, industries, and institutions that will drive future prosperity.
A Taxonomy of Moats – Jerry Neumann
An analysis of different types of competitive advantages, or “moats,” that companies can develop to protect their market position and sustain long-term profitability.
Why Software Is Eating the Worl – Marc Andreessen
An influential essay explaining how software companies are disrupting traditional industries by leveraging technology to create more efficient, scalable, and innovative solutions.
Addressing Uncertainty, an overview – Jerry Neumann
A discussion on the inherent uncertainties in business and how entrepreneurs and investors can navigate and manage these uncertainties to create successful ventures.
How to Start a Startup – Paul Graham
A foundational essay offering advice on the key steps to starting a successful startup, from identifying a problem to building a product and securing funding.
AI and the Structure of Reasoning – Jerry Neumann
An exploration of how artificial intelligence systems reason and make decisions, with insights into the challenges and potential of AI in replicating human reasoning.
The Hardest Lesson for Startups to Learn – Paul Graham
An essay that emphasizes the importance of being flexible and willing to pivot in response to market feedback, a critical lesson that many startups struggle to learn.
Relentlessly Resourceful – Paul Graham
A discussion on the importance of being resourceful and proactive in entrepreneurship, arguing that these traits are more important than traditional qualifications for startup success.
The Innovation Engine - The First 50 Years of Analog Devices
A retrospective on the first 50 years of Analog Devices, highlighting the company’s role in driving innovation in the electronics industry through cutting-edge technologies and business strategies.
Power Laws in Venture – Jerry Neumann
An analysis of how power laws affect venture capital, explaining that a small number of investments typically account for the majority of returns in a venture portfolio.
Why we still need nuclear power – Ernet Moniz
An essay defending the continued use of nuclear energy, highlighting its importance for reducing carbon emissions and ensuring energy security in a low-carbon future.
Charlie Munger – Tren Griffin
A detailed exploration of the life, philosophy, and investment strategies of Charlie Munger, the long-time business partner of Warren Buffett, known for his rational thinking and deep understanding of human psychology.
How to do Great Work – Paul Graham
Achieving significant accomplishments requires selecting the right problems, following curiosity, and maintaining persistence and focus.
The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise
Mehrdad Baghai
Judgement: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls
Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis
Language in Thought and Action
S.I. Hayakawa Alan R. Hayakawa
The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business
Arie De Geus
The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves
W. Brian Arthur
Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning
Chris Argyris
The Road to Serfdom
Friedrich A. Hayek
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design
Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores.
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism
Rand, Ayn, and Nathaniel Branden.
Pattern Breakers
Mike Maples Jr, Peter Ziebelman, et al.
Zero to One
Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
Managing for Results
Peter F. Drucker
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke
The Machine that Changed the World
James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, et al.
Grit
Angela Duckworth
Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky
Paul Johnson
Fooled by Randomness
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Poor Charlie’s Almanack
Charles T. Munger, Grover Gardener, et al.
Competitive Strategy
Michael Porter
Diffusion of Innovations
Everett Rogers
High Output Management
Andy Grove
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley, L. J. Ganser, et al.
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
Carlota Perez
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
Chris Miller
Ray Stata on the evolution of the semiconductor industry
“Early on, I decided I wanted to start my own company and be my own boss. I had a serious aversion to authority,” he says. Ray’s independent streak and willingness to challenge conventional wisdom helped make Analog into a worldwide leader in data conversion and signal-processing technology.
If it can be designed on a computer, it can be built by robots
Powerful new software rewrites the rule of mass production – A single piece of software oversees the entire production line, which is capable of pumping out 130 cordless power tools every hour under the supervision of just seven humans.
Ray Stata Bestowed with GSA’s Highest Honor, the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award
The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the voice of the global semiconductor industry, proudly announces the winner of the 2017 Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award: Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Analog Devices, Inc.
Ray Stata Accepts IEEE Award Recognizing Analog Devices for Innovation and Industry Leadership
The world’s largest technical professional association – the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – conferred its 2017 IEEE Corporate Innovation Award on Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) “for sustained innovation and leadership in the development of high-performance data converter technology and products” for more than 50 years. ADI Co-founder and Chairman of the Board Ray Stata accepted the award at IEEE’s Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit
4 secrets to business longevity from Analog Devices’ Ray Stata
“Will Analog Devices exist 50 years hence? I hope so,” he writes in the book’s foreword. “If it does, it will be because it remained true to its core values and continued to learn, adapt, and innovate.”
The Story of Analog Garage
This willingness to take risks would prove to be essential in sustaining leadership for decades in the company’s core signal conditioning and conversion markets. Analog Devices invented and improved manufacturing technologies like bipolar process and laser trim technology to help ensure the highest-quality components. At the same time, it pushed yet again in an unexplored direction, and built the first CMOS converter.
EE Times Honors Analog Devices Cofounder Ray Stata with Lifetime Award
The EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we live in. These creators, and their innovations, are recognized at the EE Times ACE Awards Gala as part of TechInsights’ Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley, the largest electronic systems design event in North America.
The American Chamber of Commerce Ireland honored Analog Devices co-founder, Ray Stata, with its lifetime achievement award
“We stand on the shoulders of people like Ray Stata, whose visionary spirit has turned Ireland into the home of some of the most sophisticated technology in the world today. We pay tribute to his success, and to Analog for their longstanding commitment to Ireland and Irish technological development.”
StartMIT, a boot camp on entrepreneurship, gives students an intimate look into what it takes to build a company.
“When you start a company, there is no work-life balance,” he told students. “You continue to drink from the fire hose not only because you have to but because you are so committed and motivated to succeed.”
MIT's Stata Center opens on May 7, 2004
The Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information, and Intelligence Sciences at MIT, designed by architect Frank Gehry, opens its doors on May 7. The 730,000-square-foot complex — Gehry’s largest building to date — will be home to high-level research in computer science, linguistics and philosophy and usher in a new era of collaborative research and discovery at MIT.
Ray Stata receives IEEE Founders medal
The IEEE Founders Medal is an award presented for outstanding contributions in the leadership, planning, and administration of affairs of great value to the electrical and electronics engineering profession.
9 Oldest NASDAQ Listed Companies
#9 – Founded in 1965 by Ray Stata and Matthew Lorber, Analog Devices (ADI) produces semiconductors, including data converters, amplifiers, radio frequency ICs, and embedded processors.
Ray Stata Elected as a Life Member of the MIT Corporation
The Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–MIT’s board of trustees–elected four life members including Ray Stata in 1933. In 1984 Ray was elected to MIT’s Corporation and served as a member of its Executive Committee until 2010. In 1987-1988 he served as President of the MIT Alumni Association.