From September 14 - 26 1996, the Silicon Valley Association (Switzerland) conducted the sixth study tour to Silicon Valley. The tour comprised 10 company visits. All these visits were evaluated by the 18 participants. The participants represented 14 nations: 8 Information technologists from several Swiss Universities and International Organizations, 3 University faculty members, 5 full-time undergrad students and 2 recent graduates.
This report represents the observations of the participants after the visits.
| Date | Day | Company | Speakers | Topics | |||||||||||
| 16 Sept | Monday | Internex Information Services, Inc
Santa Clara | Bob Berger | Internet Infrastructure, problems and solutions | |||||||||||
| The last minute scheduling of this visit was very appreciated Presentation by the founder was very appreciated Very interesting and very personal presentation I was very impressed by Bob Berger's focused approach This visit was too short | |||||||||||||||
| IDEO Product Development Palo Alto | Andrej Skoskiewicz Maureen Rathjens | Product Design guided tour | |||||||||||||
| Very good visit, would have liked more time Very interesting and creative environment | |||||||||||||||
| Silicon Graphics Mountain View | April Tan | Corporate overview SGI and CRAY WEB Overview Visionarium demo | |||||||||||||
| Hardware production would be interesting to see Would have liked more information on management There is a lot more to the company then we saw Very good visit, great visual effects Wonderful show but too many marketing slides were shown Great quality visit Visit was too little technical for me | |||||||||||||||
| 17 Sept | Tuesday | Oracle Redwood Shores | Sandra Cheevers Jeff Bates Todd Weinberg Racquel Brown | Database future Web and Internet overview Network computer overview and demo | |||||||||||
|
Very professional visit It was great to see the Network Computer! Not enough technical information provided There was little management information
| |||||||||||||||
| Apple Computer Cupertino | Joe Nevin Roxanne Ivory Frank Casanova | Directions and strategies Internet&Intranet Industrial Design Center Advanced Technology Group | |||||||||||||
| I was very impressed by the presentation of Frank Casanova The practical demo's were a highlight A great and facinating visit to development center Nevin, Casanova, the lab, and real demo's. Deep insight into the future This visit exceeded my expectations by far Company at a time of big change with incredible potential | |||||||||||||||
| 18 Sept | Wednesday | Levi's Strauss San Francisco | Joe Casaletto | Factory and museum tour | |||||||||||
| Worthwile visit Fine visit as a San Francisco interest Interesting historically, but otherwise not too exciting | |||||||||||||||
| 19 Sept | Thursday | Synopsys Mountain View | Michael Albrecht Linda Wood Dwight Morita | SAP system Strategic partnerships with key semiconductor manufacturers Business Strategy | |||||||||||
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A company with very open minded people We were very well looked after Excellent comments by the founder Excellent example of SAP implementation Good presentation by one of the founders,but I still do not know what synthesis is | |||||||||||||||
| UNISYS San Jose | Frank Brandenberg Chris Smit John Manoogian Ed Wagner Dave Barraza | Unisys Corporate Overview ISG Vision & Services GCS Sevice & Support Vision PC Aquanta Product Family Factory Tour | |||||||||||||
| Presentation was marketing oriented, enjoyed the factory tour A company with very hard working people Interesting from a marketing perspective, although I felt that they advertized their company too much | |||||||||||||||
| 20 Sept | Friday | CISCO Systems San Jose | Greg Hobbs Peter Clark Peter Corless | Company presentation, product direction, acquisition & merger strategy Cisco connect online | |||||||||||
| University type company, I would like to know more about their management Interesting comments about acquisition policy and good Internet tools I would have preferred a more technical presentation | |||||||||||||||
| 21 Sept | Saturday | CORBIS Bellevue | Laurie McEachron | High quality digital content | |||||||||||
| Great product, and the presentation was accessible for management students Company of extremely high quality, offices, product, documentation A new experience with arts + technology The availability on a Saturday was very appreciated Company with a "great" market niche | |||||||||||||||
| 23 Sept | Monday | Boeing Everett | Eric Swanson |
Computer aided design (CATIA) and the development of the
777, Visit to 777 manufacturing
| Excellent company | Excellent tour, very memorable Enjoyed the tour of the plant, sorry that we were not taken to the flight simulator Interesting - to be repeated Very good CATIA presentation 24 Sept | Tuesday | Microsoft | Redmond Patricia Curry | Mike Olsson Katie Bright MS Corp, the culture, vision, hiring | Enterprise Technology (Client/Server in the Enterprise) Internet Strategy Media and development tools Presentation Visit MS Museum, store visit, usability lab Very flexible approach to development | Friendly, competent, a bit too sales oriented They will rule the world First presentation was good, the others pure marketing The presentations were too technical except the first one (Human Resource) | ||||
Several special events were also on the program: a tour of the Stanford campus, a visit to Fry's electronics, the largest electronic supermarket in the world, a visit to IDEO Product Design in Palo Alto and last but not least a guided tour to Levi's Strauss in San Francisco. Apple Computer invited the group for dinner with Frank Casanova II, Unisys hosted our Silicon Valley party and Cisco Systems invited us to a Bay Cruise in San Francisco followed by a dinner in China Town.