Tektronix: pushing the boundaries of instrumentation

An important milestone for the technology pioneer and leader in Test & Measurement. With Maria Heriz, Vice President of Tektronix, we looked back at some of the company's successes and the future of electronics.

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Maria Heiz Tektronix

Known as "the seed from which the silicon forest sprouted", Tektronix was founded in 1946 by industry pioneers C. Howard Vollum and Melvin J. Murdock, whose first success was the creation of the first time-base-triggered oscilloscope.
Known worldwide for its contributions in major technological breakthroughs, from the invention of colour television to space exploration, Tektronix is considered one of the most influential Test & Measurement companies in history. With Maria Heriz, Vice President, Commercial Operations at Tektronix, we not only looked back at the company's milestones and successes throughout its 75-year history, but also at future technology developments and strategies in the T&M industry.


The full article is published in issue 10 of Elettronica AV


The role of Tektronix in technological innovation has been crucial since its foundation. What have been the most revolutionary innovations you have contributed to?

Tektronix is a leading test and measurement company. By providing innovative, accurate and easy-to-use measurement and monitoring solutions, Tektronix technology enables detailed information and supports the innovations of engineers around the world. Tektronix has supported many of mankind's greatest advances over the past 75 years, in areas ranging from space exploration to healthcare, communications to mobility. When we were founded by two veterans returning from World War II, radio communications was a cutting-edge technology. Our test and measurement equipment, our oscilloscopes, helped take the next step and led to the birth of the television industry. Since then, our equipment has been part of NASA's first space shuttle project, major military advances, smartphones and now smart cars. Wherever there has been innovation, wherever engineers have broken boundaries, there is a good chance that Tektronix equipment has made that work possible. So, we will continue to enable those who want to innovate to do more, by nurturing success and collaborating with start-ups around the world that can help us best connect with the engineers of tomorrow. In late 2020, for example, we launched TekDrive, a cloud platform that allows engineers to capture real-time data from their oscilloscope, manipulate it and collaborate from anywhere in the world. Basically a GoogleDrive, but for engineers, which will change the way teams work on a global basis. Every time you view a website, make a phone call or turn on a TV, you are connecting with Tektronix, a company that has enabled engineers to create and realise technological advances with ever greater ease, speed and precision.

President Tami Newcombe called Tektronix a "75-year-old company with the mentality of a start-up". How do you keep the desire to innovate alive over time?

Continuing to listen to the needs of our employees and customers. As part of Fortive, Tektronix shares its goals of "Kaizen" and continuous improvement. Our operations team is always working to optimise resilience, agility and supply chain costs. We also encourage out-of-the-box thinking, which starts with thinking outside the office. We are obsessed with our customers and their challenges are ours. We are curious, we ask questions of our customers to bring their voice into our work. You can't be curious without being innovative and you can't really learn if you only talk to yourself. How we recruit, who we recruit, the start-ups we engage with; it's all fuelled by the same sense of curiosity, the same hunger for the future. To this I would add the concept of #OneTeam. This constant focus on bringing our people together helps us create a culture of engagement and connection. Everyone feels part of the solutions we are creating. We are OneTeam with our customers to provide innovative solutions that solve their problems. We don't just listen and go to work. We stay involved with our customers as we develop and deliver our solutions. This system allows our employees to present new ideas to the management team, to receive funding to research and test their ideas in the marketplace, and to pursue those that seem to have a better grip on the market. Good ideas grow and those that fail are eliminated so that teams can accelerate the growth of a different idea.

Another important theme for you is diversity: what are your plans in this respect?

Tektronix has long been committed to inclusion and diversity. We are on an incredible journey to ensure that current and future employees experience our diversity efforts in everything we do, from the talent recruitment and selection process, through leadership development, to promotion management. We are also working with local and national organisations and minority-serving institutions to promote talent equality, and we are thinking differently and more strategically about our programmes to further develop and retain employees from very different cultures and backgrounds.

How are you celebrating your 75th anniversary in the various countries where you are present?

We are obviously proud of this achievement and recognise that it is quite rare to see a technology company have such resilience. Having said that, we have always been there for our customers and celebrate their innovations. In all the countries where we operate, we continue to support their examples and how our solutions have helped them achieve their success. Our 75 years have only been possible because of them.


The full article is published in issue 10 of Elettronica AV


 

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