Stefan Mileschin

At CES I had the opportunity to sit down with Ralph Schmitt, OCZ's CEO, for a good hour to discuss the state of the company. Before we get to the actual interview, let me introduce Mr. Schmitt. Mr. Schmitt has been OCZ's CEO since October 2011, and prior to that he was actually an OCZ board member while he was the President and CEO of PLX Technology. Mr. Schmitt has had an honorable career in addition to OCZ and PLX Technology, as he has served in several CEO and high-level executive roles in various semiconductor companies such as Cypress and Sipex. Academically, Mr. Schmitt holds a B.S. of Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University.
Discussing OCZ's History & Background in Brief

OCZ has gone through a lot in the past couple of years. In November 2013 OCZ filed for bankruptcy, and shortly after Toshiba announced that it will be acquiring OCZ's assets for $35 million. Since then OCZ has been operating as an independent subsidiary under Toshiba. Unlike what usually happens after acquisitions, OCZ has not been integrated to Toshiba's existing units and all of OCZ's different units (such as marketing, product development etc.) have remained in tact (for what it's worth, I'm still working with the same people as I was before the acquisition). The OCZ-Toshiba relationship resembles more like a strategic partnership to be honest as that indicates how separate the two are, but only in a good way.

The reason why Toshiba wanted to keep OCZ independent was to ensure that the company's talent doesn't get buried into Toshiba's massive organization. The common issue in acquisitions is that the acquiring company may not be able to use all the talent and resources of the acquired company because the culture of each organization can differ. In the end, individual talent isn't just something concrete and absolute like money that can easily be transferred from one place to another -- there are various environmental and cultural factors that go into it. For example, a change from liberal and relaxed culture to more tightly managed one can suppress some individuals because the way they work has to change, and the new way may not suit them. It is always a major challenge to integrate two companies with different organization cultures, so keeping the two separate is not always a bad idea.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8880/d...-ralph-schmitt