Getting to know
Bill Emkey



(Interview by Gerry Joyce, Motorola)

NEFC: Hi Bill, How did you become interested in science and then fiber optics?

I was interested in science even as a child. However, I do recall the day I decided to make it a career. It was the day the Vanguard Rocket was to be launched with our answer to the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite during the Cold War. Our rocket exploded on the launch pad. This hit to our national pride served as a catalyst for many, including our country, to advance our science and technology.  As to fiber optics, I took a sabbatical from Penn State to work in fiber optic components at Bell Labs. The experience was fantastic. Fiber optics was a young field then - every thing you did was new and innovative just by the nature of things. The scientists and engineers at the Labs were top rate and were great to work with. My "sabbatical" lasted 20 years.


NEFC: What do you think of the growth of fiber optic technology over the last 27 years that you have been involved with it? Has it surprised you?

The growth hasn't really surprised me. You just knew that the telecommunications future was in fiber optics. You could see advances being made almost daily, increasing the opportunities for new and expanded applications. Although the telecom fiber growth has slowed considerably over the past several years, it is good to see that that many of the same people who developed fiber-related technologies are using their expertise to seed other industries that use photonic technology. So, even though the fiber optic telecom 'boom' has slowed, the use of fiber and optics, in general, continues to grow.

NEFC: What about the way companies do business these days? Has the small size and specialization of many companies diminished the range of in-house expertise? Has this driven the need for outside experts? Has this driven your business?

This is the basis for WorldTech Consultants. Today, companies, especially small companies, cannot afford to employ the depth and breadth of technical talent that is needed to cover all aspects of technical product development. Invariably, the expertise of a specific subject matter expert is required, and this person is needed 'today' and must be a 'perfect' fit to the problem. More often then not, finding the right person quickly is difficult, and you end up spending a lot of time in the search. In the end, perhaps you will need to compromise.  Solving this problem is the reason I founded WorldTech - to provide the best-fit expert quickly. This need has always been there, but it appears to have increased in recent years.


NEFC: You have been at both large and small companies. How do these compare?

This is a broad question, and there are many aspects of the different companies to compare. Let me just comment on one aspect - What I find is that in start-up companies, the first reaction is wow, no red tape. We just 'get it done'. This is a very effective and even necessary approach at the very early stages of a new company. But there comes a point in the company's growth when the need for more structure and discipline begins to play a larger role. This need manifests itself in almost every function of the company, with each functional need surfacing at different times and driven by different conditions. The timing of the evolution of specific organizational structures and disciplines is critical. My experience has been that this timing is more often too late, rather than too early.