Simtek Reference Letter
September 16, 2008
Partners In Leadership, Inc.
27555 Ynez Road, Suite 300
Temecula, CA 92591
Dear PIL Partners:
Thank you for helping me "turn around" a failing enterprise and creating a winning
environment of success. The Accountability TrainingTM taught over multiple years by
Partners In Leadership helped us change our company culture from a "loser’s mentality,"
people who were accustomed to failing to meet commitments and who were unaccountable
and operating Below The Line®, to a winning mentality where they were no longer victims
but were a team of people who were willing to take personal Accountability and operate
Above The Line.® Using the Partners In Leadership Accountability Training, Simtek tripled its company revenue and saw major improvements in operating capability and on-time deliveries.
When I first came to Simtek I worked with the management team to create a set of guiding
principles for the company, including beliefs and objectives and set about encouraging
company alignment with these principles. To a large extent, based on limitations
characteristic of the company’s culture and management experience, I guided the creation of
these principles myself, and it was implemented from the top down. Satisfactory results
weren’t achieved immediately although an instantaneous sense of corporate accountability
and responsibility for keeping commitments started to take root. After going through the
Taking Personal AccountabilityTM training, and the Building an Accountable CultureTM
things began to change more rapidly.
As the process of culture change unfolded and with help from partners at PIL at a number
of key junctures, I became more effective working with the managers below me. In most
cases, these senior managers became more effective working with the managers below them
and we evolved the guiding principles into core beliefs and key results. Ownership was felt
on a much broader scale than ever before. The company began to operate differently.
People became more excited about their jobs. They were excited about taking
Accountability and holding others accountable. People were operating Above The Line®,
and as a result we saw bottom-line differences.
Going through the training with Partners In Leadership was a challenging and enjoyable
process. As with any cultural transition, employees and managers reacted initially with the
full spectrum of attitudes – fully supportive to aggressively unsupportive. Most of the
people chose to rise to the challenge of personal accountability and took seriously the
individual responsibility they each owned for the successful operation of our company. A
lot of what is being taught is good common sense. The approach that PIL offers combined
with a solid framework for teaching sound principles along with the great experience-based
storytelling technique that they use makes the training easy to learn, easy to relate to, and
understand as well as significant, measurable and achievable. I encourage people to contact PIL, take the training, and then see the positive difference that it can make.
Sincerely,
Harold A. Blomquist
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Simtek Corp.
