Focus on the industry’s favorite “outsider”: Max Peel
I have had the pleasure of working with Max Peel for nearly 20 years. To say the least, it has been interesting. You can always count on Max to speak his mind. Like Socrates, he delights in being a gadfly—a gadfly worth listening to.

                                                  —Dr. Robert S. Mroczkowski, connNtext associates and
                                                          ConnectorSupplier.com’s Dr. Bob

Name: Max Peel
Current position: Senior Fellow at Contech Research Inc. in Attleboro, Mass., U.S.
Previous industry positions: Design engineer Burndy Corp.; supervisor for basic design, Burndy; chief design engineer for connector products, Texas Instruments; manager of advanced product development and testing, Texas Instruments; founder and president of Contech Research; and now, senior fellow at Contech Research.
First job: Was as an engineer for the Burndy Corp.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have: Founded Contech Research 10 years earlier.
The best advice anyone ever gave me was: During my service with the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers. It includes:
1) Treat others in a manner that you would want to be treated.
2) Do not be afraid of being controversial or controversy.
3) Make objective, decisive, and timely decisions. If you’re wrong, you will be yelled at; if you’re right, you will be promoted; if you make no decision, you will die.
4) Always listen to other people.
5) Be objective, and stand by your position with objective backup data.
6) Lead by example. Do not become an “I told-you-so-type of person.”
7) Never, ever, talk down to your peers.
8) Ignore being politically correct.
What trend in the industry is affecting your job and what would you like to do about it?
1) As you can guess, the state of the economy has created a slowdown in new product areas, both on the user and supplier areas, although there are some exceptions, such as Apple. 
2) Emphasis on standard product line development has continued to gradually decrease. New general product standard development has been almost non-existent, while application-specific or special interest product standards have increased.
3) I feel that quality levels have not improved at Pacific Rim companies, both with independent companies and U.S. manufacturing operations offshore. This has been observed in a number of serious events over the past year or so, particularly with automotive and computer products. The biggest area of concern is plating integrity, which has not shown any significant improvement. Even when data was supplied depicting the problems associated with field failures, it has resulted in little, if any, corrective action. I would anticipate that this problem will not go away as long as the emphasis is on money, with no regard for quality. There have been problems with European connector products which have used or are using Asian manufacturing agencies, as well. This has resulted in new testing procedures being developed to address the concerns.

I do feel confident that more positive trends will be coming along as the economy recovers, six to 12 months from now.