Transform technology advantage into market leadership.
Independent Executive · Advisory, Operating & Board
Every deep-tech company has capabilities, technology and solutions that set it apart from the rest of the field. Many never turn that asset into the growth it could bring, and into leadership in their market.
For the last two decades Dr. Michael Leitner has done exactly that, with different technologies and in different markets. Several times he has grown a business from almost nothing to over a hundred million US dollars in annual revenue, and led a portfolio from about eighty to over three hundred million while closing what no longer fit.
Success depends on nine levers an organisation has to master. He works with companies anywhere from advising to operating, to maximise their profitable growth and close their opportunity gap.
The problem and the lever
Strategy
Where to play, what to build, what to fund
1 Market choices miss where the business can really lead.
Focus on the markets you can lead.
From a market that’s too broad or too narrow, to the one where your technology matters and wins.
2 Products miss the problems that matter most to their market.
Build the product customers must have.
From products full of features, to products that solve your key customers’ top problems.
3 Capital doesn’t flow to the initiatives that make the difference.
Fund the few that drive growth.
From every project on half steam, to full speed on the right few.
Organisation
Decide, execute, invent
4 The bridge from a visionary bet to a managed win is never built.
Turn bold bets into well-managed wins.
From “too safe” or high-risk gambling, to gated bets on clear assumptions.
5 The decisions that matter most lose speed or quality.
Build a team that decides faster and better.
From long meetings and one person’s opinion, to fast, well-challenged team decisions.
6 The organisation delivers today or builds tomorrow, but not both.
Execute first and invent the impossible.
From an organisation that either delivers today or builds tomorrow, to one that does both.
7 Entrepreneurial spirit and ownership fade as the company grows.
Spark ownership in everyone.
From “that’s not my job”, to ownership and urgency in every employee.
Market
Win the leaders, then own the game
8 Must-win customers stay strangers.
Become the supplier the market leaders choose.
From a supplier they tolerate, to one they know, like and trust, design in and stay with.
9 The ecosystem is left to others.
Lead by far: own the ecosystem.
From competing head to head, to thought leadership and an ecosystem built around you.
The approach and the result
Diagnosis
Behind each of the nine problems sits a lever. The levers pull on each other and form one success system, but they don’t all matter equally at any given moment. How hard to push each lever, and each of its poles, depends on the company, its market and its stage. So the work starts with a diagnosis and focuses on the levers that hold the company back today.
Three angles
Each of those levers is worked from three angles: the people in the management team, the organisation with its processes and culture, and the business strategy. Knowing which levers to move, where each should sit and how to move it gives the transformation its speed. In fast-moving deep-tech markets, that speed decides success.
Poles that multiply
Several levers look like either-or choices between two poles: execute or innovate, decide or discuss, secure today’s business or build the one three years out. High-performance ventures don’t look for a sweet spot in between. They work both ends and let them multiply each other. Execution turns innovation into revenue, and innovation gives execution something worth delivering. Discussion makes decisions hold, and a clear decision gives discussion a purpose. Today’s business pays for tomorrow’s, and tomorrow’s gives today’s its direction. That multiplication, within each lever and across levers, is what sets these ventures apart.
The result
A high-performance company, focused on the markets it can lead. It builds the products its key customers must have, and puts its money behind the few initiatives that drive growth. Bold bets are managed through clear gates, the management team decides fast and well, and people act like owners. The organisation delivers today while it builds tomorrow. The market leaders choose it as their supplier, and an ecosystem grows around it. Its technology advantage has become market leadership and profitable growth.
Who has done this
Experience
For two decades, Dr. Michael Leitner has held executive roles in the highly competitive and disruptive semiconductor industry, transforming technology advantage into market leadership: in robotics long before physical AI, in medical imaging for AI-assisted medicine, in the software-defined vehicle, and in the ecosystem behind the digital car key. He has led and transformed large global teams.
Three lenses
He brings three lenses to this work: deep and broad technology knowledge from a PhD in space research, a strong business foundation from Harvard Business School, and a sound education in organisational psychology.
Things I have built
Medical imaging
Turned a niche ASIC business, with a custom chip for every customer, into the market leader for integrated detectors. Then up into complete detector modules, and across into industrial imaging and airport security. From about $10 million to above $100 million annual revenue between 2014 and 2022.
Levers 1 · 2 · 8
Magnetic position sensing
A market that did not want digital products. We made ours simple as a screw from the outside, with sophisticated technology inside, and grew a niche below $1 million into a business above $100 million between 2010 and 2022. Designed into automotive volume programmes, surgical robots and humanoid robots.
Levers 1 · 3
Smart sensing
A temperature sensor with 0.1 °C accuracy and no calibration in final test. Many engineers said it was impossible. It now measures skin temperature to medical grade in high-volume smartwatches.
Lever 6
Digital car access
Turned the car key into a wallet feature of the phone. My team led the standards work in IEEE, the Bluetooth SIG, the NFC Forum and the Car Connectivity Consortium, where I sat on the board. We won every design-win slot in the market before first silicon, and the business grew from about $400 million to above $800 million in under four years.
Levers 2 · 8 · 9
Software-defined vehicle in silicon
One ultra-wideband radar chip, several functions enabled by software: child presence detection, automated parking, theft protection. People said physics would not allow it. It is now in mass production in cars, with new features unlocked over the air.
Levers 6 · 9