THE STATA LIBRARY
Over the course of his studies, career, and personal life, Ray Stata has curated a library of resources on topics that are dear to his heart.
Leadership + Management
Ray Stata
Pontish Yeramyan was a consultant from whom Ray learned about leadership. New meanings for assessment, breakthrough, empowerment and accountability were advocated.
Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship - Interview with Ray Stata
Rockport University, February 8th, 2010
Reflections on Ray’s career development and how Analog Devices got started. Ray talks about the challenges to long term growth and how he sustained success of Analog Devices over more than four decades. The interview also explored Ray’s thoughts on leadership in innovation and the challenges and opportunities of globalization.
Analog Devices, 1994, 1995, 1997
During the mid-90’s, in order to improve organization performance, ADI shifted its focus in leadership development from the Quality of Management (TQM) to the Quality of Leadership. To introduce new leadership concepts and skills, the company invited 100 of its top leaders from around the world to an annual two day leadership conference. Here are the opening remarks to set the stage for these annual conferences.
Ray Stata, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 18th, 2009
A brief review of evolving concepts for effective leadership, noting distinctions between management and leadership and between TQM and systems thinking. Introduces conversation skills as a process to achieve alignment, to coordinate action and to build trustful relationships.
What Leaders Really Do
John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Review, December 2001
John Kotter’s work deepened and extended insights into the distinction between management and leadership. He advocated they were complementary systems of action, both necessary for success, but that most companies were over managed and under led. Good management is about coping with complexity and bringing about a degree of order and consistency. Leadership is about coping with change in a dynamic environment.
I would add that management tasks can be delegated whereas leadership is a personal responsibility. Leadership is about influence; management is about control.
Organizational Learning: The Key to Success in the 1990s
Ray Stata, Prism, Fourth Quarter 1992
The rising standards in the rapidly changing technology and world markets are driving a paradigm shift with regard to performance improvement. TQM highlights four levels of learning – individual, team, organizational and societal. Beyond TQM there is a need to transform managers into leaders who have the knowledge and skills to manage change. It is often necessary for leadership to discard old assumptions and beliefs that have become impediments to progress and growth.
Culture + Values
MIT Enterprise Forum, May 20th, 1999
In starting new companies we mostly think about creating new products and technologies that address unmet market needs. But we must also be explicit in thinking about the human side of enterprise and about creating a culture and environment that achieves employee satisfaction and motivates ambition and productive behavior. At Analog Devices we adopted the Theory Y style of management that takes a positive view of human nature, believing that people want to do the best job possible and develop to their full potential. Our goal was to develop trustful relationships through openness, honesty and integrity and by a commitment to employee well-being and their personal success. We stressed conversation competence as a skill to improve the quality of relationships and effective coordination of work.
Ray Stata, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May, 1999
On a panel for a philosophy class at MIT, Ray Stata defends Ayn Rand’s philosophy of ethics as articulated in her book, The Virtue of Selfishness. He answers the question posed by a faculty member, “How do you reconcile your commitment to selfishness with the generosity of your commitments to MIT?”
Harvard University, June 4th, 2003
Businesses practice high ethical standards because it works as it does in personal life. In the high tech industry success depends on hiring and retaining the best and the brightest. The most talented people want to work for companies they trust and respect and that genuinely care about their well-being and personal success. Trust is built by leaders who exemplify openness, honesty and integrity in all that they do and who make it clear through training and coaching the behavior they expect with customers, suppliers and fellow employees. Sound ethical business practice is a requirement for survival and success in a competitive market since you not only have to fill employees’ pocketbooks but also win their minds, hearts and souls.
Analog Devices, August, 1984
This Human Resource Philosophy describes Analog Devices’ management principles and policies and the company’s beliefs about people and their aspirations from which these principles and policies were derived. This philosophy emphasizes that company success and the success of its individual employees are closely linked and that organization development and career development are two sides of the same coin.
Analog Devices, May, 1991
Analog Devices’ Corporate Objective is a statement of the purpose and goals of the firm. The success of the company is measured by the degree to which the company satisfies the needs and aspirations of those stakeholders, namely, employees, customers and stockholders, who share a common long-term interest in the progress and achievements of the firm. The Corporate Objective in this format was last updated in 1991, but by other means the basic purpose and goals of the company have been updated as the scope of business has evolved.
MIT Enterprise Forum, November 2nd, 1996
Ray shared with the Forum some of his experience in building a high performance organization. He emphasized employee satisfaction as the key driver of business success. If you have talented, motivated, happy employees and great leaders, the rest will take care of itself. He outlines ways to achieve employee satisfaction and to develop leadership skills. Purpose and values play a major role in creating a culture and environment where people come and stay and do great things.
Innovation + Entrepreneurship
In an interview celebrating MIT’s 150th anniversary, Ray reflects on his experience at MIT, both as a student and then later in life, the impact which MIT had on his life and career, and how MIT has evolved over the decades when he was involved. He also talks about entrepreneurship and how his company, Analog Devices, got started and developed over many decades. He describes how the Stata Center came into being, how the quality of student life has improved and his aspirations for MIT in the future.
On the Nature of Progress
H. B. Phillips, American Scientist, October 1945
In defense of liberty, progress is driven by trial and error. Thus progress is greatest with the largest number of independent thought centers with the freedom to make decisions. Governance structures which optimize freedom will result in the most progress. Our ability to predict and plan for the future is limited by accidental occurrences which have a disproportionate impact.
Ray Stata, MIT Sloan Management Review, April 15, 1989
When we think of innovation it is mostly about product and process innovation. Japanese companies have demonstrated that management innovation can have even more impact on performance. This article points out that the rate of organizational learning is a key factor in management innovation. Approaches to accelerate the rate of organizational learning are drawn from experiences at Analog Devices and other companies that participated in MIT’s New Management Style Project.
An Interview by David Mindell for the Computer Museum, 2012
A discussion of the origins and evolution of converter products – analog-to- digital and digital-to- analog – and the role which Analog Devices played in the growth and development of this category of semiconductor products.
Ray Stata, April 20, 2004
A description of Analog Devices’ Parallel Ladder Program, the selection criteria for fellows, the highest rung on the technical ladder, the roles that Fellows play and the contributions Fellows make to the success of an innovation driven business strategy.
As a post script, recommendations are made for changing the selection criteria as the transition to a system solution orientation emerges.
Conversations + Language
Ray Stata, Center for Quality of Management Journal, Vol 4, No. 4, Winter 1995
A presentation to Analog Devices employees which explores how to improve the quality of leadership and the performance of teams through more effective conversation skills. The hypothesis is that managers spend most of their time as managers in conversations but they haven’t thought deeply about the nature of conversation nor the skills and practice required to be more effective. A new way to think about conversations is as a process to operationalize the improvement of coordinated action and the discovery of new possibilities. Ray reflected on his own experience in applying conversation skills to improving his effectiveness as a leader.
MIT Gordon Engineering Leadership Program – June 2016
Tom Malone, CEO of Milliken, a leading textile manufacturer, once invited Analog Devices’s senior leadership team to visit and learn how they had won the Baldrige Award for quality. In his closing remarks, Tom made an observation which has always stuck in Ray's mind.
Strategy + Structure
Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, Journal of Innovation Management, Winter 2000/2001
Through the lens of systems thinking, Russell Ackoff, the foremost pioneer in this field, explains five kinds of changes that will create strategic advantage in a more competitive world. He first lays out systems thinking concepts and then through numerous examples reveals the extraordinary wisdom he accumulated over a life time of studying how to improve the performance of organizations.
Books Worth Reading
The Alchemy of Growth
Baghai, Mehrdad, et al. The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise. Perseus Books, 2000.
The Ambidextrous Organization
O'Reilly, Charles A., and Michael L. Tushman. “The Ambidextrous Organization.” Harvard Business Review, 12 Apr. 2016, hbr.org/2004/04/the-ambidextrous-organization.
Built to Last
Collins, James C., and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Random House Business, 2005.
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Rand, Ayn, et al. Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal. Signet, 2008.
Double Loop Learning
Argyris, Chris. “Double Loop Learning in Organizations.” Harvard Business Review, 1 Aug. 2014, hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations.
Four Practical Revolutions in Management
Shiba, Shoji, and David Walden. Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems for Creating Unique Organizational Capability. CRC Press, 2007.
The Innovator's Dilemma
Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business Review Press, 2016.
The Living Company
Geus, Arie de. The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business. Nicholas Brealey, 2001.
The Road to Serfdom
Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to Serfdom. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
Understanding Computers and Cognition
Winograd, Terry, and Fernando Flores. Understanding Computers and Cognition: a New Foundation for Design. Addison-Wesley, 2008.
Creating the Corporate Future
Ackoff, Russell Lincoln. Creating the Corporate Future: Plan or Be Planned For. Wiley, 1981.
The Essential Drucker
Drucker, Peter F. The Essential Drucker: the Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management. Harper, 2014.
Global Stakes
Botkin, J., et al. Global Stakes: the Future of High Technology in America. Ballinger Publishing Company, 1982.
Judgement
Tichy, Noel M., and Warren G. Bennis. Judgement: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. Portfolio, 2007.
The Nature of Technology
Arthur, W. Brian. The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves. Free Press, 2011.
The Second Machine Age
Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Andrew McAfee. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
Crossing the Chasm
Moore, Geoffrey A. Crossing the Chasm. Capstone, 1998.
The Fifth Discipline
Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Crown Business, 2006.
The Innovators
Botkin, J., et al. The Innovators: Rediscovering America's Creative Energy. Harper & Row, 1984.
Language in Thought and Action
Hayakawa, S.I. Language in Thought and Action. George Allen & Unwin, 1963.
Overcoming Organizational Defenses
Argyris, Chris. Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning. Prentice-Hall, 1990.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
The Virtue of Selfishness
Rand, Ayn, and Nathaniel Branden. The Virtue of Selfishness: a New Concept of Egoism. Paw Prints, 2016.
