Pasquale Pistorio, who drove ST from revenues of $100 million to $8.5 billion, had a great business training – as a salesman for Motorola Semiconductor in its glory days. It taught him a key lesson – avoid politics.
“I hate politics”, said Pistorio when CEO of ST, “in Motorola, as in any corporation, there were some politics but not too many. In ST today there is not too many politics – you have some always – but it is not an environment where politics are prospering.”
“I don’t like politics. I was doing my job – very open – and it was the results that counted. You can see that is the case because I was chosen as the marketing manager for Europe when I was the youngest regional manager for one of the smallest regions – Italy. There were people more senior with bigger regional responsibilities. That I was made marketing manager for Europe came as a very big surprise for everybody.”
Were people jealous?
“Jealous is not the word,” replied Pistorio, “people were surprised. Many of them had a legitimate aspiration to get the job, but my appointment was based on track record.”
