Broadcom: Operating Philosophy & Culture

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It's interesting you mention Broadcom is run like private equity. External people often make that comparison, but Hock Tan is not a fan. He refuted it, saying he's an operator, not a financial PE person who just squeezes mature acquisitions. He wants to grow the business. I've read that he gives GMs a target of $1 million revenue per employee. Have you ever heard that? Besides those KPIs, he doesn't care how the GMs achieve this. It seems there are very few KPIs given to GMs, and they have a lot of autonomy in how to grow and invest to achieve this.

Yes, this is true. He loves to use the $1 million per employee metric. When I was there, it was $1.3 million per employee, and it even reached $1.6 million at one point. He often talked about it. Broadcom's management approach is more centralized and resembles a private equity model. It's essentially a private equity-like strategy of acquiring businesses, improving margins, paying off debt, and repeating the process. This is why it's like a playbook of acquisitions that increase margins. He's famous for this approach.

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It could be 21 then.

Charlie's strategy involves three pillars for organic growth. The first is market selection, considering the market's evolution over 10 years. The second pillar, the most important, is technology, which includes R&D investment. Broadcom's R&D budget is about 7% to 8%, lower than industry heavyweights, which is typically 18% to 19%.

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It could be 21 then.

Broadcom acquires companies with existing technology innovation to maximize value. Their operating model focuses on low R&D investment. The third pillar is execution, ensuring they become number one in any category they enter.

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