Gunter Krasser, Infineon Technologies: “In 2022 our focus is to grow and strengthen our teams in Romania“

2021 has been an ‘exceptional business year‘ for Infineon Technologies, with strong demand and full orderbooks, Gunter Krasser, Vice President and Managing Director Infineon Technologies Romania told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“In 2021 Infineon has further strengthened its leading position in the automotive semiconductor market, despite supply chain challenges. (…) Expanding our team became a priority, both at global and local level. We had to be creative and find new solutions for attracting talent and developing hybrid on-boarding concepts for new team members.“

COMMITMENT TO PERFORMANCE | BUSINESS EVOLUTION, PROJECTS, PERFORMANCE, FIGURES

How would you describe the evolution of your company in 2021?

“2021 has been an exceptional business year for Infineon Technologies, with strong demand and full orderbooks. Key to this success has been Infineon’s positioning along the megatrends digital transformation, climate change & resource scarcity, urbanization & demographic change. This year has started with a clear direction for 2022: we stay on a strong growth path.“

What were your company’s business achievements in 2021?

“In 2021 Infineon has further strengthened its leading position in the automotive semiconductor market, despite supply chain challenges. As digitalization trends accelerated, Infineon has been able to benefit from its winning semiconductors for powering data centers energy efficient and robust growth has also been recorded in the IoT segment, with the integration of Cypress Semiconductor, a major acquisition Infineon closed in 2020.“

STRATEGY & VISION | RETHINK STRATEGY & PRIORITIES

What challenges have you faced as a CEO/ leader during 2021?

“As business entered a robust growth path, expanding our team became a priority, both at global and local level. We had to be creative and find new solutions for attracting talent and developing hybrid on-boarding concepts for new team members.

The pandemic situation has continued to be a major challenge in 2021, more so than initially anticipated. Having a clear “health is our priority” strategy in pandemic peaks and taking advantage of windows of relaxed pandemic periods, we offered opportunities for our teams to stay connected, e.g. through numerous small-scale outdoor workshops and dinners in summer.

Also, in order to gain experience how we can maintain a sense of “being together” while offering flexibility for remote work, we have invested in try & learn initiatives on the future of our work and workplace.“

“What priorities and business strategy focus do you have in 2022?

“In 2022 our focus is to win new talent to grow and strengthen our teams in Romania and to understand more clearly how New Work is going to look like after the pandemic.

With the acceleration of electrification and digitalization, new products are demanded by the markets. At Infineon Technologies Romania, being an exclusive R&D location, we work on these very products of tomorrow. We develop innovative products that cater opportunities created by strong growth in the automotive, digital security and IoT.“

PEOPLE & COMMUNITY | FOCUS ON SAFETY, SOCIAL APPROACH, LEVERAGE THE POWER OF COMMUNITY

What initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021 in CSR and social projects?

“At Infineon Technologies Romania we focus on two main directions: supporting education and helping the community.

We have continued and strengthened our strong collaboration with major Romanian technical universities, assisting universities with lectures and supporting young researchers. Of special importance for us is to offer young students the possibility to gather first-hand experience in labs at the faculty. Here we support with lab-sponsorships.

Teams have also been involved in a number of community projects on topics that they have chosen themselves and feel enthusiastic about. We have supported a number of causes and we look forward to expand this program in 2022.“

KEEN ON GREEN | SUSTAINABLE, GREENER, COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUS

What sustainability and green-driven initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021?

“Optimizing the efficient use of resources has long been at the core of our sustainability strategy. With this commitment in mind, as Infineon Romania grows, we have put a lot of effort into thinking how our future offices and laboratories will look like. With a target of relocating to a new office-building in 2024, this project has already reached maturity. Selecting a sustainable building with high energy efficiency, incorporating latest building technology was on top of our list of criteria together with offering a highly attractive future oriented working environment four our teams.“

2021 IN 3 KEY WORDS OR MORE

“Exceptional business development, continued challenges due to pandemic, focus on the future“

2022 IN 3 KEY WORDS OR MORE

“1.Creating new opportunities for our people – creating professional opportunities and perspectives, which match the growing expertise is at the core of our strategy. Unfortunately, we started to observe a growing trend of experts leaving Romania for non-professional reasons.

2. Reconnect – we are optimistic about more opportunities for teams for being connected in person again.

3. Wise balance of opportunities and risk –two years of collective learning about the pandemic will give us more freedom in our private and professional contexts.“