Cristiano Amon Discusses the Promise of 5G

leader all the way up to UH corporate managers as president. UH. Really fascinating guy with a lot of interesting um background of material. I think you'll find it intriguing. With no further ado, my conversation with Christiano Aman. This is Master's in Business with Barry Riddholts on Boomberg Radio. My special guest this week is Christiano Aman. He is the president of Qualcom. Previously, he has worked at such August firms as NYC Electronics and Ericson. He has a unique mix

of business, engineering and operational skills. He ran qualcom semiconductor business for five years. He successfully built the chip set strategy and business in China, and he has been managing Qualcom's product roadmap since two thousand and eight. Christiano Aman. Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you very very happy to be here. So let's uh trace your career back to the mid nineties. You joined Qualcom as an engineer. Um, you were born in Brazil, you grew up in San Paulo. How did

you find your way to Qualcom in the US after college? Oh? It's interesting, I you know, I, you know, I've been fortunate enough. Since I graduated in engineering school, I was working similar I was working wordless and started my career in Brazil working in the first settler systems they've been UM implemented in Rasil. Those are the analog days. Uh and uh for a Japanese company NBC. Actually I first left Brazil, will go to Tokyo. So and uh it's about uh. You know, I was working as an engineer.

They decided to transfer me to the headquarters in Japan, and off I go, uh, exactly from from Brazil to Japan, exactly on the other side of the globe. So, if I remember correctly, ANYC is Nippon Electronics, What part of Japan was that located? I moved to Tokyo. So first time I left Brazil, Yes, I went to Tokyo. I was for about a year and when when I was working to any C, we're thinking about going to Digital Settler.

I work in their system engineering group. We knew of this small company out in San Diego, California, qual Quantcom that had this UH c d m A technology for Digital Settler and we needed to talk to Qualcom to understand how we could build c d m A UM base stations and explain to the listeners what does c d M A stand for? What does it do well? C d M A is actually the technology they put qualkon on the map. It's UM. It stands for cold

division multiple access. It's a complicated term, but really what does it actually do in in the world? Uh? You know UH in the two G settler remember we're we're now we're now in five G now, but in two G seller yellow UH Selller to become UH digital and increase the capacity. UH. The the the that was claimed to fame they claim to fame of c d M A was when UH settlers started and people realize everybody

wants to have a phone. Existing original one G systems, the analog system, walkie talkie time, you couldn't really get anybody unless you have ten X improvement and city and

that's what they made did. But going back to your question, So I was in Japan, UH, working in Tokyo UM and UH and I traveled to San Diego back in kind of late nine and UH met this company, Qualcom, and UH start having a business relationship with Qualcom and a technical relationship about c d M A and then UH, you know that led to Qualcom to make me a proposal to join the company to joun qual So you moved to San Diego? Is that where you're working? I

moved back to Brazil. Helped them set up the operations in Brazil and Latin America during the year of UH later part of and ninety six, because because Brazil had such an advanced sell your system, they wanted to then upgrade to to UH the second next level in the In the mid nineties UM. UH, when Qualcom developed the c d M A technology, all of the around the globe, all of the analog one G systems was going to upgrade to two G. So then Qualcom set up officers worldwide,

including the headquarters for Latin America was in Brazil. UH really try to get spectrum allocated in UM in the systems to upgrade to c d M A. So Brazil covered all of South America. Um, it was the Brazil office, UH coverall South America when I was when I was back then in UH and in the and ninety six, at the early part of ninety six, I was, you know, uh, going all over the place to Argentina, to Chile to UM two at the time were to Mexico. We we

have cm A projects everywhere. And then uh, the later part of ninety six, I moved to San Diego and and that's where now? And what was your title when you moved to San Diego? What was your job? Well? I started Welcome as as an engineer, and when I moved to San Diego, that was back in I was a manager of technology. So you've other engineers reporting directly to you. Uh back in I believe, so back in

UH in the ninety six time frame. Yeah, I joined Welcome as an engineer in and been going through the rinks. So so now you moved to you relocate to the United States. Is that any culture shock? Following Brazil and Japan? What was that? Really? Nice? Nicer weather than Japan? Um, you cannot complain about San Diego so we're very spoiled in San Diego. There there's nothing like it. But uh yeah, it was just it was no culture shock, I think, and especially I I you know, today after all those years,

I you know, San Diego is home to me. You know, everything feels home. So you've been in charge of the QCT product roadmap. Explain to us exactly what that is. Okay, So when you think of a company like Qualcom, Quacom has to business. UM. One business we call qt L the Qualcom Technology Licensing. And in the business it's uh, you know, we do a lot of advanced research UM. Unlike other companies that UM, they're you know, developed products, uh,

based on on different standards. We are a creator of standards. We create a new technology. We created like three G and four G and five G, and we licensed the technology so anybody can build. That's the licensing business. WelCom created each of the cellular standards beyond one, they created two G, they created three four or five And I'm gonna ask you later what comes after five G. Will

will get the way to think about it. Every standard, every generation of wireless it's uh, whether it's two G, three G, four G and now five G. It's it's based on a standard. UM there's a standard body that is standardized. This for contributions for many companies. UH through all the digital sellular generations has started with three G all the way to right now in five G that we're building, Cocoon has been the largest contributor of fundamental

technology of the standards. So in a way, yes, many of the things that we do today with our phones is in part bays of qualk and inventions and has been part of every single standard. So that's the licensing business, the license that technology, the QCT it's Qualcom, c d

M A Technologies is the chip set business. So when you think about phones with QUALKM processors and quok on chips is snap Dragon, So snap Dragon is the chip set that and so what that goes into Samsung, Android, Apple, everybody. Qualcom chips go to the majority of the phones. Yes, he goes into her Sandsung phone. But also beyond phones are chips. Not all of the chips are label Snapdragon, but our chips go to WiFi routers, go to UH, the infantainment and dashboard in your car, U goes to

many things in your home. I think we go through a smart watch. We have chips now in a variety of products. That's what q c T does. Quite fascinating. So what was your sense of the environment in the es you joined qualcom in? Uh did you have any sense that the whole tech sector was in the bubble and we're gonna see a pretty big drop? So I joined qualcom in and there was a lot of growth in the wordless anders. It was different than the dot com bubble because the wordless it was really growing and

continue to grow. I think people wanted to go south falls. Yes, however I did left Qualk. I had a short period of time. I went to Ericsson and then I joined a VC right before the dot com bubble burst and joined the VC. I moved to Colorado and uh we we we had raised a lot of money, we had a lot of investments, and then with the bubble burst, I you know, I had to do with it and and it was interesting. It was a different phase of

my career. One of our investments we have was an operator in Brazil, cell phone operator that actually went bankrupt and because when the bubble burst, a lot of the investors uh you know, pulled out. It was early days is still you know, building. So I took a completely different changing my career. I went back to Brazil. I was the c t O of this operator and then later c O O doing a restructuring UH work and UH it was fun. It was in about I learned

a lot. It was about three years and when we turned that to positive Abida and A SOLDI the operator and and that's when qualk And asked me, hey, har are you board? Do you want to come back to San Diego? And I came back in all four, So qual come recruit you back in two thousand and four, only this time the company you left and the one you rejoined somewhat different. Enough time has passed that things have changed. What sort of role did you come back to and what sort of company did you find when

you when you got there? That's a good question. So when I came back, company was very different. We UH company had started as a as a company that was developing CDM, a technology at that time UH tree g wash you know more mature company was also going into another technology. There was a very and called w c DM A wide bann c d M a UH making strides into other market also developing into the multimedia capabilities of the chip set so and the chip business at

the time, UH started to to grow significantly. It was a very smaller part of Qualcom when when I left, and started to be more significant at the time so I joined, I was asked to to run the c d M A business for Qualcom in the chip division, and uh it was interesting. It was interesting time because if you remember a little bit of, uh of what I have done in my career before that, right, I have uh you know, I had a worker Qualcom and

kind of the early days. Then I went gained some you know, uh work at ericson and the infrastructure, I gained uh some VC experience. I did a difficult restructoring job,

and and I had a lot of operator experience. And at that time will happened is many of the c d M A operators we're considering a bandoning the technology and switching to g s M and Qualcolm wanted uh somebody to take over the business to find out how we could uh you know, reverse that trend and generate growth again for c d M A. So that's like the that was the problem statement for me and UH and maybe my experience at the time in solving difficult problems,

has some operator experience, you know. Uh, they said, you know, he could probably can do that. So so I did that. Uh it was uh, it was great. It was a successful journey, and I think my success and that ended up putting me in a position to manage all the different products of qualcom roadmap in the chip division A couple of years later. Well, that's interesting. How quickly do

those chip sets um turn obsolete? Or or ask differently, Given how fast we've gone from two G, three G, four G, five G, it seems like the lifespan of each one of these new generations is much less than five years. So are these chips practically obsolete when they leave the factory? What? How? How long are they good for before the new hotness comes along? Okay, very very interesting question, especially uh uh you know, I like that question,

especially because how we think about our business. And I'll tell you I'm going to answer you a question with an interesting metaphor. I promise will make this interesting. So the answer to your question is, in the today's mobile environment, the chip the chip business is it's very competitive. First of all, it's very capital intensitive. But when you buy, when you do what chip? The way for you to think about it, and I will ask you a question.

It takes we have before we have to think about what we're gonna do in a chip two years before the chip. So two years before the chip is done, we need to decide what capabilities this chip will have. Like think about a Snapdragon in your Sansung phone? How how good does the graphics? How good is the camera? How good is the gaming capability? And all of them? It takes two years to develop. Then you launch into

a device and let's say you go by your Sansung Galaxy. Uh. You know, I got the new Apple eleven with the big camera um only because I wanted that really nice uh camera quality and zoom. And I've never had a competitive since smartphones come out. I've only have an Apple, so I have no experience. We need to get you. We need to get you with a five G phone. It's more more important than Samsung. Apple. You need to get to a five G phone. But when when did

they become ubiquitous? Win or five G everywhere? You everywhere? Probably in uh? I think oh metropolitan areas will have five you covered twenty. But I want to go back to your question. I go back to your question. So two years to do a chip, you launch your phone, six months ste phone is absolute and there's another model. Right.

So so it's a very interesting business because you have to you have to decide what to do two years in events and you launch a flagship, state of the art smartphone and uh and in six months to an ear you have to all over again. So the metaphor that I use, I feel like chip business like gladiator business. Uh. You you have you and your competitors. You know, Uh, no matter how successful you are, you always want chip away from losing your success, right, so you have to

build the best possible chip I can build. And it's like a gladiator. You go to the colors, You're going to fight and uh, if you lose, bad outcomes. Um. If you win, you just read you eligible to go to the color SEO one more time. So the winners, the winners are in the right to fight again and the losers are dead. That that's challenging. So let's let's talk about some of the competitors in the chip space. There's a video and there's a m D and who else is the hot chip of the moment these days?

The chip industry is very that verse and depend on this segment. In the space that we are uh, we end up, you know, we compete with different people depending on what we're doing different things. So for example, in the space that we are doing smartphones, we compete, uh sometimes with Samsung their own chip a lot, they make their own chip. We compete with Huawei phones that they use their own chip. Now when we go to PCs,

we compete with Intel. We just entered the PC space the new Microsoft Surface Access qualcome Microsoft chip on it. So we compete with Intel. When we go into end up competing with m D. When we go in the automotor space, and and we're doing the chips that does your dashboard and entertainment, we compete with Nvidia. So we compete with different companies. One good thing about Quacolm is that we're now expended to so many industries. So so we we we are going from phones to cars, to

Internet of Things, to compute and many other things. So let's talk a little bit about leadership um from the top of a company, how does one go from being an engineer to a manager. Those seem like very very different skill sets. Uh yeah, I you know, it's it's maybe the way to think about it is as an engineer, especially if you're during complex systems, you have to learn how to manage teams because you cannot do everything yourself.

And maybe that's how the whole thing starts. But at least for me, I think, uh, the success in my career was also uh the have this balance of understanding the technology because of my engineering background, because of my engineering experience, but also understanding the business and I and I think once you once you do both, you have

both the business uh and the technical understanding. It's uh, it's it's kind of easier uh for you to go to a manager role and be able to lead teams and make sure you know, you have the right strategy, we're working on the right things, were doing the right products. But you know, I I also think that the unique

personality things as well. UH. Like the approach that I always took is I al was going to make sure that the people and my team are are doing the thing uh that they can do better than I can do myself. It's about multiplying the ability for you to multiply your capabilities by having better people than you are, you know, doing the job. And I think that that made good managers. And I and and and one of my recipes for SUCCE as well been Qualcom. We were

very unique culture. We're very matrix in a way. It's uh it's the ability you know to uh exercise leadership but also recognizing, you know, tweeting all the people my team are spears and uh and and I think that's you get a little bit of that as working on engineering teams and developing projects together. So how does the role of president differ from that of chief executive officer of the CEO of the company. Uh, Molnenkoff has been there for quite a while. Yes, Steve and I have

been working together for a long time. Actually, Uh it was uh if you look of you know the uh Steve as the CEO, Jim Thompson, which is our CTO. And UH when I joined Qualcom uh for the second time back in night in two thousand four, I was wanting to see the May business. Mollenkov was in the UMTS business or the Double City the May business. So we've been talking for very very long time. The way it works today, UH, Steve is the CEO. He has

uh you know, Alex Rogers which runs our licensing business. Uh, you know, reporting to Steve Malinkoff, and you can look at me as probably run all of the operating business of the company. So all the other business of the company are under the president and I and I and I and I run them. So it's the president role within Qualcom. It's uh, it's the personal responsible for the operating role of the management. So you guys now seem

to have resolved all the outstanding issues with Apple. There was a fairly contentious lawsuit, there was a hostile takeover at Temple. What was it like within the company when all this what was previously I think a pretty good relationship, How did it go off the rails and how did it eventually get resolved? There's a lot in there. We've been to a We've been to a lot. We have two years of unbelievable turmoil, and I would say it was a great opportunity for the company to become stronger.

I think show how the company is resilient. Specifically to your Apple question, Uh, yes, we had our disagreements about you know, they the licensing and the value of the technology we we we produce. As I told you before, Uh, we we none of those standards will be possible. None of the generations of wireless will be possible to Qualcom technology. We license for everybody to build, but we want to you know, get paid on antell actual property and uh

and we stand by that principle. But we're glad we're resolve it and uh and the good thing about it resolve in a way that there's a win for Apple, win for Qualcom. We're back in business together. We have a multi year agreement. We're working you know, day and I to make sure they have a great you know, iPhone or a five G technology and business continues. That's that's really interesting. So you're at the top of the food chain and Qualcom, who do you turn to when

you're looking for advice? You know, when I need advice, I talked to a lot of uh, you know, the other members of the Qualcom management team. Uh. Uh you know. I also we have a good relationship of our board of directors, so we have a lot of experience people

on our board. But I also have uh great uh relationship to many seniors actors across our partners and customers and uh and many of those uh some relationships are helpful when you look at a different perspective how to do things and uh, you know, I'm I'm somebody that really value relationships and also personal relationships and I make full use of those. One of the names that always seems to come up is Saudia and Nadela, who's now

CEO of Microsoft. How did that relationship interesting? There was a there was a there's an interesting uh article that uh. Uh they came out when I answered exactly that question, uh Walster Journal. Yes and uh in fact they specifically mentioned Nick Cowser, ROBERTOI and Robert along with Saudio Nadela. Yes, and I can tell a little bit about why those are all technology rock stars. Some are somewhere in the different categories. So so Roberto, yes, and uh that's the

answer to your question. Uh, and I'll walk you why those four think. Roberto, Uh, when I came back to Qualcom in the second time around, Qualcom, as I talked to, was a different company when I when I left, and uh, Roberto was the CTO at that time. Somebody I have a lot of respects is uh. You know Alexander Grumbl Prize winning for the Art POI has done tremendous Uh, contributions to engineering the wireless industry and he helped me, uh you navigate through Qualcom also provided me a lot

of sound advice uh to my career. The other one was Nick Calser. Nick Alser was earlier in my career when I went to a VC at work for Nick. Nick is another one of those very famous individuals in wireless. Nick was the first CTEO of Macaws Settler, which is the first settler operator in the world period and later became the City of eight and T wireless. And it's a few people have as much experience in wireless as Nick.

Roberto sa Tubo was different. One of the other things that I do besides my job at Qualcom, I and I am on the board of a really largest retail bank in Brazil, banking industry very different than the wireless and tech industry. The chairman of the bank UH is Roberto Stubo. He's also a board member of Shell uh uh an oil company and very experienced individual. UH. Our relationship is kind of new, there've been over two years now and and us in the bank board. But it's

another person also to give me interesting perspective. How he look at things, how he look at things within the bank, and uh, sometimes it's good to have a different viewpoint. Satia is different. It's ah, we have a business relationship with Microsoft, therefore, uh, you know, we have a relationship with Satia. But Satia is more about, uh, what he needs to do with Microsoft to change Microsoft from a

Windows client company into a cloud enterprise cloud company. It's a little bit like the change I have been doing a qualcom from a mobile only company into going into all of the other industries that are being transferred by mobile. So it's kind of uh, the Satia is like, Okay, it can be done. It was done, so we can do it. That's kind of along those lines. Quite interesting. So let's talk about um new versus potential or existing products.

How do you balance what you're working on today with hey, we have a new idea for something that it's six G or seven. How does internally how does a company balance between what they need to sell to bring in revenue today and how they think about the next couple of years of products. Uh, that's actly the uh recipe for welcome success. We have teams that are working on

the products that we're gonna launch next year. We have teams that are working on the on technologies and products for the next five years, but we have teams that are looking like ten years out, ten years out. So so really think about a decade ago versus today two thousand and nine, did we have any idea about how popular drones would be? You barely had smartphones out there. A decade seems like a lifetime in technology, you know

bury two thousand and ten. Um when when we launch uh, you know, four G and you're buying your four G smartphone, that's where we start working on five G and uh and I, like I said, that's the recipe thing for Qualcom success. Like right now we're very excited about five G transformation five G and it's we're just the beginning of that. It's gonna last for ten years. We have technologies coming for multiple years and five G, but we also needs to start thinking right now, what's gonna come next?

And that's six G. I think so so five G is I mean three four five have three two to three to four each have been pretty nice steps up, but it looks like four G two five G is a giant leap in bandwidth and the ability to stream video almost instantly over cellular that was unimaginable ten years ago. Yes, but uh, if I may, five G is bigger than that. Here's how you should think about five G. And that's why you get so much attention, while you get so

much conversation going across uh multiple industries. Today, we we have pretty much everything everything in this room, UH that uses electricity. You just assume is there. No, No, they has electricity. You connect to the wall because you need electricity, and you assume you're gonna find a plug. It's to be there, ubiquitous. This is what five G will do to the Internet. So five G is the technology has been designed not only to provide massive bandwidth to your phones,

but to connect everything else to the Internet. So once five G is done, when we're done through this decade of five G and the networks full deployed, we're not gonna be having conversations about what the use cases. Internet is going to be there and you're gonna assume is they're like electricity and everything will be connected to the Internet. So it's being designed to connect billions of devices around us in addition to our phones. That's why this transformation

is so big. So let me push back against that. So if you've traveled to Asia or Europe, you know that the cellular system seems much more robust. You don't drop calls, there aren't one bar or no bar spaces. The broadband is bigger and cheaper. The thought of internet everywhere in the United States wireless. Hey, they still haven't figured out how to make sure I can make a goddamn phone call in Manhattan without losing the single I mean, the biggest city in New York. We haven't figured that

out yet. Why should I think that the that everything is going to connect away? We had very good service in San Diego, But have I said that? Let me tell you this, um uh, I hear you, And this is exactually one of the biggest optics obstacles in five G in the United States right now. And that's how unique to United States. In Europe, that's actually one area that still have a lot to be done. Is that just a function of not enough cell towers or no

no there no other, no other fault. Here's what's happening. For example, China, uh, China is going to build one million UH five G base stations by the end of twenty one million. That's equivalent to ten times the number of total based stations across all generations of a single UH you know US carrier. Here's what the issue is. In the United States and in Europe too. Carriers need

to build UH infrastructure. But for that they need to build new sites, and they have to negotiate city by city to get permits and zoning to get the sites up. And especially five five G you need to densify the network because some of those five G base stations they look like WiFi access points and and they're very small, and you need many of the them, and you need to put sites everywhere. And UH. The number one if you ask every carrier in America right now, what's the

number one struggle to get five G everywhere? Is can I get the approval to get new sites? And I think we have to do something about it. I you know, I it's okay. It's understandable that in China they will issue a document and then on milliand sites will be built.

Essentially planned economy if you want to have you know, I prefer our system, but we have to find a way that we can accelerate the process of building new sites because I think the US economy will benefit from vibrant and competitive to five G infrastructure in place, we

help so many industries. We talked about thirteen points to trillion dollars of goods and services of economic growth just based on five G. And if you remember, if we didn't have four G built, the United States pioneer four G was the first country to deploy four G nationwide. Because of that, we've got Instagram, we got Uber, we got Amazon, We've got all those companies the Europeans don't have, and UH five G is going to be no different.

So we need to get the infrastructure built. Can we stick these five G M receivers or transmitters on the old towers? Can guess you can put in all the old towers in any new towers. So or and I noticed that a lot of especially when you're high up in any sort of office building in New York and you look down on the lower towers, you see the roofs are just festooned with wires and and antenna. Are

those four G and five G type? Um, those are four G. You're gonna upgrade those to five G and and you need to add what we call UH five G small cells. They look like WiFi routers but you just need to sprinkle them everywhere everywhere. UM, So they don't have to be a pie. They could be at street level. That's that's quite that's quite interesting. UM. So we've been talking about innovation and how new ideas come along. Are they primarily driven by the engineers? Are they driven

by leadership? Where does innovation come from? Um? The answer is both, and I think it comes it comes from a company like Qualcom from understanding what are the problems that need to be solved on on the business side, you know, And I'll go a little bit in history. Uh if when we when we started, for example, three G from two G. Uh when when we put our shelves in the map? When two gee them in three G. We want to solve one problem, which is we need

to connect phones to the internet. UM. And you know, after that was done, you probably remember using your BlackBerry and people doing emails and all the great things you can do when you had Internet in your phones. So the first thing we need to do how to get phones internet. That's how three G got created. We need to get Internet. We need to solve that problem. Four G was a bigger challenge for g S. We have

now two problems to solve. One problem to solve as we needed to bring mobile broadband broadband to mobile, but then what happens Berry When you have broadband for mobile, you need a computer. So we need to make those phones into computers. So we needed to develop We we didn't have a processor business. We need to create a business of the Snapdragon business. We need to create a processor because and we were the first company to a giga hurts clock. See you in a battery powered device.

Because now they have broadband, you need a computer to deal with it. And it's fascinating. It transforms society today. The smartphones where all of us with our mobile computer in our hands, and that's our most loved and inseparable device. Five G innovation. We have more problems to solve. People want unlimited data. People don't want to talk about I'm on do I I'm gonna put this on the cloud and i am gonna leave it over there because I'm always going to be connected. So problems still in five

G s Can I make your wireless reliable? You are going to trust that you're going to be connected. You can leave all this stuff in the cloud because it's always going to be able to get it because it's gonna have a reliable connectivity. Can I build a system for a society that wants unlimited data and want to connect everything to the Internet and and also allow you to have mission critical capability and wireless So we take it to other industries like autonomous cars, those are problems

to solve. From that, Qualcom creates fundamental technology. That's how innovation gets done. Quite quite interesting. So, technology, at least in the form of Facebook and Amazon and Google and Apple, has become under assault from society in general, but but also from regulators who have been complaining. The politicians complain

it's too big. It sense like competitive via monopoly. But what are your thoughts on the state of the giant players and technology and what might the future of of policy and regulation look like for the Googles and Amazons and facebooks and Apples of the world. Huh, It's a difficult for me to comment on those companies. Uh, but I'll say from a Qualcom perspective, Uh, we're not that big yet. We wanted we wanted to continue growing. But

I'll give you a general answer about technology. Uh. Technology it's it's uh, it's a very important part of the economy and uh and in too many aspects. I look at the technology transition is really a force for good. Um,

if we look at what we do as a company. Uh. While like with everything that uh, if you don't have boundaries and you know, you can have problems like we everything it's like uh uh if you spend too much time on social media on your phone, or if you eat too much, it's gonna be you know, everything in

excess is a problem. But if you look at how the technology we create transform society, like and how how we can connect people and a do no matter where they are, how people run their business out of their phones, how increase productivity, I think it's been not only an economic engine, but a force for good. And I feel, you know, our mission is to continue developing technology to transform society and many of the things that you do.

It's uh, you know, it's inevitable. It's just part of uh, you know, continue innovation and evolution of uh of what we all do. Quite quite interesting. We have been speaking with Cristiano i'men, president of Qualcom. If you enjoy this conversation, well be sure and come back for the podcast extras where we keep the tape rolling and continue discussing all things technology related. You can find that at Apple, iTunes, Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever your finer podcasts are sold.

We love your comments, feedback and suggestions right to us at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Check out my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com. Follow me on Twitter at rit Halts. I'm Barry rit Halts. You're listening to Masters and Business on Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the podcast, Christiano. Thank you so much for doing this. I know you have a plane to catch. So what I'm gonna do is take the standard questions we ask all our guests. We're gonna turn this into a speed round. We're gonna

I'm ready, you're ready. First car you ever own, you're making model? Uh it's a Fiat people, it was I bought that car in te Um. What's the What's the most important thing people don't know about you? Uh? The most important thing they don't know about me? Uh? I martial arts eves where I was probably Oh no, I'll tell you. I am fascinated with cars, especial classic cars and muscle cars, and uh, every car I have I end up mortifying a lot, give us a give us a car that you have, and I'll tell you one

that I'm looking to pick up from your hometown. And I think, I think this will kind of uh yes, it will be in the category of a fascinating thing. But I don't know about me. Like I drive to work Volkswagen Golf. I modified that Golf. I change everything. It looks like uh from the outside, it looks the same. From the inside is like they will scars from Fast and Futures movie. So so that's it, and then I am I have another project. I can tell you later

that I'm restoring a car that's so believe it. So there's a car I've fallen in love with from the nineties seventies, and the best examples of them are from your They're either in Colombia or Brazil. The Toyota f J forty that that truck sort of like a Jeep, and they're everywhere in South America and there there's no rust on them down there. So I'm going to your backyard to pick up car. That's a good car. They're great. Um.

Who are your early mentors who influenced your career? Um? Uh, there's many say in starting at ANBC had uh, you know, the the president of ANBC in Brazil. It was a big influence on me. What's his name? It was Gioberto Garby. He's uh, he's a professor. Now. Um. I also had people that I met throughout my career, and I always been like that. Every every different job that I have, I had people that I look up to and say I can learn something from that individual. It's been a

constant history to my career. Uh. Tell us about some of your favorite books. What are you reading? What do you like to read? Comic books? Really give us some names? Are you? Are you enjoying Watchman on HBO? I am enjoying that, and I also I am I'm now starting Gotten as well on Netflix. And uh do you like the whole Marvel universe and tracking Avengers or you like a Spider Man sa guy? Uh No, I like Marvel? Um?

Where was I going with that? Uh? Tell us about a time you found and what you learned from the experience. You know, I when I was doing the restructuring of a bankrupt operator in Brazil, plenty of uh attempts that didn't work, but uh and uh, you know, until we get it right. It was a difficult environment, but I learned a lot from that. I think, uh, ability to learn from mistakes, UH, it's invaluable. You can never get that in any NBA training, and that's a very good tool.

I think for managers, what do you do for fun? I spent a lot of time with my kids. I also do mortial arts. I've been uh training martial arts for a number of years. And actually my my buddy that I trained for eight years and as my sparring buddy is uh the San Diego Harbor Police Chief. Quite quite interesting. UH. Tell us what you're most optimistic about and most pessimistic about within the world of technology today.

I'm very optimistic about five G. I think five G will have an impact even greater than you know what people are talking about it right now. I think the transformation will be tremendous. I think what I'm pessimistic about it is, UH, you know, the complexity that it will take UM to build those networks. It's one of the topics we talked about it. You have to build infrastructure with and it starts with you build and then they will come. And I think we still have a lot

of work to do to get that done. What sort of advice would you give a recent college graduate who is considering a career in either technology or engineering. Okay, um was very valuable for me. Uh, try to understand and it's the early day you can understand is the

more successful you're gonna be. Try to understand one of the things they're really good at in what are the things that you're not And trying to focus your career in in the areas that you can put you know, your skills and quality to work, and try to get together with people that can help you in the areas

that you are not. And it's interesting the the one of the greatest tools that helped me a lot and managing my career is really not focusing on one of the things that I can do well, but understanding one of the things that I cannot do so I can overcome those challenges. And our final question, what do you know about the world of technology and mobile and semiconductors today that you wish you knew twenty five years ago when you were first getting started. Uh. I, that's a

very profound question. What I'll say is when if I had the understanding of how broad mobile I would have become, will probably made some bets in different segments earlier, but you know, everything has it's time. I know that was the last question, but I am intrigued by what you told me about the f J forty. So. Uh. So there's a car that I always loved as a kid. It was It's I loved them, the muscle cars. And it was a Chevrolet. There was designed in Brazil for

the Brazilian market. Is a chevrolett Opala. It's in bittwen the Camaro, and the chevel is bigger than the camarow it's smaller than the Chevelle. But it's very unique and uh and I just found one, uh in a tiny city. I took it to California, took a nine months to come here, and I'm rebuilding it. I'm very excited about it. It's a nine six Opala Chevrolet SS and uh Opala O P A l A and I think there may be the first SSH in California. So I'm excited about that.

That is sort of an unusual car, not quite an Opal not quite Uh. I don't even know how else I would describe that. Is not a Nova, not a Camaro. Is something different, huh, quite quite interesting. Uh And does it use standard Chevy parts? Is the original engine? Is the in line six? There wasn't a Camorrow, so the way to nine. So I'm gonna say that's probably the thing that people don't know about you that we have

been speaking with Christiano Waman, president of Qualcom. If you enjoy this conversation, be sure and look up an inch or down an inch on Apple iTunes and you could see any of the previous three hundred or so such conversations we've had over the past five years. We love your comments, feedback in suggestions right to us at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Go to Apple iTunes and please give us a review. Be sure and check out my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com. Follow me

on Twitter at rit Halts. Sign up for the Daily Reds at rid Holtz dot com. I would be remiss if I did not thank the crack staff that helps me put this little conversation together each week. Mark Siniscalchi is my audio engineer. Sam Chivraj is my producer. Michael Batnick is my head of research. I'm Barry Ritolts. You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.