When Abhi Talwalkar became the CEO of LSI Corporation in 2005, he and the company faced a lot of challenges. LSI was in a slump at the time. Shortly after, the downturn in the economy made it difficult for just about any company to thrive. Things are looking up, though, according to a recent article at Institutional Investor. The online publication explains how this data and networking solutions provider managed to report a year with 9 percent revenue growth, climbing to $2.04 billion. Apparently, data is a good business to be in right now, at least for those with a solid business plan and the resources to make it happen. So just how did this new CEO do so?

A Struggling Company with a Strong History

Abhi Talwalkar came to LSI during a shaky time, and was left with the task of succeeding the company’s founder. The company once known as LSI Logic was founded in 1981 by Wilfred Corrigan, the British engineer responsible for running Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp. before launching LSI Logic as a producer of customized silicon chips. Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp. is known to many as the root of Silicon Valley, so Corrigan was well-respected in the field and had millions of dollars of venture capital behind him. The company grew to dominate during a time when the electronics industry in the United States and Japan was strong. It peaked as the dominant producer of customized silicon chips in the late 1980s, and expanded into design tools and systems in the 1990s. By the end of the century, the company had acquired about a dozen different companies. But by 2005, revenues were in serious decline, people were losing their jobs, offices were closing and things were generally not looking up for anyone invested in the company.

A Case Study of Successful Ownership Transition

LSI’s board members had a tough decision to face when they replaced Wilfred Corrigan, but the transition turned out to be an excellent example of a successful move to new leadership. With the data deluge facing the business world and the general public today, the storage and networking industry has an important role to play in our modern use of technology. When Talwalkar took over LSI in 2005, he saw this need in the market, and predicted that people were going to be using mobile devices more and more to do things like surf the Internet, watch film clips and post to social networking sites. He couldn’t have been more right.