Pros
Before we pressed Ctrl-Alt-Delete on our Senior Management team, Xilinx was complacent and drifting. We had many fiefdoms and overlapping functional groups, an oscillating and ever-expanding product direction, and hundreds of employees at all levels who were on "cruise control." Our competition was eating our lunch, Difficult and painful as it was, we have rid ourselves of the business-as-usual contingent within the organization. Our new management team comes from all over the Semiconductor space, including ASICs, GPUs, and EDA. They have proven that they are more than capable of picking up on the unique challenges of the programmable business - our leadership at 28nm is a testament to this fact. Our previous CEO was cashing in multi-million dollar option grants on a regular basis. What did he care? In contrast, our new CEO and his team are hungry for success just like the rest of us. Our new product direction and goals are aggressive yet at the same time sensible and attainable. Our customers are picking up on our new-found mojo and recognizing us as technical leaders again. I'm tired of all the whining about how Xilinx is no longer a "happy place to work." Yes, we used to score very high on those fluffy surveys, but frankly I don't want to work for a company where "everybody wins." This industry is competitive. Non-performers must be replaced by performers. We have streamlined and re-invented the company, and we are now scoring high on technical leadership, innovation, execution, and profitability, not warm and fuzzy employee happiness surveys. I'm very excited about the future of Xilinx.
Cons
I think there is a limit to how successful we can be. We are worth 7-8 billion now. If we execute, maybe we'll be worth 12-15 billion. That of course would be great for all of us stock holders, but then what? Unless we make a revolutionary breakthrough, the programmable logic market will remain a niche. Also, we've hired so many talented people that now it is hard to reward them all. That's the downside of grading on a curve. The economic downturn has helped us recruit and retain top talent, but if that changes, then what?