--- title: "A conversation with Charlie Kawwas: The importance of innovation and R&D at Broadcom" url: https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/articles/innovation/a-conversation-with-charlie-kawwas-the-importance-of-innovation-and-r-d-at-broadcom description: Broadcom invests $5 billion annually in pure research and development, partnering with the world’s most successful companies, to deliver solutions for tomorrow. --- # A conversation with Charlie Kawwas: The importance of innovation and R&D at Broadcom ## Connected by Broadcom ![Vijay Nagarajan](https://www.broadcom.com/media/blt4ac44e0e6c6d8341/bltf5dfb0338641aefa/6a7245b72888394da707bef7/Gemini_Generated_Image_6bqhfw6bqhfw6bqh.jpg?width=150) ## [Vijay Nagarajan](https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/author/vijay-nagarajan) ### Vice President and General Manager, Emulex Connectivity Division ### [Innovation](https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/articles?subCategory[]=Innovation) ## Simplicity in execution As an engineer, Charlie has stuck with a basic precept throughout a long and accomplished career: keep things simple. And it’s an approach that’s worked quite well for Broadcom. Instead of overthinking situations, he underscored the need to be adaptable and decisive. In other words, make decisions, execute them in practice and then move on. Also, our flat organizational structure ensures accountability at all levels and across all functions. This is particularly important as we drive each of our businesses to be competitive and to be able to lead on its own without being dependent on others. It’s how we build a “sustainable franchise.” As Charlie highlights, in our journey to build sustainable franchises, we think in terms of a 10-year horizon. We want to make sure that it's a proven product line in a sizable market and likely to have staying power – even if it’s not in a fast growth area. There’s also the question of technology leadership. That’s a function of hiring the best and brightest engineers and out-investing the competition to drive innovation. Lastly, the business itself has to demonstrate performance from a P&L/operating margin perspective. Over the years, that basic formula – combining engineering innovation with flawless execution – has produced consistent excellence. ## A leader in innovation and R&D At Broadcom, we spend a lot of time thinking about where the company needs to focus next as our teams build their product roadmaps. And by out-investing the competition from an R&D perspective, Charlie maintains that Broadcom has demonstrated long, qualitative engineering and technology advantages over others in the market. Broadcom invests $5 billion annually in pure research and development. That’s money spent directly on engineers, an investment that ultimately translates into great research and development work. As Charlie noted, there’s nothing static about technology; the state of the art is always changing. And so from Broadcom’s perspective, it’s critical that we keep raising the bar during these inevitable technology transitions and deliver innovation. The upshot: seamless execution with results that set the company apart. Also, Broadcom is much more than just a financially well-run semiconductor maker. It’s no coincidence that for the second consecutive year, the Global Semiconductor Alliance named Broadcom as the best financially managed semiconductor company. Our product-first approach, innovation leadership and execution together help us create shareholder value. Every day we connect a myriad of technologies, impacting everything from smartphones to digital homes to data centers. In fact, as Charlie said, during the COVID lockdown, when so many people were forced to work from home, 99% of their data passed through at least one Broadcom chip. What other company can make that claim? On the flipside of our innovation mindset, we partner with the world’s most successful companies, including hyperscalers, telcos and automotive OEMs, to deliver solutions for tomorrow. Broadcom combines global scale, engineering depth, a broad intellectual property and product portfolio, superior execution and operational focus to deliver category-leading solutions so our customers can build and grow successful businesses in a rapidly changing and increasingly connected world. ## Forging strong customer relationships Broadcom’s success is tightly tethered to its ability to understand customer challenges. That helps us keep an ear to the ground to flag potential issues and anticipate needs. It also helps inform Broadcom’s approach to innovation and where to invest. But then, staying connected is also not enough. It's critical to solve customer problems by delivering innovative solutions before anyone else. “This is something that I live every single day,” Charlie commented, adding that “staying close to our customers is critical to [Broadcom’s] success.” Our products connect people, homes, production processes, and businesses. They enable service providers, data centers and the cloud to quickly move and store huge volumes of data needed for everyday applications like email, social media, eCommerce, cloud storage, banking, video on demand, and gaming services. Broadcom products have been designed and optimized for end-to-end integration and deliver the best-possible performance. That’s Connected by Broadcom. ### [The System That Didn’t Exist: How Broadcom’s Davor Roglic Built the Data Platform Behind Carbon Black’s Cloud](https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/articles/innovation-in-engineering/the-system-that-didn-t-exist-how-broadcom-s-davor-roglic-built-the-data-platform-behind-carbon-black-s-cloud) ### [Connecting the Edge: Empowering the AI-Agent Era](https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/articles/ai-infrastructure/connecting-the-edge-empowering-the-ai-agent-era) ### [Dell Delivers First End-to-End Inflight PQC-Ready Encryption for Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerEdge Using Broadcom Emulex SecureHBAs](https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/articles/security/dell-delivers-first-end-to-end-inflight-pqc-ready-encryption-for-dell-powerstore-and-dell-poweredge-using-broadcom-emulex-securehbas) [Episode 16: Interview with Charlie Kawwas, President of Broadcom's Semiconductor Solutions Group](https://players.brightcove.net/6415665063001/Vh8ALpkmx_default/index.html?videoId=6328973638112) — 24:29, published 2025-01-18 ### Simplicity in execution - [Connected by Broadcom interview series](https://www.broadcom.com/info/connected-by-broadcom#video-series)