leadership reflections Lawrence Rabiner Leadership—Some Random Thoughts have been fortunate to have Hence I joined MIT’s electrical engi- with virtually every aspect of the field had a seven-year association neering program in my sophomore from filter design, to spectrum analy- with the Massachusetts year and applied for the cooperative sis, to system implementation. Institute of Technology program to gain some practical expe- The next phase of my career (MIT) (as both an under- rience. I applied to several companies involved using DSP to develop Igraduate and graduate student), a and was accepted in the Bell Labs advanced speech processing systems 40-year association with AT&T (first Cooperative Program where I spent at Bell Labs and subsequently at four assignments learning about AT&T Labs Research), and am only designing computer interface circuits he author of this article has now embarking on what I hope will for Telstar, doing simulation studies Thad long leadership roles in be a long and successful career in on Nike-X reentry vehicles to see if creating signal processing academia at Rutgers University and we could distinguish warheads from research as we know it today, as at the University of California at dummies that were sent up as diver- well as our Society, from their Santa Barbara. During this tenure, I sionary tactics, and working on early stages. Larry Rabiner writes have learned a few things about how experimental verification of a theory that engineering leadership has to succeed in engineering and how of binaural hearing that explained two necessary conditions—namely to be an effective manager and lead- why two ears were much better than a sense of how to achieve excel- er, and it is my goal to share some of one in being able to perceive speech lence in individual contributions what I have learned with you. in the presence of interfering speech and how to create strong teams A brief description of some of the and noise. Ultimately this last assign- that can work together and get key parts of my career will lend con- ment became my master’s thesis things done. He describes his text to my subsequent discussion on under Dr. Nat Durlach at MIT and thoughts about leadership based personal work programs and leader- the supervision of Dr. James on what he has learned in a 40- ship. I went to MIT in the fall of Flanagan at Bell Labs. year technical career at AT&T and 1960 without the slightest indication I continued graduate school at most recently in academia. His of what field I would choose for my MIT, working with Prof. Ken article is presented in three sec- career. I was most interested in Stevens on problems relating to tions, the first outlining individual mathematics (like virtually every machine synthesis of speech. My Bell achievements in his own career, freshman accepted into MIT) and Labs advisor, Jim Flanagan, remained the second discussing some was hoping for a career in this field. a coadvisor on my doctoral research important things he has learned That was before I met people who and provided me with summer jobs about individual excellence and really knew mathematics and could at Bell Labs. I finished my Ph.D. dis- achievement, and the third dis- grasp concepts that were well beyond sertation in May of 1967 and imme- cussing some key factors for suc- my capabilities. It was then I learned diately began work at Bell Labs on a cess as a manager. In his view, the difference between loving mathe- permanent basis—again working for the most important attributes for matics as a tool that enabled you to Jim Flanagan on problems in speech successful leadership are individ- solve problems and loving mathe- analysis, synthesis, and coding. ual excellence and strong man- matics as a way of life. The former My earliest work at Bell Labs was agerial talents. became engineers, and the latter in the area of digital signal processing —Arye Nehorai were the true mathematicians of the (DSP), a field that was evolving and Leadership Refelctions Editor world. I, of course, was the former. growing rapidly. I became involved 16 IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE JANUARY 2004 1053-5888/04/$20.00©2004IEEE including those based on temporal with various experiments. In 1985 I thought more than to effect lifestyle representations, spectral representa- became a department head in charge changes, but I truly believe that they tions, and model representations, of the small, but growing, speech are fairly canonic across almost any such as linear-predictive coding recognition group. I expanded the field of endeavor. methods. A wide body of theory as group from an initial size of about 1) Be enthusiastic and passionate to design and analysis of these sys- 12 highly talented individuals to about your work. Life is just too tems evolved. close to 35 permanent and visiting short to be working on dull or The last phase of my original staff. This group made a number of uninspiring projects. Your creativity research at Bell Labs was in the area significant contributions to speech is directly proportional to the time of speech recognition systems. By recognition technology over the five that you think about your work, the late 1970s, methods for process- years that I led the team. In 1990 I and this just happens naturally when ing speech signals had become both was appointed director of the you love what you do and can’t wait extremely sophisticated and easy to Information Principles Research Lab to get to work each day. The adven- implement in either hardware or with responsibility for supervising all ture of discovery and invention array processing software. Thus it research in the area of acoustics and awaits those who are passionate became practical to look at ways of speech processing including a small about their jobs, and almost all new representing speech so that it could but highly focused group in image ideas come from people who own be reliably and efficiently recognized and video processing. The lab grew every aspect of their working lives. by machine. This work, which initial- from about 75 people initially to 2) Sweat the details of what you do. ly utilized simple pattern recognition about 110 people at the time of the Almost everyone gets good ideas technology, evolved to statistical split between AT&T and Lucent about the work they are doing, and methods based on hidden Markov Technologies. At the split, I chose many of these good ideas make sig- modeling. Ultimately the perfor- to join the newly created Research nificant differences to the success of mance of these speech recognition Lab at AT&T as vice president of a project. Without carrying each methods became good enough that the Speech and Image Processing good idea to a stage where it can be they began to be used in services, Services Lab (a group of about 50 evaluated in some prototype or test- often with millions of daily users. In people) since I foresaw the value of bed system, however, you never particular, AT&T utilized simple rapidly moving speech technology to know whether the idea is a great one speech recognition in a service called services that would benefit the com- only in theory (but doesn’t work voice recognition call processing pany. In 1998 I was made vice presi- well in practice) or is one of those (VRCP), which automated so-called dent of Research, with responsibility ideas that change the way a technol- operator-assisted calls and enabled for about 550 people working in vir- ogy plays out in the marketplace and machines to reliably handle collect tually every area of telecom from in the world of technology. calls, person-to-person calls, third- access, to the network, to opera- 3) Neatness counts in everything party billing calls, reversed billing tions, to services. I remained in this you do. No matter how caught up calls, and operator-assisted calls. This position until my retirement in you get in the day-to-day details, it is application was introduced into March 2002. essential that you develop habits AT&T services in March 1992 and During my career I have learned a related to good organization and very rapidly grew to handle 1.2 bil- great deal about how to do research, management of your resources, your lion calls each year with word accura- how to be effective in various posi- work projects, and your life. At some cies of close to 100% (actually about tions, how to lead and manage high- point you will have to access past 99.8%) and with less than 1% rejec- ly talented groups of individuals, and results, prior data records, and stored tion of input speech. The VRCP sys- how to succeed in whatever you records of experimental results. tem ultimately saved AT&T close to endeavor to do. I’d like to outline Without an organized process to rely US$360 million a year in displaced just a few of these key observations. on, you will spend most of your time operator and supervisor costs. looking for information that should As a result of the successes in my How to Succeed in be at your fingertips. Although the technical career, I assumed a num- Your Work Program messy desk is often the cinematic ber of management positions in The following are some key characterization of the “mad but AT&T. In 1972 I became a group thoughts about how to succeed in brilliant engineer,” it is generally the supervisor, responsible for the work whatever occupation you choose.