[Slartie]

Which is mostly the result of clever engineers that produced a machine no other company in the world can assemble, but that is absolutely crucial to businesses valued at double-digit trillions of dollars.

You don't really need an army of sales managers to sell such a product. Going lean on management and more heavy on engineering is therefore a good idea if you want to keep the lead you have.

[Cthulhu_]

No, but ASML's product is so complicated that they do need a lot more than just engineers - they have 5000 suppliers apparently, coordinating that takes a lot more than clever engineers.

[Slartie]

Clever engineers are usually able to pick up basic supply chain management capabilities. At least as long as it's about suppliers of things in their technical domain.

For non-technical supply chain managers to pick up enough technical chops to understand the stuff they are supposed to manage the supply chain of is comparatively more difficult.

Especially when fierce negotiations to push the price down are not the highest priority, but robustness of supply chains, having alternative options that technically work, and ensuring quality according to tight specs are paramount. Which is how I assume ASML supply chain management to work.