Digital Transformation at Siemens USA: CEO Interview Barbara Humpton (CxOTalk #330)
Digital, transformation. Remains one of the most important, topics in business. Today and so. We're speaking with Barbara, humped in who is the CEO. Of. Siemens, USA. Hey, Barbara how are you hey. Michael I'm doing great thanks for having me on well, thanks, for being here Barbara tell. Us about Siemens. USA and tell us about your role Siemens. Truly is a large, and phenomenal, force here in the u.s.. Globally. Siemens, has three, hundred eighty-five, thousand, people 50, thousand of them are here in the US we've actually been, a US, company for, a hundred, and sixty years you'll, find Siemens employees, in all 50, states, we're. Doing about 23, billion in revenue, annually, and actually. What a lot of people don't know is we're a net exporter so, for. Just about everything, that Siemens, does from power generation to. Transmission, and distribution to. Buildings. Mobility. Health care, every. Aspect, of the corporation, is represented. Here in the u.s. Siemens, largest, market you. Are the. The breadth, of your reach is actually, pretty, extraordinary I, attended. A Siemens innovation, day two, days this past summer and I. Think everybody knows the Siemens brand name but give, us a sense of the kinds, of products. And services you provide a lot, of people know about. B2c. Business, to consumer b2b. Business, to business, Siemens. Is a business, to society. Company, think. Of us as a large infrastructure. Company, we're working, on the kinds, of things that in, electrification. Automation. And digitalization. That, are truly shaping. The future of the world you. Know Siemens, put together a business strategy based, on global mega trends if you, think about. Urbanization. Climate. Change, the, aging, demographics. Of the human population everywhere. The the. Expanding. Reach of global supply change, and then the, digitalization, of everything, these are things that are happening in, Ex, herbal forces, moving, world markets, so. Siemens, business, Oh G is built around that making. Sure that we bring our know-how in energy. In infrastructure. In, manufacturing. Mobility. Etc, to, meet the needs of society here in the US all. Of these, different. Domains that you've described, are undergoing. A tremendous amount of change, there's, a lot, of dynamism in, the. Market, and so as you. See, these changes. As CEO. How. Does that affect. Your, thinking, and your business strategy, well, the number one thing that's happening, right now is this digital.
Revolution. That we're part of you. Know Siemens has been building, elements. Of, Technology, since. Its inception it the whole company, is over a hundred and seventy years old and, from. The very beginning. The whole application of technology, was, to help achieve change. Innovation. In in, productivity. Etcetera. Influencing. Every one of the industrial, revolutions, so, here we are in what we're calling the fourth Industrial. Revolution where. We've, moved from steam, to, electric, to, automation. Now. We have the digitalization, we're truly the, use of data, becomes. Central, to the, business models and the capabilities. Being offered, in every, one of our market segments, so. You know take any market, segment and and let's take one of them that typically. Has some really, long. Life cycles, to it the power markets, you, know when you're standing up a power plant key, questions, in the past used to be from the utilities, what, sort of technology, do we want to have in our plant what's. Going to be the life cycle, how, can we get a long term service agreement, in place etc, now. We're beginning to ask different questions what. Is the future of power, how will power needs, change. In this, new environment, that, we're dealing with today and then. How, can we use the data that we can gather from all of this physical equipment, to, make our operations, more efficient. To make maintenance. More, responsive. To. The lifecycle of assets, etc the. Application. Of data to tell us how the physical, world is performing, is really, fundamentally. Changing, everything, now. What we're doing in the US as a leadership team is taking, a good hard look and, getting. Out our binoculars looking. Multiple. Years, into the future to the best of our ability, and then. Asking. Ourselves what, kinds of things do we need to be doing today to, enable the future, that we envision, for ourselves and, and for this society were part of, none.
Of Us can see that future for real I mean just think about the time since, 2007. When we saw the convergence. Of the, technologies, that would ultimately lead, to the, iPhone. In. In, computing, and communications. We've seen this. This. Confluence. Of technologies. That have given us exponential. Growth and capability. Those. Same, technologies. Are now being integrated. Into. This this, physical, infrastructure. That Siemens, has been creating. These. Multiple. Centuries now and and. We're right on the cusp of being able to see that kind of exponential. Growth and capability, take, hold and carry, us further into the future so. This, shift. In business. Model, based, on data. How. Do you go about doing that driving, that kind of change, inside. A company. With twenty, three billion dollars, of revenue, and I think you said fifty thousand of employees, in the, u.s. how do you how, do you how. Do you do that well. Hey every, corporation, wrestles, with this right how do I innovate, while I'm making, sure I attempt to excellence. In the, core business, that I already have now. Siemens, globally, has established, an, innovation. Approach that, is really full-bodied, and and let, me just explain the, framework here. We. Take a couple of different looks at the true you, know deep into the future. Siemens. Corporate, technologies, pure, research and development, that's going on around the globe is looking way out into the future to, determine. What are the kinds, of technologies, and capabilities we need to be prepared, for and, here. In the US by the way Princeton, New Jersey and, Berkeley California are two locations, where we host innovation. Teams and corporate technologies, they, yes they are focused, on the, u.s. they're located, here but, they're also networked. Into, global. Teams that. Are taking the same topics, and applying, them in different regions of the world likewise, we. Leverage work that's going on in other innovation, centers around the world and to bring those capabilities, here, to the US so. That's the pure research and, here in the US we're doing cullet 1.3, billion dollars worth, of independent, research and development, every year. Meanwhile. We also started, a venture capital, arm it's called next 47 its, headquarters, is in Palo, Alto California, the. Team there is constantly, scanning the, the. Ecosystem. Looking. For. Entrepreneurs. Who, are really. Making groundbreaking. Advancements. In technologies. And capabilities that, we think are going to be vital to our future what. We like to do is take enough of a stake in the company and be, engaged, enough, in their operations. To be able to be a meaningful, player, in in, that company's, growth in fact, I would say the the easy rule of thumb is to say you want to be the first phone call for, the President, or founder, when, they have a key question, hey, Siemens I've, got an idea how can i dot dot, and on. Our side what we're doing is we're opening up the portfolio. Of, access. To customers. Access. Into the rest of our technologies. To, help those venture. Capital, companies.
Of Ours really. Get off the ground and and make headway we. Expect, those companies, to disrupt us it's what we want them to do and one. Of the other things we've done is we've encouraged, current, Siemens, employees, to, bring their ideas to. Next. 47 and we'll, invest in those ideas I've had, some cases, where former. Siemens, US employees, now have started their own companies, with our help and we're, their number one partner, so. This whole idea of, creating. An innovation, all. That. Can run in parallel with, the, organization's. Who are ensuring, we're meeting, our customer, commitments, every, single day is really. Vital and it keeps us challenged, now, the, key is getting those teams to work collaboratively, across boundaries. And there's, this constant, ebb and flow where there's the, actual mergers, and acquisitions, that bring more capability, into the core along. With this idea of spinning out new, future, ideas to. Keep the innovation, engine running it's a pretty dynamic, model, and I'm really, pleased with the results were seeing Barbara. We, were talking about digital, transformation and. The. Various types of innovation. Activities. In which you're engaged. So. Is. Innovation. Is it fair to say that innovation is, the heart, of digital. Transformation from. Your perspective, oh I, believe so, I believe. So I and, everybody. You know you can think about innovation is that this you, know lofty. Hard. To reach goal no, innovation. Is all about, you. Know curiosity. And initiative, it's, all about being. Curious about what's possible and then. Taking, the initiative to make it happen actually at Siemens. One of the key things we're focusing, in on is this whole question of whether, or not people need to be afraid, of the future yeah there's this fear that robots. Are going to take over the world that automation is going to eliminate the need for humans, and in. Our, perspective is nothing, could be further from the truth, the. The goal of innovation, is is, to keep propelling us forward and, every. Time we take a step with technology. We're actually elevating. The role of the human we're actually advancing, what's humanly, possible, so, you see, technologies. Like whether, it's robotics, or or AI as an, extension of human capability as opposed to a replacement, oh by, all means and and I like to say from, the first time a human picked, up a rock and used it as a tool right. The role of the human change what that human was capable of was, different and and. All of the technologies, that we're looking at right now are, merely. MOT de rocks these, are things that are now at hand, capable. Of helping us do things we've never been able to do before so, there's so the question therefore is how to adapt. These tools, in the service, of, whatever. Business product, services we're creating and delivering that's. Right and in doing so I think we have some great opportunities, right now there's, been a lot of worry about what is this going to do for jobs and.
It's. I want to share just a couple of thoughts here you, know one is I think, we're aware that automation, does, change, what, work gets done how that work gets done but. What we're discovering, is with each new. Introduction. Of technology. And think back really even think back on the first Industrial, Revolution the. Idea of bringing steam. And, having an assembly, line it. Actually created, a whole new, industry. Multiple. Industries, that, that, brought millions. Of jobs to the world the. Same effect, is going to be happening, now that we, may be doing different tasks, the, role of the human and the in the overall, function, may change, but. But it is human, beings who, guide and, and envision. The future and, who create, what. About, the. Role of, talent. In all, of this we've spoken about innovations. We've spoken a little bit about business, models, but, when you look at digital transformation. What. Happens to talent. Employee retention, the. Impact, on employees and so forth yeah. Yeah, this has been a big topic for us at Siemens because, you. Know while we've been this. Powerhouse. In electrification, automation. As we enter digitalization. We've, become one, of the top ten software, companies in the world a journey, that began 10 years ago with the acquisition of some core capability. That, would be useful in, the manufacturing. Process has. Become the. Backbone of, the, creation, of the digital twin the. Ability, for businesses. All around the globe to, be able to, model. Their product, you, know the things they want to create model, their production, processes, and then model. Their products, and operation, we. Work today with a hundred and forty thousand, companies. Around, the globe and the, question is where are we going to find all the talent, that it's going to take to fulfill, the need so, we're competing against, the top tech companies, right now for that talent, and and. I think there's a wonderful, dialogue going on globally. About what's. The best approach for drawing people, into this and I'm pleased to say that I, get, an opportunity to, dig, deeply into this in the u.s. having, but just been appointed to the American. Workforce policy, advisory board by secretary Ross and Ivanka Trump I'll, be helping the. Administration. Look at how do our US, workforce policies. Enable. The creation, of the opportunities. That we need and enable, the, readiness. Of our workforce, for the future now. My own perspective, is that the. Best way to learn is by, doing I. Have. AI obviously hold, a you know formal education, and high esteem but. The longer, I work in my career the, more convinced, I am that businesses, have a huge role to play in. Educating. Employees. And helping, them elevate, their skills to meet the needs of the future in. My own case when I got started at IBM, they, took me as a math major out of college, and put, me through a training, program and, and. It was funny because it was the first time I had experienced, anything out of academic, training I was, actually in a classroom setting, where the instructors, wanted, me to succeed, I wasn't competing, against other classmates. To get a better grade they. Wanted everyone to earn an a because we. All wanted, to be able to be excellent. In, producing. Software for. Mission. Critical needs, in. In IBM's, portfolio. So. That same, spirit, today of saying, you, know we want the best on our, front lines doing. The work in, whether it's you know in our manufacturing, sites or whether it's sitting, side-by-side with customers, analyzing, their business processes, whether. It's providing. Services, maintenance, etc in, the field we, want our folks to be top-notch and, so we're, spending fifty million in training, annually here within the US five hundred million annually. Globally. It's. It's an impressive investment. To be making as a corporation, and one that I'll say I'll, be encouraging, other businesses, to make as well as we carry, the US economy into the future Barbara, of that large, investment. Can. To. What extent, are you have are you having to do things differently. Or, amplify. Or change the nature of training, given. The, the. Changes that are taking place in, the. Environment. The technology, environment, the economic environment and, so. Forth and to what extent is it just sort of you know business as usual because we've always invested in training this. Is such a great topic Michael because I think there's a lot of work being done right now in the field of you know with the effectiveness, of training and training in different forms.
We've, Been talking a lot here recently about you. Know you can measure someone's IQ. There's. Recently. In recent years we were all taught to think as well about the emotional, quotient EQ, and now, we've been teasing a lot about well now we have to measure employees. DQ their digital quotient, their. Ability, to work with the digital tools of the trade their ability, to understand, how data, is changing, business models etc. And and. And so as we're reaching out with our, training. To employees what we're finding is people learn different, ways of course. Having. A catalogue. Of. Formal. Offerings, is important, because there are people who learn best in. Those sort, of formal settings, having. The ability to form up ad hoc teams and assign. New members into more, experienced, digital, teams where they can learn in a hands-on, way that's, valuable to. Something. Else we haven't touched on yet is apprenticeships. So. Siemens, brought, the German, apprenticeship, model into. The, u.s. out of necessity we had a we, had a plant that was opening up in Charlotte North Carolina we. Needed about a thousand, people well. We got ten, applicants. We didn't have enough qualified, applicants. To fill all the jobs and what, we opted to do was partner, up with the local community college in Charlotte North Carolina and. Create. A mechatronics course, and an apprenticeship, which. Then allowed. Us to have. People develop, their skills learn on the job and, that. Combination, of, formal, education with. Hands-on. Experience, really. Is the, magic equation. For, for, building, a capability, that endures it, sounds like employee, development, of all. These various types is is. A, very high priority for you you seem intimately, familiar. With the, various types of programs and activities that are going on, yeah, we're, spending a lot of time on this as a leadership team because, whether. You're in building technologies, or power. And gas or, working, in factory automation this, is the number one topic making, sure that that, we have the right people to. Serve our customers needs what's, going on with, your. Customers. We've been talking about the. Changes. That Siemens. Is undertaking, business model and all these these various, things but, of course your customers, are facing the same. Dynamism. In the market, and so what do you see among your customers, I mean you have such a diverse, and large customer, base yeah. It is. Where. To begin the, customers, obviously. Are on they're all on, a digital journey, and we're all in this together let me put it that way, so. What. I find is that we have some customers, who are very much on the early, adopter, end of things the. Folks. Who are opening. Up new avenues of, business. You know starting new business models based on the use of data. Those, those, I'll. Call them disruptors, maybe. They're disrupting, themselves, and and, they're embracing. Digitalization. And moving, their businesses, forward and and. We're an easy partner, for them because the. Breadth and depth of our capabilities. I actually, think there's no other there's. No other company like Siemens with the ability, to fulfill. The. Full, breadth of a customer's, digital, journey, so think about aerospace, and defense think about. The. Automotive, segment, you, know you'll find Siemens, working, from.
Early, Design, all, the way through to you, know life cycle maintenance of, product. Lines for our customers, there but. But that's not everybody in the United States you know there is, a huge, segment. Of the of the market, where. People know that. Change. Is happening and the key questions, they have to answer are. When. Is the right time to invest and. Remember. Two. Decades ago when people were starting. To see, how they could use enterprise, resource planning tools, well, making, a shift into. Enterprise. Resource planning tool and si P an Oracle or something like that was, a monumental, effort it required an entire business process overhaul. Etc, the. Really cool thing about what's happening, right now with digitalization. Is that. The change can happen incrementally in, fact. We're doing this even within Siemens we've got some places within, within, Siemens, where you, could go to a factory and see it as a world-class. Example. Of the application, of automation. From end to end and you can go to other places where you'll step into factories, where you know a lot of what we're doing is very much fine craftsmanship. But. What. We're introducing, is pilots. And projects, where the. Use of data is making, even, those shops more, effective. And that's, where we're partnering up with customers, and and, working, side-by-side with them in fact what you'll hear us talk about a lot these days is, co-creation. There's. Nothing, better than getting into the customers, environment, we've, got the know-how in our operational. Technology, and and how, our control systems work etc but, they are experts, in their, products, and what their overall goals are sitting, side-by-side in. That, kind of multidisciplinary. Team. Environment, is really. Crystallizes. And catalyzes. Some great concepts, to. Really. Drive, development. Towards the future for these customers of ours okay. We have a couple. Of questions, from Twitter, Iran. Shaw and arsalan. Khan are both, asking, about. The. Role of. Cultural. Transformation when, you talk about digital transformation, what's. The role of culture. Change and thank you both for asking, that question it's a really good question that's, a great question, yeah, here's. Here's a big question you know can can. The command and control hierarchies. Of the past be, successful. In our digital future, well, maybe, they can but I think what's, even more effective, is the, idea that the future is networked that. Teams. Form around customer. Issues and use. Agile. Approaches. In order, to deliver, capabilities. So. That's. Exactly, the process we're going through right now at Siemens, we. Are actually, people, have heard about vision, 2020, plus its how Siemens. Is, reordering.
Our Strategy, as. We step into the next decade for ourselves and. One. Of the things we focus in on is being, very. Operationally. Focused on, pure-play. Market, segments, bringing, together experts around. Power around, smart infrastructure, around digital industries, but. Then giving those teams, the flexibility. To. Form. Up and norm, and perform. In the, way that's right and appropriate in their marketplace and that. Culture, of being, more networks, than hierarchy. Heart, hierarchical. Is going. To be part of our secret for success in the future the, issue, of. Culture. Seems to come up in general with. Digital. Transformation, and you. Know getting back to the trying, to hone in on what what is digital transformation. Could. We say that it's the combination, and the intersection, of. Business, model innovation and, the. Culture, shift huh. That's interesting yeah, let. Me try something else that on you typically, when I've been talking about this to people I've, been sharing, that I see. It as the intersection of, the, physical. And the virtual world. Right. We've got this we've. Got this physical, world we actually make things we go places we, I. Loved. In the movie ready player one my favorite line in the whole movie is when they say hey I love the real world that's where you can get a good, meal you know, there are certain things that just can't be done in the digital world on the other hand digital. Tools bring, us the ability to know. More, predict. More, plan. More and and. It's, that marriage. Of the. Virtual, and the physical worlds. And closing, the loop between the two that is at the heart of the digital transformation and, so why does culture change matter so much well. Traditionally. Our, our. Organizations. That have addressed real world needs have continued, to operate in, models, that have been around for a century or more and then. Our digital, our, tech market. Has, developed. A very. Different, style and even culture, and the, conversation, that we're having right now is, hey don't we want more of that culture, inside, seamen's so, I'll, share with you we've done some acquisitions recently. Of digital companies and you.
Know There's that question of hey how will our two cultures, mesh and the, fact is we're. A perfect marriage what, I've been finding is that our digital, employees. Who are coming in from the tech industry, are, just champing, at the bit to, get, into, the kind of mission, that we get to drive here, I mean. What we do for society really, matters and they love, the concept of working on projects, that endure, making, a change that truly. Will last for decades and then, likewise our folks who have been working in the physical world are, really excited, to see you know what can happen when we bring more of the, as. I say agile, approaches. Of digitalization. Into, the workforce it's, a very very, interesting way to look. At it, because. I think at. Least in the past there was this kind of surface. View, of digital. Transformation that, it's you know well we're going to build an e-commerce site, and and. I think looking at it as you're describing, the. Implications. Then. Have. Tentacles throughout. All, of your operations, through the technology, of course but, but your operations, and your processes, as well, as the cultural mindsets, that do. The dramatic, change that you were just describing in, terms of going from command and control to. More networked approaches, well. Yeah and and that's the funny thing is as we in. Most parts of the customer. Segments, that we've been working with we, haven't even begun to tap they are to the possible, you, know the one of the first things we do you're absolutely right set up an e-commerce site become, visible, you know have, an internet presence the. Next thing we might do is to say hey how can we use data to help us maintain and, and and, be more efficient, at what we already do but you, quickly get to the point where you start to ask but we in a minute you, know how could we actually just disrupt, this model, I'll give you a good example, think. About the way power gets produced in this country, someone. Out there extracts. Fuel. From the ground someone else transports. It it, goes yet to another spot where maybe it's refined, and, and transformed. In a way that it's made useful. Now it goes through the trans the transportation. Segment, to get, to a place where that fuel is consumed, in a power plant and lo and behold we get electricity I mean even this is a simplification. We've. Got an effort. Going on at Siemens called, gas, to power and if. You look, at how to use data all across. That value, chain bringing. Together all of the players you find, you can totally, look at the whole risk equation, in a different way you might be able to make it less, expensive totally. To, be able to get, those electrons, onto wires. I'm. Telling you it's, the digitalization, can, fundamentally. Change how. Business, gets done oh you'll. Hear people talk about you know the most fundamental, kind of thing, how, to think about Siemens, as a service, you, know what if what, if our customers, didn't want to own our assets, anymore but wanted to have someone else who owned them and wanted, to have Siemens, in the loop just, assuring, high, levels of performance to, meet, that customers, core business, model well. I think these are all things that are possible, and they're, all things worthy of exploration and. Where that co-creation, with customers, gets really, fun we, have some more questions from Twitter, and so let's jump to those and then go. Back to the. Co-creation, with customers, because I think that's a really crucial. Topic. Ear I'm Shaw who's, like just on a roll is asking like many, questions, but, a really, good one is they're, all really good actually is how. Do you measure the ROI of, these. Digital transformations. How do you balance. Investment. In light of that, ROI, it seems like another very important question yeah. That's. A great question and and, I will share with everyone one, of the really key things is to, think. About the time scale that, you want to look at. You. Know do you need short-term. Return do, you need long-term return and, what. Your own business, situation, demands, can help you figure out how to sequence, in activities. In digital and almost. Think of it as a pay it forward idea, you.
Know What if early. Work. To, improve, productivity. Could. Yield, the kind of you. Know financial performance, improvements. That would then allow you to invest more deeply, in. Technologies. That will shift your business model right there, are others some. Businesses, find themselves, at an existential. Moment saying, if I don't, automate. If I, don't really. Take advantage of digital I'm at risk of becoming. Irrelevant. To, the marketplace and and. Companies like that have to really. Begin to think and act quickly to. Be ready now I'm seeing data from some partners in our ecosystem. We do a lot of work with Deloitte among others and Deloitte, has some, just, eye watering. Business cases, that can show the amount, of gains. That can be made from digital transformation. Everything from, increased. Productivity, on a shop floor to reduce, cycle, times for products to market, to. Enhanced. Satisfaction. Of customers, the customer experience. You. Know it there there, are many many factors to be measured, and managed, and and, they're the, fun, part of this is deciding, hey, which are those elements that we want to make factors, in our decision making process Deloitte. Is doing interesting things I just did recently last, week in San Francisco, a CX. I talk forum, with a chief. Strategy, officer of, Deloitte, Stephen, Goldbach who wrote an interesting book called detonate. What. About how do you another question about balancing. How do you, how. Do you balance, investment. In. Existing. Operations. Which. Generate, your your, revenue. Versus. Investment. In. Disruption. That, may, not have a return for, some time in the future this. Is the holy grail question, right this, is what makes corporate. Strategists. Earn their, keep in large corporations that, ability. To plan, out a. Path. That. That. Actually yields, the resources, that will support that, future, this is this is what we're all working to as leaders in a corporation. And. And let's think about this a minute back in that context, of business to society, you know there have been a lot of people who've thought that our business to society message was all about philanthropy you know what you're trying to do is create enough profit so, that you can give to the community and in, fact I want everybody, to think about this differently think. About Maslow's. Hierarchy of, needs, within. A corporation, at the very foundation, you know in, in Maslow's hierarchy it's. You know food clothing shelter you, know does it take care of the basic human needs for us it's integrity. Safety, business, compliance. Right you don't even go into business if you're not prepared to do that move. Up the hierarchy and what you'll find is that being. Able to operate. Profitably, is, well, up there but it's not the ultimate, of the. Corporate. Hierarchy. The. The ultimate, pinnacle.
Of The corporate hierarchy is, what. We give, to society what, we mean, what we're in business, for so. Every single day Siemens, wakes up focused. On how to bring, our know-how in. Electrification, automation. And digitalization. To, these markets, that we've chosen to serve, in. Order to do that we must we. Must first. Perform, profitably. And then. We can only use the. Resources. That we have at hand in order to enhance, our capabilities for, the future so an. Innovation, plan funding, for that innovation that. That is all part and parcel of the business plan and if, you've been watching Siemens. Evolution. Closely, you will have seen several years ago the, decision, to spin-off. Healthcare. As its, separate, company, and to create. A joint venture in, the renewable energy space, and you'd, ask why well. In, both of those cases there. Just wasn't enough corporate. Resource on hand to keep us investing, at a rate that would have us number one or number two in all of the markets we're trying to serve so. By spinning, out we raised market, capital, we got additional investors. Into the boat kept, a majority, share. So. Siemens still gets, to have the guiding, thought. And principle, that keeps these technologies. Moving, in the direction we're, interested, in but, we've attracted a lot more investment, into the mix so. Day by day by day we're asking these kinds, of questions what. Investment, is needed in order to realize. Our goals how does our business plan hold, together with the performance, of today's, products, and services, and what, else do we need to do to. Strengthen that portfolio so, we can continue to, invent we, have another, question, from Twitter and it's directly, related to this, topic you were just talking about I'll, just ask you Barbara to answer, it relatively, quickly because. We're. Gonna run out of time and there's there are other things that I want to discuss, with you I wish, we three or four hours or five hours we could just, go. On but. We have about 10 minutes so, Gus. Beck - asks. He said on. This, issue of. Balancing. Innovation. Versus. The, stability, of current operations.
There's. A lot of risk and companies have gotten into big trouble by not getting that balance right and, so how, do you as CEO ensure. That, you manage, that balance in the right way, market. Insight and then. Biodiversity. It. Takes a lot of you. Plant a lot of seeds to have the strong ones thrive and survive and and, planting, some seeds in a lot of small ways, and, and. Looking to see which ones actually will, thrive okay. That was that was pretty short thank you for that if. You know it's such an important question is well and it goes right, to the heart of your, role as CEO, so, next. Time we'll have to explore that one in more depth but. Let's go on to the. Topic of IT, versus. Ot. Because, I know it's very important, to you so maybe for. The people who don't know would you just give. Us a very brief primer, on that subject and why is it so important for you and for Siemens yeah, IT information. Technology, the technology we use every day in computers, telephones, etc that. Keeps us connected and, and provides, us with. Applications. That fulfill, needs fantastic. IT ot. Operational. Technology, is that technology that. We may think of as invisible the. Systems, that run buildings, and transportation systems. Energy systems, healthcare, etc there, there it's often embedded in equipment. That we're using in applications. And and. What we've come to discover, is that there's, a convergence, now of IT, and ot, we're sitting on the same network the, Internet, of Things is, happening, and in. Our world the Internet of really big things is coming, together and, and. It's that convergence. Where people need to begin to think about their operational. Technology. These. Tools that they've been using for, environments. And trail predation and energy. That. That they need to begin to realize that, data, flows and applications, perform. Every. Bit as as. Effectively. In those areas from, a data perspective, then, how. Weird. Is the difference, of the distinction lie because of course IT is responsible, for the setting up of that. The the infrastructure. To manage that data is it a matter of which, side is generating, the data yeah. You can think of it that way think. About a big piece of machinery. With. Sensors. That produce. Data. That. Can give, us intel. On how that machinery, is performing, that, can flow into an, operating system like ours mine sphere which. Probably, sits, in an Information, Technology Enterprise, of servers, and communications. Gear etc and, but. It's the what. We are specifically, focused on is that the, data and the, flow of controls. And interaction, with the operational, technology, that is going to bring about really. Dramatic, change for, our customers, so, you're talking about the. Transformation. Of, factory. Cities. All. Kinds, of different physical environments. That's, exactly, right I mean think about a future city where. Your. Transportation. Systems are actually connected, in with the, buildings, that they connect are connected. In with you. Know the the city services, be they the, you, know public utilities, etc, and and. Then think about what the citizen, experience could. Be like in an environment, like that a city, actually performing. Better for its residents, a cities. All across the nation right now are exploring, just that so. The internet of really big things is, maybe coming to a city near you before. We go on to our, next topic I'm sorry these are we, could spend an hour on each, of these I mean one of these yeah so. The last thing that I wanted. To talk about and I'm glad we have a little bit of time for it is the. Role of women. In, technology. You're. A really unusual, example. Of a, woman, who is CEO, of your. An engineering, company such a male-dominated, field.
Yes. Yes. It's. A it's an outstanding position, to be in and. I from what I gather, I. You. Know people have asked me a lot about is, was it hard you know was it hard to be a woman in in, a technical, field coming, up and. I don't know that I ever felt it was hard I mean there were awkward moments, I'll never forget coming up through the ranks and those IBM, days we were working in satellite command and control and I was at this fantastic, customer, site and we've, had a great meeting and I said excuse me which way is the ladies room and they said we're. Not sure we have a ladies room you know everybody has those kinds of stories from the early days of engineering. But, but, beyond that the silly stuff when. It came right down to it, every. Time I was assigned to a team it was a team focused, in on a mission that mattered and, you. Know getting, in the foxhole with smart, people you. Know using all, of our know-how to go, solve problems. For me it was just, fun, and and. For me every, job felt, like the most important, job in the company and maybe. The. Last job I'd ever have you, know this boy this is the pinnacle of my career so, so, with each successive, role, whether, it was managing, a project team or whether it was managing. A business portfolio of, projects, I, got to work on things like satellite. Command and control, border. Security, with Customs and Border Protection when, it was just being formed, gosh, biometrics. For law, enforcement, at the federal level helping, the FBI discover. That rapid. DNA identification, was, was. Within reach from a technological perspective, all. Of those things were just you, know fascinating. Topic after fascinating. Topic and and the way my career progressed was simply, by, responding. When the phone rang and my bosses said hey we need your help on the you know Project X in. Fact it. Was really responding, to calls all, along. The way that led me to Siemens, and. And since. I've been in siemens as, you can tell just from the conversation, we've been having the. Kinds. Of things we get involved in the kind of difference, we can make in, the world this. Is really, compelling, it's, a compelling opportunity and, it's. Just been such a privilege to be offered the opportunity to play this role did. You ever experience. The. Proverbial, glass, ceiling, you know it's funny because, IBM. In. Its federal business got. Sold to Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin was you know being a government, contractor. There. Was a lot of this feeling that oh yeah we're in this male-dominated world, and, yet, Lockheed, Martin was, one of the first, aerospace. And defense companies, to promote women into leadership positions. So today Marilyn. Hewson who will also be serving. On the workforce policy advisory, board is. Leading, that Corporation and we have strong leaders, up and down the chain so. You. Know it's funny I had plenty of experiences. Where people. Told me things and I accepted. Them you know when when I chose, my my husband and I chose to have our family, early in our marriage. People. Said oh you know having kids you're gonna that's gonna sideline, you from the executive, track I kind. Of said so. Be it you know and what I really want to do is raise a family and if, that prevents, us from being. Able to you. Know be part of leadership in the future then, I guess. That's the way it is but, but, it turns out fate didn't really have that in store it. Turns out that today, there's.
A Lot of people really value the, fact that a grandmother. Who, has the perspective, of a lifetime, of being, part of a family actually, has a perspective that matters too so. I think we're living at a great time for, men and women, who want, to lead. Balanced, lives and, and who want to choose, if, they want to advance great, if they want to go deep in a subject matter and you, know stay in a role and and, really get. As. Broad as they possibly can in that role all, of those options are available to us there's not a definition, of success. That is too limiting. I think Barbara, we're. Really over time here we're out of time but can, I just ask you one more question, because I think this topic is so important. What. Advice do you have for. Women. Who, are, looking, at, you, and they want to achieve, in, in a male-dominated industry. What advice you have for those folks well, be yourselves, be. Yourselves. It's. The best advice I can give to anyone each of us comes to work with our individual, talents and abilities, and we ought to just be feeling the joy of, contributing. And making, the most of what we are able to do to help our organizations. Advance, okay, and with that I'm very sad to say that that we're out of time Thank. You Barbara so much for for taking the time with us today, it's been fun Michael thank you we've, been speaking with Barbara. Hampton, who is the CEO, of, Siemens. USA. What, an interesting, conversation. So. Much insight, and wisdom, on, a, lot, of different topics, come. Back next week we have another show, be sure to subscribe on. YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe to. Our newsletter. And you'll keep up-to-date with everything that's going on with CXO, talk. You.
2019-03-08 02:22
