Management Attitudes
Wrong question:
“How do I get the most out of my people?”
Better question:
“How do we create the conditions for our people to get to where they’re heading?”
CEOs Want Company to Adopt AI, Do They Get It?
The New York Times this morning published an article about CEOs wanting their companies to adopt AI.
Reminds me of several times over the past 25 years of my career. CEOs read an article maybe from major media or TV about a new technology. Ah, that’ll give us an edge, some think. Others, we need to jump on this before our competitors get it.
Mostly, they didn’t really have a clue what the technology could really do. Or how to implement it. Or what the costs would be. Or what real benefits, as opposed to media speculation about benefits, could be accrued.
Reports and studies are released in a steady stream about projects delayed or not succeeding due to lack of a plan, lack of accountability, lack of executive sponsorship, and the like.
You can read the headline as artificial intelligence (undefined) or automation or robotics.
The time really requires something between over reacting and too much analysis. Choose an executive champion who will begin methodically building a team.
Phoenix Contact Announces U.S. Leadership Transition
For my money, Jack Nehlig has been one of the premier leaders in the control and instrumentation market in the US. He has led Phoenix Contact US through the difficult market transitions of the past 15-20 years. I’ve enjoyed his Tweets (remember those) and LinkedIn posts that are always positive and supportive. He is retiring at the end of the year. And thus a leadership transition.
Phoenix Contact USA announced a new management structure and leadership team, effective September 1, 2024. This board-based leadership change supports the successful maturation of the U.S. company as a Group Center of Competence and the overall Business Area (BA) structure that Phoenix Contact first implemented in 2016. It also provides a seamless transition in preparation for the retirement of Jack Nehlig, President of Phoenix Contact USA, who is retiring on December 31, 2024, after 23 years with the company.
- Heath Scoggin has been promoted to President of the BA Device Connectors and will lead Phoenix Contact Development and Manufacturing legal entity, Process Management, and Quality.
- Kevin Zak has been promoted to President of the BA Industrial Components and Electronics and will lead the Phoenix Contact U.S. Sales Subsidiary legal entity, Logistics, Government Relations, and ESG.
- Davis Mathews has been promoted to President of the BA Industry Management and Automation and will lead the Phoenix Contact Holdings legal entity, Human Relations, Digitalization, IT, Purchasing, and Facilities.
- In addition, Kyle Bordner was promoted to Vice President of Finance and Risk Management, replacing David Russo, who retired in May.
Scoggin, Zak, Mathews, and Bordner have been named members of both the Phoenix Contact USA Executive Board and the Management Board. The Phoenix Contact Management Board will also include Marian Roldan, Senior Vice President of Human Relations, and Doug Ferguson, Senior Vice President of Americas Operations Services.
Good Feel For People
The human resources department of one large company I worked for traveled to the various manufacturing sites leading management seminars. I can still remember one where they put up one of those consultant’s 2×2 matrices. They compared “feel for people” versus “intellectual control of emotions.” Good and Poor. Of course, the top right box was good in each category.
That is something for which we can strive as leaders of organizations whether non-profit, or profit, or church, or wherever 3 or more are gathered for a task.
I thought of this when I read Axios (one of my two favorite news sources) Finish Line newsletter about the private equity firm KKR. If you don’t know KKR, think the Richard Gere character in Pretty Woman.
The big picture: KKR operates what it calls “Centers of Excellence,” including one focused on human capital. One of its goals is to learn how to identify great leaders, whether current CEOs or future CEOs, for the sake of driving outsized returns. The focus is more on psychological traits than on résumés. Behind the scenes: KKR has discovered that having a genuine sense of empathy might be the key identifier, according to Pete Stavros, KKR’s co-head of global private equity. For example, does the person exhibit a sense of responsibility not only for shareholders and top executives, but also for the most junior of employees? In other words, a North Star of: “My people, my problem.” Other signals could include a company’s safety record or employee engagement scores. The bottom line: This might sound squishy, particularly to spreadsheet obsessives. But private equity might be one of the last industries to recognize the importance of corporate culture — and how that culture can beget capital.
Podcast Manufacturing Leadership
Gary offers observations on the continuing saga of former GE executives running Boeing changing the culture from engineering-driven to Wall Street-driven. Also thoughts on good manufacturing leadership.
Some people have nothing to lose in the game. They have no skin in the game.
The Milton Friedman school of economics says top executive need to have stock in the company so that they have skin in the game. Of course, that led to excesses like Jack Welch at GE and his protogés at 3M, Boeing, Home Depot who all ruined thriving companies by playing financial games in order to maximize their stock options in short term gains. Did they have skin in the game? Well, would they lose anything if the stock didn’t perform? Probably not much since they also negotiated large salaries and golden parachutes.
Skin in the game would have been if Elon Musk had sat inside the Cybertruck when they shot at it to test the bulletproof construction.
Soul in the game is when you care. Robert Pirisig writing his essay on quality in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance talked of the mechanic who cared about the quality of his work. Obviously the executives at Boeing had no soul in the game.
Turning The Giant: Leadership Challenges in Control and Automation
October 2003. We had a couple of issues of our new trade publication, Automation World, out into the world. There were two user conferences the same week that month. Foxboro (Invensys at the time) held its meeting in Houston. Emerson Process gathered users in Orlando.
Co-founder Jane talked it over with me. “I’m more acquainted with Emerson, so why don’t I go there, and you go to Foxboro?” OK. I found myself in Houston while she was in Orlando.
TLDR—I was in the midst of product meetings when my phone rang. Jane. “You’re got to get here.” What? “They want to talk with you.” So, I found a department store in downtown Houston to buy a shirt and underwear. Online, I found a way to fly to Orlando and then back home from there.
I wish I’d have had this new book, Turning The Giant: Disrupting Your Industry With Persistent Innovation, by former Emerson Process CEO John Berra then. I knew very little, well actually almost nothing, about Emerson at that time.
Marketing Director Bill Morrison conducted a person tour of everything at the exhibit hall. And thus began a 10-year relationship with many really smart and nice (at least to me) people. And I saw a lot of technology development over those years along with increasing market reach.
And Berra is the only other man I’ve run into who also played Bellomy in The Fantasticks in community theater.
After he retired, I asked John if he would write a column for Automation World, which he did until the month I left the magazine.
Berra’s book takes a look at his career in control and automation with the stories of companies he worked for and how Emerson Automation all came together. The central theme looks at overcoming challenges (Giants) leaders will face and must overcome. It’s interesting for those of us within the industry. It is also useful information for new would-be leaders about how not everything goes smoothly and what to do about it.
Since I reported post 2003, I’d have liked more details. I understand he had to fit it into his theme, though. Even if you were an ardent Emerson competitor back in the day, it’s worth a read for the background of today’s market. And the leadership lessons are worth the price of the book.
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