Tech-Exec Issue 13

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EvEry

CHAUCER GROUP'S MARION SHAW ON DATA TRANSFORMATION, AND PUTTING PEOPLE AND CULTURE AT THE HEART OF SUCCESS

pErson in EvEry organisation has a rolE to play in data"

LETTER FROM thE Editor

very person in every organisation has a role to play in data. Ask me to sum up my hour with Chaucer Group’s Marion Shaw discussing the transformative work of her and her team, and that’s it. Shaw is a fascinating data leader. People, culture, team, democratisation of innovation technologies – it’s all there when you talk to her, but delivered in a way that’s simple to understand and with the kind of clarity that leaves you little doubt as to the success of the project.

And it’s no mean feat, either. Chaucer Group is a traditional speciality insurance and reinsurance organisation with 100 years of history. For Shaw, that also means 100 years of intellectual property and nearly as much data that’s structured, on-prem and well managed. It’s a good

foundation for any transformation, but there’s plenty of work to be done including modernising and streamlining data use, adoption of new technologies and automation, getting under the skin of the hidden data at the company’s disposal, and reinventing data culture and use.

Fortunately, for a self-confessed ‘data cheerleader’, it’s the perfect project. And it shows, in our interview on page 14.

This scale of work – and the passion of people like Shaw – is found in many of our other stories in this issue, too. Take Coats’ Matthew Stockton and the way in which he and his team are nurturing culture as the foundation for people and technology to thrive, or the work of Procter & Gamble’s Jeff Kent and the team of internal and external stakeholders delivering smart manufacturing success across the business. This industry never ceases to amaze.

We hope you enjoy this issue and find inspiration in the people and stories we feature.

Marketing Director

Jack Pascall

Project Directors

Steve Shipley

Katie Fedun

Henry Allton-Jones

Will Tottie

Alex Neagu

Managing Directors

Charlotte Clarke

James Pepper

06 | INSIGHT EXEC SUMMARY

News, views and tech insight

14 | INTERVIEW CHAUCER GROUP

On data transformation, why people and culture drive success, and leadership

32 | PORTFOLIO TECH YOU NEED

Innovations for work, leisure and the environmentally conscious

42 | ENTREPRENEUR CONOR DELANBANQUE

Empowering diversity and inclusion in technology talent

44 | INTERVIEW PROCTER & GAMBLE

On the rise of smart manufacturing, and partner ecosystems driving innovation

62 | PERSPECTIVE LEADERSHIP LESSON: 2023

Michael Drew on the senior tech leadership trends to watch out for

14 44

70 | INTERVIEW COATS

On culture as the foundation for people and technology to thrive

80 88

80 | DISRUPTOR

EARLI

Groundbreaking and purpose-led: conquering cancer with science

82 | INNOVATION DAWN OF THE SUPER BIKES

Meet the all-electric innovators saving the world’s wildlife

88 | INNOVATOR

ECOSIA

Building a better planet as you surf the web

90 | CITY GUIDE

48 HRS: BERLIN

Business and pleasure in the German capital

98 | CALENDAR EVENTS

70 82 90 98 TECH-EXEC MAGAZINE | ISSUE THIRTEEN 05

aCCElErating ChangE

As organisations navigate their sustainable business transformations, using technologies and innovative tools will be crucial. To support their growth Google Cloud has launched its Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change programmes in North America and Europe. They will identify, support and help scale climate-tech startups focused on cloud technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

www.cloud.google.com

A QUESTION OF SECURITY

Writing in a Forbes Technology Council post, Councils Member Tim Liu has set out some of the key cybersecurity trends to follow in 2023. Liu, who is also CTO and co-founder of Hillstone Networks pointed to the need to adapt infrastructure to support and secure the hybrid workforce; a heightened need to focus on IoT and operational technology security; increased and ongoing investment in cloud adoption resulting in a shift in cloud operation management and security; and the changing data center ecosystem requiring better integration between security operations and security infrastructure.

www.forbes.com

3.8

“The average number of AI capabilities that organisations use, such as natural-language generation and computer vision has doubled from 1.9 in 2018 to 3.8 in 2022”

McKinsey: The state of AI in 2022 - and a half decade in review

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

What’s on tech leaders’ minds as we head into 2023 full speed? Well, according to a recent article in Raconteur, lots. In it, CTO at BlackBerry Charles Eagan, Kate Smaje, Global Leader McKinsey

Digital, CIO at Pure Storage Krithika

Bhat, and Pravina Ladva, Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Swiss RE looked at the next 12 months. According to Eagan, focus will be on the intersection between IoT and cybersecurity, specifically how to secure IoT devices and increase awareness across the company’s cyber unit. Smaje pointed to the scaling of applied AI as a key trend over the coming year, while also highlighting the importance of talent management. Both Bhat and Ladva recognised the important of people, democratising technology, and how to attract and retain talent.

www.raconteur.net

HIGHWAY IN THE SKY

Etc., BT Group’s digital incubation business, is collaborating with Altitude Angel, a unified traffic management (UTM) technology provider to develop the UK’s drone superhighway. UTM enables drones to fly safely without pilots over long distances; Altitude Angel’s ARROW technology detects and identifies drones and enables them to share airspace with crewed aviation. The collaboration, in which BT will provide connectivity, network infrastructure and scalability experience, will be a critical step in growing the UK drone industry.

www.newsroom.bt.com

THE ULTIMATE COMPANION

Meet Dee. Or Digital emotional experience, if you want to use her full name. She is immersive, innovative, and intuitive. She is a car, albeit not like any we know. She is the future of digital mobility, and a tech-heavy companion that interacts emotionally with you as she accompanies you on a journey between physical and virtual reality. Dee is BMW’s vision, and will be part of its NEUE KLASSE next model generation in 2025.

At her heart is a Mixed Reality Slider, a central operating control capable of transforming the windscreen into a fully digital experience that can display content, driving information, communications systems and an augmented reality projection. E Ink technology means that she can change her exterior colour, depending on what mood you’re in and, like any good companion, she recognises you, intelligently adapts to you and greets you with a personal avatar. Keep her happy, and her phygital front grille can even smile at you as she visually expresses her emotions.

www.bmw.co.uk

staMping oUt grEEnWashing

The EU has approved the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that, when introduced in 2024, will require all companies listed on the EU’s regulated markets to provide more detailed reporting on sustainability themes including environmental rights, social rights, human rights and governance factors.

www.consilium.europa.eu

LIFE: THE HOLY GRAIL

If you had ‘a mouse showing us the secrets to eternal life’ as your 2023 punt, congratulations. It may be your year. Rejuvenate Bio, a gene therapy startup focused on reversing aging and eliminating age-related conditions, has announced new preclinical research evaluating cellular reprogramming for age reversal in mice that demonstrates the potential to reverse age-associated diseases and potentially extend human lifespan.

www.rejunivantebio.com

Meta is fined by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, after it finds its Facebook and Instagram services breached EU privacy laws.

Every flight across the US is grounded due to a glitch with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions system.

Consumer spending on mobile apps declines for the first time in 2022 after seeing 19% yearon-year growth the year prior.

Stellantis , which makes Jeep and Chrysler vehicles, says it will also make eVTOL company Archer’s ‘Midnight’ electric air taxi.

The Force for Good Initiative says technology investment could reduce the cost of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by US$55trn.

Deloitte launches GreenSpace Tech, which will build a collaborative approach to commercialising and scaling climate technology solutions.

THE POWER

OFPEOPLE

Chaucer Group’s Marion Shaw on data transformation, why people and culture drive success, and leadership

PHOTOS: ROGER BROWN

You have an hour to disarm the bomb. Data, understanding the value chain, and being able to analyse and use the information you have at hand are your only hope for success. It gets your attention, doesn’t it? And while it’s not the plot of the latest Hollywood blockbuster – though, we are hooked – it’s one of the more innovative approaches to collaboration, people and culture, data literacy, and creating inspirational catalysts for data transformation and organisational change we’ve seen for some time. And it comes courtesy of Marion Shaw.

Shaw is the kind of data leader for whom this kind of approach to organisation-wide data culture seems to come naturally – that’s certainly apparent in the hour she and I spent discussing her career in technology and data, building data-enabled strategies that create value and positive business outcomes and, perhaps most importantly, fostering a datadriven mindset and the data transformation she and her colleagues are leading at specialist insurer and reinsurer, Chaucer Group.

“Data’s not about technology, it’s about people and how they need to use it”

DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT DATA... SHOW ME THE VALUE OUTPUT

DATA TRANSFORMATION IS DRIVEN BY GREAT DATA LEADERS AND WE KNOW JUST THE PERSON!

As niche data specialists we understand your challenges. We are placed at the centre of a growing community that provides us with the experience and knowledge to build data teams that align with your business function. We will listen to your needs and advise you on recruitment, retention and development challenges ensuring that you attract top personnel in a fast moving market.

Don’t default to recruitment

JEZ CLARK, CO-FOUNDER & CEO AT EDEN SMITH

In the past decade, we have seen data begin to transform every area of social, economic and corporate life. The proliferation of the Internet, the growth of smart technology and the scale of availability of data has all contributed to the growth of the industry and the demand on data talent.

We’re operating in a hugely competitive and fast paced industry. The labour market, key skills required and demand for data talent is a constantly changing landscape.

SLOW DOWN, TO SPEED UP

Before you run to the jobs market with a handful of job descriptions and a pocket full of promises, it is important to take a moment to step back and

20 data analysts, your requirement (and costs) can be cut by at least a third. Do you understand your internal capability? The solution is to start with your existing workforce: internal mobility, training and succession. Only when you’ve exhausted these internal avenues should you consider going to the external job market.

SUCCESSFUL RECRUITMENT STRATEGY DESIGN

The old systems of transactional recruitment are broken and not fit for purpose in the modern world. It is important to partner with

“ We must stop defaulting to recruitment as the answer, very few companies understand the internal capability already in situ. We invest heavily in our teams, both in terms of time and money, we spend a huge amount of money in training, career development and the wellbeing of our workforces, without tracking their journey and additional skills acquired along the way. From my experiences to date, more than a third of required headcount can be eliminated with training, internal mobility and a robust succession plan.”

think. Going to the market with an ill-prepared recruitment strategy can be costly and seriously jeopardise your employer brand. Every organisation needs to take advice from a specialist recruitment consultancy team to ensure that they are positioned for success, with a sustainable workforce strategy that will relieve these challenges.

CHOOSE THE CLEVER SOLUTION, NOT THE MOST OBVIOUS ONE

If you’re jumping straight into recruitment mode when demand hits your organisation, the pressure to attract suitable talent is immense. The solution requires a bit more leg work, but you will reap the rewards in terms of value and outcomes. With a strategic approach to your organisational design and workforce re-engineering you may find that instead of needing to hire

a specialist recruitment team who have a deep understanding of the industry and can advise you both in workforce planning and a successful recruitment strategy design.

A retained project approach to building data teams adds an awful lot of value to your search. Not only will it reduce the risk of bad hires, but it will establish clear expectations, a commitment to deliver and provide a greater quality of service.

Would you like more info on the Eden Smith approach to staffing? Get in touch with Jez Clark

www.edensmith.group

To do this in any business is a complex and challenging process, but to do so at a brand with more than a century of successful operations – and thus information, data and intellectual property to hand – is a significant programme of work. But it’s one that Shaw, who joined the business as Head of Data & Analytics in January 2022, is clearly relishing. In little under a year she and the data team have completed a new data strategy to be rolled out across the organisation focused on three core objectives around processes, technology adoption and analytics, and empowering everyone to get the most from their data. But first, our clock is ticking...

“We’ve created a data-themed escape room,” she explains, by way of an introduction. “It’s important to keep everyone engaged and you’re not going to do so if they don’t buy into the subject. It’s a data concept, within which teams from the business have to solve puzzles to reach a final piece of information. It’s fun, but there’s a bigger purpose: we’re teaching people how to be part of the data value chain. They solve a puzzle to get at the data, then they have to sort it and understand the parameters around doing so, learn to analyse it effectively and extract the value [the value in this case being a code to disarm the bomb/phone].

“It’s working really well,” says Shaw. “When the teams complete the challenge, they’re given access to our intranet, where we explain in more detail our objectives around data and offer more learning. People are already coming to the data team, actively engaging with the subject and the data itself. I’m a tech geek and a classic early adopter. But I also know that data’s not about technology. It’s about people and how they need to use it. My message is simple: every person in every organisation has a role to play in data.

“Our key priority is to streamline data use, use new technologies and automation to improve the processes and start getting at the hidden data at our disposal”

Gold Integrator

“One of the main early focus areas has been empowering everyone to use data”

DATA, PEOPLE AND EVOLUTION

Shaw’s approach to data and leadership – she is a self-confessed ‘data cheerleader’ and advocate for the strategic and business-focused value of the subject – is one shaped by an extensive career in technology including stints in commercial computing, localisation testing, project management and public sector tendering. Her journey in data proper began when the organisation she worked for prior to Chaucer Group restructured.

“A colleague told me ‘you’ve experience with databases, grab hold of data and don’t let it go’. So I did,” she states. “It was a baptism of fire, but also a hugely valuable experience – I had the technical background and capabilities as a head start, and the company was also relatively immature when it came to data, so I developed my knowledge as we grew. I was focused on maturing and delivering value from data, responsible for transforming data culture and creating a data function from scratch, developing analytical applications that brought competitive advantage, and developing and implementing a strategy linked to customer data.”

Over that same period the adoption and use of data and analytics has evolved rapidly, says Shaw, pointing to its more strategic and value-adding role in achieving business success and a growing people-first approach. “It’s funny,” she laughs, “it was around 2017 when we first heard the phrase ‘data is the new oil’ but

now, several years later, still only a small number of businesses have dedicated data strategies – they may have large volumes of data and be using it very well, but that doesn’t always result in an actual strategy; it’s still the case that many have one foot in reporting and one in analytics, and they’re still straddling.

“One of the big shifts we’re seeing is organisations moving away from the siloed, hidden little factories of people or departments doing their own thing with data and, instead, realising that combined data is so much more valuable,” continues Shaw. “At the same time, making it easy for everyone to make that shift and have access to data is key. When I started, you had to be a data person to get at it, to be able to code sql, understand how the relationships work, and have a fair idea of calculations and more.

“In contrast, we’re now in an era where we can’t just rely on the ‘experts’ within the business to cater for demand,” she says. “Rather, we have to create environments in which non-data specialists can work on data, understand it and harness its value for their own needs, because that ultimately serves the business better. We still need subject expertise if there’s complicated work, but really everyone in the organisation should be able to do 90% of standard data work – get their hands on what they need, extract the insights and make business-focused decisions – if you want to build a truly data-driven organisation.”

ALIGNING BUSINESS WITH DATA

Shaw joined Chaucer Group in early 2022 to do just that. The organisation is an international specialty insurance and reinsurance group headquartered in London and with hubs in key global locations including Europe, MENA, Bermuda, Latin America, and Asia. Chaucer works with brokers, coverholders and clients to protect and support speciality business activities through either the Lloyd’s of London market or its Insurance Company in Dublin. This includes specialty aviation, casualty, energy, marine, political and property insurance and reinsurance.

“When the opportunity came about, I couldn’t turn it down,” says Shaw, discussing her joining the 100-year-old business. “It was a different industry for me, and I knew there’d be challenges, but it was a unique opportunity to really shape something significant; I also remember from my very first meeting with members of the team that the culture and mindset in the business completely drew me in. The scope of data is vast, and the potential that we can draw on is absolutely enormous, which makes it a really exciting programme of work.

“In fact, there’s so many possibilities that, very early on, one of the biggest challenges is to not get ahead of myself,” she adds. “We’ve a great business in which everyone is very effective at collaborating. At the same time the nature of our work and the specialists we have means there are some people who use data very instinctively, but we need to ensure everyone is brought on that journey. As a result, one of the main early focus areas has been empowering everyone to use data. Data is already heavily utilised across the business, but I know there is always more we can do. For me, it’s been about finding the core things that bring the most impact, making them reusable so we can piggyback on to new projects, and getting the foundations and data quality right. It’s probably one of the harder things to do as a data leader.”

“We have to create environments in which non-data specialists can work on data, understand it and harness its value for their own needs”

Shaw tackled the challenge in the way that any good leader does: communication. Discussing data needs with the business, listening and understanding proved invaluable in gaining an oversight of the existing data environment within ChaucerGroup, she says. “Like a lot of organisations, data is very structured, it’s on-prem, and managed well. The business has a lot of intellectual property and many years of data, which gives you a good foundation on which to make very solid decisions.

“But because of that environment, we were missing out on semi-structured data, clickstream data from online browsing, unstructured data and more,” she explains. “People in the business were using the data available, and doing so very well, but it was largely manual processes that were reliant on some really knowledgeable members of the team who had been in the business for a long time. Our key priority is to modernise and streamline data use, use new technologies and automation to improve the processes, and start getting at the hidden data at our disposal.

“When the opportunity to join Chaucer Group came about, I couldn’t turn it down”

STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

Shaw and team have recently finalised an extensive and ambitious data strategy that is aligned with the broader business strategy for Chaucer Group, which is centred around simplifying the distribution chain to better meet client needs, growing the core business to remain a market leader, and enabling growth through the adoption of new platforms and capabilities.

“Out of that came transforming capabilities that have informed our data strategy,” Shaw notes. “We want to standardise and automate our processes, to adopt digital and better analytics capabilities. Across the top of these points, we overlay governance and data culture. Our goal is for our processes to have high quality data available that’s enabled by technology and provides the business with information and insight to become more data driven. Technology will give us that data and support a strong data community that’s invested in what we’re doing.

“Getting that data culture right is one of the hardest things to crack,” says Shaw. “The strategy itself was relatively straightforward, we understand where the business needs to go and we underpin that ambition with strong data and technology – everything we’ve said in the data strategy resonates with the objectives of the organisation. But if you don’t win hearts and minds, it just won’t happen. Our goal is that everyone in

“We want to standardise and automate our processes, to adopt digital and better analytics capabilities, and to ensure our people are empowered”

the business is responsible for data and has a stake in it, so it’s essential.

“Other initiatives include a data hub where people can learn and have visibility over everything we’re doing, a set of KPIs that have been introduced around data quality and engagement, innovation lunches and book clubs, and more. Our learning and development department is fantastic, and we’re already seeing a real buzz around the work that’s going on.”

is pleased with progress to date. “It’s all about people,” she states. “A large part of my journey so far has been finding out what the business needs, understanding where the pain points are and working with everyone from senior management down. It’s challenging but it’s how I see my role. I’m lucky to come to an organisation with a strong data foundation where I can be an advocate and cheerleader for the power of data and the capabilities in the organisation, and be the bridge between technology and business strategy.

“As far as the strategy, we’re still in phase one which is foundational,” adds Shaw.

“We’re going to buy a data catalogue and invest in a data lake in the cloud. Those two steps will allow us to absolutely know where all our data is and create a mesh data layer that will be the foundational layer for everything, and also to exploit the hidden data. It’s exciting and it’s ambitious, but it’s essential. Any business that doesn’t adopt a data strategy, particularly in the insurance sector, will ultimately be left behind.”

www.chaucergroup.com

Shaw readily admits the scope of work in the strategy is ambitious yet, with little under a year in the business, she

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

RIDEON SMART SKI GOGGLES

Skiing. In video games. It’s fun, high-tech and packed with numbers, timing screens, countdowns– you name it. That’s how we imagine life on the slopes with RideOn Ski Goggles, the world’s first augmented ski goggles that let you interact, navigate and share experiences while skiing. Everything you need is shown in your field of vision, and can be controlled hands-free, including virtual maps and points of interest, music playlists and soundtracks, speed and performance displays and more. There’s also an HD video camera to record your favourite runs and they’re Bluetooth and wifi enabled.

www.rideonvision.eu

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

POLYDROPS P19

The P19 isn’t a camping trailer. Nor is it a caravan. It’s an architectural exploration of mobile space for the individual: take it anywhere, tow with any vehicle, create any ‘room’ or experience you want – priceless for remote working. Polydrops’ architect founders, Kyung-Hyun and Jieun, design with a less is more approach and an obsession with insulation and energy efficiency. As a result, P19 protects you from the harshest weather, is rugged enough to go anywhere and, thanks to its shape, reduces air resistance by 70% compared to other trailers.

www.polydrops.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

SENSORIA FITNESS SOCKS

Life as a runner. It’s about constant improvement, form, pushing yourself and beating PBs. So why not let your socks do the grunt work while you finesse your stride? Sensoria makes a host of smart garments for fitness and wellbeing, including smart socks specifically designed for runners. Their innovative IoT technology measures performance with extreme precision and is capable of detecting cadence, foot landing and impact forces to help improve running form and overall fitness. They also hook up to the Sensoria Run App, which provides AI coaching and dashboard tracking.

www.sensoriafitness.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

NOKIA CIRCULAR

The mobile phone manufacturing process is impactful on the environment. As is getting rid of a handset when it’s time to upgrade. Which is where Nokia Circular, a revolutionary new subscription process, comes in. Circular rewards phone owners for holding on to their devices longer by generating investment to put towards a range of sustainable and charitable causes. When finished, or it’s time to get a new device, return the phone to Nokia and they’ll delete all info stored on it and give it a second life with a new Circular subscriber.

www.nokia.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

BEOSOUND EXPLORE

Sand dunes, glaciers, oceans, mountains. Even the humble Sunday afternoon cross-country stroll. Whatever your limits, Beosound Explore goes with you. The king of portable speakers, it’s hand-made in Denmark courtesy of Bang & Olufsen’s engineers, is built from scratch-resistant, anodised aluminium, and waterproof (see the many videos of it being enthusiastically thrown into rivers and waterways on the company’s website if you don’t believe us). Bluetooth and fast pairing means it’ll stay connected to music streaming services, and there’s up to 27 hours playback so you can spend the whole day off grid.

www.bang-olufsen.com

ENTREPRENEUR //

CONOR DELANBANQUE TECH-EXEC MAGAZINE | ISSUE THIRTEEN

Sum Conor Delanbanque up in one word? Simple: passion. Passion for the strength of diversity, for improving parity across gender, race, ethnicity and every sexual orientation, for innovation and building products that represent and include the people and communities that use them, for, well, everything (you don’t get to be an English Boxing Champion, Antigua & Barbuda National Road Cycling Champion, and 3 X NY State and 2 X Florida State Cycling Championship podium holder for nothing, you know…).

When he’s not conquering high-performance sports, Delanbanque is CEO & Founder of Strategio, a startup that seeks

to empower and invest in diverse tech nology talent, build a community of technologists, and increase diversity, equity and inclusion for underrepre sented and underserved groups within enterprise IT.

Strategio uses its end-to-end talent ‘creation as a service’ model to improve representation for women and people of colour in high-growth organisations, and create fresh talent in key or in-demand enterprise technology skills such as engi neering and software engineering, cloud and DevOps, SRE and chaos engineering.

www.strategio.tech

The smart approach

P&G’s Jeff Kent on the rise of smart manufacturing, using digital technologies to add value and the importance of partner ecosystems in driving innovation

PHOTOS: MATT WITHERSPOON

In an increasingly complex enterprise technology landscape disruption is a constant. But, when the need to unlock ever greater value within that evolving landscape drives decision making, how organisations, teams and their leaders face that disruption can make all the difference. There are those businesses that react, accepting the changes impacting them. Others lead, innovating how they innovate and embracing change in a way that creates positive, meaningful outcomes and markedly changes how they and their colleagues work.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) calls this concept ‘constructive disruption’, an approach to innovation and harnessing breakthrough technology that considers change in a way that’s biased towards positive action, in line with the organisation’s values, vision and commitment to exceptional quality, and which is centred on the adoption of technologies, innovative products and ways of thinking that brings competitive advantage and creates values for retailers, investors, employees and consumers in equal measure.

Jeff Kent, his colleagues and partners within the organisation are at the heart of constructive disruption in the business. In the role of Vice President, Smart Platforms Technology & Innovation Kent – who has been with P&G for near-25 years following a successful career in the US Air Force – works with other across the business to collectively implement the company’s smart manufacturing transformation, harnessing technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and automation while, at the same time, nurturing the people, capabilities and partners necessary to take the business and its stakeholders forwards.

JEFF KENT, VICE PRESIDENT, SMART PLATFORMS TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION, PROCTER & GAMBLE

“My responsibilities are to partner with P&G’s cross-functional disciplines of Manufacturing, Quality Assurance (QA), Engineering, and IT to bring to life the artificial intelligence and machine learning that can make our process and equipment platforms intelligent in manufacturing, such that it can unlock value from a wide range of use cases,” says Kent by way of an introduction. “In terms of my experience, responsibilities and leadership it’s a blend of the past, current and future all converging in a way that strategically benefits the business, understands how the technologies we’ve had for decades like automation, controls, and IT can be complemented by AI and ML, and informs the way in which we manufacture and deliver the irresistibly superior products we are renowned for.”

SMART EVOLUTION

Kent is an engineer and technologist of considerable experience. Over his career, the adoption and application of technology has evolved significantly, he explains, noting that the current focus on integrating technologies and systems to achieve a broader, and more strategically focused set of objectives underpins smart manufacturing. “The application of technologies has evolved from being very focused, almost discipline-specific and to achieve a particular function, to manufacturing and supply chain operations actively combining systems of systems – vision systems, drives, robotics, software and machine learning and AI.

“It’s now a system of systems that are broadly integrated and which have to be

part of 2018, we recognised that the emergence of Industry 4.0 technologies such as robotics, modelling and simulation, big data and analytics, IoT and connected technologies, cloud, broad based human interfaces, and additive manufacturing represented a significant obligation and opportunity to unlock new value for the company,” he notes. “Engineering is uniquely positioned between manufacturing, quality assurance, and IT and other disciplines in the business, so it’s the ideal function to take the lead.

orchestrated and optimised through intelligence so that they’re able to drive higher order workflows and opportunities in manufacturing and supply,” adds Kent. “That requires a different approach to engineering and technology adoption, as well as a different mindset as to how you innovate as a business. Whereas before you may have been a great engineer or technologist, you now have to be an orchestrator of these systems of systems and understand how to apply technologies together effectively and intelligently to serve a very wide range of use cases.”

This shift in approach was the genesis behind the formation of P&G’s Smart Platforms organisation in 2018, says Kent, explaining how the function has developed over the last four years. “In the early

“At the most fundamental level, smart manufacturing as a concept and opportunity is about realising that we have many workflows that have to be achieved in our manufacturing operations,” Kent explains. “We have to transform materials into products, maintain equipment in a particular way, perform quality workflows and checks, and make products in the correct volumes based on production orders. Smart manufacturing lets us do that at a much higher level. For example, if you’re just controlling your machine and getting product out of it, you’re not taking advantage of intelligence. Rather, you should be looking at the individual characterisation of the materials being used, and the data on how the equipment is performing and its output.

“It’s about taking core workflows, analysing and interpreting them and using intelligence to understand how they can be performed at a much higher order to

“It’s a system of systems that are broadly integrated and orchestrated and optimised through intelligence so they’re able to drive higher order workflows and opportunities in manufacturing and supply”

Add value through the smart use of big data

With robust, reliable, and trustworthy AI, you can run even the most critical product development and production processes. Data can be leveraged for confident decision making, and you benefit from better products, a faster go-to-market, and optimized production. siemens.com/futureofautomation

reduce cost, allow you to be more precise or efficient, to have greater traceability and tracking, and to enable your people and equipment to be more productive,” he adds. “At the same time, we recognise that, not only do you have to understand how to integrate the technologies in the most effective way but we also have to understand how we offer these smart platforms to our plants and different business units in a repeatable and scalable way.”

LEADING THE TRANSFORMATION

With that in mind, Kent and his team’s journey since 2018 has been focused around understanding where the use cases and value for smart manufacturing are, identifying how the technologies should be brought together and effectively orchestrated, and then using this as compelling proof to the business to build products and services with internal and external partners, while implementing them at scale. As with any transformation at the cutting edge, the Smart Platforms team has navigated several challenges on its journey to date, in particular around culture, mindset and the capabilities – both internal and external – needed to drive change successfully.

“It’s a breakthrough transformation,” says Kent, “and in any change of that nature, or when you consider our constructive disruption approach, yes, you’re dealing with technology but you’re also dealing with people and capabilities, human psychology and our acceptance and resistance to change. Your obligation as a leader is to navigate that process with compelling successes but also compelling failures because that’s how you learn what you shouldn’t be doing as well as what you should – that’s essential.”

Kent is a passionate person and a committed leader who believes in the democratisation of smart manufacturing technology across enterprises and the importance of nurturing and evolving the necessary internal skills, capabilities and mindset to drive adoption. “There has to be a human motivation, a psychological aspect of a transformation,” he explains. “This kind of change is always about people. Any good leader knows their work isn’t about them, but rather the partnerships they have across their organisation; it’s about collective accomplishment. When we think of smart manufacturing and smart platforms, you have to get to the ‘golden circle’ of why, what and how. Our collective job is to build a compelling story around each of these so everyone in the business understands how the technologies and the transformation will contribute to our goals and vision in a more effective way.

“When we think of smart manufacturing and smart platforms, you have to get to the ‘golden circle’ of why, what and how”

A partner for the digital transformation

The 5 key factors for successful industrial AI applications

whether an assembly contains potential faults or is fault-free (false call). This eliminates the need for manual inspection and reduces the number of false positives by more than half.

What factors need to be considered to successfully implement AI in an industrial setting?

In recent years, Siemens has become an established partner for developing and operating industrial-grade AI for the manufacturing industries. Well-known companies like Procter & Gamble (P&G) that want to use intelligent solutions to become even more competitive are among those who trust in this expertise.

Numerous projects have been successfully implemented at customer sites and at Siemens’ own plants: for example, the GWE in Erlangen, where industrial controllers for machine tools, production machines, drives, and process converters are manufactured. At the heart of its production is the manufacture of printed circuit boards. To fulfil the extremely high standards in that sector, several tests are performed during production to eliminate slip and detect defective parts. If the performance test is poorly calibrated, either real defects can slip in or the automated optical inspection (AOI) will generate many false calls. The solution is an AI model that’s fed with historical data from the AOI and the test station and trained to detect

After considering potential use cases, scoping is crucial for the project’s future success and should include a business, data, and technical evaluation of the selected use case. During implementation, all stakeholders – from data scientists to automation engineers – have to be involved in the process early on to ensure that employees trust the AI model. Having a scalable OT/IT infrastructure right from the start makes service and maintenance easier and guarantees a high level of reliability. Standardised hardware components and Industrial Edge as a runtime environment ensure the required latency, including the possible reintegration of AI results. Because industrial process requirements can change during operation, the AI model is continuously monitored and retrained as needed using the latest data.

In the future, however, AI won’t be limited to a single use case. The goal is to make AI scalable – but that can’t be done alone, so Siemens is working on an industrial-grade architecture that will allow customers and partners to run AI on their shop floors.

Learn more

OPC UA Enables Digital Transformation at Groupe Renault

Introduction

Groupe Renault is implementing OPC UA-enabled equipment at their 38 production sites worldwide, deploying secure, end-to-end OPC UA data communication from sensor, to machines, to cloud, and back again.

Already, OPC UA is deployed at 24 production sites on 7,000+ OPC UA-enabled devices, pushing 30,000 messages per second to Google Cloud.

Objectives on the path to digitalization

In 2017, Renault experts defined five concrete objectives for digital transformation of automotive production for the entirety of Groupe Renault.

• A connected workforce

• Real-time data-driven operations

• Process 4.0

• Flexible supply chains and systems

• Complete traceability of components

The ambitious future scenario of M2M communication, cloud applications, Big Data, and machine learning were as much a part of the vision as AI and digital twins.

Hurdles on the path to digitalization

Challenges arise with the lack of interoperability between systems. Highly specialized production systems are used in the automotive industry, including different assembly systems, maintenance systems, test systems, automatic welding machines, and industrial robots, with some legacy systems in use since the 1980s.

Interoperable interfaces have now been integrated and a uniform data structure developed so that production can access standardized data. Groupe Renault built the digitalization of production on the foundation of OPC UA technology and the OPC UA-based Companion Specifications.

What kakes OPC UA so efficient?

The architecture is platform and manufacturer independent. OPC UA is the uniform, global standard for bidirectional information exchange. This standard enables transmission of machine data, including the semantic description of that data.

OPC UA: An international standard for the automotive industry

Groupe Renault is continuing to drive the integration of OPC UA interfaces in automotive manufacturing. The “Connected Plant” project uses OPC UA in machining equipment, lathes, and milling machines, among others. An increasing number of suppliers are integrating OPC UA interfaces into equipment and on-board software.

Groupe Renault’s vision: An international, industrial communication standard based on OPC UA for car manufacturers and their suppliers, with uniform data models.

“The ‘why’ is simple: we are committed to delivering the highest levels of quality products for the industry, it’s what sets us apart. Our consumers know the exceptional quality and integrity they can expect from us, and using intelligence means we continue to deliver on that promise, and be even more precise than we are now,” says Kent. “Secondly, we want to improve the quality of life of all our manufacturing resources – manufacturing jobs are challenging, yet often those doing them don’t have all the information and data they should. Bringing intelligence into the equation enables our team to continue to build the highest quality irresistible products, improves the lives of our operators and lets us potentially reach even higher levels of productivity and precision. In terms of the ‘what’, it’s recognising that there are new and emerging combinations of technology that can make this achievable, from how we conceive new products right through to their delivery, and the ‘how’ is the application of the technology.

“In navigating that golden circle, we’ve realised that this isn’t a journey just about technology, it’s about the different skills, capabilities and talents that either need to

be recruited into the company or cross trained with the existing talent we have,” Kent explains. “A key aspect of that is data science coming together with subject matter expertise, and we’re actively blending those subject matter experts that we already have with data engineering, data modelling and data science capabilities that can build a robust machine learning model to be run and monitored by our subject matter experts – and we’re recruiting some of the top talent out there at all levels of the company to help lead on this transformation.”

BUILDING THE ECOSYSTEM

Equally important in the smart platforms and manufacturing journey is collaboration with key external strategic partners. In order to capitalise on a digital transformation opportunity of this nature, Kent advocates for the development of an ‘innovation and operational ecosystem’ that can enable the speed-to-value creation and sustained operational excellence that P&G wants to achieve from smart manufacturing. Through this ecosystem he and the team are seeking to collaborate with startups, academia, non-compete companies and government organisations to both address challenges and seize the opportunities available.

“You’re dealing with technology but you’re also dealing people and capabilities, human psychology and our acceptance and resistance to change”

“We can’t do this alone,” Kent states. “We need to work with major industry partners who can bring the progressive thinking and innovative approach we want to our plants and businesses. When we started the smart platforms journey, we certainly had the internal technology and capabilities, but these products, services and technologies have to have longevity and be healthy in the long term. Our objective is to do this at scale to unlock significant value, and to do so we have to combine the best of our knowhow and understanding of the problems we want to solve with the very best technology partners who can work with us to bring the programme together, deliver, maintain and evolve how we work aligned with the evolution that smart manufacturing will take.

“Over the last six months we’ve set out who our best partners should be and they’re now

part of the ecosystem,” he continues. “We’re working with Siemens on our control edge technology stack and our methods of manufacturing with machine learning, Microsoft and others on our cloud and industrial IoT technology, and key system integrators for our vision support, but also industry bodies that can help guide us on this journey such as the Clean Energy and Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) and the OPC Foundation. Putting the best of our collective minds together is the only way to take this opportunity to the very highest level.”

MEASURING SMART SUCCESS

Through this approach, Smart Platforms has already achieved significant success over the last four years, says Kent, offering examples across three core areas of the business: quality, sustainability and improving the lives and capabilities of those working in manufacturing.

Home of the Ecosystem

The Product Supply Innovation Center (PSIC) in Kronberg, Germany is one of three P&G centres globally and the first one in Europe. Touching the daily life of billions of consumers, its mission is to create sustainable supply chains, drive Net Zero solutions as well as Intelligent Operations. It leverages P&G’s innovation capabilities and serves as a hub for collaboration with a network of suppliers, tech companies, R&D institutions and top universities. Innovations developed in the PSIC and its ecosystem will be disseminated globally to inspire and guide sustainable progress in the FMCG industry.

CESMII (sez-ME), the Smart Manufacturing Institute, funded by the U.S. government through the Department of Energy, is a mission-driven non-profit organization established to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing in the United States. The institute was created to drive the Innovation, Education, and R&D necessary to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of Smart Manufacturing, and create a more competitive manufacturing environment here in the U.S.

sector or experience, CESMII can help ensure that people and systems create value in and across manufacturing operations on a national scale.

Most solutions in this space are complex and expensive, making it difficult for small and midsized manufacturers to engage – and yet, the need for digital transformation across the entire manufacturing supply chain is essential. This demands a radical approach to reduce the complexity and cost of deploying and sustaining smart manufacturing solutions, and CESMII has been privileged to work with P&G, along with many other great manufacturing organizations, to challenge the broader ecosystem to align around and invest in these important initiatives. CESMII has a single overarching purpose – to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing throughout the United States.

Please join us on our mission.

CESMII and its network of members bring together innovative technology, solutions, skills and knowledge to break down barriers to progress, making the power of information and innovation accessible to all who touch manufacturing. Their focus is on developing and scaling new industry-wide capabilities for a more productive, competitive, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable manufacturing ecosystem in the U.S. and globally. Regardless of an organization’s size, industry

In addition to their membership, P&G is a founding member of the CESMII SM Executive Council — doubling down on the mission to promote the adoption of SM across the U.S. manufacturing ecosystem.

AS PROCTER & GAMBLE WORK ON THEIR VISION FOR SMART MANUFACTURING (“SM”), THEY HAVE FOUND VALUE IN LEVERAGING AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE CESMII ECOSYSTEM, IN ORDER TO ACCELERATE THE ADOPTION OF SM.

“Over the last six months we’ve set out who our best partners should be and they’re now part of the ecosystem. Putting the best of our collective minds together is the only way to take this opportunity to the very highest level”

— Jeff Kent, Vice President, Smart Platforms Technology & Innovation, Procter & Gamble

Addressing the former, he explains: “For us, quality assurance and continuing to make the highest possible quality products is our number one priority. We’re never satisfied and always strive for more, so bringing intelligence and constructive disruption to our QA and quality control methods enables us to continue to raise the bar even further when it comes to quality. It gives us the ability to look at every single product and every single transformation with sensing imaging algorithms and ensure we ship the best possible products to our customers. The advantage of intelligence is that we’re achieving a synergy of people, technology and data that makes the process more effective and efficient for everyone involved.

Complementing QA with technology, machine learning and data, means the burden isn’t on the operator, which also frees them to focus on other core priorities. There’s really no other way that companies should be doing QA than this in the modern manufacturing environment.

“There are sustainability benefits too,” he continues. “P&G is absolutely dedicated to setting the highest environmental standards and delivering on our core environmental and sustainability goals, and how efficiently and effectively we operate across our manufacturing and supply chain processes is essential to doing that. These operations make hour-to-hour, minute-tominute decisions on how we manufacture, particularly with regards to the energy and water used during products. Smart

manufacturing and platforms, in partnership with IT, brings intelligence to that process, harvesting and presenting data in descriptive and prescriptive analytics to bring even greater visibility to energy and water use. A smart environment allows us to do that with 100% awareness, visibility and confidence at a plant-by-plant and process-by-process level and support our sustainability promises to the world.”

Kent also points to the benefits intelligence can bring to P&G’s legacy of excellence in manufacturing, including to those at the heart of operations. “We’re extremely proud of our longstanding heritage in manufacturing operational excellence,” he says. “Part of that has always been putting the operator at the centre of our culture of continuous improvement – smart manufacturing and digital intelligence only amplifies that culture. If our operators can be empowered to drive

continuous improvement by giving them the intelligence, data and information they need then that’s a significant advantage in being more precise, more productive, eliminating losses and inefficiencies, and amplifying our already excellent record.”

Despite the success to date, Smart Platforms and Kent aren’t standing still. With the pace of change increasing, the team is continuing to accelerate the growth of smart manufacturing across P&G. “There’s two ways in which we measure success,” he states. “I believe in following the process, which we’ve set as democratising machine learning and AI for manufacturing. So, against that we measure ourselves on the adoption of the technology – how many plants, how many algorithms, are we increasing our participation as a company in manufacturing? If that’s growing, the process is working. From a business standpoint

we’ll be measured on how much value we’re unlocking for P&G: are we being more productive, are peoples’ jobs improving, is our material utilisation better, how is maintenance and repair becoming more efficient, and are we still providing the highest quality, precise products that we’re synonymous with?

“In terms of our journey, we’ve progressed rapidly,” says Kent. “The first three years were about solving very exciting, complex and smart manufacturing use cases, which we later matured into a very viable set of product services ready for adoption. The goal is to keep accelerating so that every plant manager, every product and platform is taking advantage of the opportunities. Beyond that, the greater opportunity is for P&G to look at our innovation pipeline of new products, processes and equipment and make sure they’re embedded with broad-based intelligence from the outset so as to serve our consumers and plants in the optimum way.”

www.pg.com

“The greater opportunity is for P&G to look at our innovation pipeline of new products, processes and equipment and make sure they’re embedded with broad-based intelligence from the outset”

Leadership lesson: 2023

ODGERS BERNDTSON’S MICHAEL

DREW EXPLORES THREE SENIOR LEADERSHIP TECH TRENDS HE EXPECTS TO PLAY OUT NEXT YEAR

The past two years have seen dramatic rises and falls across the tech industry. The pandemic-led boom in tech hiring, then exacerbated by the great resignation, has been tempered by fears of an economic downturn and companies from Meta to Apple making sweeping job cuts. But these oscillating market conditions have been far less dramatic for senior leadership positions. With demand spiking at the height of COVID-19, new roles have remained steady ever since, and show little sign of slowing down.

Spurred on by a mix of early retirement, changes to the senior leadership skills paradigm postpandemic, and growing enterprise technology demands, technology leadership positions have been buffered against the recent decline in the sector’s hiring. We expect the market to remain strong well into this year, and while it’s difficult to make predictions in an increasingly disruptive world, we think three sub-sectors will show signs of growth in 2023. Immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and industrial technologies will be three key areas for senior leaders to watch.

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES

While Meta’s metaverse has failed to capture the public’s attention ( fewer than 1.4% of Quest 2 owners are actively using the company’s virtual world), that hasn’t stopped the jobs market boom in immersive technologies. Much of this has focused on mid-level positions. UI and animation designers, developers, writers, and data scientists have all seen an increase in metaverse job opportunities over the past year.

This growth has started to creep into senior positions and we anticipate it continuing in 2023. Project management will be the broad

responsibility for many of these roles, with companies looking for leaders who can implement and execute metaverse programmes.

Currently, interior design, home improvement, property viewings, factory design, and areas of entertainment have the most use among businesses. But we also see company training and interviewing as emergent use cases for the metaverse. Particularly from a C-suite perspective, companies can create ‘live fire’ environments in boardrooms to test how a potential leader handles tough shareholder meetings, activist investors, or external crises in real time.

“WITH IMMERSIVE TECH, COMPANIES CAN CREATE ‘LIVE FIRE’ ENVIRONMENTS IN BOARDROOMS TO TEST HOW A POTENTIAL LEADER HANDLES TOUGH SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS, ACTIVIST INVESTORS, OR EXTERNAL CRISES IN REAL TIME”

ARTIFICIAL IN TELLIGENCE

The demand for AI talent is always increasing and every year further progress is made in the technology’s evolution. But 2022 witnessed key developments in AI that are likely to make their way into the business environment in 2023. Known as ‘adaptive AI’, the technology learns as it’s being built, revising its own coding to real-world changes. It can continuously retrain models within development environments with the input of new data and based on new goals. Businesses have a technology that can make more accurate decisions, adjust more quickly to disruption, and is highly tailored to their needs.

Implementation of adaptive AI will only serve to expand the AI engineering jobs market in 2023. But with this comes the need for senior leaders who understand how to attract developers and engineers, and create work environments and cultures that retain this talent in the long term.

This is often easier said than done. AI talent hubs exist in India, Eastern Europe, and the UK, but the growth in jobs is seeing companies look outside of these regions for global talent. Up until now, turning to fully remote workers was an option; throughout 2023 it will become increasingly necessary to meet demand. Salaries will also increase, and senior leaders will need to create a strong sell to attract talent that, right now, has the pick of the litter.

“SENIOR LEADERS SHOULD UNDERSTAND HOW TO ATTRACT DEVELOPERS AND ENGINEERS, AND CREATE WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND CULTURES THAT RETAIN THIS TALENT IN THE LONG TERM”

INDUSTRIALISED TECHNOLOGY

Another trend that was fuelled by the pandemic and has continued to grow ever since is industrialised technology. With companies reshoring and nearshoring supply chains, the need for technology that can digitally represent warehouses, depots, and interconnected supply chains has increased. Combined with IoT and digital twinning, more companies are using supply chain technology to model, simulate and experiment with warehouse changes, different suppliers, and disruptive circumstances.

Aligned with this is tech investment in predictive maintenance, visibility into energy consumption, and equipment reliability. Near-time monitoring of goods can improve scheduling, sensors can make more efficient factory layouts, and AI can predict delays from traffic jams, weather conditions, or strikes.

Investment in these technologies was born out of the deglobalisation needs that resulted from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. With inflation, companies have an even

greater need for technology that can create efficiencies and reduce costs. In fact, a survey conducted in 2022 by SAP, found that within the next two years, 70% of UK businesses plan to adopt the latest technology to try to overcome supply chain challenges.

Any new technology implementation requires talent, and with such industry wide investment we expect to see an uptick in senior leadership roles, specifically project and programme directors. Those technology leaders with experience in manufacturing, FMCG, and supply chain, and who have led functions during the past two years will find their skill sets increasingly sought after.

Michael Drew is Partner and Head of the Technology and IT Services Practice at leading executive search firm Odgers Berndtson. His expertise in executive search spans over 15 years, and he has partnered with high-growth software innovators, tier-one consulting firms, and systems integrators on an international basis. In this capacity, he has supported many of the fastest growing technology businesses by securing winning leadership teams. He specialises in software and cloud services, cyber security, IoT, artificial intelligence, HPC and platform computing.

www.odgersberndtson.com

p E opl E, pro CE ss and t EC hnology

MATTHEW STOCKWIN ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIORITISING CULTURE TO CREATE THE FOUNDATIONS FOR PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY TO THRIVE

WORDS JONATHAN DYBLE

hnology

Authenticity is a vital attribute in working environments. When people feel embraced as their authentic selves, the employee experience becomes rich and robust. Not only does it make open and honest communication easier, but teamwork and collaboration also become more natural experiences, driving improved outcomes. Authenticity can also build trust. If leaders speak candidly with staff members, particularly during tougher times, they can ensure employees feel encouraged to take risks and embrace ownership of their work, helping them to grow, learn and build resiliency.

Today, inter-team attributes carry a lot more weight. As the world of work has transformed holistically in the new normal, there is a much greater appreciation of company cultures and values. However, there are some that have been advocating the importance of soft skills for many years. “I’ve always believed that a good business leader must have authenticity in their DNA,” states Matthew Stockwin. “You’ve got to be truthfully interested in your people. What motivates them at work? What other challenges are they facing in their lives? You need to be interested in what drives someone as a person in order to be supportive of their development.”

Stockwin is the Manufacturing Director for Europe & Continuous Improvement Director for EMEA for Coats, a world

leading industrial thread company employing 17,000 people across 50 countries and six continents globally. Backed by a 260-year history, the organisation applies innovative techniques to develop high-tech performance materials, threads, yarns and fabrics for the apparel and footwear industries, with a focus on areas such as transportation, telecommunications and energy, and personal protection. Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE 250 company,

a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series, a participant in the UN Global Compact and a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

People and culture are crucial to its success, with Stockwin believing it

is critical that each and every individual is heard. “It’s simple: if staff feel engaged and inspired then they will get the best out of themselves, which is good for everyone,” he explains. “Not only that, but I love interacting with people. I love to see people developing more than anything.”

“I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT A GOOD BUSINESS LEADER MUST HAVE AUTHENTICITY IN THEIR DNA”

THE IMPORTANCE OF OWNERSHIP

Thanks to his unique responsibilities, Stockwin is well placed to ensure these attitudes underpin much of Coats’s operations. “I help to look after eight thread making factories – five in Africa, and three in Europe,” he explains. “Reporting into me are several people who run those factories, and a bunch of project managers.” And while this structure is necessary in helping to ensure that the day-to-day operations of Coats run

smoothly, Stockwin is keen to ensure that any perceptions surrounding hierarchy do not creep in to impede the potential for individual ownership and growth.

Indeed, he avoids making decisions for his people wherever possible. “That might sound a bit strange, so let me explain,” Stockwin affirms. “My job is to make decisions on where we are going, not how we get there. I do not take those decisions, or I try my best not to. If I do,

“IF STAFF FEEL ENGAGED AND INSPIRED THEN THEY WILL GET THE BEST OUT OF THEMSELVES, WHICH IS GOOD FOR EVERYONE”

my people don’t develop. I tell them that they need to be on the stage. I say, ‘you cannot be in the orchestra hiding and quiet so that no one sees you. You must be on the stage with me’. The other part is to say, look, I’ve got your back. The best bosses I’ve ever had support me, challenge me, they don’t burn me if I’ve made a mistake. They give me the trust and platform I need to thrive and develop, and I feel I can learn from them. That’s the feeling I try to replicate for my people.”

“WE NEED TO BE MORE ASPIRATIONAL IN OUR USE OF TECHNOLOGIES, BUT WE CAN’T FORGET THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN EFFORTS AND SUPPORTING OUR PEOPLE. YOU NEED TO STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE”

STRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTS AND EFFICIENCY GAINS

While much of Stockwin’s role is focused on creating a different approach and building a culture based on trust, honesty and authenticity, the Manufacturing Director has equally helped to oversee several key projects in the five years since he first joined Coats. In 2022, he oversaw a strategic project that involved moving warehousing and manufacturing operations from Hungary and Poland to new sites in Romania.

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“The key motivations were reducing our operational footprint,” Stockwin explains. “In Hungary, the labour market is incredibly tight, and Poland is pretty similar. Romania has a much looser labour market, so for us it makes perfect sense in terms of future proofing the business.”

Additionally, alongside its people-centric approach, the organisation is beginning to lean more heavily into new technologies, implementing a digital platform to dramatically improve its final winding process. After a thread has been dyed to an exact, specified colour shade, it needs to be wound onto a cone that can be put into the sewing machines used by the company’s suppliers to

produce final garments. The process of winding these threads on the cones requires a significant amount of resources to achieve. Innovative new tech, therefore, represents a significant opportunity to improve productivity.

“Coats had never tried to schedule its final winding work on a shift-by-shift basis to arrive at a maximum output and a maximum productivity level,” Stockwin explains. “In 2022, we’ve finalised a selfdeveloped tool that revolutionises this shift pattern, raising labour efficiency from 77% to 96%.”

STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE

This is just one example of how the firm is more actively tapping into technologies as a means of driving optimisation programmes while retaining a culture of authenticity and support. Stockwin still sees significant room for further improvement. “Information availability has accelerated significantly,” he affirms. “Daily dashboards, shift-by-shift dashboards – there has been an exponential increase in useful data. But we still need to consider how we can go further to ensure we’re always taking the right decisions at the right time. For me, that means striking the right balance between investment in people and technology.”

To reinforce this point, Stockwin cites a famous quote from W. Edwards Deming: ‘without data, you’re just another person with an opinion’. “We can apply that to everything,” he elaborates. “Manufacturing lead time, sales lead time, productivity, labour efficiency, absence rates – these are all things that can and should be measured. But we also need to focus on getting the right people in the right positions as a priority. If you have these dashboards but people can’t or don’t use them, what’s the point? Yes, we need to be more aspirational in our use of technologies, but we can’t forget the importance of human efforts and supporting our people. You need to strike the right balance.”

www.coats.com

“WE’VE FINALISED A SELF-DEVELOPED TOOL THAT REVOLUTIONISES THIS SHIFT PATTERN, RAISING LABOUR EFFICIENCY FROM 77% TO 96%”

SYNTHETIC BIOMARKER INNOVATION

Dr. Sam Gambhir’s wife Aruna developed breast cancer, and survived it. Then his 15-year old son Milan developed brain cancer, and tragically passed away.

Gambhir himself, after a lifetime dedicated to detecting serious diseases early so they may be treated, passed away from a cancer of unknown primary in 2020.

Earli’s story is as much a celebration of his groundbreaking work as it is anything else. As the founder of Stanford’s Canary Center of Early Cancer Detection, Gambhir developed a radical new idea after work looking at natural cancer biomarkers in blood proved elusive. He later met Cyriac Roeding, current CEO and co-founder, who as an entrepreneur and investor sought out companies on the intersection of the physical, engineering and digital worlds.

Ghambir shared with Roeding his idea of synthetic biomarkers, forcing the cancer to produce a nonhuman substance to help reveal, then localise and ultimately destroy itself. The pair worked tirelessly on the idea, bringing in third co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer David Shuy, a gene therapy and bio startup expert.

Earli was established in June 2018 and, since, has assembled a world-leading team to bring science to humans as soon as possible and develop synthetic biomarkers that, as well as making cancer directly localisable in a PET scan, may also be used to make it vulnerable, or kill itself.

Ghambir passed away in 2020, only a day after receiving Stanford’s Dean’s Medal, its highest recognition of scientific, humanitarian and medical contributions. Earli is dedicted to fulfilling his innovative thinking and deep sense of purpose.

www.earli.com

Cyriac Roeding, Sam Gambhir and David Suhy

“ONLY REALLY DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE IDEAS WILL GET US ALL THE WAY TO THE GOAL OF CONQUERING CANCER”

VIDEO: In memory of Sam Gambhir

DAWN OF THE SUPER b I kES

Saving the planet. We know that e-mobility solutions do that, don’t we? Well, yes. But not in as incredible a way as the Kalk AP, part of a series of innovative e-bikes that are the result of a collaboration between Swedish high performance electric bike manufacturer CAKE and the South African Wildlife College (SAWC).

Far from just cleaning up the environment – a worthy enough cause in itself – the design and development of Kalk AP is the product of a vision for solar-powered wildlife conservation, saving endangered species across Africa, and to design the best possible vehicle to help rangers from SAWC tackle increasingly bold and indiscriminate poachers.

ALL-ELECTRIC, ANTI-POACHING, AND AS INNOVATIVE AS YOU LIKE. MEET THE SUPER E-BIKES SAVING THE WORLD’S WILDLIFE

For years, poaching has devastated wildlife in Africa and around the world, in some cases being the primary reason for many species now facing the risk of extinction.

Up to now, anti-poaching teams have used dirt bikes for anti-poaching patrols – chosen due to their speed and agility in hostile terrain. However, they face the same problems that turn so many of us to electric alternatives: fuel, a scarce resource in many regions the rangers operate in, and noise. In this case, the noise from the bikes’ internal combustion engines serving as a ready-made early warning alarm to poachers out hunting.

A series of electric bikes is the perfect solution. Kalk AP is one. It’s silent, meaning rangers can move quickly and efficiently around the bush and approach poachers silently without being detected, a crucial factor for improved conservation. It has speed on its side too; its low weight

“THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF PURPOSE MEETING SUSTAINABILITY”

STEFAN YTTERBORN, CEO AND FOUNDER, CAKE

CAKE and the Southern African Wildlife College have set out on a mission to save wild endangered species – using quiet electric motorbikes

Buying an AP bike will also support the Southern African Wildlife College with 3% of the proceeds going directly to the project

gives a top speed of 56mph and, because electric vehicles have no gears and are simple to operate and maintain, little training is needed meaning more people can be out protecting animals more quickly.

Alongside the bike, CAKE has developed solar-powered mobile charging points in collaboration with electric power solutions maker Goal Zero. Known as Goal Zero Solar Hubs, they give rangers the ability to work and patrol in the bush for weeks at a time, needing just a power kit and solar panels that can charge two bikes from zero to full charge in three hours.

“The bikes we’ve used previously have all been loud, heavy and expensive to keep running in these areas,” says Mfana Xaba, anti-poaching team leader, SAWC.

“Sometimes we’ve had to transport the fuel with helicopters, which is unsustainable and costly for us. With CAKE bikes, we can ride quietly and protect the wild from poaching more efficiently. Ultimately, we do believe we will be able to save more animals.”

www.ridecake.com www.wildlifecollege.org.za

“WITH CAKE BIKES, WE CAN RIDE QUIETLY AND PROTECT THE WILD FROM POACHING MORE EFFICIENTLY”

MFANA XABA, ANTI-POACHING TEAM LEADER

SOUTH AFRICAN WILDLIFE COLLEGE

ECOSIA BUILDING A BETTER PLANET

There’ll be a time in the future, particularly if the rapid pace of climate change and irreversible damage we’re doing to our planet doesn’t slow, where you won’t search in the same way. Need some info? Want an answer to an important question? You won’t ‘Google it’ [no offence, Google]. You’ll ‘Ecosia it’.

In fact, you should be doing that now. Ecosia, the brainchild of founder and CEO Christian Kroll, is a not-for-profit social business/search engine that claims to be CO 2 negative, supports full financial transparency, and plants trees every time you search or browse the internet. Ecosia uses the profit it makes from searches made through its free web browser extension to plant trees around the world and support the environment.

These trees, it says, contribute to a happy world, healthy people and a strong economy and, to date, it has planted more than 160 million worldwide thanks to its 20 million+ active users. It also publishes its monthly financial reports and tree planting receipts for full transparency and accountability. Want to find out more? We told you. Ecosia it.

www.ecosia.org

“PLANT TREES WHILE YOU SEARCH THE WEB”

B E R L I N

Berlin is iconic for any number of reasons. It is, of course, famed world-over for its nightlife where you’ll find never-ending nightclubs, energy, music and a carefree but embracing attitude. That’s after 5pm, of course. For the hours prior to that, the city is reputed as one of Europe’s best for startups, boasting an ecosystem of tech-driven innovators like fintech firms N26 and Raisin, social music platform SoundCloud, and many more. Including Uberall, founded by Florian Hübner. Here, Hübner takes the reins on a guided tour of the city, pointing out the best places for business, sustenance and pleasure. Hold on tight...

WORDS FLORIAN HÜBNER

BUSINESS

The most impressive coffee and laptops workspace (because it’s so unusual) is Café St Oberholz. I haven’t worked there too often, as I am a Berliner, but I first saw it in the 90s, when I was visiting my uncle. In those days, it was a coffee shop where people would work with their (then huge) laptops. Later, I remember visiting again in 2003, when I’d started studying computer science, and there were loads of people ‘hacking away’ there.

Now Café Oberholz has expanded to more locations, with co-working spaces on the upper floors. As our first office was 100 metres from the café, I used to conduct

meetings and interview job candidates there for some time. It has great memories and it’s still nice to go there for the occasional meeting or coffee now.

betahaus is a workspace created by six students back in 2009, before coworking was even a thing. It’s still a place for startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers to come together, and if you’re looking for a place to host a hybrid event – yes, even those can be blended virtual and in-person now –betahaus has two locations (Kreuzberg and Neukölln). Its event spaces have been updated with socially-distanced seating, and all the livestream equipment you need.

BETAHAUS

CAFÉ ST OBERHOLZ

I don’t have much to say firsthand, as I’ve always lived in my own places here in Berlin. But since I can’t offer you the chance of some couch surfing, I can tell you out-oftown visitors like nhow Berlin for its funky design and music-themed vibe – the hotel even offers free guitar and keyboard room service. We had one of our Christmas parties there and loved the killer outdoor terrace on the Spree.

Downtown Apartments is great if you’re looking for more of a ‘home from home’ experience. It’s 24-hour self-check-in, and all its apartments have kitchens and open out onto a balcony or terrace, with views over a nearby park and across the city all the way out to the TV tower at Alexanderplatz.

Airbnbs are also a great way to discover Berlin in a way that’s tailored to you, from city apartments to more quirky options like houseboats and at least one baumhaus (treehouse!).

NHOW BERLIN

NHOW BERLIN

DOWNTOWN APARTMENTS

AIRBNB

FLORIAN HÜBNER

Florian is CEO and co-founder of Uberall, where he is the main technical and product lead for the company.

Florian started the business with his oldest friend, David Federhen, in 2013 to enable local businesses to build stronger relationships with their customers and communities by becoming more visible and engaging online.

Uberall started with a small team of four people and now has more than 300 employees and is still growing rapidly. Before founding Uberall Florian spent several years as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company, where he advised leading companies across a variety of industries. He has also worked at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam.

EAT / DRINK

My heart is with Standard Pizza . Sure, it’s ‘just’ a pizza place, but it’s a great one. For business related dinners, I often get dragged to stuffy, fancy places, but that’s not a great representation of who we are and how we think. So I might bring anyone – my team, our board, clients – to my favourite pizza place, and it creates a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere for real conversation.

For something a bit more gastronomic, Cookies Cream in Mitte is great. It’s probably one of the few Michelin starred restaurants in the world with such a dodgy looking entrance (through a car park and past a dumpster), but the vegetarian menu is inventive and delicious. I’m a veggie but even die-hard carnivores would agree it deserves its Michelin star.

COOKIES CREAM

COOKIES CREAM ENTRANCE

MAUERPARK KARAOKE

LEISURE

A bit tricky after a year of lockdown. I’ve lived in Prenzlauer Berg for 12 years and it’s my home. I’d say it’s one of Berlin’s best neighbourhoods for walking around and exploring. Kastanienallee is a chestnut tree-lined street full of cafes and specialist shops – organic ice cream, art, streetwear – and it’s home to Prater, the oldest biergarten in Berlin.

One thing that amazes me again and again is Mauerpark Karaoke , which takes place every Sunday at 3pm in summer. It’s held in an open-air amphitheatre, and anyone can show off their talent (or lack of it!) to hundreds of enthusiastic people. It’s fantastic! Inspiring, different, honest, fun... and to me, very Berlin. It’s a place where you can do and be whatever you want.

NEUES MUSEUM

THE MALL OF BERLIN SHOPPING CENTRE AT LEIPZIGER PLATZ

GLO bAL E v E nts CALENDER

MWC BARCELONA

27 FEB – 2 MAR 2023

Barcelona, Spain

Trailblazers, decision-makers, and giants of industry gather to exhibit groundbreaking products, demo new technologies and share inspiring thought leadership.

www.mwcbarcelona.com

DATA CENTRE WORLD

8-9 MAR 2023

London. UK

Immerse yourself in the engine room of digital infrastructure at the world’s largest gathering of data centre specialists, innovators and business leaders. www.datacentreworld.com

BIG DATA & AI WORLD

8-9 MARCH 2023

ExCeL, London

Bringing together data and AI innovators, technologists, and business leaders, to help make data-driven decisions that intelligently shape their business.

www.bigdataworld.com

CLOUDFEST

21-23 MARCH 2023

Europa-Park, Rust, Germany

CloudFest is the leading internet infrastructure event in the world, connecting the global cloud computing industry.

www.cloudfest.com

AI & BIG DATA EXPO – NTH AMERICA

17-18 MAY 2023

Santa Clara Convention Center, USA

For the ambitious enterprise technology professional, seeking to explore the latest innovations, implementations and strategies to drive businesses forward. www.ai-expo.net/northamerica

MONEY 20/20 EUROPE

6-8 JUNE 2023

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Fintech’s boldest and brightest voices delve into the challenges of right now and shape together what comes next for the money ecosystem.

europe.money2020.com

BUILD YOUR BRAND WITH US

At Stroud & Clarke we believe in the power of storytelling to build brands, engage with audiences and inform the conversation. We produce creative content that provides insight, influences opinion and positions you at the forefront of your industry.

www.stroudandclarke.com