Blog | Management Perspectives

Invest in Skills: Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You

Pierre Teszner, Rockwell Automation’s regional vice-president, Central & Eastern Europe, shares insights from an executive roundtable discussing the importance of digital transformation skills in challenging times for industry.

At Rockwell Automation, like many other industrial companies, we’ve been talking for several years about digital transformation (DX) as the convergence of people, processes, and technology.

These three elements of DX are not usually listed hierarchically – all three are vital to the successful strategic digitalization of industrial companies. In combination, they access the efficiency, productivity, and flexibility improvements that are widely accepted as vital, inevitable changes needed for sustainable industrial businesses of the near future. Such benefits will be sorely needed by many industrial companies in the coming months.

Recent events have seen unprecedented pressure on industrial enterprises. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have upset a plethora of previously stable business dynamics. Supply chains have been stretched, movement has been restricted, inflation is soaring, and energy costs rising at a worrying rate. Given this unique set of challenges the resilience of industrial enterprises is being tested to the maximum, and many are turning to digitalization – or accelerating their digital transformations – as a response to the conditions of the market.

First among equals

However, at a recent round table, made up of senior executives from multi-national organizations, we put the topic of resilience under the microscope. What I learned, above all else, was that perhaps those three ingredients of digital transformation should be considered hierarchically. They all remain vital, but above all else, it seems to me, the human element is the one that holds the key.

The executives present represented an array of household-name companies from the electronics manufacturing, contract manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries. A leader at a large food-and-beverage manufacturer was quick to point out how the pandemic had led to his company undertaking a huge training program to upskill employees to understand the language of digital transformation and get to grips with the ideas. A challenge for them, he says, is maintaining that engagement so that employees want to change and want to be a ‘part of it’ as the implementations take time to apply.

Another executive, from the pharmaceutical industry, tells a similar story – her company set up a learning department to help bring people on the digital journey – and now that the immediate impacts of the pandemic have passed, faces the challenge of keeping the motivation and leveraging the ‘good change’ that the pandemic engendered.

A leader from the healthcare industry offered some fantastic insight into some of the challenges he sees in terms of the human element of change – and it also touches on skills retention and job satisfaction, something that I believe is of huge importance to the future of industry. He talked about the psychological safety of employees and giving them the assurance that the changes are for the good, that they will enhance the working experience, and offer a better work life. It has led to some interesting work at his organization, that I know is mirrored at Rockwell Automation, around lifelong learning. How, he asked, can we identify and work with the passion of our employees? How do we enable people to work towards what interests and excites them? Because, if we can do that, he said, we don’t need to worry about change management, people doing what they enjoy can move mountains.

Putting people first

It is rare to have the opportunity to speak so frankly about such challenges with a range of leaders. And it is revealing to hear about the importance they place on the human element of transformation, and the efforts they are undertaking to mitigate some of the well-publicized challenges around skills. The companies represented are among the oldest and most successful businesses in industry, so it’s safe to say they know a thing or two about resilience and change.

For our part, at Rockwell Automation, we too face many of the challenges, both as a manufacturer and as an industrial automation and information technology company. We place huge importance on the people in our organization and support them in their own lifelong learning journeys. But that is not the whole picture. Increasingly, as the worlds of IT and OT come together, we need to offer our customers more of our skills, and, in turn, learn more about their applications from those with the experience and knowledge needed to implement our technologies to best effect.

So, we can’t, and won’t, sit in our old comfort zone of making and selling great products. We’re actively joining ecosystems of vendors, customers, supply chains, systems integrators and digital transformation consultants and partners, to offer customers our skills and know-how – our people – alongside our technology. We’re also adapting and building out service and support offerings to help make sure that our people are available to our customers at all times – like an extension of their team.

The world is changing fast – faster than ever. As one executive on the round table put it: “Your comfort zone will kill you.” In order to keep up, and even to thrive in this era of rapid change, my tip, and what I learned from this roundtable, is to really invest in your people – with the right support from processes and technology, you’ll be amazed at where they can take you.

Find out more about the services and support available to support your digital transformation here.

Published January 18, 2023

Pierre Teszner

Regional Vice-President, Central & Eastern Europe, Rockwell Automation

Pierre has 25 years of experience in the industrial automation market. He joined Rockwell Automation in 2016 after working many years in Asia and USA in various regional leadership roles at Schneider Electric. He is experienced in Enterprise & Channel Sales, Business Transformation, Organizational & People Development. Pierre is passionate about client satisfaction, change management towards the digital future and he is results driven.

Connect:

Subscribe to Rockwell Automation and receive the latest news, thought leadership and information directly to your inbox.