娇色导航

Hello good afternoon and welcome to 娇色导航Leadership Live. I'm your host Maryfran Johnson the CEO of Maryfran Johnson Media.

This video show and podcast is produced and sponsored by my dear friends at CIO.com and the digital media division of Foundry an IDG company we're streaming live to you right now on LinkedIn and on our 娇色导航Channel on YouTube and we invite very cordially invite our viewers today to compose and type in a few questions of your own for my guest we have editors watching the chat streams on both LinkedIn and YouTube and they're ready to pass along those incredibly good questions as they come in and the questions you'll be sending in will be for my wonderful guest to today Katrina Redmond who is the executive vice president and 娇色导航at Eaton Corp based in Dublin Ireland Eaton is the business is in the business of intelligent power management serving customers in more than 170 countries worldwide and Reporting sales last year of $23.2 billion its 990,000 plus employees produce and sell products systems and services that manage electrical and mechanical Power the company also makes industrial clutches Motors fuel pumps and other equipment Katrina joined Eaton in 2021 right in the depths of the pandemic to oversee the development and execution of the company's enterprise-wide technology and digital strategies as well as to manage and lead the large it organization of about 1,500 technologists internally and another thousand contractors she reports directly to the CEO and chairman before she joined Eaton Katrina was VP and 娇色导航at Hubble Incorporated a Connecticut-based manufacturer of electrical and electronic products and then before joining Hubble back in 2019 she held a for about 18 years she worked for GE where she held a number of top it leadership and business positions at GE industrial Solutions and GE grid Solutions throughout her career Katrina has earned a great reputation for leading successful business process change and digital Transformations all of that leveraging her deep expertise in lean Six Sigma practices Katrina thanks for joining me here today it's great to have you here thank you Mary fris nice to be here let's start out with uh kind of a 30,000 foot view of what what an intelligent power management industry is about to to me that seemed like a relatively new term adding intelligent in front of power management so what does that descriptor indicate to your customers today yeah in Eaton's case we're actually a hundredy old company and we're a growth business at this point in this intelligent power management space and we specialize in energy efficient solutions that help our customers manage electrical and mechanical Power as you already referenced more reliably efficiently and safely um that includes things like our ups um systems uninterruptible power supplies our power distribution units and also our software that can be put in data centers and other types of networking environments so we optimize and minimize um our customers environments whether it's downtime optimizing the power usage itself and Effectiveness and then also reliability and sustainability as well as Energy Efficiency so there's just a lot of intelligence that now be applied in these products that support these ecosystems you know through all the connected you know process spaces as well as our micr processors that are being added to all of our products right so those help our customers achieve those benefits well and it certainly sounds like Digital Services uh are very much front and center in this and and that's not really a big surprise I mean the financial Industries and the power industries have all been great users and consumers of data for a long time now yeah absolutely and data is more present and available than ever and it's just going to continue to accelerate yeah well I found when I talk with cios I always make a point of asking when you say digital transformation which as we know is uh as we would say in the Boston area here it's a wicked buzzword I mean it's been around it's been around for years and years and analysts are out there making tons of money you know telling people what it means for different Industries but when you think about the power management the electrical and the grid and all that what does it actually mean in for your industry when you say something like and maybe you avoid saying this in meetings with business people but if you say digit digital transformation to other power management Executives what does that immediately signify for them what does it mean in your industry yeah I mean I think about you know the the secular trends that are out there in the marketplace in this world today we've got energy transition we've got Electric transformation we've got electrification and digitization in general um you know our products participate in all of those different Trends and over the next three to five years and Beyond um you know we're really positioned well in those spaces so when you think about that you think about investment in our sort of reindustrialization here in the US with EV charging with battery uh storage with um with the semiconductors coming back to the US um there's a lot of opportunity there you know within our Market space and then you think about data centers and the growth you know the massive acceleration of data availability and just the size of you know the terabytes uh that are available of data the data centers are on a massive upspring so whether you think about the the hyperscalers with Microsoft and Amazon Etc um there's a lot of opportunity there for our products because we sell into those data centers so we help them manage um improve the efficiency the utilization of energy um in those spaces okay and then you think about um you know how we consume you know energy and all of our infrastructure and what that's doing to the utilities and the demand that that's putting on the utilities so we help you know modernize and contemporize those imp structures to help support those new electrical demands that are being put on the grid right so there's a lot of different areas and places where it plays and when people think about power management or discuss power management these are all components of that discussion yes well and I think about I'd mentioned that when you joined Eaton in 2021 we really were still in the depth of the pandemic and I think the vaccines were only starting to become available at that point um so tell us tell us about um I know that Eaton has done very well as a business over the last few years regardless but there were probably a number of big issues with just power consumption that landed in your lap when you joined in 2021 so talk a little bit about kind of the big picture impact that you've seen you've been there now three and a half years as the 娇色导航and when you think about the impact on Eaton's business and the customers during that time what are some of the big trends that jump out for you yeah and I know other cios and other businesses are you know the what the pandemic did was like gasoline on an already burning fire for digitization it really sort of advanced the discussion the conversation the opportunity in that digitization space so over the last several years that's not you know that what happened during the pandemic that accelerated that is not going away you know it's cons continuing to acceler and as I mentioned about you sort of the utility space in in particular just imagine you've got mobile devices you've got iPads you've got televisions you've got connected washer and dryers and stoves and refrigerators and and a you know that your EV charger in the garage or or wherever um those demands on the grid itself and every local community out there are just continuing to advance so if I think about the big picture impact that stuff just continues to Exel yeah and then you think about um you know what happens in the whole uh you know AI space and how that's contributing to these data demands because all you know the foundational components of AI are this data component so you've got these you know explosions in data center growth to be able to keep up with an advance in that area as well so if I think about you know what the pandemic did to accelerate the new technologies that are coming on board that people are wanting to take advantage of and then I think about our ability to provide um intelligence from our connected products that can give our customers insights to help improve their productivity you know their ability to avoid downtime unnecessarily plan for maintenance all of those things we're able to help contribute insights to that and really take our value proposition sort of up the up the curve um so there's just a lot of activity in the space and eaten is positioned well in this area in particular these areas in particular yes um so it's really been you know a interesting journey and an exciting journey and the opportunities within Eaton to really help you know move the ball forward and the game forward in these spaces to help our customers to help the environment Etc um are all you know opportunities that are that are out there that are really changing rapidly yeah well when you when you talk with cios in other power management companies what are are you all trying to kind of tackle and solve the same common problems are there are there any areas where you feel like Eaton has got a a lot to show others in your industry uh kind of the competitors that are out there uh maybe finding some better solutions to the issues that plague all of the industry I want you to talk about that a little bit yeah and I think what comes to mind really is sort of the sustainability space and the challenges that are really globally present on reducing carbon footprint improving you know sustainability reducing greenhouse gas emissions you know you know water runoff you know how do you get way more um capable and way more responsible in approaching the environment with these increasing accelerating exponentially these demands on on energy and how do you do it in a cleaner way so I think we're all struggling with how do we you know get there but not in the old context of carbon how do you get there in a newer way where you're more efficient where you're driving value propositions and those value propositions go beyond you know satisfying the data need it's how are you doing it in a way that you're leaving the the planet better than than it exists today I think we're all out there sort of struggling with how do we do that in this space yeah I mean I certainly think Eaton is doing well with the challenges that we have you know what we're spending on research and development in this area you know creating really strong goals for our 2030 you know sustainability effort Etc so I I just this one to me really comes to mind when you ask that question so okay I think Eden is well positioned in this space to help our customer achieve these goals yeah well one of the things too that you mentioned to me when we talked earlier um was that you're spending a lot of your time and focus on how looking at how you're operationalizing digital and are there you know how are you doing it in ways that it could be done better what are the tell talk about the challenges around that when you when you say something like operationalizing digital uh Digital Services perhaps what does that call to mind and what kind of successes have you had with the ability to do that so far yeah I mean I think about well I mean many different ways you can think about digital that we're consuming internally for eating to make us better and then obviously how we can help our customers be better externally yeah so we have a couple of different you know work streams focused in it in these different areas um and on the external side you know I would reference our bright layer product which is really a Marketplace for our customers to consume insights through subscription Services Etc these are new offerings we're in their earlier stages of developing these outcomes and Partnerships with our customers to leverage the data and information that we're getting from from our connected products and support of their efforts and their and their spaces um and that's an availability that's just grown over the fir you know the last several years it's a you know kind of a three to four year old Endeavor where we're trying to grow in that space and then if I think internally about you know digitization and driving value I think about how do we work more efficiently how do we drive productivity how are we focused on um are focusing our time in areas where it adds the most benefit and value um and trying to reduce and minimize some of the some of the non-v value added efforts so you know depending on which Val which area of focus we've got a couple of different Avenues of of you know work streams that we've got in those areas yeah now your role is fairly expansive at Eaton you report to the CEO and the chairman um I wonder is it information technology and all that that entails is operational technology also part of your purview the OT and the it yeah absolutely so it's all of it um so it includes our operational technology as well as cyber as well as um data you know data is a huge component we have a chief data officer that's you know working to help Drive uh normalization and governance and our data components and then we have various value streams whether it's the revenue generating value streams and how customers interact with us or internally how we take an order all the way through fulfillment and payment so it's all of those different areas and then we've added um uh continuous Improvement as a focus Point as well as value delivery like how do we manage complex programs across multiple value streams or functions or ecosystems in order to deliver in a timeline that makes sense you don't get lost in all the minutia and everyone's individual priorities how do you pull everything together to collaborate and drive a larger you know a larger effort yes um so it's it's really encompasses all of those things okay well I know one of the things that you said that was stuck um just kind of stood out to me you said process and people are going to beat technology every time so that and that's almost sounded like a theme song for The Way You Lead as a 娇色导航um let's get into that a little bit more about um leading with the process and the people aspects how have how have you operationalized that kind of theme with what you've done so far at Eaton in the last three years yeah that's a great question and it's a it's an interesting one for me because obviously I'm in the digital technology space so you don't expect necessarily that the first words from me will be process and people and how do how are how healthy are those things before we start digitizing um so it's it's um it's something I know when I talk about it internally with eaten you know when we talk about programs and things we want to do next I don't just throw Tech at everything right there's so many things that we can do to improve if we just get our processes simplified get rid of the non-v value added components get rid of the weight times and the you know the multiple steps and the multiple hierarchies that we operate within how do we smooth that and streamline that to make that more efficient and then do we have the organizational structure to support a streamlined process and how do we modify it in whatever way we need to in order to make make sure that that's supportive of executing the process in a really operationally sound way and have really good operating metrics and then from there how can we layer in digitization to help you know further accelerate or be a catalyst in whatever flow you're working in so I've really T you know my team and at first our digital Tech Team it it was you know getting them trained and lean talking more about kaizens and doing lean management and doing gimbal walks in an IT context was really foreign it was a foreign concept to the organization to really talk talk in that way but I'm hearing people come back to me after they've seen examples of how it works yeah saying this really does apply this really does help our agile delivery this really does help our cycle times it helps us pull components together and remove roadblocks if we're doing daily standups on how we're processing things so seeing it and starting to appreciate it which I'm really happy about we just need to accelerate our efforts we have a lot of things that we need to improve our delivery to eaten internally um and there's so many opportunities for us to improve the process components and then obviously take advantage of tech where it makes sense yeah but not your only focus area so that's you know some of the effort that we've been in in the last couple of years since I've been here well and if if people didn't know that you had a lengthy background at GE where and that's the first time I've over the years I've interviewed so many cios who are that someone called it the diaspora from General Electric you know all of the cios who are out there and that focus on business process and people issues first seems very much the kind of Bedrock that you developed there and am I guessing that correctly or no 100% 100% And before I was at GE I worked in manufacturing and I you know Lane was where I started I was an industrial engineer yeah when I started initially and you know honed those skills on the manufacturing floor but they're highly applicable and these you know transactional environments yeah we just don't apply them as readily and there's so much opportunity there that you know I hope we can continue to take advantage of yeah so your your business your other business peers at the executive level they probably had to get used to the first ideas out of your mouth were not about a new product that you could apply to this it was more about the business approach and the people organization yeah absolutely absolutely yeah the um let's talk a little bit about what you've done about your organization um having been there there's proba there there won't be anything brand new because you've been there for three years now but tell me about how you reorganized or how you have structured the it organization around some of these principles that the especially the lean principles and the ways to approach and work with the business I know that you made a a number of great changes so let's talk about them yeah so we um you know coming in we just sort of making the assessment about our team and where we could add value you know doing all those Town Halls those touch points with the organization globally you know all the different um receivers of our services trying to understand where we could provide Improvement how do we help them help themselves how do we enable them to deliver what they need to deliver because we're such an enablement kind of foundational component for the business at large yeah trying to understand you know that those inputs first and then from there we moved into a a value stream model where we're organized around um sort of the process flows whether it's call it inquiry to order and then call it maybe order to fulfillment or order to payment um looking at those value streams how they connect is there a digital thread that makes sense and a simplified do we understand the capabilities of those applications and then we actually organized our team around those various value streams trying to think of ourselves more as a product um life cycle management organization where we take advantage of the erps or we take advantage of the other you know Salesforce the other um Tech technologies that we use are they driving the outcomes that the business need do we have the adoption that we're supposed to have do we get our total cost of ownership for those licenses and those values are we getting real value and having somebody look at that end to end and understand where things stop and start where you have gaps you can do that better in a value stream model so we did a big restructure around those value streams um as I mentioned earlier you know obviously we have C our cyber organization we really focusing on you know safety security defense you know how do you respond when when a disaster or an opportunity happens and then also service are cyber team being service-minded you know the business is out there trying to consume new technologies and deliver you know new results on connected devices on the shop floors and yes Etc well a lot of times cyber is a huge component of making sure that those things are safe and secure right I'm hoping to do it safe and safely and securely but doing it in a cycle time that the business can that will help the business you know achieve their inate and then we've got the continuous Improvement organization as well as sort of a value delivery office and improving our cycle times to delivery yeah so those are you know that's how we sort of restructured and again we're at the early stages there'll be more phases of restructuring um in the sense that how do we work in the model in a more optimal way and the delivery is what we expect it to be and how do we continuously improve that the benefit of the business and our customers now um is a value delivery office is that a a a fancier way of looking at a project management office is that a is that a pmo in different clothing or I talk what does that mean when you talk about a value delivery office because that sounds like a very connected piece of the business absolutely and I we think about it in a value delivery way because it's more action oriented all right um as opposed to just normal program management so we're really trying to have that be an accelerator to you know improve cycle times faster to outcomes you know how do we deliver complex programs instead of in five years an Erp over you know 200 locations how do you get that to three years how do you get it to two years how do you really get on your front foot with your your delivery components how do you use technology more effectively to drive delivery okay and there's so many pieces that have to come together within a digital technology organization where if the coordination isn't across the ecosystem things just stop and start all the time you get a lot of wasted time a lot of wasted motion and and that that focus is meant to help us drive and improve getting to Value sooner okay is there an example of something that really kind of shines in what the Val the value delivery office has been able to impact over the last few years yeah so honestly it's it's new so we've started this as we did our you know our big you know move to Value streams and we're all honestly getting more deeply into it now okay but call it third quarter of last year we really started bringing together from a manufacturing standpoint how those teams are consuming technology all the wifi all the OT all the connected devices within our own shops how can they be more productive how do we get to a solution more quickly with our site experience teams to deliver improved performance and you know that stuff goes into ticketing systems cyber has to do their piece we've got the infrastructure team that does theirs we've got you know our our um shop floor system our digital our digital um technology team that supports the shop floor has to do their piece if that stuff isn't coordinated the poor Plant is going to be waiting okay that's one ticket for this that's another ticket for that that's a third ticket for for the other component we're not coordinating ourselves we're sort of doing them in a silo yes we've we are meeting literally directly with the plants on Enterprise level issues and driving them to closure and then this office helps us accelerate that and then we also can translate those Enterprise problems across 200 plus other manufacturing locations so every one of them are experiencing the same challenges but we solve a one off and then everybody else is out there trying to solve the same thing so the delivery off is what we've been focused on with five key plants is solving these Enterprise problems and then Translating that out to the rest of the ecosystem system so we can actually solve the problem it doesn't resurface so we're in the early stages of of having that stand up you know being stood up and then we're in the process of of learning from that and then translating it out to the larger the larger ecosystem that's an example and can you imagine just making your team more productive they're not waiting for some sort of a technology solution to help them or we're getting out there and trying to do it more proactive yeah well it does sound like though that there is probably a huge technology maybe even an AI and data component to this is there anything around anything around that that you can tell us more about yeah so we're you know in the I think everyone's really kind of in the earlier stages of how they take advantage of geni or Ai and for example so yes we're working and creating proof points of opportunity within Eon to take advantage of these these new uh Technologies we're really consuming a lot of um our software companies that we're partnered with their AI for example Microsoft they're spending a lot of time on co-pilot for example co-pilot can be used kind of across our ecosystem we're trying to train everybody on how do you use it how do you consume it how do you get Advantage from it um and then we've got service now you know they they are helping us with insights from the tickets that are getting implemented our input to try to provide real root cause corrective action so that we can get non repeat so we're taking advantage of our third party software and then we're you know trying to take advantage of of the the capabilities as well with you know our internal documents language models partnered with the shop floor how do we get that information and insights out of people's heads out of the file cabinet out of a paper catalog into a technology where then you can just query it yes and find answers to things that may be challenging you so we're you know working in those different spaces to add value um both internally as well as externally but trying to make everybody learn about the Technologies and trying to use them um so a lot of focus there but where everyone's in early days about what we can use it for and how we can really Drive business outcomes yeah well I've noticed I've been asking these kinds of questions to recent guests on the show um my last guest weeks ago we talked about how AI could pull together the kind of information and present it to like the superintendent of a building who a big building that has lots and lots of moving Parts in it and it seems like that is one of the most clearly immediate benefits you can get from AI that doesn't put the company in any danger of going externally with information I I haven't run very I haven't run into very many people that want an AI process say handling like communication with customers because there's just one little mistake could end up being headlines right so absolutely um yes we're all very aware about that and cautious I know yeah well and I think the the caution is probably a really good thing for cios to be exercising now I had one 娇色导航who attended a meeting in Boston and they had like 30 different cios from the area talking about C about Ai and what they were using and what they were doing and it was very much a part of it is like well it's really just math it's more data you know this way but then the early days and everybody's enthusiasm about it makes it um probably a bigger Spotlight on it than there has been before can can you remember any big technology Trend where everybody on the executive committee was coming you probably with ideas and suggestions and hey I read this article about Ai and what are we doing with are you getting that as well yeah this hype curve on AI in particular gen Ai and what it's doing it's it's it's honestly nothing I've never seen it okay like the fury and the pace yeah and the excitement and the trying to participate in it it across everything whether it's a legal department or it's a you know an HR department or a sales team or it's across the Spectrum and I've never seen anything Catch Fire like this that really kind of goes across every area yeah um where people are trying to figure out how can I use this how can I convert it into value yeah um as quickly as possible to to you know keep ahead of the the game and the curve and what everyone else is doing right it's uh it's something I've never I've never witnessed it before well and that that probably makes it all the more important one of the things you'd mentioned to me was how you're trying to create a process model for the consumption of technology and that that's you know that's kind of one of your you have North Stars right that that you're heading toward as a leader where does AI fit into that into the idea of how we consume technology and is this something that your value delivery office is who owns that I guess I'm asking on your a leadership team or do you all own it yeah so with AI in particular and I've not ever seen this before either it's really a a cross you know collaborative effort within eaten in into total so the sea Suite has several people that are engaged in the steering committee specifically focused on AI okay and I've never you know seen something you know sort of Spun up in that way before around a technology right um and it's how do we harness the ideas how do we sort of farm for ideas in that space understand the outcomes that can that can come from it and then focus our efforts on delivering it um and not because everyone's out there with their new idea we're trying to coordinate those ideas and really try to measure the value proposition of those ideas and then how do we work on those in Drive delivery or how do we work on it with a proof point and understand that you know what it's not yielding what we expected how do you pivot and and drive to value in another area the one thing I know about AI before the steering committee and having some sort of a funnel of ideas is that everyone is randomly trying something and if we're doing that we're not really leveraging the strength and the collective you know power and collaboration that we can drive together and then really just making sure that the business outcome is there and okay you know we don't want to delude the efforts it's not an unlimited space to play in and you really want to focus your efforts on those ideas that you know will lead to to Value yeah and if you're not seeing the value you want to be able to Pivot and and use that resource you know power in another Direction so that's what we're doing we're trying to coordinate ourselves pick things that makes that make sense based on business outcomes and then drive yeah well and you'd mentioned to that technology today is moving so much faster than any of us can really absorb but as the 娇色导航and EVP in charge of all this stuff you don't have much of a choice right so yeah sure you got lean into it you got to lean into it well yes exactly what what are you doing to kind of stay ahead of this curve are you finding that a lot of your um your downtime reading is articles about what AI is going to do to society or is this something that you um talk about a lot with your Chief data officer maybe yeah no and yeah he's in the middle of this whole thing with the data components and supporting a kind of a global effort across Eaton's sort of data governance structure and system so he's you know nect de and and it and it and then we're these forums you know there's a forum on AI every other minute there's so many cios we're engaging in different ways you know sort of discussing what we're seeing how it's being used where do you see value propositions you know materializing in the reading and the constant there's an article every other you know minutes not every other day but every other minute like by the time we've spoken somebody's created five other things that we'll need to read up on by the end of the day because something's coming out every minute on you know advancing these large language models into doing more and more of the work components that you don't necessarily expect in the beginning or attribute in the beginning so it's a really you know fast-paced space and we're sending out information to RC suite and the rest of the eatting community so that everyone can sort of learn about the value proposition What It Is What It Isn't yes um you know what we're trying to do in areas where we want to apply it Etc the communication um schedule around AI within Eaton um you know trying to keep everyone sort of up to speed yeah um and things to think about and growing our own you know our own knowledge around it well and you've probably been using various AI Technologies and practices in the data in your Enterprise data architecture and all that for several years probably even before you got there um is this is a lot of this very specific to the Gen AI which has that you know that consumer facing aspect to it that I think is making everybody think that they know what AI is oh my Lord yeah absolutely and it's funny because we keep talking about these L large language models and you know machine learning and all these different spaces that have been sort of um you know evolving over time this gen AI piece is certainly accelerating the conversation around no one was as excited about machine learning and Shop floor capabilities and doing connected sensors on the floor and the insights that can drive and then what could you take from those insights I know this gen piece in particular has really caught you know everyone's interest for sure yeah I remember when RPA was being written about robotic process automation right I never heard you know that never made the cover of any Business magazines you know people would say oh ML and RPA and blah BL and nobody was really reacting to it very much and actually related to we have a question from our alert and watching audience right now and this will this will pivot us over a little bit toward um talent management questions because this is how do you implement Automation and how does it add value against the question of talent retention so that's you know one of the other lurking fears that everyone has about AI is is it coming to take my job right so how how are you approaching that is that coming up as an issue and what would your advice be yeah you know what's interesting about this and I'll tell you just like everyone else it it concerns me where it may go um and our responsibility in managing that more appropriately than we may have done things in the past but I think at the same conversation around when it was introduced to shop floors and it's going to take the job and it's you know we're doing Automation and we need fewer people to execute work what what you hope and you Endeavor to drive is that it allows you to work on more High higher value added areas um but there's still a need for some of the the skilled workmanship in all of these different areas so as much as it concerns me about where it could go I know that we've got you you can't escape it and you want to try to be an architect in your own future so to speak so so lean into it try to learn about it try to figure out how you can participate as fully as possible in it where do you see yourself evolving as a result of this technology in particular yeah um and you know don't let that you know fear dissuade you from it what we did back in the day on the Le piece was we let attrition sort of work itself out we didn't go after jobs based on a lean delivery of something right we shifted people around the ecosystem retrained retooled um into different areas as these automation opportunities are lean process designs you know work their way through and I want to see that same sort of thing happened within this AI space you know how can we leverage that technology and use it to do things that are more commodity style um pieces of of an effort and then get people retrained and retooled in other areas to add value differently yeah um but I certainly understand the concern so with Talent you want to have people that want you know can evolve with the change you know change is always going to exist how can you you know keep your talent you know educated and framed and the culture moving and that sort of a change type um direction as opposed to staying standing still and static because you just can't you can't do that yeah um that uh very good answer to the question thank you for that um talk a little bit about what you are doing for talent retention have you introduced um a lot of additional education opportunities for the staff are there areas where you're like everyone else still looking for data Engineers really need cyber security expertise or has it more of it directed now toward data and AI expertise how is all that kind of impacting what you're doing today yeah so as we're looking for we have a you know a it DP program so it's a talent development program for you know our technical team um we are you know trying to uh you know tap into the universities out there that are that are you know uh creating and advancing and evolving skills in these AI spaces as well as data and data science Etc so we're really targeting um you know potentially differently you know changing our ratios um obviously cloud is also another area that continues to to evolve so how do you continue to move your team in those directions right absolutely um we are also you know looking at various training programs that we can offer our technical teams and our technologists to continue to learn and promote you know skills in these spaces in particular um and then you know from a a talent perspective you know really trying to find um or or develop muscles within the team the technical team to think about business outcomes and supply chain differently think about you know it from a business perspective not NE necessarily the technical perspective so that you can take what you know about technology and apply it to forecasting for supply chain for example or you know how do you you know improve scop processes Etc you know applying Technologies so also really expanding people's thinking around it's great to know technology but it's really great to know technology and understand the business so giving the team growing the team opportunities where they're really directly business connected is also a great opportunity to to drive you know Talent retention and then we're trying to even attract people from other parts of eaten's ecosystem into technology that has some of that deep business expertise so trying to have that sort of cross-pollination uh within within the eaten environment overall that's really neat and actually it plays into what we've started talking about here plays into another question from our audience as a leader with so many direct and indirect team members in so many different countries how do you continue to motivate and Inspire them and and I was just wondering if you could attract people from the business by saying you want to work more in AI come on over here you know you could exctly no that certainly helps it's an attractor for sure yeah um but that's a great question it's I think it's always difficult you know why I came here three years ago you know at at at 18 years and you create a network and you advance Partnerships and relationships so that can be some of it but eaten I'm three years in I'm going on my fourth year trying to get to know everyone getting out during the pandemic when I first got here I couldn't even travel to meet the team yeah so I'm doing more of that getting out my leadership team we all have a calendar trying to travel the globe and meet our team members and get really direct connected with them um to understand they need out in their their spaces to help Drive value from their perspective yeah it's a constant challenge like trying to make sure we're driving together in the same direction there was a lot of change you know with the restructure that we had and you know with the respect of having changed a lot of different things within our environment that wasn't easy to absorb it wasn't necessarily well received it was a you know a bit of a it was a definitely a climb up a a hill or a mountain yeah and now we're really at the part the part where I think people are starting to see the value and the changes you know our engagement scores you know have gone up we do very specific meetings and engagements out in the whole um you know eaten it environment to understand concerns we do surveys to try to figure out where people's heads are and then we create action plans to address their areas concern or opportunity and we try to work those very diligently and be very communicative about the work we're trying to do because this is nothing happens without the team like we're stronger together and if we're if we are together we can achieve you know really amazing things for eaten and Eaton's worth it it's a great company so you know trying to put that all together and really you know support the team and what they need how they're evolving through the changes is really important yeah um and as part of our go you know strategy and and trying to you know help keep us together as a team yeah facing forward well and you have a lot of your own leadership background is at industrial and manufacturing companies and General Electric and all what how does the culture the company culture at Eaton what have you noticed about and how does it compare to some of the the the hard driving GE culture um or uh other industrial type companies you've been at is there anything substantially different about it that you've noticed yeah that you know honestly we're um there's there are similarities um you still get the hard charging you know focus on outcomes there's a lot of Engineers there yeah exactly the engineer mindset I mean it's really it's this is an engineering company it's a Products Company we make tangible objects yes we wear hard hats and steel toe shoes and we you know deliver very meaningful product to you know our customers um and there's a lot of pride in that and there there should be so that's part of our culture sort of the pride in our product and what we're doing for the environment and the and the climate and the community um is a really big part of our culture there's a you know a an genuiness about eatting that I find very um attractive there's a you know the Integrity with which the team approaches you know delivering results you know the the way we focus on the community and like we have that as part of our sustainability effort is volunteering we have hours that we volunteer and then you know we're trying to you know deliver advanced metrics in diversity and gender diversity ethnicity the cultures um so there's a lot of really like important areas that are important to the community at large Beyond eaten that make it a very very you know nice good good place to work you feel like you're part of something that's trying to drive for a better outcome you know for the larger Community which is I think a huge and different that's a little bit different than the other places I've worked and the focus in those areas is very specific and deliberate with metrics and really trying to make a difference not to have it just be a talking point but we're actually trying to drive diversity and sustainability and some of those other things that are so important yeah yeah well and we were talking um before we got on this call today we were talking about the the um diversity and equity and inclusion issues in technology in general which so many of us have been I can remember watching this back in the 9s even and the number of women in it seemed to be climbing we were up to like 35% of the workforce were women in it and I think the numbers are all now in the 20s they've kind of falling down so um how has how has that how is that working at Eaton is there anything special you're doing is there anything any organization that you connect with to make sure that there is more iversity more women more people of color that are attracted to it yeah and I mean we do Partnerships you know out as we're trying to do recruitment um in diverse you know spaces yes the gender piece in particular for us is a it's still a challenge to your point it went up and then it went down yeah um and we're you know the gender component really trying to you know attract more women um into our field is still a challenge yeah I think about you know remote work and you know not moving everybody and relocating everybody um because women are are you know often times in a partnership where you know their husband is also in a job in a local community they can't always pick up and move for a role no the good thing about eatting is we've got locations in a lot of different places where you can be at an eaten location and not necessarily have to do the relocation so we've got to continue to challenge the status quo on how many times people have to get up and move for the job y um can we take advantage of our local um locations because eaten's such a you know a broadly distributed um Industrial company um so we've got to think about that differently you know and then we've got to be more target targeted um you know going after other e ethnicities um you know and other populations so we we continue um to be challenged in some of these spaces and we are you know setting you know how we interview what is the interview slate look like are you starting with a diverse slate for the interviews if you're not even starting there then you're obviously never going to get to a better place yeah a more diverse place so really making sure that whole process at each area and then once you've gotten the talent how do you retain it right um how do you understand what you know what is out there and what may be challenging you know maintaining the gains so it's there's a whole host of activities and focus um that we have in those spaces and then setting metrics for us to you know continue to climb those percentages well and one of the things I I was thinking I wanted to just pivot back to it a little bit the bright layer Hub that's a very public facing part of e Eaton um as your digital Marketplace um I probably neglected to ask you a little bit more about that is that does that play a role in um helping with recruitment giving you something you can point to that people like well check this out this is our digital Marketplace because you wouldn't really expect a great big industrial Behemoth of a company to necessarily have a digital Marketplace um yeah absolutely so tell me about the a bright layer Hub and is that something that is part of your Digital Services Group or how is that managed what does it produce yeah so we you know we have um it's a digital experience Hub it's a Marketplace as you referenced um and it it is the innovation of eatting is definitely an attractor for talent just to tie those things together so things like bright Lair what we're doing on Energy Efficiency and the power management space sustainability all of those things are part of the attraction to come to eaten so from a talent perspective talking about those things making sure people are educated on what we provide um is a big deal uh for attracting talent and in particular with bright lay you know we're at the early stages of this but you know creating that digital marketplace where we you know can partner with our customers and we can take data and information on all the millions of products that we've you know sold over the years and give them the ability to take that information and drive to better Solutions okay for their outcomes improve their and optimize their their ecosystem so they suffer less unplanned downtime you know making sure that monitoring and Diagnostics is a strong part of the equation you know how do we use our Technologies on shop floors yes um you know how do we ingrain cyber into iot efforts all of that is part of that bright layer experience Hub and really solving customer you know problems and issues and making that a part of that Marketplace for others to consume so it's definitely attra an attractive part of our portfolio that we're working hard to grow um and it's certainly an advantage from a talent development perspective when they can everybody can see the Innovation that's out there that we're driving for sure um is that and I'm probably making a logical leap that isn't really there but it sounds like it sounds like that might be the kind of place where um AI Technologies are either already in operation or there may be things that are plann for the future is there any of that you can talk about yeah so absolutely I mean we're you're we're applying these large language models and different ways to solve these issues for our customers you know solve issues on you know on our shop floors and then if we're consuming those Solutions then we can have others consume those Solutions as a subscription service so there's lots of opportunity there we're also applying you know engineering is a big part of you know part of our ecosystem obviously in product development driving down cycle time in you know delivering product changes or advancements that we can help you know innovate you know internally and with our customers externally um so AI is definitely a part and parcel you know of that as well now is and is the bright layer Hub something that is one of the areas of the company that it owns or are you in partnership with other parts of the business on that yeah so the the forward-facing external component of bright Lair is owned by you know our our business segments okay so they drive the sales the customer Partnerships um we do a lot of the delivery of the infrastructure and the hardware um and then we have another team within engineering that helps Drive some of the product innovation component we don't do the product Innovation piece yeah but we do like you know creating the API configurations creating you know the service the technical support you know within um sort of the dev SEC Ops um arm of our of our team okay uh to support those efforts so it's an ecosystem quite honestly and a partnership between a couple of different functions within within e yeah I I hear the the word ecosystem so much more often today from it leaders in all different Industries along with the another ew empathy that's that's something that got you know extremely big during uh you know remote working times the pandemic um which actually brings me to my our our closing question here I wanted you to reflect a little bit on what you have learned or what has changed in you as a leader uh in your own style in these last few years how is the Katrina Redmond who is is the 娇色导航at Eaton different from your days at GE or at um the Connecticut Hubble yeah and I it's it's a that's a great question and I've actually been thinking about it recently okay and I even in the context of my gender in this space this digital technology space as we were just talking I mean we're in the 20% or less range and I don't know how many yeah globally how many CI are female I I keep thinking about um am I representing my gender well and am I being as forthcoming with my opinions and how I'm thinking and sort of challenging unconscious bias that may exist out there I'm way more comfortable in my skin in this day you know today than I was you know back in my GE days or Hubble days or even three years ago when I first came here um you know a g i got to an sebb level which I think there was 120 females out of 300,000 employees that made it to that level when I was there um you know I think I'm the only EVP female at Eaton currently so there's a huge opportunity for for others yeah as well but I'm trying to figure out you know how do I help my own gender yes try to evolve in a technical space um that's typically not you know female dominated right um and am I doing enough uh to help promote you know women and am I you know including that as part of my objectives you know because we need to drive diversity but am I personally driving you know outcomes for my own gender so I you know from a leadership perspective all the other things you Flex different muscles depending on what you're what you need to flex um listen more or you know create the vision try to listen to others Drive try to be The Driver depending on what circumstance you Flex different muscles but I think today I'm really trying to you know make sure I want to leave it better than I found it yeah like everything I want to be a builder I want to build something that we can all be proud of together and have us work as a community toward positive outcomes and I really think about that as a legacy more than I've ever you know thought about it in the past and part of that's age obviously and and recognizing the gender challenges Etc but I'm really thinking more you know broadly about that um at this point in my career than I had in the past good good well I I tend to think and this again is my bias having been in technology media for so long I think visibility and getting out there and you know like speaking up and I was always making this pitch when I was running the 娇色导航events division at C at 娇色导航um at the magazine and then later at cio.com I kept saying you know come and be on stage you know get out there I mean the more you see people the more visibility I think of even uh with the late Queen Elizabeth she used to say that well people have to see me to believe me to like know that I'm over here doing great things um which it sounds like you really have been doing at Eden so I'm so glad you were able to make the time today for this additional visibility and it has been uh delightful talking to you today so thank you for joining us you as well Mary friend thank you for having me and I really have enjoyed it so I I appreciate it thank you that's always one of my promises to my cios who don't do this kind of thing a lot I say really you'll have a good time the time will fly by and we got some good questions from our audience as well perfect thank you all right thank you too if you joined us a little late today and you're just thinking oh I wish I'd seen this whole interview don't worry we have the full episode later today right here on the LinkedIn Channel but it'll also live on in uh cio.com which is has an entire library of our 娇色导航leadership live show and also on cio's YouTube channel 娇色导航leadership live is additionally available as an audio podcast wherever you find your podcast I hope that you enjoyed and benefited and were enriched by today's conversation with 娇色导航Katrina Redmond of Eaton Corporation I'll be back again next month on Wednesday May 15th at noon Eastern when I'll be speaking with 娇色导航Kathy K of the Principal Financial Group please do take a moment to subscribe to cio's YouTube channel where you can find more than 125 episodes of our leadership Live program as well as several International editions of the podcast that are featur ing cios from Canada India New Zealand and Australia we are uh cios are a worldwide phenomenon and I feel like the world would not run without all of you out there so thanks very much for joining us today and I hope we see you again next time