The Challenges of Advancing Innovation in Technology

Speaker1: [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to our Connected World, a podcast brought to you by TE Connectivity. I'm your host, Michelle Dawn Mooney. And today we're talking about innovation in the tech space. In particular, we are going to explore a global survey from TE Connectivity that reveals some of the challenges that are hindering innovation, as well as opportunities that technology leaders can leverage to position themselves for future success. I am pleased to bring on three great guests for the conversation today. Chad Kroeger is the president of the Industrial Solutions segment at TE Connectivity. Alexandra Spitler is a director of Entrepreneurial engineering for TE's Transportation Solutions segment, and Dr. Dave Norris is the chief innovation officer at Louisiana Tech University. Thank you all for joining me today.

Speaker2: [00:00:58] Happy to be here. Welcome. Glad to be here.

Speaker3: [00:01:00] Happy to be here, Michelle.

Speaker1: [00:01:01] Before we get started, can I just have you all give a brief bio so we can learn a little bit more about who our guests are today? Shad, starting with you.

Speaker2: [00:01:10] Absolutely. As you said, I'm the President of the Industrial Solutions segment at TE. I've been with the company 28 years. My career has spanned about a third of it was in engineering roles. I have a degree in mechanical engineering. About a third of my career has been in commercial roles, both in product management and sales. And the last start of my career have been in leading several of our businesses. I've managed most of the P&L across the company through my various roles that I've had up to date.

Speaker1: [00:01:40] Wonderful. Alexandra. Yes.

Speaker3: [00:01:42] So, I'm currently the director of Entrepreneurial Engineering within our Transportation Solutions segment. But like Shad, I've been with the company for quite some time. I've been here over 26 years and I've held a number of different roles, primarily though within engineering and engineering management. So, I spent a lot of my career in our corporate technology group working as both a product development engineer as well as a process development engineer. I spent some time in project management before moving into some management roles in our automotive space, as well as CTO role for our application tooling development business unit. And now I'm in my current role at the segment level.

Speaker1: [00:02:18] Great. Dr. Norris.

Speaker4: [00:02:21] I'm Dave Norris, the chief innovation officer at Louisiana Tech University. I have spent as an economist by training, but I've spent most of my career on the boundary of the university in the interface between academics, research and and education and the business sector, small, medium and large corporations. And a lot of that activity has been around technology, innovation, technology transfer and how those two worlds together can collaborate to stimulate and catalyze new innovations in technology.

Speaker1: [00:02:56] So clearly, we know why you are our three guests because you're going to have a lot of great information to lend to the topic at hand. So let's jump in, starting with Chad. Can you tell us about the TE Connectivity Industrial Technology Index? Why did you decide to conduct the survey and produce this report?

Speaker2: [00:03:16] Absolutely. Let me just probably start a little bit, Michel, talking about about TE and know a lot of our listeners know that. But, you know, just a reminder, again, we sense connect and protect the flow of power and data. You know, we're a world leader in connectivity and sensor solutions. So our portfolio really enables companies, whether large or small, to turn their ideas into technology that can change and transform the future the way the world lives and the way the world works. So, as an industrial technology company, innovation is really important to us. It's what our customers count on. They count on us to co-create with them and help them develop these next generation products. So, it's a very much a fabric of our company. It's part of our values and it's something that really helps us create a differentiated position in the in the marketplace. So, you know, for us, what we really want to do is we want to understand why innovation is so difficult. We know it's difficult. We know it's hard in this fast changing world of customer changing requirements. So we want to understand how those shifts in technology and those shifts in customer preference, how those impact, how people think about innovation. And we know there's critical differences in the way engineers think about it and the way leaders think about it. So we want to understand that so that we could get better insights in terms of how we need to work with our customers and work inside of our own organization.

Speaker1: [00:04:44] You know, one of the aspects of the survey I find really interesting is that you revealed some key differences in the way executives and engineers think about innovation. But, then there are some critical areas of alignment as well. So, Chad, can you elaborate on this?

Speaker2: [00:04:59] Yeah, absolutely. You know, again, when we surveyed, we surveyed engineers across the US, Germany and China. So we have a sort of a, you know, a broad range of of geographical coverage to try and really understand, you know, the differences and the similarities. But the similarities that we saw, I think, across our survey, number one was people recognize that innovation is critically important. You know, in this industrial technology space, it's a top priority across most the organizations, that was clear in our survey. And I think what we also saw sort of regardless of sort of role in the company, leaders recognize that they need to build capacity around innovation. You know, whether that's thinking about how they're upgrading their labs, building new capabilities, whether that's training and development or even hiring new talent. So this is a top priority for leaders, whether they're technical leaders or whether they're P&L leaders. So those were the similarities that we saw Michelle.

Speaker1: [00:05:57] Now the differences and there were some big ones, including the actual definition of innovation. Your survey found that executives are more likely to view innovation as a total transformation, whereas engineers see it as an iteration or improvement. Alex, what's your take on that from the engineering perspective?

Speaker3: [00:06:18] I think that, you know, innovation really comes in all different shapes and sizes and I think it makes some sense to me, right, that all of us think about innovation as some really significant transformational idea or product. You know, if you think about the Apple iPhone, right, it's a great example, right? We all recognize that as being, you know, a significant innovation. Right. In the past years in our in in the world. But I think what's important to think about with that is as you break it down, it wasn't that one day we didn't have the iPhone and the next day we did. It was really this journey and a number of innovations that really went into creating that. So I think we have to recognize that it's not just going from nothing to having this really transformational idea, but there's a lot of small wins and small innovations along the way. And so I think maybe that's where, you know, the survey participants are thinking about this from the engineering standpoint, that it's really those increments, those smaller wins that we have throughout the life cycle of a product and continuing to build upon those. But certainly we all are fascinated by those really big, significant transformational ones and I think we would all love to have more of those. But the truth is they're kind of further and far between. So it's really recognizing some of those smaller incremental innovations and ideas that are generated along the way that I think are important. And what the engineers were were kind of getting to in the survey responses.

Speaker1: [00:07:36] Dr. Norris I'm curious about what your perspective on this is as well. You are a trained economist who is leading the innovation enterprise at a research university. So were you surprised by what TE found in their industrial technology index? And then a follow up to that. How do you define innovation?

Speaker4: [00:07:56] Well, I would I would agree with the way Alexandra described that, that that innovation has all these different meaningful perspectives. There are these incremental innovations that really do matter. And then you line enough of them up over time, you get a radical innovation that sort of upends an industry or changes things significantly. I will say if you if you spend your time bouncing back and forth in the world of engineers and scientists to to business and corporate leaders, the results of the survey were not all that surprising, although they are very illustrative and helpful and insightful and how to develop strategy and corporations and organizations going forward around innovation. But it is the difference in the way engineers and scientists and business leaders think, but also in the pressures and the incentives that are on them to to perform. So it wasn't all that surprising. And the truth is these are not differences that can't be bridged. In fact, it's great to have those different perspectives on innovation even within the same organization. As long as you're managing those and bringing everybody together to pursue common goals, it sort of covers all the bases and helps an organization be successful.

Speaker1: [00:09:14] You know, the survey showed a perceived gap in engineering skills as well as difficulties related to collaboration as two of the biggest threats to a company's ability to meet its innovation goals. So, Dr. Norris, is there something we could be doing better at the university level to prepare the next generation of innovators for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow?

Speaker4: [00:09:35] Yeah. You know, if you had surveyed engineers in academics and business professors and academics, you would have seen kind of similar results. And so there and there was a some of your results addressed the impact of silos within an organization. And when you have those silos, things break down. But when you're able to break down those silos, you get a lot better collaboration and integration of activity. You see the same thing in academics. I know at Louisiana Tech over 20 years ago, we really made an effort to bring engineering and science education and business education together so that business students understand technology and engineering and science students understand business and understand the different incentive structures and different pressures and and goals of the work. And of course Louisiana Tech was not the only university to do that. Universities have put a lot of effort over the last decade or so into integrating those experiences for different kinds of students. And just I think universities continuing to do that over time will help address the not only the disparity in skill sets that are needed to to drive innovation in corporations, but also in those different perspectives across engineering and business units within an organization.

Speaker1: [00:11:00] Alex and Chad, I'm interested to hear your take on what you're seeing from students who are coming out of university and maybe what you wish students were learning at university to better prepare them.

Speaker3: [00:11:12] So I think it's fantastic to hear that the universities are recognizing this and bringing together more of the engineering students and the business students, because I think that's really critical. I think when I graduated right, I was maybe lacking a little bit in some of the business acumen and things that I had to pick up on the job and took me a little bit of time. So I think the fact that, you know, within the curriculum that's being introduced is really important. I've noticed also that a lot of our younger engineers are coming into the workforce and recognizing it as well there. I've had a few people ask me and wanted to have conversations about pursuing an MBA and they're only maybe a year or two out of school. And so I think that they're recognizing that that's really something that's important for them to understand as well, is how the business works, to get familiar with that business acumen and really overall to have an
entrepreneurial mindset as they're going through and innovating and coming up
with some new designs. So I think it's fantastic that, you know, we are working towards that and bringing those functions together. And just as important for the business students right to have an understanding and appreciation as well of what the engineering students are pursuing and what some of their challenges are. So great collaboration within the university and something I think will really be beneficial within the organization and in companies at large.

Speaker2: [00:12:25] And I'd like to build on that, too, in terms of both what Alex and Dave said. And I think one of the things that that I continue to see and in my experience as an early engineer as well, is probably the lack of of the time to optimize. I think there's a lot of time spent on finding a solution and learning the technology as you're coming out of university to come up with a solution and the value of our engineers and the value I was taught early in my career was to optimize, was to find the optimal solution and think it's an important piece that only comes with a lot of experience. And I'm you know what I would like to see more of in our in our new students today are students that are entering the workforce, is having that experience where they've been able to optimize not to just find a solution, but iterate multiple times to continue to optimize, to understand how iterative design can help them find waste that's in their solution. And think from that is where you really learn how to make those trade offs that are critically important for companies like ours and for our customers to find the best solution. So I think that's that's a nuance that I would, you know, continue to push our push on from a university perspective.

Speaker1: [00:13:37] Another key finding in this TE survey was that executives and engineers have different motivators that drive innovation projects. Alex, I'm curious to ask you this and hear what you have to say about it. What is your primary motivation for innovating?

Speaker3: [00:13:55] So I would say that the main reason I became an engineer in the first place is that I really enjoyed solving problems and I enjoyed helping people. And so I saw this as an opportunity to to marry those two together. And if I could just read from the results of the survey here, because I want to comment on on this aspect of it. It says, survey found that executives are more likely to say that addressing unmet consumer needs is one of the top motivators for innovation, whereas engineers feel that adapting to external global factors is a top motivator for innovation. And I thought that was really interesting because like I said, I like to solve problems. So whatever problem is in front of me, my mind starts going to solve that problem, right? And so in the media and in our world, right, we're bombarded. There's certainly no lack of of problems in the world. So when we hear that right, we kind of start thinking about how can we solve this? How can we utilize some of these new things that we're hearing? So I think it comes down to, you know, making sure that we're channeling that energy, that creativity and that passion into the right problems to solve. And in our case, for the business needs, it's really what the customer's needs are. So I think it's it kind of goes back to that communication, right, to make sure that our engineering teams understand what are the unmet needs of our customers, what is it that they're lacking, what is it that they need, need support with? And then we can channel that energy into it. So I think that's a a key aspect of this is, you know, we like to solve those problems. So let's be clear on what they are and ask our teams to go after those.

Speaker1: [00:15:21] Shad You were an engineer before you became an executive, so I would imagine you have a little of both perspectives. So is it difficult to reconcile the desire that engineers have to innovate with the P&L responsibilities and then the obligations to shareholders that of course, come with being a business leader?

Speaker2: [00:15:41] You know, you know, I think listen, I think we've got some pretty you know, I think more mature management processes probably than when I was an engineer. I think, you know, really now around stage gate processes that really help us sequence through the innovation cycle, whether that's at the beginning of selection all the way through, you know, to qualifying the product for customers. And that helps us really keep pace with the customer need and make sure that we're not just innovating for innovating sake, but innovating to sort of reach to a to an end goal for for the customer and for the company. And, and I think that discipline process, I find helps stay stay on track to meet the P&L obligations that we have from a from an owner's perspective as well as meeting the customer needs. So I think companies that follow those are probably, you know, less likely to sort of, you know, be off track by the innovation. But I still think it's really important, you know, for us to really optimize where we're using our engineering. We work on we work on thousands of projects for our customers to to co-create with them. And not all of those, you know, reach the end desired state. Some of them, the customer need never really materializes the way the way our customers envision because maybe they didn't win the project or that technology wasn't, you know, viable. So it's really important for us and for companies like TE to really be diligent on the front end of selecting where we want our engineering resources used. It's not just enough to be able to engineer the product. It has to be able to meet that customer need, it has to be soluble and of course you have to have to be able to produce it at a reasonable cost.

Speaker1: [00:17:14] And yeah, so we have addressed some issues here, obviously, but let's talk about solutions more. The solutions. How do we bridge this divide? Alex, as an engineer. What do you wish executives understood better about the challenges that engineers face? 

Speaker3: [00:17:30] Well, I think that, you know, I mentioned innovation comes in all different shapes and sizes, and I think it comes at all different times. So it's difficult to, you know, put some time on your calendar and say Thursday afternoon between 2:00 and 3:00, I'm going to be innovative and I'm going to come up with a really cool solution. So I think it's, you know, understanding and making it a priority for our teams to have the space and the time and the environment to be creative, whether that's getting together with some of their peers or, you know, going for a walk, whatever that looks like for them, but making sure that that we do have some time in our daily routine to to be innovative. I know engineers are are tasked with doing a lot of different activities and a lot of those urgent requests that come in that need to be addressed at a certain time. So it's sometimes hard to carve out that time and make sure that we're enabling our teams to do that. But I think it's really important that, you know, innovation, we want it to happen quickly. It doesn't always happen as quickly as we would like it to or that our executive team would like it to happen. We recognize that. But as long as we're, you know, consistently making time and making it a priority, then I think our teams will be successful in it.

Speaker1: [00:18:36] So we heard Alex's take on things there. Shad want to hear what do you wish engineers understood more about the executive or business challenges?

Speaker2: [00:18:45] Listen, I think there's a couple of things. And you know, I talked earlier about trade offs that we have to make around making sure we're making, you know, good selection of projects. You know, what I didn't touch on was time to market and the importance of time to market a meeting, the innovation cycle that our customers are on. And, you know, if you can't meet that cycle, it's not worth doing the innovation. So I think it's a really important lens that I want to make sure our technical teams are aware of and thinking of when we're defining, you know, our our sort of willingness and eagerness to work on a project. And, you know, Alex talked about the fact that you can't always innovate exactly during some short timeframe. But I think, you know, things that we're doing to understand customers roadmaps and the timing of their roadmaps helps us get technology on the pace that helps meet our time to market. And that's something Alex and her teams, you know, are doing well within TE to make sure that we're pacing along at that customer's innovation cycle. But it's an important piece that I think, you know, engineers need to really understand. And the emerging challenge that we're having that I think is also really important to understand is around sustainability. Many of our customers now, it's really important for them to understand the the carbon footprint that our designs have impact on them. And so when we're engineering now, it's not just enough to make the solutions work, but it's to make those make those innovations truly sustainable in terms of the materials we choose and the processes that go into making those products is another important aspect of a trade off and a consideration that we have to have for our customers.

Speaker1: [00:20:20] Dr.. Norris, thoughts on how we create better alignment.

Speaker4: [00:20:25] I think the best way I would describe that is integration of the worlds in some meaningful way, integration of those two environments. So having corporate leaders, whether they're from the engineering side or the business side on campus, more often talking to students, interacting with faculty and sharing the experience of bridging the technical and business divide and corporations to pursue innovation, helping to bring that content into the academic world, but also bringing those students out into the corporate environment and letting them see how innovation takes place, letting them work in experiential learning situations while they're still students, where they can integrate that with their academic experience. That's that's the best way to to share the experiences from the corporate world and the academic world and better align for more effective, more, more successful innovation going forward.

Speaker1: [00:21:24] Great conversation. Any final thoughts as we're wrapping up?

Speaker4: [00:21:28] Final comment for me, When you step back and look at the overall results of the survey, it's actually quite inspiring about the future of innovation. Even when you have these differences,what they actually represent is diverse perspectives on how innovation should take place and does take place in organizations. As long as organizations are pulling those together in a unified strategy, it's really represents, in my view, a very promising future for innovation and in the corporate world as to the sense that that this is representative of the corporate world. And I think it is to me, it's inspiring about the future of innovation in that world. And then it inspires me in the higher ed world to continue to push on that topic and that mission within higher education.

Speaker1: [00:22:15] Great information, great conversation. And if people want more information, maybe they actually want to see the report, where can they find it?

Speaker3: [00:22:22] So there's more information available as well as a copy of the report at te.com backslash Tech Index.

Speaker1: [00:22:30] Perfect. Chad Kroeger, president of the Industrial Solutions segment at TE Connectivity. Alexandra Spitler, Director of Entrepreneurial engineering for TE's Transportation Solutions segment, and Dr. Dave Norris, Chief Innovation Officer at Louisiana Tech University. Want to thank all of you for your time. Really appreciate your time today. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker4: [00:22:49] Thank you for having me.

Speaker2: [00:22:50] Thanks, Michelle.

Speaker3: [00:22:51] Thank you, Michelle, I appreciate it.

Speaker1: [00:22:52] And want to thank all of you for tuning in to our Connected world. It is a podcast brought to you by TE Connectivity, talking about innovation in the tech space today, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast to hear more great conversations. I'm your host, Michelle Dawn Mooney. Thanks again for joining us. We hope to see you soon.