Senior Vice-President, Digital Industries,
Siemens Canada Limited
Siemens is a global technology company focused on implementing the digital enterprise with manufacturers and producers. Siemens is also active in power generation, transmission and smart grid solutions, as well as in the areas of medical imaging and laboratory diagnostics. Today, Siemens has around 385,000 employees in more than 200 countries/regions. In fiscal 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019, Siemens generated revenue of €86.8 billion and net income of €5.6 billion.
Siemens Canada is a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees. In Ontario, the company has two very strong operations in the Digital Industries sector – cyber security (Vaughan) and measurement instruments (Peterborough). Joris Myny, Senior Vice-President, Digital Industries, focused on digital transformation within Industry 4.0 at our most recent CEO Dialogue.
THE TONE FROM THE TOP will determine the success of the digital transformation. Joris says the buy-in and sponsorship from the CEO is key to realizing a company’s transformative goals. This is because the changes that are implemented will impact everything: how manufacturing runs, the interaction with suppliers, the impact digitalization has on employees and the customer experience. The digital transformation needs to be sufficiently funded and transformation leader(s) should be assigned, supported by strong technology partners.
DIMINISH THE FEAR OF FAILURE. In the words of Joris, the CEO’s job is to encourage innovators to lean so far out the window that they might fall, so it’s important that the innovators are convinced the leadership team will be there to catch them. People are naturally intimidated by change and the potential failure that comes with it. In fact, failure will happen in the digital transformation: not everything will work the first time. The leader must nurture an innovation culture. Siemens provides manufacturers the Digital Twin of the product and the production. This way, the mistakes happen in a safer world – a virtual world.
DIGITALIZATION INCREASES THE POTENTIAL FOR CYBERSECURITY BREACHES. When introducing digital innovations, cybersecurity can never be an afterthought; it must be incorporated in your design from the start.
When it comes to cybersecurity, do you know your weakest link? Vulnerability tests on your IT/OT-landscape are a must. Best practice is for companies to conduct a vulnerability assessment. Get help from professional partners.