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I take the ‘ shut up and listen ’ approach to management .
important is an ability to go deep into the detail to see how that strategy is being implemented on the ground .
If you could go back and change one career decision , what would it be ?
I view my career as being a wonderful mosaic of successes and failures ; with hopefully more successes than failures . It ’ s been an adventure , and like any adventure you ’ re going to have to take risks . But I wouldn ’ t go back and change anything , even if I could .
Another philosophy for me is I ’ ve always put my hand up . It means you can find yourself in some difficult situations , but rarely does it turn out to be the wrong decision . If something is going wrong , putting yourself at the forefront of the battlefield is always the right thing to do .
What do you think has emerged as the technology trend of this year and why ?
There is always a new technology on the hype curve . To me , the job of a technology leader is to see through it . Then you can establish the long-term risks and benefits .
For example , look at AI , if you ignore the hype and buzz words , something important is really happening – something as important as the Internet , something our engineering clients need to take a strategic approach to .
But the situation is complex for many clients , the data might be siloed , the use of AI restricted by standards , high levels of investment in existing tailored engineering tool chains and so on . Such topics take time to address and necessarily slow down adoption in many engineering environments – phrases like ‘ this year is all about agentic AI ’ are nonsense in my opinion and result in misallocation of capital . You see the same in many technological domains , for example a new battery chemistry gets announced with superior performance , ok great , but is everyone suddenly going to write-off billions from their balance sheet to build new factories to produce it – clearly not .
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
Mountain biking . I love getting muddy , wet and cold . I love the risk element and the fact that , at any moment , I could fall off and break my arm . Mountain biking requires a lot of balance and complete focus , you ’ re always learning , and it gets you out into the fresh air . I enjoy the rawness of it , and I ’ d recommend it to everyone at any age .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
It ’ s all about making sure the fundamentals are in place . Yes , it can be dull . But if an enterprise CIO wants to extract maximum value from AI , for example , they can ’ t do that unless they have the right data architecture in place . With engineering , it ’ s the same story . We want to digitise R & D , and we want to gain more advantages from simulation , but we have to make sure the fundamentals are in place first .
What are the region-specific challenges you encounter in your role ?
At CES this year , the issue of sovereignty was a hot topic , and that was even before recent geopolitical developments . We ’ ve seen a big drive for sovereignty in many of our core industries , be it semiconductors or telecommunications and that will certainly continue . This was backed up by a recent report from the Capgemini Research Institute which assessed investment priorities for 2025 . It found that globally , seven in 10 executives are concerned about the impact of rising tariffs and bilateral trade disputes on their organisation ’ s competitiveness . As a result , almost two-thirds now confirm that ‘ friendshoring ’ will represent a significant part of their organisation ’ s sourcing and production strategies in 2025 , in order to reinforce their supply chains . p
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