Episode 14: Customer-First PLM: Insights on Digital Transformation and Leadership with Helene Ålander

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, we are joined by Helene Ålander, a seasoned leader in digital transformation and former Head of PLM Architecture & Systems at Ericsson. Helene brings over 30 years of experience in the IT, telecom, and software industries and has been at the forefront of transforming complex organizations through Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

In this episode, we are discussing:

⚉ Defining PLM and Product Portfolios
⚉ Ericsson's Digital Transformation in PLM
⚉ Leadership Style and Engaging People in Change
⚉ Applications of AI in PLM
⚉ Tackling Legacy Systems and Product Retirement
⚉ The Link Between Sustainability and Data
⚉ Emerging Trends in PLM
⚉ Advice for Junior Professionals in Building a Strong Foundation in PLM and IT Careers
⚉ The Value of Diverse Skillsets and Team Dynamics in Transformations
⚉ Challenges in Leading Transformations
⚉ Biggest Career Learning Moments
⚉ The Importance of Vision in Transformation

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
⚉ [Podcast] Episode 6: Revolutionizing PLM: Insights from Yousef Hooshmand - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1262360/episodes/13325798

CONNECT WITH HELENE:
⚉ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenealander/

CONNECT WITH SHARE PLM:
⚉ Website: https://shareplm.com/ 

Join us every month to listen to fascinating interviews, where we cover a wide array of topics, from actionable tips, to personal experiences, to strategies that you can implement into your PLM strategy. 

If you have an interesting story to share and want to join the conversation, contact us and let's chat. We can't wait to hear from you!

Transcript

[00:00:11] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Hello everyone and welcome to the SharePLM podcast. My name is Beatriz González and I'm co founder and CEO of SharePLM. I'm going to be hosting today's podcast together with my co host Jos. And today we have a very fantastic guest that I'm very happy to have today with us. So hi Jos, how are you doing today and who is with us today?

[00:00:34] JOS VOSKUIL:
Okay. Hi, Bea, and welcome in this podcast also for me, a new experience working together in this interesting podcast. And today we had the pleasure to talk with Helene Arlander, who, uh, till recently worked for Ericsson, a company I also have been involved for more than 10 years. And Helene was the head of the PLM architecture and system division at Ericsson.

And in that role, she led also the digital transformation in the PLM domain. And for me, the Ericsson PLM journey is a journey full of lessons. I learned a lot from working with them and listening to them. And I think Helene, you have even more experience than me on that. So welcome and please introduce yourself.

Let's say, start from the person before we go dive into the business.

[00:01:17] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah. Helene Ålander, I have a background in telecom plus software, not only Ericsson, but also mobile operators, several of them. I started off with business development and product management, but as I grew into manager roles product life cycle management became more important when you looked into the portfolio of products.

And so different aspects of product life cycle management has always been in focus for me.

[00:01:52] JOS VOSKUIL:
Okay. Well, the interesting point that you already mentioned, uh, product portfolio management, it's a topic that is, uh, for me, crucial for modern companies. And if we look at the Ericsson and the companies you work at, how important was PLM and on this topic for them.

[00:02:07] HELENE ÅLANDER:
There are different aspects of PLM. I believe that some aspects of versioning maturing products could be really hands on and a bit mechanical almost because as product mature, you need to manage them differently, maybe develop different things for them to relate to customers.

Then there are other aspects of it that in telecom, very few products have reached a retirement or end of life life cycle that you sell to customers. It's more a change into new and new things.

[00:02:48] JOS VOSKUIL:
Maybe zooming in on products. What is a product for you? Because I can imagine that, uh, we're not talking abou  concrete and mechanical parts.

[00:02:56] HELENE ÅLANDER:
To me, a product is what you sell to a customer. And to me that also concerns the entire company because that is what we are getting our revenue from. Then you have product handling objects or things that is, are needed for developing the products that you sell, could be parts, modules, whatever. 

[00:03:24] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
If we move it Helene to a practical way, because I have seen in several companies that they make differentiation between sales product portfolio or engineering product portfolio or different product portfolio, and they don't have it clear and they are in the process. 

Do you have experience in defining several type of product portfolios? What is your recommendation and your experience related to that?

[00:03:47] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think many of the companies that I've worked for have complex offerings to their customers that consist of many products. So I think it's important from a commercial perspective to divide the product into different sellable items. They may be modularized in a certain way to fit the customer's needs and you may talk about your offer in about your products in the offerings in a different way if you approach different industries. But these modules that you use in a commercial layer, like products and offerings they may not be the same as is used for developing or delivering your products.

So I think that is very important to separate the different things, what you sell and what makes it's reasonable from a commercial point of view, but what you actually deliver and the smart things that you do when you develop and reuse.

[00:04:52] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And what is your recommendation for a company that they don't have the product portfolios or the product portfolio defined and they need to start? What is the thinking process better to start thinking on the commercial aspect or sometimes for, for some companies it's easier to start from the technical aspect because the employees are more used to the daily work and they have more clear the how and it's difficult to go to the commercial. What is your recommendation? What is the right approach?

[00:05:20] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I always believe that you start with a customer because you need to be able to sell things. And often when you try to define your products you can start with what is mandatory and what is a choice you can make as a customer. When you talk about PLM, and especially when you talk about manufacturing, hardware, et cetera, PLM has a focus in that, going from development into manufacturing and then, then delivering.

There may, might be other reasons for do another modularizations or another division between what you develop and what you sell. I would say, start with the customer, always start with the customer.

[00:06:09] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Customer first.

[00:06:09] JOS VOSKUIL:
Okay. 

[00:07:06] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think, yeah, that's the main message for many modern companies because you have to be connected to your customers. Just going back to your efforts in Ericsson, you were responsible for digital transformation. What does digital transformation mean for Ericsson?

[00:06:28] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Primarily it was going from document based information to data based information in systems. And also one of the important things for us was to collaborate within the company. Collaboration was very important and I think that is, is really important for many companies, collaboration.

[00:06:55] JOS VOSKUIL:
Do you mean that there was a challenge before, uh, connecting people outside their silos? Was that a real visible pain?

[00:07:04] HELENE ÅLANDER:
If you are document based, someone needs to write a document for the next person to read it and then continue working. So it becomes very waterfall ish. Whilst if you have the same information in a data format and maybe 3D models, et cetera, it's much easier to collaborate around.

[00:07:26] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. I like to hear the message from coordinated to connected.

[00:07:31] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Absolutely, yes, yes.

[00:07:34] JOS VOSKUIL:
What this brings us maybe to the next part, the people, I mean, the people are also part of the transformation. First, can you tell us something about your leadership style with your team and what are the, how do you lead such a transformation?

[00:07:48] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I try to start with a vision. I often use the six dimensions of enterprise architecture, which is the commercial products. It's the technology, whether that is hardware, software, or whatever, how you develop that. You define the processes with the business. and the processes that you want to have. Related to those processes, information, what kind of information do they need?

And then looking for, what kind of IT systems can we use for, for this information? And last but not least is, do we need to have the same organization or not? Often when you change a lot of things, the same organization will not fit.

[00:08:41] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes. So, Helene, we at SharePLM, we have a kind of different approach, maybe the other way around, but I think that you maybe leave it a little bit in parallel, all of these six phases, but we always think that it's and you were mentioning starting with the vision. We totally agree, starting with the vision, with the people and also with the business requirements itself, and then going with the technology processes, etc. But it's important not making the organization change because you are putting in a new technology, but it's because the organization need it or the people need it at the beginning. It's something also what you were meaning with the vision at the beginning, starting with.

[00:09:24] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think, when I put processes I relate to a business flow in one way or the other. It could be hardware development, software development, or it could be being able to do bits to customer the commercial flows that are different. And what was your question? More, uh, related to…

[00:09:42] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes, it was because you were mentioning the organizational change like the people at the end of the flow, but on the other hand, you were mentioning starting with the vision. The vision is also kind of communicate the vision to the people, right? So it's kind of a circle in the end.

[00:09:56] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah and when I say organization it's not that is the only way where people are because people work in a business flow more or less. And you need to start working with these people in the beginning, because I think that when you do a big change, it's hard to imagine what is, possible.

If you have, if you worked in a company for a very long time, you're used to the way you're working and you're quite satisfied with that. So in the beginning of the transformation, I believe that it's really important If you have a decided system, for example, to see what that system can provide you with or, and if that fits you and to do that, you need to have people that actually work in these processes with you to understand is this okay or do we need to adopt something? So it always starts with people and the discussion, but sometimes people have difficulties to imagine what you can do with a system because often in systems people have thought a lot about what it, the system will support.

[00:11:16] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly I I think also the challenge with with people is yet to imagine the future and also to get enthusiastic for a new future. And that's why it's also so important to have this, why would we change? I mean, if you can't explain why. And just say we have a new tool, then you don't get people along with you.

And of course, I think Ericsson had a big why for it at that time and why they had to go to digital transformation, looking at the competition, but how, how does this feel in the companies? Because, uh, Scandinavian countries are known as a consensus culture. How do you deal with that by, I would say, working with everybody, informing with everyone.

[00:11:57] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah, it's communication in transformation. It's communication, communication and communication. And when you are tired of hearing your own voice and almost want to quit the work then suddenly someone comes with your own wordings, but you know that you haven't spoken to that person, but you recognize what you've said to others.

And then, you know, uh, suddenly things have transformed, you have moved something a bit in the company. But it is a challenge to get people on board, to understand the benefits and seeing a new way of working as something good.

[00:12:40] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Can you tell us some tips how this narrative explaining the vision and the why it's, uh, this time that you saw that it worked, for example.

[00:12:51] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think getting people as I said that work within the value flow, maybe not just one profession, but several professions that can discuss and share between each other what problems they have or challenges at work. And also learn from each other what can be done. So I think to start small with inner transformation with a few people that are open minded and can discuss in a nice way, not being negative, but, but actually wants to get a new way of working, for example.

Then to expand because if you have these people that have knowledge on things that works well, but, and things that do not work that can be solved. Then you have some real people that can be the ambassadors. I think that is a very good start because then they will speak be able to speak about the benefits. 

And when you have them doing that you are almost there.

[00:14:04] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yes. If they can imagine the benefits. And I think that's a important lesson to learn from the past. Don't start to ask for the pains and solve them, but to focus on the benefits and then discuss how to get there.

[00:14:18] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah.

[00:14:20] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Positive thinking. Yeah.

[00:14:22] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yes.

[00:14:23] JOS VOSKUIL:
So if we look to the, the PLM transformation for example, in Ericsson, from documents to databases, uh, there are still so much legacy data. How do you see this type of projects evolving? Because I think I learned a lot, but I don't want to put my words in your mouth. So…

[00:14:39] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I would say that you actually cannot just transform many of the transformation projects that I've seen have become or could become very, very complex And the reason behind that is that there are so many legacy products that have not been retired before that really should have been retired. And the portfolio management is, it's not there as you would like to have.

I mean, if you're in a company have many, many products or offerings, if you would like to phrase it like that, that do the same thing, they will be costly. So, and they will be costly to migrate from something old to something new. So really decide upon what goes to the new systems, the new portfolio, and also migrate customers if possible, I mean, if in the mobile industry not particularly Ericsson in customer, but, uh, mobile operators to migrate the customer to a few products that or offerings that are relevant for you. So it's also an opportunity to actually get rid of old things in the company, old products.

[00:15:58] JOS VOSKUIL:
Talking about old stuff I just realized half year ago, my, uh, electric car, an old Nissan was connected by 2G and now 2G is no longer supported. I mean, finally, and are already far in the 5G.

[00:16:12] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah.

[00:16:13] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
What are your recommendations, Helene, when a company has a lot of products that should be retired and they are not? What are the steps to take to be able to manage the portfolio? So, for example, nominate someone, start for a phases approach, agile, I don't know, how to do it.

[00:16:33] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yah. Often you need to, you have product managers often, that act within an area. And they move in most cases have several different products in different phases of their life cycle. So to actually work with different aspects of a product, like when you are innovating, you want to prepare it for onboarding many customers. And when something, a product is launched, you want to continue to develop that one and focus on onboarding new customer and the delivery process. But once a product mature and become more a maintenance product. You shouldn't bother so much about the delivery process, but rather to make it cost efficient, et cetera.

And when the technology, because in my area, often technology grow old, you retire. But in this cycle, I believe that often forgotten, besides retirement, that many of the companies have products that they want the customers to migrate to and to think about the customer journey going from retirement products into the products that are modern, et cetera, is forgotten.

Because there is very seldom that you have a blue ocean and it's, everything is new, but you often have customers using older products that you want to get to the modern to make them happy, really about your products.

[00:18:16] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Like just with your car, the 2G car, you have been forgotten. 

[00:18:20] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, yeah I had to upgrade the car. Yeah.

Maybe one, one point Helene, for me, digital transformation is all about moving to a data driven environment and for that, the importance of a real enterprise architecture. Yeah. How did this develop in, in Ericsson because you are probably more data driven, even then the traditional mechanical companies, it's becoming an important role in your organization.

[00:18:50] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Absolutely. Not only data, but also if you have data in several systems, you need to have logical models for the information and that relates to the value flows and the processes as well. So, it's so easy to say data, but data could be in many systems. And, and if you want to have a benefit of the data or do analysis from data you need to understand the different data models and actually compare apples and apples. And I think something else is that all the information about one product does not necessarily need to be in one system because that is also something that I've seen as soon as you put everything in one system, that is really super. But the thing is, there are systems for different things that handle products that may, and if you have one system to rule them all, or to do everything for you it becomes very complex and changes becomes difficult.

[00:20:06] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah. One of my lessons learned at Ericsson was that you had a federated relational databases environment. And then there was a migration to an object oriented environment. And even in this translation, there are so much data to be validated, or maybe not correct, even that you're not aware of…

[00:20:25] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah.

[00:20:26] JOS VOSKUIL:
…therefore a mission impossible.

But then if we come back to the people, how would the people work? Would they work in both worlds? Would they work in a dedicated environment for them?

[00:20:36] HELENE ÅLANDER:
This goes back to my thinking about really cleaning the product portfolio. In some aspects, you still need to continue developing products that has been in, in the legacy system. And then you might need to migrate to the new system. But if there are very, very few changes, and not that often changes to legacy products. I believe that they would be better off remaining in the old system.

[00:21:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, here. I fully agree. If it, if it's there and not alive, don't touch it, but connect to it.

[00:21:18] HELENE ÅLANDER:
And I mean, if you need to do a transformation of data from, data that is difficult to have and have several objects with different attributes. It's difficult to take it from one system with maybe only one object that would fit the entire organization. So if you have a more modern technology you would like to have more objects more depending on what you are to achieve with the different.

[00:21:49] JOS VOSKUIL:
Right. And it's already 25 minutes and we haven't said the word AI yet.

[00:21:56] HELENE ÅLANDER:
You need , you need AI to be able, data to be able to use it. AI, so…

[00:22:03] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. And I think if we look forward, uh, one of the biggest buzzwords is in one way AI, but also one of the biggest opportunities is AI. In particular, if you want to have this mixed environments Connected in easy, accessible areas. What do you see as the biggest benefits of AI looking back to traditional PLM companies?

[00:22:27] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think there are, um, in the more traditional PLM hardware development area, I think the geopolitical challenges that I see with maybe having the same commercial product, the same functionality, but supported by different components, depending on where you are to deliver in, in certain countries.

Or, if you need to have control of the people that are developing your products, like in software, where are they coming from? And a lot of the ingredients in your products, where does it come from? When you start adding geopolitical dimension, it's really making everything so much more complex and it rules out Excel, definitely. 

[00:23:25] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. 

[00:23:26] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Even if many would like to have it in Excel but it's so complex. So many attributes that might, might differ and where the components come from, especially.

[00:23:36] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. And that also brings me to one of my favorite topics, sustainability. Have you seen any additional layers also in the PLM world supporting sustainability initiatives? Is it coming? Are people thinking about it?

[00:23:51] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think almost all companies must think about sustainability and they, they do what I see. It's a part of decision making as well. So, um it's definitely very, very important unique selling point for many to how they focus on a sustainability.

[00:24:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
But the main reason I'm asking this, I think you can only do sustainability if you have data.

[00:24:18] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely.

[00:24:22] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah it's, it needs also a digital transformation.

[00:24:26] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yes, absolutely. I agree. Fully agree.

[00:24:29] JOS VOSKUIL:
Are there any other areas that you say that are coming in our PLM domain that we should watch?

[00:24:36] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think the combination of hardware, software, and the splitting of the commercial layer and the more technical delivery layer is going to be important as well as how you present things in a user friendly web oriented thing and you can have several systems below with data from different systems, but the presentation layer is something that, I mean, we all are used to as private consumers or. And that comes into also bigger companies because you bring your consumer behavior also into your professional world.

So you want to be able to order online, et cetera. So, I think that is something that I see coming as well.

[00:25:34] JOS VOSKUIL:
So here you are fully aligned with Yousef Hooshmand. He was in one of our podcasts before and leading in the first in time, but now in NEO, the digital transformation. And he also says, put the user first and the data, and then you organize where the data comes from. And so you're both aligned. And I fully agree also with this vision.

I think that's where, We're very able to go to it. I mean, it's, it's not that it's a mission impossible. We can do it.

[00:25:04] HELENE ÅLANDER:
No but I think if you, you need to break the delivery items in a transformation down to pieces, so it's possible to deliver and maybe slice it in, in either relation to, to the customer or, or other slices that is beneficial for your industry and your products. I think that is important to think about how you can do that because being able to deliver is at the end important in transformations.

[00:26:39] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. Yeah. And, and fast and short, short cycles instead of long waves.

[00:26:46] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Then you can continue the transformation and people are getting happier and happier. That's a big, important part.

[00:26:55] JOS VOSKUIL:
But yeah, I think we are reaching the half an hour, more than half an hour.

[00:27:00] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes, I have one question for Helene. The last one, maybe. So, I have seen your experience and all the companies you have worked with and I'm very impressed. And so you, I can see that the people change management is not only in the PLM that you do, it's also in how you have developed us as professional. Do you have any advice or some recommendation for someone junior that is starting in, in the PLM or, or the IT world to, to be able to, to develop as you have done to me, for example.

[00:27:39] HELENE ÅLANDER:
First, I think it's important to, to at least to have a mix of people that are detail oriented. And also having an overview and can see the big picture. And I think it's very important, at least for a leader to find people that some people that are detailed oriented and some people that can see the big picture.

So  in many cases where I try to make smaller teams within the team to, to achieve something, for example, I often work with architects and PLM architects they know PLM and they are often very detail oriented related to that. And that's great. Then as I talked before, the process dimension, when you are looking in value flows is important.

So process architecture, they could be quite, that is also important. And architects in that domain could be very detailed oriented as well. But adding a profession that can drive things forward, like a project manager, a more enterprise architect that can look at more, broader things to make it work in a, in a bigger context. I believe that is important. 

And whether you are a detailed one or a person that can see the big picture, it doesn't matter. You are needed in a transformation, but you must be true to yourself and, and know yourself if you are this detail oriented person or not.

[00:29:29] JOS VOSKUIL:
Right.

[00:29:30] HELENE ÅLANDER:
…to be happy.

[00:29:31] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah.

[00:29:33] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Thanks so much. I think it's, uh, it's really good advice. Yeah.

[00:29:38] JOS VOSKUIL:
Okay. Yeah. So my final questions Helene when you get experience is because things have sometimes happened that you didn't expect. If you look in your PLM career, what was your biggest experience where you say here? I learned so much.

[00:29:53] HELENE ÅLANDER:
I think it's repeating itself when you are told that a company are in a certain situation and it shows that they are not. When I've been hired to execute on a transformation, but there is no why the vision is not there, it's very difficult to just do it. If executives have not thought about what they want to achieve and why,  I can go in and do that work for them, but the surprise is when you're, you're hired for one thing, but you actually need to do something else.

That has been one of the, uh, experiences, be, be, when you enter into this, be sure to, if you are going to execute on transformation make sure the foundation for that transformation is there.

[00:30:51] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. It needs to come from within and often we, as consultants, we are hired to tell a story, but we can never do the transformation.

[00:31:01] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Hmm. And I also believe that also if you only use internal people, they are mostly into, uh, the daily business. So the transformational part is maybe not given that much time. So I think the best thing is to find a combination with some transformation leaders, some external consultants, and some internal people that actually knows the business within.

So, so it's, again, a combination of different priorities, different knowledge, uh, and maybe personalities as well.

[00:31:44] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think. Yeah. Thank you for your broad answer. Also showing that it's not easy.

[00:31:48] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yeah.

[00:31:50] HELENE ÅLANDER:
It's not. Definitely not. No.

[00:31:55] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
So thank you very much, Helene for your time. It's been a pleasure.

[00:32:00] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Likewise. Thank you.

[00:32:02] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Thank you. And thanks everyone for joining us. Thank you Jos. 

[00:32:07] JOS VOSKUIL:
Thank you both. And Helene, it's, it's a pleasure to meet virtually.

[00:32:11] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Yeah.

[00:32:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
…to see you and success with your new job.

[00:32:15] HELENE ÅLANDER:
Thank you.