Episode 1: Series 3 Kickoff: Expanding Perspectives in PLM – People, Technology, and Beyond

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, as Series 3 kicks off, podcast hosts Maria Morris, Jos Voskuil, and Beatriz Gonzalez take a moment to reflect on Series 2 and discuss the exciting changes coming in Series 3.

Below, we explore key topics such as:

⚉ Key Takeaways from Series 2
⚉ Insights on Digital Transformation
⚉ Expanding the Guest Pool for Series 3
⚉ Advice for Beginners in PLM
⚉ Encouraging Gender and Cultural Representation for Series 3 


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] MARIA MORRIS:
Hello everyone and welcome to the SharePLM podcast. You might not recognize my voice and that is because this is my first time joining the SharePLM podcast. 

My name is Maria Morris and I am the business development manager at SharePLM. And today is a very special episode because we are kicking off series three of the Share PLM podcast.

It's very exciting that we've gotten this far and that we have so many of you following along to our episodes. And what we are going to be doing today is having a quick recap of the previous series, Series 2. Getting some insights from Jos, who as we all know has been here all the way through the series.

Getting some of his key recaps and thoughts. And then we will have a look into what we can expect from Series 3. So as always, as I mentioned, we have Jos with us and also Beatrice, who has recently joined us in the podcast as well.

So, I'd like to hand over to Jos to get kind of his initial thoughts and feelings from series two. What have been your key takeaways, Jos?

[00:01:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
Hello Maria and hello Beatrice. It's pleasure to be together again and working on this podcast. Which has a focus on people. And if you look at the series two, we were really focusing on the people active in PLM in companies. So not people that, I would say we're advising like us consultants, but people really with, uh, I would say mud under shoes.

And if you look back at the first three episodes we had with Johan Mikkelä from FLSmidth, we spoke with Issam Darraj from ABB Engineering and Antonio Casaschi. And all three of them were extremely people focused in complete different businesses. FLSmidth was a CTO. ABB, we know as a big industrial conglomerate.

And Antonio also in NASA Abloy had again, a complete different type of scenery, but they all had a focused on people. At the time, I had a feeling maybe we become too much people centric and not enough PLM, but that was already compensated by the next episode with Yousef Hooshmand.

I mean, Yousef is, I would say, very excited and very active in the PLM domain about federated PLM. He has been working for, for Daimler and for NEO and his concepts of federated PLM. And his papers are an excellent lesson for the future. And if you listen to Yousef, you can see how big companies deal with transitions step by step.

Then the next episode was with Martijn Dullaart. Martijn is also Dutch and we speak a lot. Because Martijn is both active on PLM and configuration management. And we both have the same passion of what does it mean to bring both PLM and configuration management to the digital era. I think Martijn working in a very complex company and an environment has good best practices for others.

Okay. And the next discussion with Susanna Mäentausta, I hope I pronounced her name correctly. Susanna was one of the ones that really brought the value of PLM to the conversation, how to connect to the business and make sure you have measurable and results that can be followed up. She's a master in this story.

And then we spoke with Björn Axling and Roger Kabo. They are more working in the traditional industrial manufacturing companies. How the challenges are in big enterprises to move to data driven environments. And interesting lessons learned also about having a vision was crucial in their discussions.

And then we spoke with Jim van Oss and Jim has been working for a long time in Moog. He has been CIO, but he also was there in the early days of CAT. And through Jim, we learned what is the journey of a person when you start in the beginning of PLM and where you are now. And Jim is, like me, close to retiring, still doing some jobs, but he has gone through all the roads.

And then we spoke with Max Gravel and Max also worked at Moog and before at Gulfstream. And he's one of the real advocates and enthusiasts about model based enterprise, model based definition. And from him, we learned the importance of the connection with the management. But also having this very positive mindset of making it happen instead of looking forward that it will fail anyway.

He is the, he brought the energy. And then we had an interesting discussion with Helene Ålander who worked at that time, or was just switching jobs, she had worked for Ericsson for many years. And also I was involved several times with Ericsson and it was a very interesting discussion about how to deal with big transformation in this type of companies, how to engage people, how to motivate people and to get them moving forward.

And the last one from this year was an interesting with Brian Berger from Metso. The interesting takeaway from the discussions I had with Brian was that he really says diversity is, is crucial in your teams, in your company, because this is steering innovation. Don't try to make everyone be the same and behave the same.
So a lot of, I would say different advice from different people that helps again me a lot. you.

[00:05:26] MARIA MORRIS:
Mm.

[00:05:27] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes. We have learned a lot in your podcast. Thank you, Jos, for all these previous series that I couldn't be part of, and I'm very happy to be part of the new Series 3.

[00:05:39] MARIA MORRIS:
Yes. Definitely. And thank you again, Jos, for that great recap of series two. I wanted to ask you, Jos, you gave such a great overview of the different episodes and guest and one theme that I think emerged a lot was talking to our guests about their experience of starting in PLM, lessons they've learned along the way, maybe mistakes they've made and learned from.

What advice would you give to maybe a listener who is beginning their PLM journey and is worried about what might lie ahead? How would you recommend that they get started?

[00:06:10] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think, you always have a vision in mind. Don't start just with something. And that's what we learned also from those podcast series from people from the field. You need to have a mindset of where do I want to be in five years from now and how do I get there. And be sure you don't get there as expected. It will be step by step.

And I think also in our podcast, it was crucial. You have to engage with people. You have to align with people. I think in some episodes, people say technology is not the problem. The challenge is, is the people and the methodology.

[00:06:44] MARIA MORRIS:
Yeah, that's a very interesting point and it leads me on to my next question. A lot of our episodes were centered around more of the people side of digital transformations and not just the technology itself. Was that surprising to you, Jos?
Did you expect so many people to have such a people first approach to their digital transformations?

[00:07:03] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think I was expecting this because we as consultants, we can talk about digital transformation, but companies have so much legacy. So if you speak with people that are working in existing companies, they also have to carry the legacy. They cannot run as fast, maybe as the concept would look like. And I think that was also the purpose of this series, to give people the comfort when they listen that they are not alone by, uh, or staying behind. No, everyone is moving forward, but not that fast as we would like to.

[00:07:31] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely. And did you learn anything new from series two or did anything kind of spark more interest in you in a certain topic or area?

[00:07:42] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think it's, it's more sparking ideas again that I say, Hey, yes, maybe I forgot I didn't do enough and especially the episodes where we talk about how to motivate people. I mean, this is always the challenge and currently I think this is still the biggest challenge.

[00:07:58] MARIA MORRIS:
Mhm. Definitely. Perfect and I know Bea, you weren't a part of the series too, but I wanted to ask you as well if it's surprising to you that so many people have now adopted a people first approach to PLM, because I know that when you and Helena started SharePLM, for example, this wasn't really the case. So I guess it's great to see that this is evolving.

[00:08:20] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes. It's really wonderful to see that the people is seeing the same that we were seeing at the beginning when we found it Share PLM, that it doesn't mind the system. If you don't support the people that needs to use it. So I'm very happy to see that so many great people share this philosophy with us, with Jos, and Share PLM.

[00:08:42] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely. And Bea, as well, I wanted to ask you a similar question that I asked Jos. For people who are starting out on their PLM journey, what advice would you give them to help them put people first?

[00:08:55] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
I think when someone is starting with PLM, they are more worried about the technology itself and learning the difficult concepts because it's not something that you learn from day one. And my first advice is it's okay. Focus on understanding and be patient. It will take time. And in parallel, while you are trying to understand it, think in a person like you that will be in the same place and how would be the help that you need for yourself.

So you can use it for help the next users in the system. So treating them as you have, would like to be treated in your journey.

[00:09:32] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly. I think this is also my, my approach. Imagine yourself in the issues of somebody else. And how would you expect to be treated? Very good point.

[00:09:43] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yeah, okay.

[00:09:44] MARIA MORRIS:
Yes, I completely agree. And just to close off our recap of series two, Jos, if you could summarize the series in one sentence or a few words, how would you do that?

[00:09:55] JOS VOSKUIL:
Well, that's a good question. I, I hope I've got it yesterday because then I could summarize in one sentence, but I think, we learned and maybe also by the people that we invited. It is about people. And it's not about the highest and the best technology first. I mean, we are on a journey and everyone has its own way to enjoy the journey. That's also important.

[00:10:20] MARIA MORRIS:
Great, I think that's a great summary, thank you so much Jos. Okay, now, I'm really excited to get some insights from both of you of what the us and our listeners can expect from this series, series three of the Share PLM podcast. So I'd like to hand over to Bea and see if you can give us a bit of an overview of what we can expect from this series.

[00:10:42] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes, we are very excited because next series three, we are doing a change. So we are including a consultant, software vendors, system integrators. So every person that has the same beliefs that we have, people, people first. It will be invited in this, in this podcast because they also have a very important knowledge to share with the listeners.

And also they can contribute with some technical aspect that it might be enrich the podcast. So, yeah, we are very excited to welcome new people.

[00:11:18] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, I, I think this, this is the interesting different angle as we said in series two, we talk about people and not about technology. Now, if you're going to speaking with consultants and, and vendors, it will be a focus on the strong points of their technology.

Why do they do it this way and what makes them, I would say successful. And of course, and, and this will be the challenge in this discussion, can we also ask them where they are not successful. We're because you always learn where you expect something and see something new. Have my favorite end question.
What is your experience? And so we hope to the series three not to be a sales story, but really an interactive story with humans about what can we learn in this certain scope?

[00:12:01] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely. And I think you bring up a great point, Jos, that even with this new kind of broader focus, it's not meant to be a sales pitch. It's meant to be getting inside information, how this can support all types of stakeholders within a PLM transformation.

And I guess that leads me on to my next question, which, why is this broader focus important? Why is it important to bring different people into the conversation surrounding PLM?

[00:12:28] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think that the first point is that, as you are an implementer or a vendor, you have such broader reach than a single person in a company. So where maybe as an implementer you have 10, 20 companies in your reach, a vendor might have more than 100 companies in their reach. So we want to benefit from their inputs they get from the fields in the area of PLM and reflect with us where they are or where their customers are.

[00:12:56] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And also their approach to how they manage the people change from their own perspectives, because probably they have different ways of doing it. And I think it's, it's going to be very insightful to see the different approaches and how they connect it with the technology.

[00:13:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yes, exactly. I mean, some of the vendor say that the, the people change is the role of the implementer or the company. I mean, so we will, we will see differences. I hope and we were looking for the, the best balance.

[00:13:25] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely. And is there kind of a specific theme that or topic or area that you're interested in discussing in this next series that maybe we haven't discussed up until now?

[00:13:38] JOS VOSKUIL:
I think I'm always interested in where are you in your digital transformation moving from documents to data. That's the big journey that everyone should be on already since 2014. But in addition, when relevant, I will also look into what are the sustainability activities in the company, how do you deal with regulatory compliance, all the upcoming regulations, because that's also an area maybe a little bit silent in the PLM world, but that is our future also to be compliant.

[00:14:08] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And also the AI topic, right? So we need to ask it, of course, just try to ask it always and I think we should keep it.

[00:14:16] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, if we don't mention AI, we're not serious. I mean…

[00:14:20] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
No, totally.

[00:14:23] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely, yes. I think there are some great topics of conversation that we're going to have this series and especially now that we've broadened the focus, we're going to be able to have conversations that we haven't been able to up until this point and get some different perspectives on these topics as well. So I'm very much looking forward to that too.

And so before we wrap up, Bea and Jos, is there any kind of lasting thoughts or any opinions you want to share about either series two or what you're looking most forward to for series three?

[00:14:54] JOS VOSKUIL:
Well, let me start. I wrote my 2024 blog post this day, and I also finished with the question for the audience of this podcast. Who should we talk with? If you have anyone, a hero in your environment that we should talk with, we are looking forward to speak with those people. And yeah, I'm quite open that we will have again fantastic discussions because it is a people business.

[00:15:19] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes. And from my side, I also expect to keep, keep having the balance between women and men that mostly in the PLM we have more men in general, but I'm very happy that in the series two, we have really, also women invited. So I hope that we also have in this series three.

[00:15:39] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely.

[00:15:40] JOS VOSKUIL:
To compensate I will also balance the elderly and the younger people.

[00:15:46] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Diversity as Brian was saying…

[00:15:47] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah.

[00:15:48] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
We need diversity in the, in the next series three.

[00:15:51] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely.

[00:15:52] JOS VOSKUIL:
It would be interesting. Also, we had to speak with complete different cultures. If we have the…

[00:15:58] MARIA MORRIS:
Definitely. Many perspective as possible is always the best.

[00:16:02] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And in general, I think we are looking forward to learn from people that is so generous that wants to come here and share their knowledge. So we are very excited for the next year and keep learning.

[00:16:14] JOS VOSKUIL:
Exactly the same for me, it's so much fun, huh?

[00:16:17] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yeah.

[00:16:18] MARIA MORRIS:
Perfect. Well thank you so much again Bea and Jos for your time and dedication that you put into this podcast. I really can't wait to see what comes up this series.

And yes, as Jos was saying, for our listeners is you do know of anyone who you think could offer some great insights and experience to our podcast please get in touch and let us know and we would love to get them on. So yes, thanky you all and we hope you have a great start to the year and the series three of the SharePLM podcast.

[00:16:48] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Thank you. Bye.

[00:16:49] JOS VOSKUIL:
Thank you, Maria, and success to all of us and our audience.