Episode 7: From Systems to Strategy: Leading PLM Transformations with Paul Kaiser

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, we are joined by Paul Kaiser, a management and IT consultant with over 25 years of experience in operations, management, engineering, and business transformation across aerospace, defense, and automotive sectors. With a strong foundation in product development, Paul brings a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen to help organizations navigate complex product development and engineering challenges. At MHP Americas, Paul leads the Digital Core & Technology team, specializing in end-to-end data interoperability and engineering process efficiency. He works closely with cross-industry clients to drive operational excellence and support sustainable growth through digital transformation initiatives. 

Join us as we unpack the following topics: 

⚉ Paul's career evolution from engineering to consulting leadership
⚉ Digital Transformation: More than tools—it's about changing the way we work
⚉ Why people is one of the most urgent issues in digital transformation
⚉ Change management (OCM) is no longer just a bullet point in a project plan
⚉ What makes a digital transformation leader?
⚉ The Role of PLM Tools: Process before platform
⚉ PLM is not a short-term project, it's a journey
⚉ Model-based and data-driven transformations 
⚉ PLM vs. ERP: Tangible vs. Intangible Value
⚉ Storytelling as a consulting skill
⚉ The recurring issue in digital transformation initiatives
⚉ The role (and risk) of middle management
⚉ Strategic Alignment: Making PLM a business imperative
⚉ Communication in the Digital Age: Clarity vs. Clutter
⚉ Digital transformation is a people business
⚉ People First, Always


CONNECT WITH PAUL:
⚉ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiserpaul/ 

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 Share PLM Podcast. I'm Beatriz Gonzalez, CEO of Share PLM, and today I'm very excited to bring you a great conversation. Joining me as always we have my co-host Jos Voskuil. Hi Jos.

[00:00:27] JOS VOSKUIL:
Hi Bea, welcome back.

[00:00:29] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
How are you?

[00:00:30] JOS VOSKUIL:
I'm good. And today I'm happy that we are speaking with Paul Kaiser from head of Digital Core and Technology at MHP Americas. And in our prep call already, I discovered we have so many common topics to discuss. So I'm looking forward to our upcoming discussion. But first of all, welcome Paul, and please introduce yourself to the audience.

[00:00:48] PAUL KAISER:
Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. I've listened to this podcast before, heard a lot of my friends on here, and some other really interesting people. So, I'm very honored to be here, but yes, who am I? Paul Kaiser, about 26 years of experience in multiple industries. 

I spent about the first 15 years of my career focused on product development and product design. So I started my career out of General Motors in Detroit area doing vehicle body design, working on injection molded plastic parts and things like this. And then I transitioned geographically and career-wise to the West Coast, to California and moved into commercial and military aerospace design and it was in Southern California. So for about 10 years there, I led a multidisciplined engineering team developing pilot controls and it was fascinating. I really have a passion for product development. 

About the last 10 years in my career though, I pivoted and I've been on the consulting side. So really helping product development teams be more efficient and helping them with processes and tools. I've led a Siemens PLM Var in a scale up of their business some years back and founded a PMO and a services division for them. 

I've also led business process consulting organizations. Right before joining MHP went back in to a, a single company and joined Moog and was the global PLM director there and help them to roll out Siemens Team Center to 10,000 users in 26 countries, very large transformation that I had kicked off as a consultant. And had the honor and pleasure of working for that fantastic company to complete that project.

And today I'm an associated partner at MHP Americas. So it's a management and it consulting company. We're wholly owned by Porsche, and I'm the head, as you said there, Jos of digital core and technology that serves as units. So, always passionate about design and engineering and product development.
So today I get to help guide companies through better ways of doing that.

[00:02:49] JOS VOSKUIL:
Great introduction, Paul. And I think, yeah, that's where also a lot of the commonalities we have at first, starting with the products in the field and being in automotive and aerospace. I think those were the leading type of industries in the PLM space. So I think it's very logical that the practices that you learn there. You can later in your consultancy job, you can use them.

And now the big theme is what is all this experience worth? Because 25 years ago the world was completely different. And now we are into the space of digital transformation. And digital transformation is not by just changing the tools, it's, it's changing the way we work. How do you see this? Is there already a best practice towards digital transformation?

[00:03:31] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, it's a really interesting question. The world is changing very rapidly as you hint at there, and I think we're gonna see a lot of the rules and the ways of work completely transformed. Everybody's very aware of AI and the rapid pace of change that that is bringing and machine learning.

But there's also very big transitions in labor forces. So I always look to the people. The technology is fascinating and it tends to get all the headlines. But we're faced with some say the silver tsunami and lots of people retiring and you know, this generation that very big numbers are starting to move on to a, a different period of their lives leaving the workforce.

And then we have new people coming in. So you now have this complete mixture of cultures. Mixture of generations, mixtures of experiences simultaneous to the acceleration of technology. So I think it is a pivotable time that we're gonna learn quite a bit about what strategies are very successful.
Like when we look back in history at all these milestones and different phases of industrial revolution. You've seen those charts. We're at one, and it's gonna be very, very interesting to see how this plays out.

[00:04:42] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that those changes. It's one of the topics I will discuss at the PLM forum from Share PLM end of May, and we'll make some advertisement about it later, but important that you talk about the people and what is the, the challenge of people. I think also the older generation is in the management, or do you see a shift also that different type of companies come up with different mindset and different type of management?

[00:05:06] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, with this transformation and age and the generations and things like this. I've been looking at some studies recently for some presentations at conferences I've done, and it was really interesting to read about. I think it was 50% of S and P 500 board of directors are 60 plus and one fifth of them were 70 plus, and some other that was from Bloomberg.

And I read another study where 78% of them we're struggling to keep up with the pace of change. That's their reporting surveys. So you think about these are the companies leading and these are the details of those companies. You know, they're struggling to keep up. So their level of leadership is struggling with some of that digital fluency.

And as we talked about the pace of change, I think it's only gonna get worse. So to your point, upskilling, finding ways of embracing the people and bringing the right talent in is of critical importance. I know lots of companies are trying to hire from the outside to bring in new mindsets and new, new thought leadership.

[00:06:12] JOS VOSKUIL:
Do you have examples of upskilling in companies? Is this something you do at the moment?

[00:06:17] PAUL KAISER:
We do quite a bit of this type of work. Yeah, I mean, it really depends on the particular objectives a company might have, but very often this is when you need a force multiplier. If you're trying to very rapidly adopt something, people don't just change fast en masse. I mean that's, people take time to get used to things, right?

So that's why companies are very sensitive to how many transformations they have, how many different initiatives they have at once because people can only do so much. So bringing in a consulting company, like MHP, tends to be very valuable at these moments because we can offer resources to not only train, but reinforce and ensure you can be successful and then go away once they've got it, that sort of thing. So there's quite a bit of engagement with us anyway, with this type of work.

[00:07:02] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah. I have to think about my past as a teacher. Their teaching takes a whole year for a class where now often in companies, they ask you to come with the ultimate presentation, and after the presentation, they believe that they get it and can go on. I mean, as you say, it's really a process of upskilling and only guide them and help them until they're ready. Did you ever meet a company that was ready?

[00:07:26] PAUL KAISER:
That's a really interesting one. I've met lots of companies that thought they were ready. When you were talking about the school there and your reference, it made me think of Dunning Kruger. I think we all can get trained in many different things and feel quite confident and then, get into the deep water and that's when you realize, I really should have brought somebody that's walked this road before.

So we have, more in the past that I meet companies that have felt ready Jos, that's I think my experience. Today I'm seeing a lot more companies recognizing that they need somebody to guide them forward. I've just seen a big shift in that. Back in the day, always see project management and OCM and things like this, that leadership, those would be line items that would be crossed out and they try and cut costs on scope and really focus on technology.

I am not seeing that as much at all. I'm seeing companies very focused on, Who's the leader here? Like who are you bringing to the table? What is their background? Why do I trust that they've got the right initiative? And less focus specifically on the other technical disciplines that are coming along.

[00:08:30] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Hmm, I totally agree with this approach. We are also seeing it that it is not, for example, in the case of OCM, that is not only aligned in the project. It's like your project team needs to have the OCM mindset. They don't need to have the OCM role, it's having, how to apply it and combine it with the technical skills.

And I kept thinking, about all your experience, how you have moved from different fields, even helping a company to scale up. So what are the skills for a consultant like you? What skills this person should have to become a leader of the data transformation?

[00:09:09] PAUL KAISER:
So what skills should you have to be a leader of a transformation? I think having walked that road before is invaluable. There's a lot of things that can come at you in a transformation. These are normally long-term projects and I think a lot of the important steps in setting a transformation off on the right foot come before you even do technical work.

And I think the biggest error I'm finding often with clients is they don't engage early enough.

[00:09:42] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Mm.

[00:09:43] PAUL KAISER:
Some consultancy to help you define the value and build this coalition of supportive leadership prior to engaging, that is such a differentiator in success versus struggles or success versus God forbid, failure.

So the skills I think like how would I make or grow a future transformation leader, if that's really what you're poking at, I would take somebody that's been part of these projects and has really walked that. And then I would mentor and educate them on looking above the project up to senior leadership all the way up to the board level to ensure that they've understand how to message to executives the value before, during, and through that project. So.

[00:10:30] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And anyway the systems are still important, right? To have some knowledge. So not everyone could do it only with those skills you were mentioning in your presentation team center. I dunno if you are seeing all their powerful software to support the product lifecycle management. And what, from your point of view and your experience, what are the go-to systems or data consultants should have basic idea at least.

[00:10:56] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, there are so many different options with Product Lifecycle Management. MHP is partners with literally almost everybody. We don't sell software, we just help implement. And really my focus in my services unit is on the process and on helping companies meet their product development objectives, like increased speed to market and efficiency and things like this.

And I can't do that without touching the tools. So my focus on tools is always secondary. I don't look for a tool solution, I look for a process solution. But it really depends, it's a very deep question. I think, if I understood it correctly, is Siemens better than Dassault or vice versa?

It depends on your business conditions, what you're using, what your data looks like, how much of that data is, and what condition, et cetera. So hopefully I answered the question in the way you intended, but those are my thoughts. Yeah.

[00:11:51] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, exactly. There are so many, I would say, similarities in the PLM systems and only if you have those unique constraints that makes one or the other, uh, better. But I wanted to come back on the story of the project and connecting to the management.

Often what I see is that companies see PLM as a project. Where actually always when I work with them, it's a journey. And before you start your journey, you have to have a, a vision, as you said. And often consultants come in too late because then somehow, I would say the path is already defined and then you are just there to guide them instead of make them think. Are you still talking about projects or are you working with customers on journeys? That would be my question.

[00:12:33] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, we definitely work with customers on journeys. We're broken into different services units and my partners in our digital advisory services unit are very much focused on defining that journey to make it, it's so critical, but to make it very well understood broadly that the strategic objectives of the company will be met by this engagement.

So when product lifecycle management or ERP for that matter, I focus on more of the upfront in the value stream processes. So to talk about PLM, they've gotta make sure that the objectives long term and hopefully there's some kind of a platform strategy in place and how PLM fits into this and how their data will be in a better shape and cared for and treated like the gold that it is.

We really leverage an upfront engagement from some of our digital advisory experts to help frame all of that out. And then my team can come in and start digging very deep into the processes and the data and the interoperability and all of these types of fun things.

[00:14:43] JOS VOSKUIL:
Right. And I think the challenge of a consultant is that you need also storytelling. You need to say complex things in a simple way and on, on both levels. Then on management level and on the end user level.

[00:14:56] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
What, I'm curious also about the industries because your company supporting mainly ports, is this automotive industry or you support other, other industries, and what difference do you?

[00:15:08] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So we support many industries. We started out as a consultancy that was supporting Porsche that was the first client. And Porsche, over the years took more and more financial interest in the company until finally acquiring the entire thing. And now we are part of a portfolio of, of businesses owned by, by Porsche.

So it's fantastic because we can mobilize a large number of subject matter expertise from various areas. You know, Porsche engineering, Porsche Consulting, MHP for the management and IT side of things. We can really bring all of this to bear no matter what the problem statement of our client is so mobility and transportation, huge focus point, of course.

A lot of great case studies on major projects globally like that. But then also a lot of really good engagement with aerospace, with manufacturing, high tech. There's a lot of really good broad projects base at MHP. So not just automotive.

[00:16:11] JOS VOSKUIL:
So one of the transformations I see in the PLM scope is moving from coordinated to connected or more or less from document driven to data driven. And recently I also wrote a big blog post about it. We are missing the model based. You're coming from an industry both aerospace and automotive that are used to work, at least with model based definition. Do you see, and MOOG by the way, also when we spoke with Max Gravel on it, but, do you see this happening in other industries, the move to model-based?

[00:16:40] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, I mean, various industries are at different places along that journey. I think, Max Gravel is a fantastic human being and a very, very talented man. So I loved working with him, two times actually. I worked with him at Moog and worked with him at a, a previous consultancy as well.

But I think it's, there's a lot of advantages there. I'm currently working with $170 billion automotive OEM, that is still trying to embrace more and more model-based processes. It's very difficult to just transition to that. You know, the old adage of changing the tire wall, going down the road.

You can't shut the business down in an automotive industry. You are constantly producing, you must, that's your lifeblood. So you cannot cripple the company by absolutely changing everything. So it's really important to pilot things in smaller areas and start, to start to adapt them out. Aerospace for example, has a much longer product development cycle and then very long production phases.
So, just completely different models. And then you get into high tech and they're an incredibly nimble, agile culture that's used to adaptation and adoption and change. And so depending on where you're working, it's just such a completely different approach. But really starting small, starting simple and making sure you've got a particular use case that you wanna enable, and then ensuring how do I achieve really high data quality? So this can be leveraged more broadly when I get to the point that I want to use it down the road.

Having that big picture and understanding that data is your goal. That every conversation I get into clients these days, whether it's a model-based conversation, whether it's a tools PLM conversation, whether it's a messaging to executives and the board to even get a project into a healthy space, it's always about data.

It's always bringing that to the absolute forefront. Talking about PLM and I mentioned ERP a few minutes ago, I typically bump into it being much, much more understandable and easy to get across an ROI approach for ERP. It’s how they manage cash, right? All of their tangible physical assets are managed this way, very straightforward, the CFO completely understands that.

But product lifecycle management has, for a long time, in my experience, it has been much harder to understand. And to me it's intellectual asset management and we start talking about machine learning and AI and cloud architectures and all of these advantages and automations and model based, none of this is possible unless I absolutely focus on data quality.

Data is going to be the, PLM is the funnel that flows it downstream. I love concepts like sim data push with platform. I'm absolutely married to that and, and have talked about it with clients for many years now. But ensuring that you've got a smart platform, not these siloed approaches to tools, suites that are brought by different departments. You need somebody thinking big picture on how data is the most efficiently used and interoperable at your company. So a topic there, Josie, you struck on, but yes, I think you have your hand up.

[00:19:59] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, I hear many people saying that data is gold. And I fully agree with you that ERP data is transactional. It gives you direct financial insights in the company where your PLM assets and value, they are very hard to measure by reports. And I think we also still suffering from the fact that PLM is considered an engineering tool.

[00:20:20] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah.

[00:20:21] JOS VOSKUIL:
Uh, they are not allowed to invest in creating data that goes beyond their profit and loss mission as a department. And that's where I've also seen, I would say PLM initiatives failing because they didn't get out of the silo. And then of course, yeah, if you work in the silo, can you change your ways of working to become data driven? Do you have examples of that where companies could make this transition?

[00:20:44] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah I, really focusing on that silo aspect you mentioned because that I see as a, is a continuing issue in multiple industries. And it's sort of an organic one isn't it because as companies grow the way we incentivize leaders that are middle management and even director levels is to watch their budget and focus on their domain.

And as we start to see more and more companies lean into digital transformation officers and things like this, this is a company effectively communicating to the world and to themselves that they wanna start to break those silos down. And resistance to having roles like that, I think is perhaps just a, on a maturity scale, they haven't quite realized how important it's to embrace a platform yet. But it's very difficult to endure.

All of the change going on in the world, going on in business environments with a PLM program, a true transformation, not just a module getting turned on, but to endure the long haul of that if you don't have the value really understood by your executives. And that's often what siloed approaches bump into. They get it going with a lot of effort and a lot of energy, and it gets going for about a year, year and a half. They don't have enough value. That's broadly understand leadership changes and then that program dies. I think that's a very well worn road that many have lived through.

And so we like to try and work with companies to help them understand that as a risk and start to have a better, more enduring approach. So.

[00:22:18] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah. And I think, uh, when you are mentioning CEOs left, I was thinking about the GE digital transformation with Jeff Emmelt, where GE Digital was initially supposed to be the glue between all the departments and the end became another silo. And there you see the inertia, I would say of the middle management. They have to change their jobs also, and they have to, I would say, understand both ways what the management is asking for them and then what they can influence and how they can influence it.

[00:22:47] PAUL KAISER:
It's true..

[00:22:48] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah.

[00:22:48] PAUL KAISER:
And they're an insulating layer. I mean, middle management serves a very valuable role, and it's to lock down, protect and insulate from change that could be disruptive. That's the role. Very valuable. Directors should direct things that are being shared with them from the vision achieved up above, and the presidents and C-suite level on the board. These are, you know, just important roles.

And if you don't have those right people understanding what you're doing very often, again, ERP is a very clear initiative that's understood and the CFO can tell you why they're doing it, when it's coming, what the impact is. You mentioned PLM to them, it's buried in a line item in a budget.

They just see, uh, engineering's doing so I'm not sure, go talk to that person and they direct you to a vice president and engineering to tell you what it's all about. That is an indication of a, of an issue. I think if you have a significant leadership change, every leader that, you know, many jokes about this in, in every industry, but a leader comes in, they restructure, they're gonna look at things differently.

They're gonna change things up, and often that's very healthy. But if they don't know what you are doing and what your project is and how it delivers value to the bottom line, you are in very shaky shape there.

[00:24:03] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes. I also, I like to think that thanks to the technology now making silos it's more difficult, right? Because we have a lot of communication channels, it seems that it's easier to communicate than before. On the other hand, there is also a lot of pollution, right? In the messages emails we receive. What do you think, Paul?

[00:24:22] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, if I understood your question correctly, I like to just say keep it clear and keep it simple. Very often the value statement from middle management and project leaders of PLM is incredibly complicated and gets into nuances that no one's gonna understand once you leave the room.

A litmus test is can you do an elevator speech about the value of your project? And can that person who doesn't come from engineering, like somebody with a financial background, CFO, is always the one I go to 'cause it's such an easily understood example. Can the CFO repeat in an hour the value statement? If they can't, you got a problem. It's gotta be clear. And you've gotta connect the initiative to their strategic objectives. It's gotta support what they're doing.

A strategic imperative is what we talk to our clients about. You've gotta make your project a strategic imperative. So look at what they're doing, look at what their objectives are. The board and you know, C-suite, the CEO, what's he talking about on television? What's he telling the stock market? What is he saying in the annual report?

You've gotta make sure that what you are doing supports that. And when you communicate it simply, you talk about, that's possible 'cause of what I'm doing. Then they start to know, ah, I must have that project. If you can't do that, you gotta keep working and iterating upfront until you find a way to to connect it. That's my advocacy.

[00:25:48] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yes I totally share that opinion with you.  Okay but we are approaching to the end of the episode, sadly, so Jos, do you have any other question for Paul?

[00:26:01] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah, I'm glad we are speaking with somebody so experienced as Paul, and when you have a lot of experience, it comes because if something happens that you didn't expect, can you share us one of your biggest experiences?

[00:26:13] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah. So digital transformation's never just about the technology, right? I think we were talking about that a little bit. It's about the people. So some of the biggest lessons, I think always come from that people side of things and change has gotta be led and communicated and reinforced to drive lasting success.

So I really now focus heavily on the people. I know that I can find the right technology experts at MHP now, but over 5,000 people to tap into. I know that piece is there. Everything we've been talking about, making sure a project can endure the long haul, can be resilient to complete and reach its ultimate objectives.

When you look at where things fail, that's where they fail, and that's where my focus is today. So there's a lot of lessons and a lot of experience just from my journey and ones I've read that all sort of culminate to my approach today. So if I think about your question that's what comes to mind is I focus now on the people and the organization and how we can approach a transformation and a change initiative, which is really all that is in a way that can be embraced by the people and can be adopted in a reasonable and successful way. So.

[00:27:31] JOS VOSKUIL:
Right, people first, huh?

[00:27:33] PAUL KAISER:
Yeah, entirely right. Very, very well put.

[00:27:36] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yeah.

[00:27:37] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yeah. Okay. And could you share some takeaways for us and our listeners?

[00:27:42] PAUL KAISER:
Uh, I mean, I'd really go back to that, like really focus on the people first and you know, always go after it from that perspective, you know, we all focus, especially with AI and all of these things that are flashy and buzzwords today. All of that stuff, the way it currently is being developed, it's gonna take people.

And if you don't focus on them, there's only so much that they can manage it one time. So remember the people in, in these initiatives, there's all these fun and exciting bits of technology.

[00:28:10] JOS VOSKUIL:
And maybe in the beginning you mentioned Dunning Kruger. I think also remember curiosity is, is important as the opposite of uh…

[00:28:17] PAUL KAISER:
Well put. Yes, agreed.

[00:28:21] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Okay. So thank you very much Jos and Paul for this great conversation.

[00:28:26] PAUL KAISER:
Thank you both.

[00:28:27] JOS VOSKUIL:
You're welcome. Yeah.

[00:28:29] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Thank you very much for joining us. Also for our listeners, I'm very happy today because we are organizing the first ever Share PLM event in the south of Spain in May. And we'll be welcome all of our partners, customers. It's going to be a really nice community around people centric data transformations. Of course, we'll have Jos there also as key speaker and big contributor to the event. Jos, do you want to say something about the event?

[00:29:00] JOS VOSKUIL:
Yes, I'm looking forward to it because it's a new experiment with the people first in mind where often the traditional PLM conferences were very much driven by processes or technology. So yes, I'm very enthusiastic to see the people first and then technology conference coming up, and look forward to that there. Yeah.

[00:29:20] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Okay. If you want to know more information, just go to shareplm.com. You'll have there all the details. Thank you very much.