The TechEd Podcast

How to Attract and Support Diverse Talent in Manufacturing - Mariana Cogan, Chief Marketing Officer of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence

• Matt Kirchner • Episode 190

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With 600,000 job openings in manufacturing, could women be the solution to closing the talent gap?

Host Matt Kirchner dives into this question with Mariana Cogan, Chief Marketing Officer at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. Mariana brings a unique global perspective to workforce development and shares her strategies for making manufacturing a more inclusive, appealing career path.

From brand transformation to mentorship and flexible work policies, Mariana explains how manufacturers can position themselves to attract and retain diverse talent—and why this mission matters now more than ever.

Listen to learn:

  • Why manufacturing's workforce shortage is a branding issue, not just an HR issue
  • The difference between mentorship and sponsorship, and how to implement them in your organization
  • The impact of cultural perspectives on workforce development and why diversity fuels innovation

Quotable Moments:
On the difference between mentorship and sponsorship:
“Mentorship, it's much more the art of teaching, sharing, guiding… you are sharing what you know, the experiences that you had in the past… Sponsorship is when you actually take an active role on making sure that that person's career actually develops… you might be even using your political capital…to make sure that that person's career really makes it to the next level.”

Advice to her younger self:
"Be patient, be caring, be sweet to yourself. It's going to be hard work, and you have to work hard, but if you combine it with that patience and love for yourself, things are going to work out fine."

3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:

  1. Manufacturing’s workforce shortage is a branding problem as much as an HR issue: With 3 million women seeking work in the U.S., manufacturing needs to rebrand itself as an industry that's not just "heavy lifting," but has high-tech, interesting and career-supporting roles across all departments. Companies need to rebrand manufacturing as a flexible, well-paying career with opportunities for growth to attract a wider talent pool, especially those women.
  2. Women need more than mentors - they need sponsors who will advocate for their career advancement: Many organizations ensure new employees have a mentor who can onboard, train and help them learn their role. Sponsorship goes further than mentorship by actively advocating for that individual's promotion and involvement in key projects, which strengthens their paths to leadership. In manufacturing, Mariana encourages both men and women to sponsor women on their path to leadership.
  3. Diverse perspectives are critical to fostering innovation in manufacturing: Mariana shares that women bring unique qualities, such as collaboration and patience, that enhance team dynamics and drive innovation. Her own multicultural background shapes her approach to workforce development, highlighting how cultural sensitivity and inclusion lead to stronger, more adaptive teams.

Resources in this Episode:
To learn more about Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, visit: hexagon.com

We want to hear from you! Send us a text.

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Matt Kirchner:

Welcome into the TechEd podcast. What do 600,000 job openings in manufacturing mean for the world of manufacturing? How do we get more women excited about careers in manufacturing and give them great career pathways to become leaders in the great world of advanced manufacturing? Why is it that manufacturing companies struggle so much at marketing themselves to the next generation of workforce talent. We are going to cover all of these in other topics today with our guest Mariana COVID, the Chief Marketing Officer of hexagon manufacturing intelligence, and Marianna. So awesome to have you with us here at the TechEd podcast.

Mariana Cogan:

Thank you very much. Very excited to be here. I love the opportunity to be able to talk with you today well, and

Matt Kirchner:

as we were warming up and just learning a little bit about your background, you've lived all over the world, you're doing some really important work on the marketing side with a company. I think most of the folks that are involved in manufacturing recognize the brand hexagon, right? Your ubiquitous, $6 billion company, but we're going to learn more for anybody that isn't familiar with hexagon. But I want to start out with this. You know, I know you spent so much time, Marianna, thinking about the talent gap in manufacturing, the fact that we've got all these amazing career opportunities, 600,000 plus of them, and we're not always attracting the right people to manufacturing, at least enough of them. So what does this situation look like for someone that spends their time in and around manufacturing trying to get people excited about these careers? It

Mariana Cogan:

is definitely an interesting challenge, because, like you just mentioned, we have 600,000 you know, openings in the industry, and at the same time, we have close to 3 million women out there without a job. Wow, if we could just match those two, we will be able to get rid of one of the biggest struggle in the industry, which is that workforce gap that we're currently facing,

Matt Kirchner:

it is really quick math, right? I mean, you got, you've got all of these women that could solve for, you know, a huge part, if not all, of the talent gap. When women are unemployed, they're either, obviously they're not in the workforce. How do you look at that in terms of approaching that opportunity for the manufacturing sector, right? So we recognize the opportunities there, but how do we capitalize on that opportunity?

Mariana Cogan:

There are a lot of things that need to be done. I think number one is, you know, the industry, the manufacturing industry, we really need to spend more time, more money, more effort on our branding. That shows that manufacturing is not any more than heavy lifting, that it really needed to have, that, you know, male power to be able to get involved in manufacturing by now, with smart manufacturing, there's so many jobs that are so different than what the old idea it was is really on the branding side, and then really the companies, really making sure that we get more women through the door, that we give them visibility, that we give flexibility. You know, it's a lot of a woman that are going to be raising a family if we give this visibility, flexibility and that reshaping of the branding, I think that there's a lot that we can do,

Matt Kirchner:

sure. So let me ask you this, I think about people working in other sectors. Let's say I'm working in consulting, or I'm working in education or whatever. You know, maybe some of those might lend themselves a little bit more to flexibility than others. You know, then you get into manufacturing, of course, where you've got production lines running, you've got to make sure that those are fully staffed. We can't just tell somebody hey, you don't have to come to work tomorrow, because you do that too many times. All of a sudden you don't have enough people to backfill on the manufacturing line. What kind of things are you seeing on the part of manufacturers in terms of trying to address the flexibility that the modern workforce is looking

Mariana Cogan:

for. Well, that's another area that is important that we address, that there's different types of jobs that are out there. From a manufacturing perspective, we definitely have, you know, people who've been, you know, studying engineering, and they've been in the space for, you know, for a long time. We have the woman that can be on the floor, as you mentioned. But there's also all these other jobs that happen, you know, around the industry, from manufacturing, from, you know, marketing, you know, there's different components where you can find plenty of flexibility, right, to be able to address more as you you know, know extremely well. You know, a lot of the manufacturing happens in smaller companies that are everywhere, where you can find, you know, different combinations that address the flexibility that is needed absolutely

Matt Kirchner:

and with more smart manufacturing today. And then you think about the different careers. A lot of times, when people think about careers in manufacturing, you think about a career, you know, maybe working in assembly or working in production or working in, you know, welding or paint or powder or quality or what have you. And those are all great opportunities. But we also have jobs in accounting, we have jobs in marketing, we have jobs in production planning, scheduling, logistics, distribution, all of these different aspects of manufacturing. I'm interested in this. You know, a lot of times when we think about a company focusing on workforce and focusing on bringing people into an organization, getting people excited about manufacturing careers. You almost think about that as being a human resource function, but here you are, the Chief Marketing Officer of this really ubiquitous company. Tell me a little bit about that connection. Why does hexagon look at this as a marketing function and not just an HR function?

Mariana Cogan:

I think it's a change that we see. It all across everything that we do. Think a few minutes ago, we were just talking about executives, you know, getting active on LinkedIn and social media within maybe in the old days, you would have said, well, that's the PR department. But now really being able to create that authenticity, that connection with the people, it really everybody's job. And in my case, being, you know, female, you know, Latin. I represent a very small percentage of the population in the industry, sure. So it's more my, my obligation. I see it as part of the thing that I have to do for, you know, paying forward to take an active role. And the same happens with everybody at hexagon. I

Matt Kirchner:

love that. And you're incredibly relatable, I would think, to any woman to anybody who's maybe Latina, maybe, and we will talk a little bit about your time in Japan, but somebody that maybe didn't grew up here in the United States of America. Obviously, you know, our podcast being focused pretty, pretty significantly on unemployment here in the US and so on. So you're incredibly relatable, and that in that sense. And so you deserve, deserve a tremendous amount of credit for that and for telling this great story of opportunities in manufacturing. You know, you think about just the compensation opportunities for for women and people have really of any gender, but, but women, for sure, in manufacturing, talk about that. What, you know, what? What is the average salary for a woman working in manufacturing?

Mariana Cogan:

That is another area that I'm glad that you're bringing it up. I think currently, the average woman in manufacturing makes between 63,080 3000 Wow. It's a well paid job. Not all the jobs are going to require you to go to college. Doesn't really require that expensive investment, and it's a very good seller, especially where we know that sometimes, you know, women make about 82 cents to the dollar compared to to a male. So it's a really good space for for women to be able to get a good salary,

Matt Kirchner:

good salary, indeed, and a really, really rewarding career. And I think a lot of times, you know what I talk to folks about careers in manufacturing, and I ran manufacturing companies for 25 years, you know, there's just something about getting to the end of the day and looking at a sea of parts sitting on a manufacturing floor, sitting on a dock, going, ready to go wherever they're going, and knowing that you had a part in making that, I mean, and that's so incredibly rewarding. And then the other part, I think a lot of folks, if they don't recognize, or if they haven't spent a lot of time in manufacturing, they don't recognize the amazing people, the types of people from all walks of life that work in manufacturing, hard working people, people that take an incredible amount of pride in their work. And so for folks considering manufacturing jobs, I mean, that is a huge part of the reason to go into manufacturing. Certainly, the compensation is fantastic. And, you know, in my home state of Wisconsin, you know 40, 50% more than the average non, Farm Payroll job is what manufacturing jobs pay, and that's pretty similar as we see it across the country, and also opportunities to advance. So we think about starting in a role in manufacturing. You can start out running a piece of manufacturing equipment, and you can rise up over the course of time into positions of responsibility, maybe historically, more so men than women in the manufacturing environment. And I want to touch on that women make up 30% of the manufacturing workforce, as I understand it, about 25% of the leadership position. So we're certainly making progress, but we've got some work to do. As you talk to women about careers in manufacturing. Mariana, as you see people who are advancing in the world of manufacturing, women in particular, what are some of the challenges that they face in terms of moving ahead?

Mariana Cogan:

It is an area that is very close to my heart. I think that you are getting into the whole concept of mentorship and sponsorship. It's not only about recruitment, making an extra effort to make sure, in the case of hexagon, we make sure that we have a woman in every interviewing pool, so it's important that we get them through the door, as you just mentioned. So when

Matt Kirchner:

you say a woman who is interviewing for a job or a woman who's on the team that's interviewing on

Mariana Cogan:

both sides, we're making sure that we're covering having a candidate. Because if you think about it, a lot of the recruitment happens through introductions. And if we have primarily male, so we're going to get more males coming through the interviewing process. So we make sure that we reach out to areas where women are going to be applying for jobs. But then after that, is making sure, how do we help these women to make it all the way to the top? And we're talking about mentorship, making sure that there's somebody who's been, you know, training, sharing, you know, past experience, but also sponsorship Sure, where you really have somebody who's going to be looking after these careers, making sure that you're going to put your reputation, you know, on the line, because you really believe that this, you know, this woman, deserve to get another opportunity, an extra opportunity, being Part of more interesting projects being there with the promotions are going to be happening. So it's critical that companies you know invest on that mentorship or sponsorship. And I had, as I mentioned before, on also visibility. When you have women in the company, how do you make sure that you know we're listening to their experiences, we're sharing it with everybody, because you want. To see that people like you have made it to the top, and that you have that possibility.

Matt Kirchner:

So is this a formal program at hexa? And do you actually have, like, a formal program around the we're going to talk about mentorship and sponsorship and the differences in a moment, but around advancing women throughout the the organization. Is that something that you're actively working on, or is it happen organically? Or how does that, how does that come together?

Mariana Cogan:

It's very important at hexagon, and as you're mentioned it, you know, very, very clearly, it's not just about an organic component and wishing that it's gonna happen, right? It really make it into a program. So we make sure that we're partnering, we're entry level, you know, females with females putting longer in the industry, making sure that we have a program strong enough to support career development, got it,

Matt Kirchner:

and as you're supporting that career development, and as they're developing within the organization, taking on the responsibilities and increasing levels of leadership, are there specific, you know, attributes or specific perspectives that a woman would bring to a leadership team that might be a little bit, let's just say, non Traditional, in comparison to a, you know, a typical male led organization,

Mariana Cogan:

absolutely. And that's why, you know, we say that, you know, more more diverse companies are more innovative. And more innovative companies are more diverse because there is a very different skill set that comes to the table. You're talking about much more collaboration. You're talking about much more that, you know, different pool of ideas, you know, sometimes, you know, woman can be a little bit more patient, a little bit more dedicated to an idea. So there are different characteristics that come into play.

Matt Kirchner:

And I've been on, frankly, for a long time. I would go all the way back to the early zeros, maybe into the 90s, and on leadership teams that I was a part of. And in fact, the first manufacturing company I worked for, the Vice President of Operations was a woman and, and that was, you know, pioneering time, right? I mean, that was 3035, years ago. And so I've been accustomed to having women on leadership teams, whether being a part of a leadership team led by a woman, or or being, you know, leading a company, but having women, women on the team. And I would agree with that, and it's you never want to paint it with too broad a brush, but in terms of some of the the patients and some of almost the nurturing aspects of bringing employees in, listening those types of things. I mean not that men can't do those things well as well, but, but there are definite differences. So I could see where those are some, some aspects and perspectives that women would bring to the to the discussion you've mentioned mentorship and sponsorship, and I don't want to say interchangeably, but repeatedly through our conversation. Are those the same thing? Or, if not, how are they different? And why are they both important? There are

Mariana Cogan:

very different components. Mentorship, it's much more the art of teaching, sharing, guiding, making sure that you are sharing what you know, the experiences that you had in the past. You're maybe teaching about even technology training, soft skill training, so everything is a little bit of more like a one way conversation, if you want to call it that way, sponsorship is when you actually take an active role on making sure that that person's career actually develops. Okay. It means that when that person is not maybe at the meeting, and somebody is asking for a resource to be part of the project, you say, Hey, I would like to make sure that such and such person actually gets, you know, that role, because A, B, C and D, whatever, you really take an active role where you might be able to you might be even using your political capital sure where you're going to be taking a risk together to make sure that that person's career really makes it to the next level. Versus, you know, mentoring, that is much more, sharing, caring, educating,

Matt Kirchner:

got it so, you know, the mentorship from a leadership standpoint would be, here's how you lead, here's how you do the job, here's, you know, here's how you handle conflict, here's how you complete a, you know, an employee review these types of things, right? So more of the tactical and then the sponsorship is really almost becoming an advocate for that individual and exactly, and saying, Look, I'm gonna, you know, we're gonna go side by side, and I'm gonna, you know, show you the ropes. I'm going to, I'll show you through the process of becoming a leader in this organization. Is that something you do formally? I mean, is that where you have an individual who is ripe for for growth from a leadership standpoint, and you actually, how does that work? Do you assign them a sponsor? Do they choose their sponsor? How does, how does that fit?

Mariana Cogan:

It is a process that that has to happen a little bit naturally, because there has to be an interest from both parties. So but it is a portion. Again, as you asked me, I think one of the questions at the very beginning, it's a portion that I see as an obligation, as one of the few women you know, who are you know, were part of the the manufacturing industry, so I make sure that you know, all the females in my team can have these opportunities, can have these open conversations to get them ready for when the opportunity arrives. I have been in situations where I do want to have a political fight and say, I think I remember, you know, many years ago we were interviewing. Different candidates for a senior role, two senior roles. And for one, we had a strong internal male candidate, and for the other one, we had a strong female candidate on the main side. After we met the internal candidate, he was okay, he's awesome. You know. Let's get him the position fully agree, great candidate. When it came to the female side, it was, well, she's great, but why don't we see other people from outside of the company? I'm like, is she not good enough? No, she's very good. So why see that? For the male candidate, we're giving him the role, but for the female candidate, sure, and those are the conversations that are. You know, as a sponsor, you have to say, Okay, this is not fair, so we're gonna do it in the way that it should be. So, you know, I that's something that I take a lot of pride in, being very involved with the females that are in my, you know, in my teams, the females that are, you know, in this case, hexagon, and many people that through LinkedIn, I have met and they need, you know, help with their careers.

Matt Kirchner:

Sure, yeah, it's not fair, and it's not good for the company either, right? I mean, you've got a talented individual, both in terms of making sure that you're promoting talent within the organization, but also kind of setting that example for other individuals who may be at other levels or in other roles in the organization that this is an organization that, you know, regardless you're if you're performing at a high level, we're going to make sure that you have opportunities and that you're not going to be artificially constrained in terms of what your your opportunity to grow in the organization from the sponsorship side of things. How many women are you? You know, are you mentoring and sponsoring at any one point in time?

Mariana Cogan:

That's a great question, and it tends to be large numbers, not all of them directly, but you know one another thing that I need to make sure is that all my peers, my male peers, are also becoming, you know, advocates, and they also have their own, you know, sponsorship to females, because otherwise I will be, you know, almost, you know, like, you know, like a funnel, that it will get a little bit too small. So, you know, a part is to really make sure that also, you know, the males in the organization are also supporting, but it tends to be, yeah, definitely, you know, larger numbers.

Matt Kirchner:

So that's an interesting point. So you have situations where, like, if I'm, if I've got a woman who's advancing in the organization is her, her spots are always of another female. Or it could be, it could be a male.

Mariana Cogan:

No, it has to be both. Because, can you imagine, you know, we were just saying, if it's only about a quarter of the roles that are in our by females, it just wouldn't, wouldn't artificially constrain it exactly. So no one of my, you know, my my obligations is to make sure that all the males that I work with can also see. Why is it that it's important that supporting the female talent. Do you still get

Matt Kirchner:

some resistance? You don't necessarily talk about your organization specifically, but is there still some artificial resistance that's built in on the part of kind of the culture within a manufacturing organization to that? Or are we getting better? It's

Mariana Cogan:

a real good question. And I was listening to a podcast freak economics. I really like it, and they were talking about the fact that it's more that you're going to find a male out there who's going to say, I don't want to hire females. That's really you know, that does not you know anymore. It's a little bit more. What happens when you you know, who do you identify with? What are the conversations that you're enjoying having. There's there's things of that nature that are going to make it a little bit harder for you to maybe identify with a young female who maybe doesn't want to talk about sports. Sure, and it's nothing that you're really doing consciously. But if you can consciously say, hey, I want to make sure that we get the best talent, I think, you know, they're great, great supporting on the male side as well.

Matt Kirchner:

So give me a good success story you touched on one which was the woman who needed some advocacy when she was being considered for a role, and another individual who was a male was being considered for a role. And you know, maybe you weren't getting exactly the same type of treatment. Do you have other success stories of women who have risen in the organization. You're obviously one yourself, but you have others. Yes,

Mariana Cogan:

I have many happy stories to tell from people who have followed me, from other companies to hexagon, or people you know, women who have left to work to other organizations, many who have joined us, individual contributors, and then you know, nurturing them, preparing them many times with, you know, hard feedback. Many times, you know, pointing out, what is it that that has to be, maybe done in a slightly different way? Many times, you know, supporting them to apply for that bigger role that they might not have done before. So, yes, I do have a good number of females that I've been able to now get to director level, VP level, SVP level,

Matt Kirchner:

awesome. That's got to be incredibly rewarding for you. Absolutely. I

Mariana Cogan:

think that by now, one of the most rewarding parts of my career, it really helped other people to make it to the top.

Matt Kirchner:

Yeah, that's a great, great feeling. And we see the same thing in our in our businesses as well. I mean, I love having an organization that's being successful. I love having an organization that's winning. Obviously, having a profitable organization allows you to reinvest in your company and so on and further your mission. But the most rewarding part of it is seeing people that are that are coming into an organization, believing in a mission, and then seeing this opportunity to to improve their lives, to improve the lives of their families, to maybe do things they didn't know they were capable of doing, to find interests or or skills or talents that they didn't know they had. That's just an incredibly rewarding part of getting a little bit deeper in terms of longevity in the workforce, for lack of a better term. And I've been doing this a while, and that's that's fantastic. So if I'm a if I'm a manufacturing leader, and I'm listening to what I'm hearing, and I'm saying, oh, you know, we need to do a better job at this. We need to be better about, you know, whether it's mentoring, sponsoring, being knowledgeable and aware of the areas in which we may be holding certain individuals back unintentionally. What are some really innovative strategies that you would recommend to those individuals? You know, where do you start? And what have you seen work really well.

Mariana Cogan:

I always say start with your HR department that you have to make sure that you're getting female candidates into that interviewing process. Sure make sure that there's visibility on the ones that you already have you know within the organization, and as we spoke at the very beginning, make sure that you have programs that allow for the flexibility that is going to be needed for females to stay in your organization.

Matt Kirchner:

Got it so making sure that we're working through the HR department here, if we're trying to grow females in the organization and remove them into into spots of leadership, we can't do that unless they're there to begin with, right? So we have to recruit them. We've got to be, you know, aware at the HR level, when we're going out and recruiting candidates for new positions that we want to make sure that we're, you know, that we're bringing women and people from, you know, all walks of life into those opportunities is provided, obviously, that they're qualified to be interviewed for the role, to give them the best and the greatest opportunity to be considered for our companies. And then from there, it's just a question of asking the right questions, of making sure that we're open to talent from all over, and recognizing the unique benefits that that all types of people can can bring to an organization. You lived around all types of cultures, all types of people as we were chatting. You know, as you mentioned, saw on my phone. Actually, I had a picture of some time that I spent in Tokyo that just by by coincidence, was up on the phone as we were talking, as we were warming up and and you mentioned that you lived in Tokyo for a long time. Where else have you lived?

Mariana Cogan:

Yes, I'm born in Mexico City. Okay, so I grew up in Mexico City. I went to a Japanese school. I lived there until I was 18, and then I lived 11 years in Tokyo. Tokyo is like my, my second home. Then a couple of years in London, wow. And then Boston has been home for the last 20 years. Awesome.

Matt Kirchner:

Yeah. So you do you speak, you speak Japanese as well. Then, yes, yeah. So Japanese and Spanish, obviously, in English, that's incredible. I've never been to Mexico City. I've been to Mexico, but usually in manufacturing world, kind of in the, you know, in the area, yeah, exactly. So yeah, materie and Juarez and so on. But never, never in Mexico City, although I'm still three credits short of a minor in Spanish and at the university. So, oh, wow. So

Mariana Cogan:

maybe next up we should do it in Spanish. Yeah, exactly. Well, I

Matt Kirchner:

would tell you that that would be a lot more difficult to follow than this one would be, but I can still get by a little bit. And of course, been been to Tokyo several times. Love London. Where do you live in? Where did you live in?

Mariana Cogan:

London? London, West London.

Matt Kirchner:

Okay, yeah, absolutely we, we have one of our businesses, several suppliers, in the UK. So wow, from time to time. So, so those, those are amazing places to in Boston too. I mean, I love, I love Boston as well. And Boston Harbor is just absolutely beautiful.

Mariana Cogan:

And everybody loves a paycheck. So Celtics, a Bruins, yep, exactly,

Matt Kirchner:

well. And I, you know, I spent, I spent a week at Suffolk University a few years ago, so, you know, right and right near Boston Common and, boy, it's just, it's an awesome city. So you did some really cool stuff. So, so let's talk about that a little bit. You know, you've got experience with Latin culture, Japanese culture. Spent time in Europe. How do you see those cultural influences shaping leadership and manufacturing with all those different perspectives that you've got Mariana, there

Mariana Cogan:

are different components that you get to apply, because at the end of the day, the manufacturing world is so rich. You're just talking about the maquiladoras scene in Monterrey, right? You know, we're seeing all these, you know, foreign companies, you know, as we're here having this conversation, IMTS. So it's a world of diversity, right? As much as we're talking about the UI, US centric conversation, it is a very diverse world out there. So some of the principles that I use, you know, nema Washington, when it comes to the Japanese culture, that is a beautiful culture, it is and it has many different principles, like NEMA washi that allows you to convince a large group of people to follow an idea when we were talking about diversity, inclusion, about females, collaboration, all the different components are going to require. That you know a lot of people follow you. So what the Japanese say is that when you're going to be moving a tree from one place to another place, you just don't pull out the tree, because if you do that, it's going to die. But if you massage the roots little by little, then you're going to be able to transfer the tree and it's going to grow even better. So the same applies when you have different ideas. Yep, you had to, you know, to talk to many people. You had to explain what's going to be the benefit. It seems that it's going to take a little bit longer, but at the end of the day, you're not getting, going to get much better results. So that's one of the principles that I really love from, you know, from Japanese culture. And then, as you mentioned, for, you know, for Mexico, you know, Latin culture, you know, very big into relationships. You know, making sure that you have that partnership, even before you get into business. Again, as you mentioned before, when we started the podcast today, your friends, you get to know each other, you get to see a little bit more that authenticity of the person. You build a little bit of trust, and then you can go into doing, you know, much bigger things together.

Matt Kirchner:

Absolutely, that's a great perspective, you know. And as you're, as you're talking about Latin culture, I just want to ask you this, because this was something that I, that I learned in an interesting way. So I ran a large contract manufacturing company in Wisconsin for 10 years. I was a spin off of Rockwell Automation. We had an incredibly diverse both, both leadership teams. So, I mean, our leadership team, our lead chemist was from Russia, our Head of Customer Service was immigrated from Mexico. Our lead wastewater treatment person grew up in Ghana. So we had people literally from all over the world on that leadership team. And it wasn't even that we set out to create a real diverse leadership team. We just, frankly, we hired awesome people, regardless of where they were from, and we ended up with this incredible group. Incredible group of people. So that was one observation, but the other one that I that I was surprised by, was that as Americans, we kind of tend to kind of lump Latin culture into one group, right? And we had in that company, both in the leadership team and on the shop floor. We had people who were from Cuba, we had people from Puerto Rico, we had people from the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic. We had people from Mexico who, in many ways, while they shared some cultures, they there were a lot of differences in those cultures as well. Is that common when you're looking at the way Americans look at, you know, Latin culture, that we tend to lump them all together, lump them all together as cultures, whereas there are some distinct differences.

Mariana Cogan:

It is a very common perspective of Latin where you say, well, everybody you know side of the border must be similar, and there is plenty in common. Absolutely. I mean, there's plenty in common, but that's also a lot of differences. Even you know, one of the the challenges that I've been trying to work through in the last couple of months is we have a very big operation, both in Mexico and in Brazil, okay? And there are very different cultures from a business perspective, not only the language, in this case, in Spanish and Portuguese, but you know, Mexico being closer to the US you have, you know, many more people speak, you know, speak English in a different way, a little bit closer to the way that the US works, versus, in this case, Brazil, that has a very different personality, works in a different way. So I think it's, it's healthy to assume that there's a lot in common, right? But there's also defenses, yeah,

Matt Kirchner:

and we learned that, and we had an incredibly diverse workforce, and I probably 60% of that company, give or take, was Latino, and I had so many great memories of working with all those wonderful people. It was just, it was just fantastic so, and it spoke to the value of a diverse workforce. I mean, it really. We got a lot done. We worked together. We all had a shared mission. We created opportunities from people, no matter where they were from, or what walk of life for anybody working in manufacturing now, whether you have a Mexican supply base, which a lot of companies do, whether you're employing Latin talent here in the United States, what are the things that the manufacturing needs to do Mariana to better embrace and leverage Hispanic talent,

Mariana Cogan:

and you're making an interesting point, that It all starts with really getting the best talent out there. I feel like with a lot of the conversation that we're having, I'm preaching to the choir on, you know, how do you create an environment that is going to allow you to have the best available talent? And I tend to talk about three components. First of all, listening. Don't make assumptions. Just listen. You know, to your employees, listen to your vendors, listen to your partners, so that you can really understand, you know, where people are coming from. Secondly, again, provide visibility. You know, what is it that the organization is thinking? What are the goals? So that you can really, again, going back to the first point, you can listen to, what is it that is connecting. What you see that is not connecting. And thirdly, depending on the size of the organization, you know, create a space where people feel at home by now. You have all these employee resource group, ERGs, you know, one of the things that I do at hexagon is I run something that is called Marketing and Espanol, so that we create a moment where. People can speak in Spanish, even people who don't really have to use our Spanish on daily basis, because we hire them for a very different skill set. But creating that space that makes people feeling at a home. Sure you want, you know, a company is like a home, yeah,

Matt Kirchner:

for sure, absolutely. You spend eight hours a day, you know, 4050, hours a week there. You want it to feel comfortable so, so making it feel like a home, certainly providing an environment where people can speak their native languages, where they can they can interact with people, with maybe, you know, similar backgrounds or similar spaces in life. What have you what are the other things that we need to be thinking about, as far as making Hispanic and Latin place feel it, at home, at work,

Mariana Cogan:

making sure that people, that people understand that you're valuing them for the skill set that they bring to the table, right? That you're thinking about their career development as you're thinking of the career development of the rest of the organization. It's making sure that you're listening, but you're treating everybody equally with the same folks for their own career development, absolutely.

Matt Kirchner:

And you know, people come to us with a wide variety of capabilities. But you know, nobody should be limited in terms of where they can go in the organization, whether they need additional training, mentoring, sponsorship, you know, advocacy, in terms of finding opportunities for them, maybe helping them through some of the hurdles that they might run in, run into working in a manufacturing operation, all really, really important things. Does that tie in? I know you're super, super involved with the Boys and Girls Club and the great work that's going on there. Talk a little bit about that, both from a, you know, from an ethnic background standpoint, from a partnership standpoint, from getting that next generation of talent excited about great careers. It's

Mariana Cogan:

a wonderful organization. I've been involved with them for about a year. Okay? It the President is, is phenomenal. You know, Robert really has a vision for making sure that we're moving away from a conversation of donation of charity and much more, moving into getting, really, that next generation of workforce ready providing, you know, for some children that you know might not have access to, you know, to some to certain things to to ensure that they're going to be ready to make the most out of their careers. You know, heavy investment into our workforce readiness, providing children, you know, with internships, teenagers with all that again, the visibility, the empowerment, to ensure that they can, you know, all these children can go and have great careers, right? You know, after they finish their you know, the basic studies, and that's why I love the organization with a passion, yeah, doing

Matt Kirchner:

really, really important work. If I'm a young person, participating in my local Boys and Girls Club. Help me understand how you're engaging with them. What does that feel like? So they're going to their club meetings, they're going to the physical space that they that they go to, whether it's after school, weekend, summers. What have you How is hexagon or how are you individually, kind of engaging with those individuals?

Mariana Cogan:

Yeah, so kids that start from a very early age just start learning to swim. It's a space where they can go after in school. And as they get older, they get into all these, you know, work, workforce readiness programs where people like like me, people you know, who work in different industries, you know, we support them with helping them, getting their resumes ready, getting the internships you know, ready, ensuring that they can meet with mentors, with sponsors, great collaborations with the with the industry, you know, in Boston, to make sure that they can get exposed to internships, again, not only in manufacturing, but also health care hospitals, so that they can they can have a bigger perspective into what's available out there as they're finishing graduates from high school. And I

Matt Kirchner:

commend you on the work you're doing. You know, you think about these, you know, young people that a lot of times maybe, you know, attending their local Boys and Girls Clubs, maybe don't have all the same exposure and opportunities that that other young people might have. And, you know, we talk a lot about in manufacturing, the importance of basically pulling a diverse workforce into manufacturing, but, but that doesn't just happen on autopilot. And you think about, you know, a student that grows up in the suburbs of a, you know, city like Boston and a city like Milwaukee maybe has opportunities to go to a great school, maybe has extracurricular activities that they wouldn't might not have had, depending on what part of the city they grew up in. I'll just speak to my city in Milwaukee. I mean, there's a year you grew up in a town like Germantown or Cedarburg, your opportunities are going to look different than a student that's growing up on 35th and berline in the in the middle of the central city. And capabilities are all still there, the drive and the excitement and the commitment might all still be there, but unless we create those opportunities for young people and recognize that, you know, that we don't change the bar, but we have to change the we say, raise the floor. You know, for certain individuals, if they don't have those same chances and opportunities, we've got to create those for them. And I think manufacturing is waking up to that. They're waking up to the point of not just because there's economic benefit in recruiting an awesome workforce, but because there's there. There's just a benefit in terms of humanity, of making sure we create as many opportunities as we can for people really, really important work as those students are in middle school and high school, that we're thinking through those things. And I want to take you back to that middle school and high school age, right? So when you were, you know, when you were 15 years old, still in Mexico City. Is that when is

Mariana Cogan:

that where you were? Yes, I was still in Mexico City. Yes, yeah. So

Matt Kirchner:

let's, let's think about that. So Young Mariana, she's 15 years old. She's growing up in Mexico City. You know, who knows that she's going to be chief marketing officer for this worldwide recognized, incredible organization called hex con. So let's turn the clock back then. And if you could give that young girl one piece of advice at 15 years old that she would have really benefited from. What would that piece of advice

Mariana Cogan:

be? I would say that half of the advice will be, be patient, be caring, be sweet to yourself, yeah, like that. And then the other half will be, yes. It's going to be hard work, and you have to work hard and work out to work super hard, but if you combine it with that patience and love for yourself, things are going to work out fine. That's

Matt Kirchner:

awesome. Yeah, I love that. And frankly, you know, in mentoring, you know, high school kids, from time to time, we talk a lot about that, about look. You know, you don't have to look to the rest of the world to determine what your value as a human being is. Be kind to yourself. Don't be so hard on yourself, especially when it comes to personality or what have you. And if you have that combination of being kind yourself self confidence, I believe, and if you have that self confidence and are willing to work hard and to put the time in, because none of this happens automatically. Success doesn't happen without a degree of dedication and work. It's amazing what can happen as a result of that. It's amazing what you've done Mariana, as a result of all the all the hard work that you've had about of the confidence that you've built for yourself over the course of time, all the lives you're changing, all the people you're sponsoring and mentoring this great work you're doing with the Boys and Girls Club really appreciate you doing doing all that work getting this next generation of talent excited about careers in advanced manufacturing and really glad that you were able to join us here on the TechEd podcast. Thank

Mariana Cogan:

you very much. It's been a pleasure, and that love the work that you're doing.

Matt Kirchner:

Thank you very much. Yeah, securing the American Dream for the next generation of STEM and workforce talent, that's what we do here at the TechEd podcast this week with Marianna, and every single week. Hope you enjoyed this episode with Marianna, COVID, Chief Marketing Officer of hexagon manufacturing intelligence, as much as I did such an amazing background, incredible work that she is doing now you'll find all that information on the show notes for this page, which you will find at TechEd podcast.com/colgan that is TechEd podcast.com/cogan and remember, you'll find us all over social media. Doesn't matter if you're on Instagram, LinkedIn, tick tock, Facebook, wherever it is that you're going to consume your social media and learn what's going on in the world, you will find the TechEd podcast there. When you see us, when you find us, leave us a note. Let us know that you love what you're hearing on the TechEd podcast. We would love to hear from you, and we would love to see you again next week. Until then, I am your host. Matt Kirk, here, thanks for being here.

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