Navigating the Future of Energy and Leadership: Steve Scrimshaw's 45-Year Career

Embark on an enlightening journey with Steve Scrimshaw,, who is about to leave an indelible mark on the manufacturing and energy sectors after an impressive 45-year career. Previously Managing Director of Siemens, before his role as Vide President and Exec Director of Siemens Energy


 From his humble beginnings as an apprentice to his ascension to executive roles at Siemens and Siemens Energy, Steve imparts invaluable leadership lessons. His emphasis on authenticity and humility, coupled with his ability to galvanize a team, serves as an extraordinary guide for any aspiring leader. In our discussion, Steve also delves into the crucial influence of company culture and the role of the next generation in meeting Net Zero goals, offering an abundance of wisdom for listeners at every career stage.

Witness the transformation of the power industry through the eyes of a veteran. Steve Scrimshaw, whose experience spans decades, provides a poignant perspective on the shifts brought about by climate change concerns and recent geopolitical events. We cover a breadth of topics, from the emotional nuances of transitioning into retirement to the mentoring of successors. The episode further explores the urgent need for sustainable practices in business investments and highlights the growing focus on environmentally conscious strategies that are reshaping the global push towards decarbonization.

Steve Scrimshaw's legacy is a testament to the transformative power of fostering a collaborative culture in organizations. Together, we explore the hesitations some leaders may have toward this cultural evolution and how inclusive leadership greatly enhances a company's adaptability. As Steve looks back on his career, he leaves us inspired to make a significant impact in our professional lives, aiming to improve the world through energy innovation. We also tackle the implications of the engineering skills gap, the momentum towards green jobs, and strategies to prepare the workforce for a sustainable future. Steve's parting words remind us that we each have a role to play, as we all strive to leave a meaningful mark on the world.

Please subscribe to the channel for more content! Theo James are a Manufacturing & Engineering Recruiter based in the North East, helping Manufacturing and Engineering firms grow across the UK. Please call us on 0191 5111 298

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the episode of manufacturing these podcasts with me, mark Brangnell, mice Director of Theo James Recruitments. Today we welcome on an extremely special guest, steve Scrimshaw, who started off his career in 1979 with CA Parsons, which became what we are. Hello and welcome to the episode of manufacturing these podcasts with me, mark Brangnell, mice Director of Theo James Recruitments. Today we welcome on an extremely special guest, steve Scrimshaw, who started off his career in 1979 with CA Parsons, which became what we all know, the Siemens. He was then Mice Director and then later to move to transition over to Siemens Energy as Vice President and Executive Director. Very recently, only last week, steve announced his retirement from Siemens Energy, which was, after 45 years, a big announcement.

Speaker 1: 0:53

So, as you can imagine, I was nervous and excited because such a privilege to be able to interview Steve. I'm not going to give you too many spoilers about this because it was such a good episode. As you can imagine, we talked in detail about energy power sustainability, the opportunities within the Northeast, the East Coast, the UK. We're talking detail about young people, the generation, this movement towards NetZoo and how they are a huge part of that, how we need to plug the skills gap. Obviously, I pick his brains regarding the culture behind Siemens and what helped make such a fantastic organization. What hit me a lot about this episode was just how humble Steve was, someone who has achieved what he has achieved. He is such a down-to-worth person and someone you are going to be absolutely inspired by. So I won't give you any more spoilers.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Without further ado, please sit back, enjoy the episode with Steve. Please do me the biggest favour of liking and subscribing to the channel. It really helps. Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy Excellent. Well, a warm welcome to see Screamshore on this podcast and I absolutely can't wait to dig into your 45 unbelievable journey. But before I do that first question, I ask every person on the podcast Steve, what does it mean to you to be a leader?

Speaker 2: 2:21

Well, good morning, it's good to be here and thanks to be asked to do this.

Speaker 2: 2:25

I think to be a leader, you have to be someone that probably has the capability to inspire others to maybe come on a journey of where you're trying to go, where you're trying to take the business.

Speaker 2: 2:36

I often say to people it's if you imagine you're in a trench and you come, run out the trench and there's people firing at you, and it's whether people are prepared to jump out the trench to come with you. I think to do that, you need to be authentic. You've probably got to be a good listener, you've got to be humble, I think, recognising you don't have all the answers, and I think it's your job to try and mobilise the capability of the organisation, I think creating the right culture to allow people to speak up and contribute to the success or whatever the business and bring the whole self to work. People have a lot of things that they can contribute and I think I've learned that over the years that you actually have a lot of people in the organisation that you probably don't know, that they keep doing what they're capable of doing, and I think, if you create the environment, I think that's your job as a leader to do that.

Speaker 1: 3:25

I love that and I love that analogy with the trenches, because you're right, businesses go through tough times sometimes and I think we've seen that recently probably the last five years where companies are about to pivot and had problems, and I think that's where you see how management has been, how loyal people are.

Speaker 2: 3:46

There was an MP once who said leadership and management is like a tea bag. You only realise how strong it is once it's in hot water, and it's pretty good attitude.

Speaker 1: 3:58

There are probably more so now, in a world where loyalty is lower than it has been. I would say it's because of the power shift towards employees, probably knowing that they're good enough to walk into opportunities. I think never has it been more important for culture to be paramount, really to keep people engaged and the vision be there, I guess, huge one. There's so much to talk about with management. I can't wait to dig into your journey, because I was excited anyway, but obviously when I heard the news that you were stepping down from your role after 45 years. Dave, is that right?

Speaker 2: 4:36

It is. It is 45 years. It's quite surreal actually. Do you want me to just give you a little bit?

Speaker 1: 4:42

of a background, Please. Yeah, I think that would be great to start.

Speaker 2: 4:46

I started in 1979, would you believe, which is quite a while ago and was probably one of probably quite nervous 100 apprentices on that day that rocked up at CA Parsons works at Heaton in Newcastle. I started as a mechanical technician apprentice. I was a vocational background that I went through. It was a done thing in those days that a lot of people actually were directed. I think when people were leaving school they were directed towards, like you know, apprenticeships or nursing or whatever it would be that type of thing. I had probably four offers of different apprenticeships at those times and the jewel in the crown was probably Parsons. I mean, parsons developed and designed the first practical steam turbine, you know, exporting from Newcastle, taking power all over the world and bringing power to people in the industries all over the world. So, yeah, I started.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Then we were in the apprentice school, which was a quite a disciplined approach. You know you all have your overalls on and your hair nets and all the rest. I had hair in those days, which was quite interesting. So, yeah, we did that and in those days you did the traditional sort of round of all of the various different things that you did. In those days we made everything you know, we made pipes, we had a foundry, we had a pattern shop, we had design houses, we had blade manufacturing, large scale, very, very heavy machining, light machining. We had test houses and erecting bids where we could build whole power plant lines etc. So I did that, the usual sort of round of several years around that.

Speaker 2: 6:28

And then and then I had an opportunity to go out and work on site. It was something I was wanting to do, yeah. So I actually went out on site where we did sort of servicing of turbine generators. So I did all that round. I did the sort of site servicing of power plants in the UK and overseas. I did that for quite a number of years. I got involved in rules like quality planning, supervision, mechanical supervision. Then I went into like project management. I went into commercial management this is things like doing spare parts, modernizations, upgrades on power plants around the world and then came in to do sort of more of the general management role.

Speaker 2: 7:11

I went into sales and marketing, which was all about like trying to develop business on other manufacturers equipment. In those days it was owned by multiple companies, so it was owned by Parsons, then it was owned by the I don't know if you remember the Northern engineer industries, which was the big conglomerates in the Northeast that was then bought by the Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group where they used it it was a bit of a cah-cah used to develop the Trent engine and we were part of the Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group and then I actually left the company and I went to work for Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding, which was up in Glasgow, a company called Mitsui Babcock which was traditionally British Babcock making power boilers for power stations. It did a similar role to what I was doing at Rolls Royce and then I did that for a couple of years and then I was headhunted to come and join Siemens in their service business for turbine generator. So they actually bought the company I used to work for. I did that for some years and then back in October 2020, we were carved out of Siemens and became Siemens Energy and that's the Siemens Energy piece and I eventually ended up running that piece.

Speaker 2: 8:32

In the interim between that, I was asked if I would join and go and run the Siemens Transportation trains business. So I actually went and ran the trains business for between well, about nearly almost 10 years. I did that, which was really, really interesting. I really look forward to something that I really enjoyed because it was very complicated. It was something totally different. When I first joined there I remember saying that to my wife. You know they've given me this job and here I am. I could probably know what I know about trains and right on the back of a bus ticket. It was that different but similar sort of things big capital, equipment providing, servicing and making sure things ran reliably, that type of thing. So it was a really interesting experience. It's something I was back with fondness on.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Excellent, and you talk about apprenticeships and I'm really passionate about that and the fact that I still think there's a missing piece between I think there's a missing education piece still in the sector with what you can achieve by being an apprentice. There's, I think, for you know, probably a couple of decades, the known has been go to university and it'll, you'll get very far and I think that can be a great route, but there is. You are one of some brilliant people I've interviewed on here who are real stories, amazing stories of what people have achieved from starting, right at the start as an apprentice, and I still think that's an untapped resource. A lot of people I spoke to on here didn't really know what they wanted to do and you know their their mum and their dad might have forced them to do it or something. Is that something you always want? Engineering, or how did that come about?

Speaker 2: 10:13

Well it was. It was probably the same and nobody in my family had gone and did a degree and he's like that and I think it was a tradition. You know, that's the sort of direction that you got. I probably didn't get very much sort of direction. My dad was a shipbuilder, so he worked as one hunters, etc. When one brought up the kids there was this four of us. So yeah, I sort of probably didn't get much direction, but I think I always I didn't want to be stuck in a factory all the time.

Speaker 2: 10:41

I had this sort of thing and I've always sort of kept it with us that you know, I wanted to be like a bit different. I wanted not not just be me too, and I think it was that self drive. I often think, actually with not doing a degree, you almost have to overcompensate for that in some respects. But yeah, I think the apprenticeship route in I mean it's given me wonderful opportunities, things that I could never, ever imagine. You know, when I sat down in 16, they'll ever imagine I would be doing what I'm doing now, never in this world. And the opportunities I've had along the way. I think you have to grasp the opportunities. Sometimes you've got to make the opportunities yourself, and I think that's the sort of internal drive from yourself you have to do that. It's not put on a plate for you. I mean, some people do get on a plate, but I don't think it happens that much. And I think, if you I always sort of focus on the customers, the end users and things that I just think of what they're trying to achieve. So yeah, and I think apprenticeships have changed over the years.

Speaker 2: 11:41

You know why would you want to go? And you know, engineer and doesn't have a particularly attractive reputation. I think you know, like some people say, there's a dirty business etc. I mean, we'll come back to that later because we'll talk about if we're going to talk about the energy transition. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people. But certainly I think now people sort of see there are more choices and there's more opportunities. You know, some people might want to go into banking or other things and maybe those opportunities are not there. There's a lot of stuff has been digitalized over the years and I think that gives other career paths where you know. So I think engineering now is probably competing with a lot of other attractive industries, which which is challenging for them. So yeah, so that's where I ended up, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:26

Did you mention there that you didn't feel you would come as as far as you? I mean, is that, what would you put that down to? That drive to not be a me too? Is that just coming from somewhere internal?

Speaker 2: 12:38

Yeah, yeah, probably just internal, but I mentioned about like I mean I'll use the degree and I don't mind speaking about that. I've often during my career had a little monkey on my shoulder, you know, sort of saying you haven't got a degree. And I remember once when I was, I was on the sort of leadership program within Northern Engineering Industries and there was a big, you know, bastion of Northern Engineering Industries called Andrew Perkins and he you be interviewed with him and three other managing directors. I remember being interviewed. Now you tell me what's the biggest thing you ever regret.

Speaker 2: 13:10

And I turned around and said well, you know, I do regret not not having a degree and not going to a degree. I'm pretty sure I could have done it but was never being pushed or that direction, never put in front of me really. And there was a sort of deathly silence for about a minute and then the MD of one of the other businesses says, well, well, I don't have a degree. And then somebody else says, well, I don't have a degree. And it was just this like revelation of saying, well, you know, maybe it isn't as bad as you think, you know, but I mean both my kids have got degrees now and I would certainly encourage people to do that if they can. But I think you know, keep your feet on the ground as well.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Yeah yeah, I completely agree and, again, I've got a degree and it was probably some of the best years in my life doing that and I think the experience was amazing. But I don't think it needs to be the essential way for everyone and I think that sometimes the misconception but you're right the bulk of, I think, business owners, and particularly manufacturing, haven't necessarily come from the degree route. A lot of them have then gone back and done MBAs and I think a lot of them probably admit it's for the same reason you mentioned there just to almost get that monkey off the shoulder that they've got it.

Speaker 2: 14:15

And I sort of like, when you look back, you know and I think, well, it hasn't done us too bad. You know, I've ran some of the biggest businesses of Siemens in the UK. I mean, ok, I've got a lot of Siemens now Siemens Energy and it's it's just. I feel immensely privileged to be been given those opportunities and do it. But I think it's down to the hard work and the sort of tenacity and focus and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Yeah, and you know this must be an interesting few weeks for you. Having announced that and, and. In doing this, and, and and reflection, have you had time yet to sit down with a coffee and just start to reflect on on that career? Is that just starting to hit you?

Speaker 2: 14:51

Well, yeah, it is, it is. It's a little bit surreal, so just just for your listeners. So I have been thinking about for some time but I announced that I was going to be retiring from Siemens Energy and my successor, guy called David, was into a good job. So he took over the helm from the first of January and I've sort of stepped back. I said I'd be around for a few months to support him in any way he wants. But it is, it's his role now and he's he's at the helm. So it is a bit surreal.

Speaker 2: 15:18

I've been clearing out all my historic documents and things like that in the confidential thing and sort of transferring a lot of data. But yeah, yeah, I look back at it. I mean I did an article on LinkedIn where sort of in, that is great, just just just just writing it down. It actually sort of captures. It just captures where you've been and you sort of you often don't look in the mirror, do you look behind you in terms of what you've done and you just take it for granted that you've done it and I've been absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:48

You know it wasn't done for this reason. I was doing it because Darren's taken over the role now. Now, that's why I post the thing on LinkedIn, because his announces were going to be out there. I'm going to be around at the end of March, but I've just been humbled by some of the comments that have been made. It really does. Actually, I know this sounds a bit daft. You know, you see people in the funeral and they all say good things about people and stuff and I feel like it's actually happened when I'm alive.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Yeah, it is, and I think there's a lot of people that probably Some people who are looking forward to that time, some people are dreading that time. You know, when the time it comes, for anyone it can be a shock, can't it?

Speaker 2: 16:27

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and I make no bones about it. It's, it will be a difference. I've got, I've got, two grandkids now I've got my son and the grandkids live down in Bristol and my daughter lives over in Belfast. She's married now and yeah, it is. You know, I've got a bit of apprehension about it.

Speaker 2: 16:43

If I'm honest, you know, I'm desperately trying to learn golf and other things, but I'll probably do, I'll probably pick up an NAD, maybe a couple of days a month or something like that, just to sort of. You know. So I keep a bit more relevant. I mean, I'm quite passionate about the energy transition, you know. I really believe in it and I think that's going to be, you know, mentioned about engineering before and the attractiveness of it. I honestly think that there's some wonderful opportunities there and these are going to be career opportunities, not just project type opportunities, as people have to transition towards net zero and I've been trying to contribute whichever way I can to actually help on that journey and I'd like to sort of in some fashion, continue with that as well, as we as a retire as well.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Yeah, that's exciting and you mentioned that when you started in that sector Siemens, you know your knowledge of that wasn't, I imagine, what it is now. When did that paint job be thought actually that this is a real opportunity, this is a movement?

Speaker 2: 17:42

Yeah, I think we've got some really good people in our business who have actually helped me. I've learned a lot from them in terms of the energy transition journey, and then I think things start to fall into place, don't they? Where you, the government, are making commitments to net zero. You know you can see here by 2050, you've got all the copper range from 26, 27, 28. You can see that the if you just look around, look at what's happening with the climate and look at, you know, these immense wildfires, extreme weather events and things that are it's. You know it's happening for a reason and I think it's it's down to all of us. You know we have a little bit of a saying that the generation before us haven't done it, haven't done anything quick enough. The generation after us, it'll be too late. It's down to us to actually try and make a difference and you know all the pieces are starting to come together now, aren't they?

Speaker 2: 18:31

If you look at it, if I just talk about in the power industry, you've got, like you know, coal used to provide such a large volume of power. There will be no coal plants running at the end of this year, right? None, you know. You've got this proliferation of wind, and that's going all the way around the shores and onshore as well as offshore, but mainly offshore. And I think with the Ukraine crisis, you know like we I think we were leading position on that with the Ukraine crisis now Everybody's got energy security.

Speaker 2: 19:00

You know everybody's. You know moving at pace around the world. So you've got wind, you've got hydrogen. Everything needs an electrical connection, which means you need massive grid reinforcements. You're going to have to build a lot more grid than you've ever had in the last sort of 50 years. So it's almost like rewiring the whole country to a lower carbon driven society. You think about when people talk about net zero. I don't think they really realize. You know, the 20, the 29 million gas boilers that we have in the country have to be replaced with something else. Your cars, your planes, your trains, your boats, everything's going to be have to be fueled with something different. And then everybody's going to have, you know, electric cars, hydrogen cars, whatever it's going to be, and all of them are going to need more electricity too. So it's, it's, it's. This is not just incremental change, this is monumental change that has to happen.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Apologies for interrupting this podcast for a very quick 30 second pitch of my business. Theo James are a specialist manufacturing and engineering recruitment search firm based in Seam in the Northeast. If you're looking for any staff or new opportunity yourself from a semi skilled level, write the way up to C-suite executive and please get in touch. We have a specialist consultant in each discipline ready to help. I'm extremely proud of what we've built over the years. I'd love to extend that service out to you. Thank you, enjoy the podcast.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Yeah, and I think people are starting to wake up to it, but that's only a small percentage. You know the the rest will when they're forced to, and I say that's. That's a big job for the government to do, but I think we're starting to see a shift. I've I've started to see the shift with manufacturing, which I think I ran the event 18 months ago and the on the agenda was sustainability and there was a real lot of apprehension about what people need to do and I've seen people now start to have real big plans. But there will be companies out there still a little bit concerned. Would you, what advice would you give to a company perhaps haven't started that journey yet and needs to sort of start kicking on with things, whether that's the zero carbon neutral.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Yeah, and I mean I recognize, you know it is. It's got a cost to it, there's no doubt about it. And then some people cannot afford that. I mean I think some, you know, like private individuals. You know it's great everybody talking about this, but you know, if you're struggling to make ends meet it's not easy. But I think from businesses, you know one of the things that we had in our business.

Speaker 2: 21:27

I'm not saying it works for everyone, but you have a very traditional sort of cycle that you you need to invest in something and then you need to pay back over a certain point of time and it's very hard to make these numbers. You know, put solar panels on the top of a factory or something like that. It's very difficult to sort of make that investment payback over a relatively normal sort of payback period. If you start saying that you're going to get charged for your carbon emissions, which is probably going to happen, then that whole concept changes. You know like and we started, we started a while ago what we call this like charging like $1 almost this year there's going to be a carbon charge for people who emit carbon and then all of a sudden, the economics of doing stuff for retrofitting and energy improvements, energy efficiency, become more viable. We've now as a company, globally, we now actually charge. I think it's something like $100, or 100 euros a tonne for carbon, so that actually brings everything back into focus. So that's enabled a lot of things to invest in, and I think that's what will happen generally. You know there's a trajectory where things are going. You know if you're producing carbon, then you're going to be charged for it, I think, eventually.

Speaker 2: 22:40

So I would encourage people to start thinking a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 22:44

I would also as well think of networks as well, like, maybe go and talk to bigger companies if there's maybe things that they are doing which can naturally help we buy all of our electricity renewable electricity globally for our business, and I think.

Speaker 2: 23:00

Another thing I think that I've recognised with being a listed company now is that you know people think of it as an investment, as a cost. But if you see, you know people want to invest in green companies and I think it's part of this ESG agenda right now. So if you can be seen, you know you can actually, instead of it being seen just as a cost, it could be seen as something that adds shareholder value to investment, and I know these are a bit like hard to sort of make a linear connection to, but I think very much people are you know, pension funds and other things are saying they are only going to invest in green technologies or green businesses and if you sort of see that as a you know you could invest X and it could increase your share value by Y just by doing it Not a direct correlation and I think it's hard to make that correlation, but I think it's something you need to think about.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Yeah, it's great advice and as is the networking piece because, like any change, you know we're in it together and I think, like you say, talk to people who have gone through the journey. I know there were some horror stories early doors where companies were getting quote 1000, 1000 pounds for someone to walk around and give them advice but I think that's that people started to get wise, to know that that little bit that doesn't need to be the case. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:11

I think there's an education thing as well, isn't there? I mean, I did for a very recent, until very recently. I sit on the government's Hydrogen delivery council and I sit on the green jobs delivery group and we've been trying to get a narrative around hydrogen. You know, because you know. If you, if you ask you what do you think of hydrogen, you'll probably think of a disaster that happened some years ago with a ship.

Speaker 2: 24:34

But you know, if you look at it, hydrogen is going to be one of the key tenants of decarbonization is you have, you know, offshore wind and you have excess offshore wind and so you've got when the wind is blowing and you've got nowhere for the power. You need some something to make, and so if you can make something like hydrogen and store it for a long time, then you can get this in the generation. So then you have an energy source which has been stored like gases stored in under the North Sea, etc. You have an energy source which has been stored when the wind isn't blowing in, the sun isn't showing. You can use that energy source to produce energy. So it's rethinking all of the energy systems and but we need to educate people as well. You know we've been working on this narrative on what hydrogen is, where it comes from and how it's used and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1: 25:22

And I'm sure you know, on your retirement you're going to be inundated with inquiries for people to come in and talk, for you to come and talk Out with those topics which is the thing that you might have already discussed is it might be hydrogen, which is the thing that really excites you. Would you say that your passion lies, that you feel that people need to change their mindset on? Would that be hydrogen?

Speaker 2: 25:44

I think, yeah, it actually goes across the whole plethora of the energy transition topics. I mean, if you just start, like you know, I don't know if you see these wind turbines, we've got a big facility at home where we make blades. Wind turbine blades, I mean, the one that they make at the moment is 108 meters long, right, 108 meters long. And just seeing these things, and you think, the engineer that goes into them, then these things are transported out in the middle of the North Sea, three of them stuck up on the cell, that stuck on the top of a pole, and the cells probably go 500 tons in the middle of the North Sea and then this thing's going to produce power. So you know, so you sort that scale of it that excites me. And then you think, well, it's got to be electrically connected to one another. So you have almost like these big offshore transformer modules which are like oil rigs that's the sort of size of them. All the wind turbines are going to be connected to that. Then it's going to be connected to the shore. And then you think, well, I've got a connection on the shore here, and of course all of the grid used to go like North to South, from the you know the coal fields to the industrial centers. Now you're bringing it in from the East and the West and connecting up and the volume that you don't know that you need is much, much more. And then you say, right, okay, I've got all this electrical connection.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Then you say, so, what am I going to do when there is, when there is excess wind and I don't have a requirement for the power? You think, well, okay, I've got a storage somewhere. Then you think, okay, batteries, but that's only short term. Then you think, well, how else am I going to do when you're going to make hydrogen and you've got to have a network for hydrogen across the UK? And I think you know. Getting back to the apprentice question, you know, is this a? These are great opportunities If you go back to the sort of when, I think when I started out, you know we were in the in the Hades of building big power plants and things like that. You know the transformation from coal to gas and all that sort of stuff to my career and all that's dropping off now. But the I think the youngsters now is great opportunities for them to get involved in all of this and then establishing the next generation of the. You know the energy system for our country, which is a great place to be.

Speaker 1: 27:52

And what's great as well, steve, I think, is it's visible. I think the one problem with factories human people is they don't know what's inside it. They just these big, these big buildings and I think a lot of them would be in awe if they walked around Nissan, for example, and saw what's going on. But, like you say, my little lads for and he loves us to see because they're fascinating to see these big towers go round so I think you're going to see more of that, that people, young people are influence. I hope to go into some of my apprentices because they'll be fascinated by how it all ties together and how it all works.

Speaker 2: 28:24

Yeah, one of the things I did I mean we do quite a bit of outreach to schools and things like that when I was working in London I brought I went out to one of the local schools at Sutherland and we stood there and talked for like it was me and my colleague, we stood there and talked for an hour and, honestly, these I think these kids had no idea what we sort of did and again, that's part of us, we've got to get the message out there.

Speaker 2: 28:49

And the teacher actually at the end of it, the teacher, she actually came across, she was in tears. She says do you know, I've never felt so, you know, like inspired by anything I've ever seen before and it was, like you know, we make these great like a mode of videos and things like that, and it was, it's great. And I think we've done that in the UK where we built Kibe Power Plant and we've had an outreach with the local schools and things like that, and you start to get young kids talking about power plants, young kids talking about stuff, and I think that's where you start to get the mindset change and the shift about what's happening around them, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Yeah, 100%, 100%. I'm really interested in you know. I don't know what you mentioned right start about culture, trenches, management. I imagine you've seen a whole shift towards. You know different cultures and different divisions and Siemens, but it's a company which has an unbelievable reputation. It's a company that people want to work for and never seem to leave that type of business, which are absolutely rare. What do you think is what's been important for you? Do you think, in terms of when you're working in a unit or overseeing a team, what the promises for you, would you say?

Speaker 2: 30:00

I think you know you've got to recognise. You know, as I said before, you know we've got 96,000 employees across the world and it's you know we're looking in every country in to manage that sort of size of business. It's quite a complex organisation so you have to have a skill to be able to navigate the organisation because there's lots of people, lots of departments, lots of whatever else you have. You know central policies and things that. So I think you know. One thing I would say is like understanding any business. I think navigating the business, understanding where it is and where it fits, I think that's quite important because it could. It can be like a bit overwhelming at times. You've got to see that. I think I would always focus on you know what's within your sphere of control and what a sphere of control, sphere of influence, and what are things that you can't influence, and sort of. If you get your mind around that, then you can sort of partition it a little bit about what are the things that you can actually impact on. And if you think about it, if you then got only a thousand people around the world, focus on what they can control, what they can influence, and then somebody else is taking care of the rest. You know that's. I think that's a sort of way to approach it. Like I said before, giving people an opportunity to, even though you are part of a big company, giving people an opportunity to contribute, and things like that I think is so valuable, because you don't know what you have within the business.

Speaker 2: 31:24

I'll give you one example for us we had. We were looking at carbon capture and storage. So this is where you've got. Basically, you know, if you go forward in the UK 2035, if you want to generate power, you've, either if you want to build a power plant, you have to either capture the carbon on the top of it, meaning so then you store it, maybe under the North Sea carbon capture and storage, or you've got to burn something else which doesn't produce carbon, like hydrogen, something like that. Yeah, and we sort of reached out to our organization and said look, we're looking at this carbon capture. Who would like to help? You know that's quite novel who would like to get involved with this? You know as well as your day job. And we found out we actually had somebody in one of our business that had a doctorate in carbon capture technology which we didn't I didn't even know was there, and it's just, I think, creating those environments where people can step up and contribute, and I think that's you know, people value that as well. You know they feel that they can actually contribute to where the business is going, instead of being told we have this little.

Speaker 2: 32:21

I did a bit of work with a lady called Alison Cameron in Australia from Adaptive Cultures and this was about, if you think of, most businesses have what they call a compliant dependent culture. You know, this is what I want to do, et cetera. And then if you ask people, where would they like to be and it's like they'd probably like to be in this collaborative growth culture, like collaborating together and trying to grow the business. And we found we did a lot of work around that sort of concept about moving from being compliant, dependent, doing what you're told, to somewhere where you've given them a bit of freedom to contribute and grow, et cetera, and most people would want to operate in that sort of area and it also it also releases what we call adaptive capacity. So if you, if you work in that manner, you create more scope to do other things, which is which is good. I know it sounds a bit theoretical, but it certainly was quite instrumental in transforming the way that we think about our business.

Speaker 1: 33:20

Do you think? Do you think a lot of leaders are nervous about that, about what suggestions there might be there, Because I think that's the pension.

Speaker 2: 33:26

Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of people, I think a lot of people are quite like hierarchies. I think a lot of people are quite like to have you know, I'm the boss, I'm in control. But I think if you generally, I think if you're more humble and you're more collaborative and you work with people across the business, horizontally as well as vertically, I think it makes a difference to you and to the people in your business. You know they feel that and contribute. We used to when we were seamans, like a long time ago.

Speaker 2: 33:53

I remember going to Red Bull Racing. We used to sponsor at that time. We went to Red Bull Racing and we were sitting in reception and you used to say these young engineers actually coming in almost running up the stairs, running up the stairs to go and get something. They were really inspired to be involved in what they're doing, instead of like with their shoulders drooping and thinking, oh yeah, I'm coming into an office another day and it's that sort of vision for me. Is you want people to actually say I'm really making a difference and how noble is the cause that you're bringing energy to people and decarbonising the world? So you're going to leave it a better place than where it was when you came.

Speaker 1: 34:31

Yeah, naturally, I think what you said there is so true, I think, coming to estimate the power of the purpose, and I think, particularly this generation, they really want to be part of something which is actually adding value to the environment or to humanity.

Speaker 2: 34:46

That's definitely something I've seen when you interview people. The younger generations are definitely it's all to do with your purpose and what you were about as a company. It isn't just about money and it isn't just about terms and conditions. It's about like are they doing something that they want to be seen to be doing for society? So a lot of people have that view now, which is, I think, significantly different. But I think back. I didn't really think about it when, around the time of the miners strike the big miners strike where coal was going all over the power plants and stuff like that was horrible times. But I remember one of the power plants. They couldn't get coal so they were tankering in this thick, horrible oil and burning it to produce power. You never give a second thought about what this impact of the environment is.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yeah, and I completely agree. I do think it's definitely. I've seen a shift and I was almost a bit skeptical first. Is this this virtual signal into people, but not this generation? They really, really do, which is why I'm not quite optimistic that we can meet these goals and we can change the problems, because I actually think people now it's a completely different mindset and they actually want the help, which is great, I think.

Speaker 2: 36:02

It is, and I mean anything. What does that really mean to people as well? I mean engineering, manufacturing and things like that. It's going to be the next generation, the next lifeblood of industries. Our facility in Newcastle, which you might have driven past, you know very big in that. We used to say we used to export at least be 12,000 people used to work there at one point in time and if you think you know, making turbines and generators, complex pieces of machinery, we've diversified quite a lot over the years and even still are now we're working. You know this is a bit strange.

Speaker 2: 36:35

We were with a startup company called Geopura and they had this idea of producing hydrogen power units, basically something where you can put hydrogen into a unit that produces off grid electricity. And the original concept was, as everybody starts to get electric cars and things that you know, you can imagine going into a car park in the middle of Newcastle City centre and then you've got, like you know, 1000 people all wanting 100 kilowatt charges all at one time. Go to the national grid. They'll probably say, yeah, come back in, you know, 2056, we'll think about putting you a big cabling. So the idea was you could put one of these on the top of the top of the car park. Perhaps you could then feed it with green hydrogen, distribute power across the car park and then you know you've got any grid requirements. So that was the original concept.

Speaker 2: 37:25

So we started working with this company called Geopura in Newcastle just doing these one or two hydrogen power units. Now, if you go in the place, we're making 40 or 50 of them, and this is it's changed now from providing distributed power to almost providing, instead of like having diesel generators on site, things like that. So here in, the only byproduct you get is water, only byproduct is water. And you've got some of the guys who've made turbines and generators for like 30, 40 years are now building these new high tech hydrogen power units in the facility, and I think that's a great example. People talk about this just transition of using the traditional engineering skills set right into a new technology, and then there's a great example in reality and I think you could probably see that across engineering industries where people are moving and transforming into something different. I love that.

Speaker 1: 38:17

And I can feel that passion, which is amazing, and all this will too, and I'm really excited by what's what's to come, and particularly in the east particularly northeast, obviously, where I'm sat, the only challenge, or whether the biggest challenge, is probably going to be the skills gap, and all these opportunities are going to have to be, you know, bums on Seats, this engineering, some good skilled people. Is that a concern, would you say? What for the industry?

Speaker 2: 38:39

It is. I'm one of the actually one of the sessions. I'm in London straight after this call actually, so I'm participating. So, as I said, I sit on the green jobs delivery group. So people have recognized that some of the offerings maybe you know learning skills, partnerships, boot camps and things like that this is not going to give the sort of you know it, that's more incremental rather than the sort of fundamental shift. So we're the session we've got today is to explore interventions. I'm talking about hydrogen because I'm on a working group of hydrogen and CC us.

Speaker 2: 39:15

But if you just talk about how the government have asked us to look at, what interventions do you need to do to actually achieve that? You know, to make sure you've got the right type of skills in the right place, the right time, the right quantity, that type of thing. And we're looking at what are the cross cutting skills across lots of different industries. This is one of eight. The group I'm looking at is one of eight, what we call task and finish groups across lots of different industries. And if you think about it, you know like if you build a carbon capture plant on T side, say, you're going to have a lot of construction type work who could be building high speed to? Who could be building a nuclear power plant, who could be, you know? So there were a lot of cross cutting and I think people are looking at specialist skills but also cross cutting skills to see what they need to do.

Speaker 2: 39:58

But there's definitely a shortage of that. You know, if you look, there is a lot of things going on in the UK at the moment. If you just talk about the grid, you know huge amount. If you look at the amount of work that National Grid are going to be deploying, you know you're talking billions and billions of investment and they're all going to need, you know, engineers. They're all going to need electrical engineers, they're going to need environmental experts and things like that. So I think it's definitely there is a shortage and there's definitely something that I think the government is awake to and I think all government, so to say, all parties, are awake to that as well. So I think it's not just this government. I think if there's challenges as well, oppositions as well, I think they all see that as well.

Speaker 1: 40:41

Yeah, I can't be agree and it's. It's exciting. I mean, I was speaking to see a wind yesterday and you know that they were showing a list of the 400 positions that we were agreeing for, which is which is scary but exciting and there's so much opportunity. So I think if we get this message right and we get this this generation evolves then it's just going to be unbelievable opportunity and you know, and opportunity to to the change environment, opportunities to earn money and progress, and there's so so much good at this sector. I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 2: 41:11

There is. I mean, if you see it in action, if you go to our facilities hall where we made the wind turbine blades, you know that facility didn't exist. You know, a number of years ago and now we've probably got around 2000 people and they're continuously growing and recruiting. You know, as wind turbines get bigger and bigger, you know you have the remodel factories and things that and there's a great example from in that area in whole the workforce has been developed and built up, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 41:37

I know Siemens, my old colleagues from Siemens Mobility they're building a train factory in Ghoul, so from scratch, completely, this is going to be for the next generation of deep tubes for London, for Piccadilly lines. So they're going to be built there, but like Hitachi did in Newt-Naclef. So you can, you know there's great examples of where, from a green field site or brown field site, these industries have built up. And, as you know, as you, as you build an industry like a facility, you get a surrounding infrastructure like a technology park that provides parts and services to that industry. So you end up with an incremental growth from the initial investment as well.

Speaker 1: 42:16

What a time to be in the east and the north for once.

Speaker 2: 42:21

Eh yeah, levelling up, I mean I know it gets criticised et cetera, but you know why wouldn't you do it in the northeast? You know we've got like geology, we've got engineering skills, got great universities. There's a whole raft of reasons why you know you should pick, I mean, the northeast, as well as many others, I was down in Bristol yesterday that was at the National Composites Center and seeing some of the technology they're doing there and you see some of the. You know people like GKN, airbus, Rolls Royce and people like that. They're really looking at advanced technologies. For you know flight and things like that. It's really clever stuff.

Speaker 1: 42:57

I've not given too much longer to you so I want to maximise the time. I always have a guest question, so this is a question. You've not seen this. This is a question that is from my last guest, who was Rachel Stede. So Rachel is the FD of Janice International, so they're based in Petally really good business. So her question, similar to something you've talked about already actually, as a leader, how can you make a positive impact with your influence on the culture of an organisation? What do you say?

Speaker 2: 43:27

Okay, make a positive impact on the culture. I probably did cover that. Maybe the start I think it's been humble involving people. I've created what I call an extended leadership team. So I've got a leadership team which is like the board directors of the five companies got in the UK. But then I've extended leadership so I've got a leadership team which included well, until I'd resign sort of thing a leadership team that included every business area head, every business area finance person, every support function and they all come together and everybody's got an equal voice. So and it's quite hard to manage but it's, I think everybody appreciates haven't been able to contribute to where we're trying to go. So I think, and that then creates.

Speaker 2: 44:18

I think what we're always trying to do is to create this tipping point of a culture. So you get a movement and then the movement gets bigger, and then it gets bigger and then it becomes the norm. And I think that's the key thing is to create these tipping points that become the norm. So try and do it the way you were. I always I'm always quite reflective as well in thinking how would you want to be, try it yourself in these sort of positions and we're all play-over.

Speaker 2: 44:46

But I don't see myself any different to anybody. I've got a different job. But I don't see myself any different to the guy who runs a big lathe in the machine shop. Or see you. Or Christine Brook who's who deals with all the shareholders. You know we've all got a role to play in this big organization that we live in and I think if you recognize that and recognize that actually most people come to work to do a really good job and just give them the opportunity to do that, yeah, excellent stuff, and what I normally do which I will do is some quick fire questions that you haven't seen, but spoiler, I've not printed them off so I'm not going to remember them, so I've not seen them either.

Speaker 1: 45:21

So, but these are probably questions that I'd like to ask anyway. So, 1979, obviously, if you could, when you first started, if you go back to that day, knowing what you know now for all these years, what advice would you give yourself? What do you say?

Speaker 2: 45:40

What advice would I give myself? I probably wouldn't have done anything different from where I was, Maybe if I had known a little bit more about the opportunities that presented themselves over the years. That would have been worthwhile to just help me get my direction of where I was trying to head to. But I thought things just came along as I went through the career. It wasn't sort of planned I was going to do this and that. Maybe a bit more career planning would have been helpful.

Speaker 1: 46:07

Yeah, okay, I love it. What was your first manager you've ever had and why would you say?

Speaker 2: 46:14

I did an article on this a while ago and this was a strange one. There was a guy called Andy Blay. Andy Blay he's retired, he's probably knocking on a little bit now and he was quite a stickler for quality in getting things right and double checking and things like that and I think that sort of be well during my career. A lot of people know him but yeah, and he was quite taken aback when I mentioned it in this thing. But that's somebody, I would say. But there are a number of people that actually have had an influence on my career. Without a doubt that if I was to sort of like if you had your desert island thing instead of bringing people on the island that have had an influence to be a lot of people. I'm probably going to have a little bit of a get together with this shortly, but yeah, but he's one that's took out the early days, Love that Any books or audio books, podcasts, anything that you've listened to read that you'd recommend.

Speaker 2: 47:08

Certainly the work we've been doing with Alison Cameron from Adaptive Leadership. She did leadership in the next millennium, I think it's called, and that was certainly. I mean, it's a bit of a journey you've got to go on to get there, but certainly the work that I've been doing with Alison and some of the sort of papers and things that she's been doing has been very helpful for me.

Speaker 1: 47:30

And just finally, which I'll split into. Normally it's the plans for next 18 months. So twofold again. So plans for Siemens. I know you'll be a different part of it, but what would you say? What's the exciting things coming up?

Speaker 2: 47:42

So I think, plans for Siemens Energy, so we've got globally I mean, these numbers are astronomical. We've got an order backlog of over 115 billion euros, right. So that's work that we've won. That would be after execute.

Speaker 2: 47:56

So I think for us, the Siemens Energy, I think maximizing the and I don't mean just the opportunity for the company, but I think taking leadership in the energy transition and helping to actually, because I don't think the energy transition could be done without Siemens Energy. I'm not being big headed there. I think it needs the stuff that we do. We've got some challenges in our wind business which I think all wind manufacturers have. So I think that'll be on the agenda to actually fix those things which are well on the way to doing that. And then we've got we're bringing together the Siemens Gimés and Siemens Energy businesses. So I think my success has got quite a challenge to actually integrate the businesses together. So, yeah, and I think, taking the leadership role and the energy transition, you know, with government, with other stakeholders. So I think that's what I would say from a Siemens Energy perspective.

Speaker 2: 48:48

Personal perspective, I think I want to have a successful handover to my successor, which is well on the way. So Darren's doing a really great job and then at the end of March I'll leave and we'll have a break and then I probably want to have a bit of a portfolio career. But I want to start off with a couple of maybe one or two NED roles, a couple of days a month, that sort of stuff, and maybe build that up a little bit. But I want to have more of a, you know, work-life balance. I've got grandkids now and I play golf very badly and I'd like to sort of see if I can do a bit more with that. But yeah, just a re-balancing. I was a bit nervous when my wife works part-time and when I said I was going to retire she says oh damn, I'm going to school full-time.

Speaker 1: 49:37

Yeah, it's a bad sign, isn't it? Yeah, look, siemens has been brilliant and I feel genuinely very privileged to have got you on here and discussed this, because the career you've had is unbelievable and is a real inspiration to people of all ages and of anyone out there, because I think it's been amazing. And what you said right near the end there about you know, you're just such a humble person. I think that's so important for people. However successfully you get in your career, everyone is just, we're just humans and it doesn't matter, we'll just do different jobs. She's a job tyrant. I think you know to have heard you say that. I think people will have taken a lot from it. So I just want to thank you for coming on. I just want to thank you for the career you've had and what you've added to this region, this industry, everything with it, so I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 50:29

Thanks for the opportunity and I hope people found it interesting. I've done very many of these, so I hope they do. Anyway, thanks very much. Thanks, steve yeah thanks, as always.