3M Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Mark Murphy

In this weeks episode we talk with Mark Murphy about leading  one of the world's iconic brands in an ever-changing international market.
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Transcript

kelly99
You know the thing about it is when you start a podcast You think the the hardest part is going to be you know, figuring out the microphone that works best for your voice you go through a number of microphones you go out and you purchase and you and you listen okay that one sounds you know too.

00:16.15
Mark
Um.

00:18.11
kelly99
Too dull or that one has too much hand. Whatever you have preammps you you get post-production software in place you get someone to do your post-production software hosting sites all the all the components of putting a podcast together getting guests. Great guests like you Mark Murphy Global executive vice president three m chief information officer chief digital officer. There's a lot of titles there for you by the way I noticed but hard part ends up being getting the damn email to actually go out so we can connect how many how many emails.

00:50.28
Mark
If ah.

00:56.81
kelly99
Do you have how many email addresses because we went through 5 of them. It wasn't your email. It's I'm pretty sure it's my software that I'm using here for hosting but how do you know how many emails you actually have these days.

01:06.19
Mark
Yeah I have 3 personal ones and 1 work 1 and so for different reasons I use different accounts.

01:11.90
kelly99
Okay, yeah, I've got my I really try to keep it just to my work one. Although I think I have 3 I think I have 2 quote unquote personal I I pretty much run everything through my through my work 1 you know because probably a lot like in your life. My my work and my personal there's there's a very very blurry line between what what? all that means you know there's ah it's all kind of the same thing for me. So.

01:38.57
Mark
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's a I have a little bit of that and every once in while I miss something because it's in 1 email or the other but maybe a little bit of the difference. Is you you own your company and so you don't have to have the flexibility to.

01:55.32
kelly99
Yeah, you can't have right right? right? Yeah, you don't you don't want you know, whatever the electric company sending emails to your to your three M account whereas I Just get it all in that same spot. So.

01:57.26
Mark
Be able to go somewhere else if you choose to do do something. Ah.

02:07.11
Mark
Exactly.

02:12.63
kelly99
Are you doing how you doing this morning.

02:14.68
Mark
I'm outstanding. It's a beautiful morning I took my dog for a nice long walk. It was looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day here in Minnesota today. How about you.

02:23.68
kelly99
You know, really nice I'm obviously to east about twenty miles somewhere in there and um, it was it was fought, really foggy, but a beautiful sunny fog this morning and um, it's it's all burned off now and it's it's looking like it's going to be a great day and so looking forward to it and. Um, got a busy day plan. But yeah should be nice for it. So Mark getting into your into your role. Ah, people are always really interested in in how you got there and you've had great leadership roles been with some.

02:45.20
Mark
Good. Good.

03:00.88
kelly99
Companies that almost everybody's heard of before Abbott St Jude before that is what you did at those companies has that prepared you for your new role at 3 m or what what it was your focus or how do you feel about that history and how it got you here.

03:16.50
Mark
Well I've been tremendously blessed from a career perspective with the the opportunity to work for great companies with great people and great experiences I think everything you do in your career you know is additive and kind of. Um, you know helps you get to where you eventually end up and certainly that would be the case for me. There were deep technical experiences with some of the first couple companies that was in you know as an individual contributor that laid the foundation for technical knowledge or was a. Ah, got my Mba which helped me pivot into the management side of the house. Great opportunities at a company called guiden to to start to lead people then rotational experiences at Stjude around ep and living internationally over in Belgium and then. You know the additive experience of being acquired and then becoming the Cio of Abbott Laboratories and huge company lot of different divisions 100000 you know, kind of employees supported around the world and you know huge huge scale opportunity and that's. A lot of what I carry forward into three m similar characteristics hundred plus year company 100000 employees and consultants around the world using our systems every day around the clock around the world and you know just that's.

04:43.94
Mark
So all those things kind of add up and it doesn't mean that you know exactly the answer when you come into a new company like three M every company is a little bit different but you ah you know it gives you the foundation for starting to figure out. You know what you need to do and where you need to focus.

05:02.18
kelly99
How much um, you traveled you said you lived in in Europe and and you you kind of moved around the globe for a while was that with st jude or abbot or or both.

05:10.89
Mark
Well, both but started with st ju it's kind of funny in my life I think about it if I had really never been outside of the country with the exception of maybe driving across a border in Canada and when we would take a vacation when I was a child with my with my dad up in Northern Michigan but but I hadn't been outside the country till maybe I was thirty years old and then at st jude global company rolling out s a around the world had the opportunity to travel all over the world that carried forward into abbot and you know obviously similar characteristics at three M. but I've been bless now with the the chance to travel and learn different cultures. My my family's been blessed with the opportunity to live abroad which is a life-changing experience and so gives you a little bit of that travel travel bug too.

06:02.12
kelly99
Sure was it was it hard to to go from living in the US till you're 30 to to going to Europe and around the globe. Did you find that hard or was it something that came fairly natural to yeah.

06:16.79
Mark
Well, ah you know the first couple times you do it you you know you learn a lot. You make some mistakes and terms of what you pack and you know the size of suitcase you take with you when you. Realize you got a lugg it for blocks and blocks on cobblestone roads across Acrosst Europe you don't take ah you don't take a huge suitcase that you got to lift on and off trains or or buses or whatever. So yeah, you learn some things in that. But then you. You know you get more and more familiar with it and you get more acclimated to different people in different languages and cultures and how you shop and travel and and then it becomes just just natural. But but you know either that we we learn with everything we do right? And certainly there were some learnings there. Ah. Ah, for me and for the family as we as we kind of navigated that.

07:07.61
kelly99
yeah yeah I was the same way of course I didn't travel until I was about that same age and we love europe now but certainly wouldn't have ever thought in my dream said I'd be able to travel to Europe and and have some of those experience which is which are great. Um.

07:21.23
Mark
Yeah I mean they're life changing right? I mean you you don't have an appreciation for what the rest of the world has to offer and all the things and you know certainly I know one of the things that we learned is that our worldview wasn't broad enough and when you're in the states and you think a certain way. But.

07:25.50
kelly99
Yeah, well you write.

07:39.85
Mark
You know you really want to be able to relate to all the different cultures around the world. The different dynamics.

07:47.19
kelly99
There's a lot of wonderful people all around the globe everywhere I've been.

07:49.50
Mark
Oh yeah, definitely I've had I had a story once maybe I'll share it to we traveled to Japan. There were 4 of us 4 gentlemen traveling to Japan. We landed late took the train into the city. Kind of get out in the middle of the city. There's skyscrapers everywhere that you have a japanese address for the hotel you're trying to go to. We're all wandering around with our suitcases. It's dark out. We're clearly lost and ah and an elderly lady came up. And she couldn't speak english but we pointed to the hotel and she literally walked with us for probably what had to have been almost a mile to take us to the hotel and this is an elderly lady here. We are 4 younger gentlemen americans clearly suitcases she doesn't know us at all. And she walked just all the way there and so they're just all that you so you do you meet? wonderful people giving people as you travel around that was ah I'll never forget that.

08:49.29
kelly99
You guys might have been sleeping on the japanese street corner that night had it not been for her hard ah hard to talk to the taxi drivers when you can't speak japanese.

08:54.16
Mark
Oh my goodness we'd wandered for hours it it. Ah well you learn that you need to print out directions in Japanese because they don't often. They don't speak English So again, another learning of. Going to different places and how you prepare for your trip.

09:15.53
kelly99
Um, now those companies that you worked for well-known brands. But but 3 M really is an iconic global brand and they're very diverse in what they offer has it been a transition coming to a company like three M that has such a wide portfolio of. Products.

09:33.41
Mark
Yeah, it's ah it's a wonderful company. You don't appreciate everything that three m does we like to say that at any point in time you're no more than ah than a meter or 2 away from a three M product at any point in your life whether that's in your cell phone on your tv you know. In your car. Yeah, just you know in the airplane you go on and on and on we touch everything. What's interesting is three m's got a big health care business. We'll probably talk about that in a minute which is a little bit more of the area I was had a lot more background in but then were a big. Consumer and industrial business where we we make abrasives and films and codings and and these different things. Yeah scotch tape post-it notes I mean those are the ones we're known for but you don't appreciate that you know we do a lot of work. We're in a lot of the ar and vr headsets most of them quite honestly we're in.

10:15.89
kelly99
Scotch tape.

10:27.59
Mark
Most of your Tvs were in most of your cell phones we're we're in you know, most of the electric vehicles that are out there. You know the displays in your car. You know we help those things you think about your your Tv displays in your car and they have to be able to yet to be able to see those whether it's super bright during the day or dark at night and we. Do a lot of the films on top of that that allow allow that to happen.

10:52.74
kelly99
Yeah, my daughter has an old beater of a car. She's in college and and her headlights have a whole bunch of haze on him and so it's getting difficult to drive at night I can't see it all. But of course my eyes aren't as good as hers. But so I went and got a ah a kit to try to clear up her. Her headlights and it's a three M kid it's a three m you know hazing kit for front lights on a car so you guys are you guys are everywhere.

11:17.30
Mark
Yeah, well you know that you got the hazing kits I mean we own maguire's which is ah you look at car care products and most people don't associate three M with the maguire's brand but we own that I mean you I mean we came out we we have some really cool stuff that we came on. We have some new cushion lock.

11:34.77
Mark
Packaging That's all sustainable packaging and so you think about how we historically wrap fragile items up and bubble wrap and package that and ship it and you think about the world and plastic. Well we we came up with a product that's paper based fully sustainable that has the same if not better. Protective characteristics and so just all that kind of innovation that three M's known for makes it really exciting.

12:01.60
kelly99
Yeah, you recently announced that the health care division is going to spin off I see.

12:09.23
Mark
Yeah, it's ah it's historic for us if you think about a hundred and twenty year plus company and you know it's ah it's not often that you spin off what will be 1 of the probably top Five Healthcare Med Tech companies public companies. Ah, in the world and so we have the opportunity to go spin off and launch in $9000000000 Healthcare Business standalone public public company so that's ah tremendously exciting. We announced that a couple weeks ago and obviously we have a lot of people. Starting to lean in and figure out what that's goingnna mean it's got to be a lot of work. It's gonna be a lot of challenging and exciting work. But you know you get to. It's it's really cool to be a part of something where we're gonna go launch that and you know get to get to kind of watch them go and and. And flourish out to in the market with all the exciting products and and services that they provide through that business.

13:04.30
kelly99
From your part of that on the technology side. How daunting. You know you, you refer to it as exciting and in a great opportunity and it sounds like it is for the company but it has to be also daunting when you get that news that that you have to you know. Take your scissors and and cut out a 9 8 or $9000000000 business line. What comes to mind right away when so when you get that news from you know the Ceo or if you heard it from the the public. Relations why or however, that came about is there. Do you have a plan in mind at a high level right? when you get that news or not.

13:41.74
Mark
Well, it's that's what's it's kind of what's interesting. You know now being able to comment and on it after it's public is I had I knew I had a little bit of a heads up on it before it became public and. You want to go plan everything out, but the reality is on something that's as sensitive as that you can't really engage anybody so you just kind of have to sit there and wait and obviously get your mind thinking about well. What would we do about this. What would we do about that. But you know when you can't really lean into your team and your domain experts to help. Figure it out. There's only so far you can take it but you know postnouncement. Obviously yeah, you know I mean several things come to mind first and foremost as the team if you think about it team people the existing business that we have we have we have a book of business that we have to run healthcare. And the other parts of three m that we have to continue to deliver on our quarter over Quarter objectives and expectations and so first and foremost is emphasizing that. Well this is exciting and this is where we're going to head you know day one. It's business as usual focus on what you've been doing your job doesn't change today. Nothing changes so that's you know point 1 but then the second part of it is what tends to happen in these things is everybody starts to so to anticipate.

15:07.56
Mark
And solve problems when we're not sure we even know the questions yet and so in people you know I don't know if it's human behavior or what happens. But when these big announcementuns. Come out and there's a lot of ambiguity about what's going to happen and what it's going to mean what's it going to mean for me. What's it going to mean for my job am I going to be in healthcare care am I going to be in three M and my you know things like that it you know a lot of people have a hard time with that and they want answers and. You know they want to answers immediately and the reality is you don't have them yet and we'll we'll go through and we'll take months and months of planning before we actually start executing on a lot of the separation work and so so then you have to be out there and communicating often and connecting with your teams and your people and reassuring folks and. Keeping him focused on on you know, business as usual, but it's ah you know that's that's one of the the watchout areas in something like this which is it can turn into a little bit of ah of a you know, kind of a looping cycle where you are focused a little bit more on you know what's it mean and. You know questions you can't answer yet versus the job you've got in front of you.

16:17.18
kelly99
It sounds like you focus like a lot of your focus and emphasis is on the people side. You know you didn't talk a lot about technology there I mean you're talking a lot about making sure people are feeling good about their roles and there's continuity in the culture is that is that. You know the majority of your of your focus and an effort like this and the technology of course is important but it's that's second on the list for you are they pretty pretty even.

16:47.93
Mark
I think I've always found in my career. It's interesting as ah as a tech leader. The tech is almost always the easier part of what we do. You know you can you can you can figure out most of your tech challenges but but having. Good people motivated people engage people that you know will go above and beyond and will help figure out the questions that need to be answered and figure out how to answer those questions and feel like they're engaged and. You know they're they're a part of it I mean it's so that's always the most important part you know' ah and that's always where I've I've focused especially as I've gone into my leadership roles of you know first and foremost to me is creating a highperforming team and if you have a highper performing team where everybody works. Well. Crossed were 1 team focused outward not inward you know complimenting each other being able to have constructive debate but not but keeping it professional and not making it personal if you have a high performing team. You can do about anything and those and typically if you. You know so to me I always I'm always looking for that because it's the the coolest things I've done in my career. The neatest experiences the the biggest successes and kind of the greatest satisfactions come from taking a ah team. That's.

18:14.36
Mark
Ah, well highperforming team in applying it to a challenge and a problem statement. That's not easy for most people to figure out and then getting it done and whether that's an a implementation whether that's a digital rollout of a new product or in Covid. You know, just you can go on and on and this will be the same case here of you know you got the right team will do. It will be a tremendous success but without the team. It's ah it's hard to achieve you know, kind of the greatness you you want on something like this.

18:46.76
kelly99
Mark Murphy executive vice president chief information officer I really appreciate your time this morning you are listening to the Kelly Winland Podcast you too Mark Zap

18:56.50
Mark
Thanks for having me Kelly have a wonderful day talk to you.