Off to a Running Start - Leading the change for Industrial IoT

Last week was my official start as the new CIO for GE and I had the honor of spending time with a group of CIOs from our customers across the many industries that we serve - from cities to transportation to energy .

We talked about the challenges as they relate to data and information and leveraging it effectively within our organizations to make strategic decisions. There was important dialogue regarding security and safety and how that’s foundational for all we do in IT. Finally, we talked about a common challenge we all share related to talent and change management and the new behaviors we need to hire and build in our current teams in order to be successful in this new digital industrial age. I thought it might be helpful to share a little bit how we are thinking about it at GE.

Becoming the premier digital industrial company is the future for GE. It is a critical step in our transformation, to building a culture of innovation, to breaking down the barriers between systems and analytics, and to helping our customers win with not only the best industrial solutions but the software needed to solve real world problems.

We announced last month, the creation of GE Digital. This is a transformative move that brings together the capabilities of GE’s Software Center (formerly part of GE Global Research), the expertise of GE’s global IT and software teams, the industrial security strength of Wurldtech, connected with the software experts from across our businesses into one centralized organization. We believe this investment will bring the best of the Industrial Internet and outcomes to our customers.

But to drive the change needed in today’s digital world, we have to do a few things really well:

First, we have to drive increased productivity and use digital to undergo exactly the kind of transformation that we are urging our customers, across multiple industries, to undertake. We will use digital to operate faster, work smarter, run at lower cost and produce higher quality products. IT will continue to drive this transformative change across manufacturing, sourcing and our operating systems.

Second, we have to create the industrial app economy – similar to the Apple app store but for the industrial world.  It's got to be easy to buy, install and use, and help customers and developers quickly extract value. We will be the best at application performance management, app factories and intelligent environments in ways that no one else is prepared to compete.

Enabling our productivity and the industrial app economy is the first of it’s kind Industrial platform. The digital world will be shaped by the industrial platform that revolutionizes how IT and OT come together to drive value for customers.. Secure, cloud-based, adaptive solutions for operators and developers are table stakes. Our ability to leverage our domain knowledge and the velocity, volume and variety of industrial data is the true differentiator of our Industrial cloud platform – Predix.

Lastly, we need to shift our mindset and our culture. All this change requires us to focus on change management. We need teams that  lean in to uncertainty, take risks, learn quickly and are continuously refreshing their skill sets. We as CIOs an IT leaders need to make that investment in our talent.

With GE Digital, we will become a leading software company and build a world of smart machines, brilliant factories, growing economies and happy people. I could not be more humbled and excited to be in this position. Let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from all of you.