Leadership and systems thinking

“Continuity of vision, strategy, culture — that matters,” he says, “because ultimately, everything you do from a change perspective has to go through a lot of chief financial officers, it’s across Gotta go. A lot of CEOs, a lot of CIOs.” The key, he added, is to build a foundation that can withstand these inevitable changes in leadership.

But the challenges go beyond simply adopting new technology. Breaking down silos is one of the biggest hurdles in any digital transformation effort, which is especially true in traditional industries like aerospace.

At Sikorsky, Ambrose took an unconventional approach to tackling this problem: He empowered manufacturing engineers to think outside of their traditional roles.

In a typical aerospace environment, different engineers often work in silos, with manufacturing engineers focused on building components and assembling the final product. However, Ambrose realized that these engineers, while often undervalued compared to more specialized roles such as aerodynamicists, had important knowledge about how things were built.

“They’re the ones who have the best understanding of how all this data in a digital thread eventually finds its way to a product to be manufactured and assembled,” notes Ambrose. Therefore, by expanding their role and encouraging engagement with the entire system, it empowered manufacturing engineers to become the critical link connecting design, logistics, finance and other functions.

The importance of leadership in this process cannot be overstated. Ambrose points out that breaking through the organizational resistance that naturally comes with change requires strong, committed leadership from the top. “Ultimately, it’s the top-down commitment to say: ‘No, we’re going to think differently, we’re going to do things differently,’ that ultimately allows you to grow. Leadership “That’s important when you’re trying to make that kind of change,” he says.