Joan Mulvihill, Digitalisation Lead at Siemens
Joan Mulvihill continues to be at the forefront of driving technology adoption in Ireland as the Digitalisation Lead for Siemens. Having held the position of CEO of the Irish Internet Association for 7 years, followed by 2 years as the Centre Director for the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce.
Her role at Siemens builds on Siemens’ and her deep commitment to and understanding of the needs of Irish business for their digital transformation. Digitalisation means working differently.
Siemens will always work with their clients to meet their operational technology needs with world-class products and services, and now through Digitalisation, Siemens leverages its domain expertise with clients to transform and create the businesses of their future.
"I'm very values-driven. Goals and milestones are just the breadcrumbs on the strategic path, but where are they leading to? I need to know. I'm motivated by knowing that what I am working on is somehow making the world a better place for someone."
Joan Mulvihill
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your current career, role or areas of focus.
My career is more of a mosaic than a masterpiece. For years I was bemused by the fact that I'd never worked in the same function nor the same industry/sector twice.
My career comprises fragments of time and a range of interests which at first glance seem totally disjointed. But there are core skills honed over the past 25 years that apply pretty much everywhere – critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity. My role as Digitalisation Lead at Siemens is a great fit for those skills.
I get to work with customers who are facing unprecedented change and notwithstanding the need for operational excellence are being forced to consider their relevance in a marketplace, their role in an ecosystem that will operate completely differently ten years from now.
No one knows for sure what it will look like, so how do they prepare for that? How can they organise themselves to be the disruptor rather than the disrupted or at very least compete in that disrupted space? These are my favourite kinds of challenges and why I love my job so much because they are the kind I get to work on.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you to make each day count?
I think I've reached a point in life, in my career, where my focus is outwards. When I was younger, I was like most people my age and concerned about personal progression, promotions, bonuses. There's nothing wrong with that, but it won't sustain you.
As I got older, those things stopped concerning me so much. It's not that they are unimportant, we're all human and have bills to pay, but it's not the way to live a full life. I want to love what I do and work on interesting challenges with interesting and kind people. Helping businesses come up with new ways of connecting with their customers, being more sustainable, becoming the future makers and disruptors, realise their big ambitions, that's exciting and motivating to me.
As for what inspires me, it's more a question of who inspires me. It's all about good people. I am inspired by good humans. I am really fortunate to know so many amazing people who inspire me in so many different ways with their generosity, humanity, ideas, creativity, leadership, caring, brilliance, humour, resilience, determination.
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
In truth, I have two jobs. My weekday job is with Siemens as Digitalisation Lead, and my weekend job is with Myself as an artist. I went through two interviews to get my Siemens job, but I'd been interviewing myself all my life for the artist job but kept turning myself down. Finally, a few years ago, I took a chance and permitted myself to be an artist too.
What is most interesting is the reciprocity between the two roles. I find that they each make me better at the other. They are different, but complementary. They are both in essence, creative roles that require critical thinking and problem-solving.
I have found in particular that the language I use to describe painting has helped me form and articulate my thoughts on technology; recognising it as a medium and not as art in itself.
Painting allows me to present ideas as neither right nor wrong, good or bad but simply liked or disliked. Some people will dislike my paintings, and interestingly that makes me happy. Because who wants to paint something bland or 'meh'? Sometimes the very best ideas are hated at first – but they are never considered boring. See what I mean - art, technology - my thoughts on one generally lead me back to the other.
When it comes to your life chosen career, is there a phrase, quote or saying that you really like?
"The person with the most flexibility has the most to gain."
I remember that from a leadership course I attended run by the performance psychologist Jim McNeish, back in the late 1990s. And he was right! I have 'sensed' my way through a series of roles with organisations that have given me amazing opportunities to do interesting things so in that sense I've gained a lot by virtue of my natural ability to adapt and be flexible.
Equally, I think those who have hired me have also shown great flexibility as I can imagine that in many situations, I have been the organisational outlier. So let's hope they also feel they've gained from their flexibility too!
What are you most proud of in your life?
My obituary. Seriously, I was asked once to write my obituary for a newspaper series where living people were invited to write their own. I deleted the first version where I was self-consciously explaining myself, justifying myself. My second attempt, the final published version, was better.
I really stood back, stepped out of myself and thought "what is the worst they will say of me when I am gone? What is the best?". It's a hard thing to point out your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities for everyone to read, and it's just as hard to be kind about yourself without worrying how people will judge you on that too.
I am proud of the honesty, and the vulnerability that I showed in writing it and I think it's okay to say that. I've never done anything very special or remarkable, but I like the person that I am now, imperfect and annoying for sure but pretty decent with it.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I once wrote an article on "what I wished I'd known" and came up with ten things. But if I had to pick one, then I will tell you the 10th and final one.
I said that in truth I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now. There's a lot to be said for innocence and naivety, for making mistakes and experiencing loss and failure. We learn from our mistakes, and often our disappointments take us in directions we might never have taken if we had the choice.
I've smiled a lot today, and I truly believe that when I am smiling, then every decision in my life up to then has brought me to that smile. And on days I'm not smiling, well I now know that it's only temporary and there are better things ahead. So I wouldn't change a thing. I don't wish for having had insight sooner. We all take our time and live and learn at our own pace.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles?
Dame Ellen MacArthur and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that was set up to promote the circular economy for a more sustainable planet. I actually met her when she and I were both in our twenties.
She was about to set sail on the Vendee Globe round the world yacht race as its youngest ever competitor while I was on a graduate scheme with the Kingfisher Group who were her corporate sponsors. They say you should never meet your heroes, but I don't know about that.
What she achieved as a young female sailor was incredible, but everything she has achieved since then and everything she continues to strive for is admirable.
She consistently lives with unfathomable strength, courage and authenticity. And her foundation has contributed immeasurably to inspiring businesses and policymakers to mobilise circular systems at scale to address the challenges of our planet, what is not to admire about that?
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
No one is getting it right all of the time, but many are trying to get it right most of the time. I could name a company, and someone somewhere will read this and say "but what about when they did this or that?". There are great brands with a great product and lousy culture.
There are great organisations to work for with phenomenal culture and leadership but with products we don't like. There is far greater transparency and awareness now such that companies can't hide poor practices for very long anymore.
I think the rising tide of that transparency is lifting all boats and most leaders are doing their best and hopefully those that aren't will be held to account.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Gerd Islei was our Course Director when I was studying at Templeton College in Oxford. I was really het up about something, and I remember so distinctly him saying to me "Joan, you have to pick your battles, big enough to matter, small enough to win".
It's an efficient tactic that saved me a lot of headache and frustration over the years. It's not about backing down or walking away, but some things are just unwinnable in that moment, and so I try to accept that and save my energies for the things that are winnable and do matter.
I guess it’s that flexibility thing again. It's great to be determined, but you need to be able to work within the situation you're in too.
What drives or motivates you each day in a work environment?
Vision and purpose. It seems obvious, I know, but nothing motivates me more than having a vision. I don't even care if it seems outlandish or unattainable (indeed the crazier, the better sometimes) but I've got to have a picture of it in my head, something to strive for.
I'm exactly the same with a painting. I can't start a painting until I have a vision of what it will be. It might not turn out like the one in my head, but I actually can't start without it. Goals and milestones are just the breadcrumbs on the strategic path, but where are they leading to? I need to know.
The reason I include purpose with vision is that I'm very values-driven. When I look back on the earlier stages of my career, my job felt like I was just making money for me while making money for someone else. It's a pretty soulless existence.
I'm motivated by knowing that what I am working on is somehow making the world a better place for someone. Again, it's the same with painting. I paint what I love, places that mean something to me. I can't just paint a place from a photo that I've never experienced in some way. Through painting, I get to share that and maybe spark a feeling or a memory of it in someone else.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media?
Well, there's a loaded question. I don't know. I have so many thoughts on social media where I vacillate between hating it and loving it, between considering it the source of all truth and the source of all lies. It's the wild west of lawless technology with heroes and villains, and no one is quite sure who's who.
Back in 2013, I presented a paper on 'Digital Colonialism and the Protocol of Trust' at the ENOLL (European Network of Living Labs) conference. I likened social media companies to modern-day colonialists who had invaded and colonised our lives.
Bear in mind, this was quite a few years before anyone had heard of Cambridge Analytica or before anyone had used the term 'fake news'. I suggested that the 'born on the internet' social media companies were more powerful than governments and that they had the capability to influence global thought across online tribes of people. It seems my thoughts on the future of social media back then were pretty accurate.
But back then, I also recommended that to mitigate that risk we should establish a "Protocol of Trust", a kind of United Nations style treaty for tech companies. My thoughts are unchanged in that respect. There are many positive aspects of social media, but I do believe that its future rests in its ability to hold multiple perspectives and needs; fact, freedom of speech, human decency, ethics, accountability.
Maybe we're at the tipping point when my crazy suggestion of 2013 to apply real governance to social media is not so crazy after all.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
So I've been thinking about this. It's like asking what's my favourite bar!
The dingiest hell hole on the planet is heaven when you're with your friends. I follow people on Instagram who make me laugh or whose content is beautiful.
I follow people on Twitter who are smart and engaging. I am LinkedIn with people who add value to my thinking. I am friends on Facebook with my friends and family, and it allows me to stay in touch with people I can't see very often.
But even in your favourite bar, you're going to have a bad night if you get annoyed every time someone jostles your elbow or knocks over your glass or steps on your toe. But what are you going to do, spend your time getting annoyed with strangers? I'd rather focus on the people I am there to be with.
Meanwhile, staying with that bar analogy. Just as the owner of the bar is responsible for clearing the often nasty graffitied comments off the back of the toilet doors; so too should the social media companies clean up the nasty anonymous comments on their "toilet doors" so that we can all have a nice time.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever been a mentor to anyone?
Yes. My first mentor was and still is Rob Cissell. He was a Director in Woolworths when I started on the Kingfisher graduate scheme. He has since gone on to work in Shanghai, India, Thailand and yet we're still in touch regularly. I've had other unofficial mentors since then, but Rob has been a constant.
I mentor two people – I am a business mentor for one and a career mentor for the other. It's nothing official, there are no 'terms of engagement', and there is no schedule, but they know who they are and they know they can ring me anytime about anything.
How do you network? What is your prefered way to network?
I live and breathe. Seriously, if I am awake, I am networking! It's not a calculated thing; it's just who I am. I love making connections, introducing like-minded people to one another.
It's also a good vibe, karma thing. I like helping people. I don't really like the concept of 'having' a network as if in some way it is something that you can 'own'. The way I see it is that I exist 'within' a network.
I am consciously aware of it and engaging in it and enriching it by creating new connections between other people in it. Sometimes I'll just randomly call someone I haven't spoken to in a while to see how they are, what they're doing, how they are getting on, no particular reason just because they're a nice person and you never know, you might be able to help.
A colleague was once so intrigued by the number of people I knew I told him that when I die, I will leave him my LinkedIn account in my will. Now that I think of it, I wonder who would most like my phone?
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
What area of work is that? I think we've well established now that I don't really have so much an area of work as a core set of skills that you can put anywhere! But the best advice I could give anyone is to consider Monica Parker's take on what VUCA should really stand for. She took VUCA and made it a glorious thing - Vulnerability, Unlearning, Curiosity and Awe.
Practice being vulnerable, don't be afraid of saying what you don't know. Unlearn the stuff you think is certain and so that you are free to imagine new ways for things to be. Be curious about stuff, especially the stuff that has nothing to do with what you're working on.
You'll be surprised how related seemingly unrelated things really are. And Awe. Find something to be in awe of every day because it keeps you humble and reminds you that no matter how much you think you know there are things we will never understand.
Monica Parker presented that VUCA model at InspireFest conference about four years ago, and it has always stayed with me. It applies to my area of work as a Digitalisation Lead at Siemens. It applies to me as an artist. No matter what area of work you are looking to get into, practice VUCA, and you will get there.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
I don't know. I mean I guess I could say fear of failure, but maybe it's just tiredness. Sometimes it might be a fear of success; it can be hard to handle too. I don't think people give up easily and on occasion, it can be the right thing to do. About four years ago, my sister was doing a single day Fifty Mile Walk challenge. I'd run lots of half-marathon races and had a drawer full of the medals to prove it.
Kate wasn't a runner, but this was her big goal to mark her 40th that year. I was tagging along with her. She finished in a really great time and got her medal. I gave up at mile 40. I had the worst blisters ever and was in a lot of pain and had started to feel sick. I made the decision to stop. I asked myself, was it worth it to keep going or was it better to stop, not risk seriously hurting myself and possibly not being able to run (or walk) for weeks/months? I was done.
I recognised that I could live with having failed, with having given up. I realised that I could live with what other people would think or say. Ironically, mum said afterwards that she was as proud of me for having had the good sense to give up as she was of Kate for having finished. Sometimes it's just not your race. Walk away and save yourself for the next one. Sometimes it's the courageous option.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience?
Success for me is contentment. So the way I see it, contentment is a nice steady line of ease in life with occasional blips of happiness in an upward spike relating to a particular event or occurrence (and occasional sadness as a downward jolt relating to a particular event or occurrence).
If my contentment line is solid, then I get to enjoy the highs and bounce back up from the lows. Success for me is finding what makes you content and focus on that, get that line as steady as you can. I really like my life. Definitely, there are things I might like that I can't have right now (an art studio in the garden would be great!), but I have everything I need that makes me happy. I appreciate my family and friends, and I'm grateful for the fact that I can do things that I love, and thankfully I am reasonably good at them too.
What skills do you feel have helped you to become successful?
Well, based on my definition of success, it appears that there is no skill involved at all.
It's just a question of perspective, appreciation and gratitude. Curiously though, I think the more successful I feel by my own definition, the more successful I become by the accepted definition.