Welcome to the next edition of Leadership Matters where we ask leaders around the Pacific Zone for their insights and advice about leadership matters to support our continuing journey of personal and professional development.
In this edition, we hear from Quotation & Application Centre Leader Carmen Rogers, who is responsible for leading the transactional quotations across the channel businesses as well as the Engineered to Order business for our Channel and Partner area. Carmen’s team strives for exceptional customer outcomes by pricing with speed and using its deep domain knowledge to help grow the business and enable sales teams.
Carmen has been at Schneider Electric for more than 16 years, since she was a graduate engineer. Throughout her tenure, she has a variety of experience including project execution, quality control, and leading complex multi-technology tenders for major infrastructure, mining, and cloud and service providers.
Outside work, Carmen enjoys supporting her two kids in their sporting activities, walking her dogs, volunteering in the local community, and swimming at the many amazing Sydney beaches all through summer.
What motivates and excites you about your role at Schneider Electric?
Working with great people every day, as I am lucky to have a very diverse role that gives me the ability to lead in both operational and strategic spaces. This opportunity allows me to engage and collaborate with different parts of our business as well as with vendors and customers. Connecting with people and my team is what gives me energy and pushes me to be the very best version of myself every day.
We’re one of the leading companies in the world when it comes to sustainability. How are you and your team contributing to this?
The team is embracing sustainability in small but measurable steps including the Custom Distribution Board working with vendors on sustainable packaging, and the project delivery coordinator working with customers to ensure optimal onsite delivery timeframes.
For the quotation teams, we ran an impact workshop and identified what sustainability meant to us. We support sustainability in the small actions we control, for example with value engineering quotes and proposing sustainable connected products that enable our customers on their journey to sustainability.
What was a moment in your career that was pivotal or changed you in some way?
Very early into my first leadership role, I had some key team members leave when I proposed a structural change. I faced a lot of self-doubt, but with the support of my leader, I backed myself and used this moment to reshape my team. Since then, the team has experienced significant growth, matured in its operational processes, and diversified to support more of the business. Having the support and trust of my leader built my confidence to implement changes rather than accept status quo. This allowed me to always look for new growth opportunities for me, my team, and the business.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
The advice that currently resonates with me most is “be hard on the issue but soft on the person”.
Which of our company values resonates with you most and why?
Our new values are all inspiring but if I had to choose one, it would be Teamwork. Without trust, support, and collaboration, neither myself or my team would be able to achieve the great things we have accomplished so far or grow further in the future.