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 Technical Solutions Consultant Kien Mac, who engages with customers as a technical adviser for information technology and operational technology solutions across a range of industry segments. He focuses on ensuring positive customer outcomes, presenting and demonstrating best practices and solutions across food and beverage, mining, and water while providing expert support to sales teams across Australia.
Kien joined Schneider Electric over 30 years ago with a background in electrical engineering. He began his career as an undergraduate with Ci Technologies in a work-study program at the University of Technology, Sydney, gaining industry skills while completing his degree in electrical engineering before joining Schneider Electric on the Texas Gas project. He developed his software engineering skills in this role, which presented the opportunity to work in the United States over the course of five years, returning to Australia with a wealth of experience that led to his involvement with a range of projects for key customers across the country for the following decade.
He was tapped on the shoulder to bring his expertise to his current pre-sales role in 2010, which he says has enabled him to further his skills while witnessing massive transformation of the business. With the rise of AI and other new and emerging technologies, he is looking forward to what’s ahead.
What motivates and excites you about your role at Schneider Electric?
Many seasoned employees often say ‘change is the only constant’ in Schneider Electric and that you just have to keep up. I am excited and motivated by the ever-evolving transformations in industry and technology. I believe working at Schneider Electric gives me the best platform and role to master challenges and allows me to refine my skills.
We’re one of the leading companies in the world when it comes to sustainability. How are you and your team contributing to this?
Software is a crucial pillar to deploying industry solutions. Our contribution comes in the form of delivering timely information to key decision-makers that makes impact to capital projects in cases of engineering tools through to efficiency savings on optimisation of production, thus saving resources and energy.
Of the customers you’re working with currently, what are they doing to be an #ImpactMaker in the market in which they’re operating?
Our customers are always looking for ways to broadly save and do more. We are offering them access to not only do more with the same software but to do more with our Ecosystem (EcoStruxure/AVEVA Flex). Quite often, a roadblock to doing more is the cost of licensing. We now provide subscriptions to customers that allows them to access our full suite of products to get the information they need. The impact is then translated to better digitisation of their daily activities that supports timely decision-making anywhere in the digital world.
What was a moment in your career that was pivotal or changed you in some way?
There were many impactful moments in my career. However, I would say the most pivotal moment was moving to the United States. Relocating was the beginning of living and working abroad and meant not knowing if or when I would return to Australia. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on how great Australia is – one never knows how good you have it until you see the other side. My US experience was fantastic and something I would recommend to any young engineer. I learned the value of work-life balance and what Australia has to offer. It is truly a land of opportunity, as long as you commit to working hard. I am truly grateful for the opportunities and have grown to appreciate many things professionally and personally.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I have received is to ‘live in the moment.’ I never really knew what it meant until 9/11. I was based in Illinois but was in New York only one month before September 11, 2001. I always made the mistake of thinking that work would pay for the bills while opportunities continued to come, but being so close to such an event made me realise how quickly everything can be taken away. I’ve learned to make an effort if I get an opportunity go or do something different, I live in the moment and appreciate the gift that has been presented to me.
Which of our company values resonates with you most and why?
The company values that resonate with me are mastery and curiosity. I’ve always been naturally curious as to how things worked, which meant engineering was a perfect fit for me. Once I learned how things worked, my next goal was to master them and become competent, leading to expertise. It is my belief that we can never be experts in everything we do so we need to be curious, seek help, and learn how to overcome the unknown. I am grateful and proud to be part of Schneider Electric, surrounded by a team focused on so many common values.