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 General Manager, Home and Distribution Jared Dinneen, who is responsible for the continued growth and development of this business for New Zealand. Based in Auckland, Jared’s team is responsible for business development, sales, and marketing activities across the electrical wholesaler, electrician, and residential builder segments.
Jared has held diverse roles within Schneider Electric over the past 8 years, including the position of Human Resources and Business Operations Leader in New Zealand prior to his current role. In this previous role, he was responsible for implementing strategies related to leadership, talent management, workforce planning, and accelerating diversity, equity, and inclusion. He was also previously the General Manager Marketing, where he led a high-performing team driving strategic direction and operational marketing initiatives across products, channels and digital platforms.
Jared is passionate about people, customers, and digital; which when combined provide significant opportunities for innovation, continuous learning, and transformational business and people programs.
What motivates and excites you about your role at Schneider Electric?
Each day is so different to the next, I’m always looking for interesting ways to engage our people and our customers. Seeing team members grow and become more confident, trying different things and providing innovative, value-add solutions to our customers keeps me motivated.
We’re one of the leading companies in the world when it comes to sustainability. How are you and your team contributing to this?
Our team is continuously helping our customers on their sustainability journey. This includes product training on smart home solutions, developing business opportunities for e-mobility applications, implementing sustainable packaging, and piloting recycling programs as a few specific examples.
What was a moment in your career that was pivotal or changed you in some way?
Moving into the HR leader role and navigating the business through COVID taught me so much. It was also pivotal in taking my career into a completely new direction, about which I was energised and excited. The importance of strong communication, leading with empathy, and having a clear strategy that ultimately drew on my marketing experiences was integral to supporting our people through this unique and challenging time.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
“The person with the most options has the most power.” This is all about reframing the traditional view of strengths and weaknesses into a continuum, where you have the power to choose when to dial up or dial down your individuality depending on the situation that you are in.
Which of our company values resonates with you most and why?
Our new IMPACT values are Inclusion, Mastery, Purpose, Action, Curiosity, and Teamwork. Mastery is one value that resonates with me, as I am passionate about developing my skills and my team’s skills to help build capability, always pushing the boundary to seek greater expertise. This also encapsulates the power of data, and the combination of data and digital playing such an integral role to drive better decision making and out of the box thinking.
