Page 71: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2018)

To start, please lay out the scope haps, one of the most agile, changeable going to be delivered, how safe is that and “let’s see how quickly we can prove companies that I’ve come across. I think outcome, and then I’ll change.” The whether that works.” of your responsibilities.

At a high-level my job is to architect the challenge with an engineering prod- challenge with the digital transforma- So we created innovation spaces, envi- uct-driven company is the proof points. tion is that all of it is hypothesis-driven: ronments, where we can incubate – make and deliver the transformation (of Wärt- silä) to a smart technology company. My So it’s “Tell me what this outcome’s “what if we” and “let’s test and learn” it safe – give people all the new skills and speci? c responsibilities include cyber se- curity, all of IT, all of the innovation, pro- cesses and capabilities, including work- ing with startups and all digital product development. All of that translates into ‘How do we drive value for customers through digital?’ There are lots of le- vers that we can pull, and my job is to make sure that those ? ve or six levers get pulled together in the right way to deliver outcomes that are tangible and real.

The terms “big data” and “digitali- zation” are overused. What do they mean to you?

I think it starts with a couple of prin- ciples: it’s about pace and collaboration.

So there are opportunities, and digitali- zation or big data are tools which allow you to get to an outcome. The outcome has to have value for the industry, and you can’t do it alone.

So the ? rst thing is it delivers some- thing typically at pace and at scale that you can’t do without the technology. I think one of the risks is that a lot of peo- ple talk the buzzwords but don’t actually work out how to use them to derive out- comes. There’s a lot of activity in digital: and it can be a very expensive mistake if you’re not focused on how you pull things together.

For our industry it’s about ef? ciency – whether that’s around fuel ef? ciency or time to value in terms of, you know, get- ting container from port to port. It’s about safety – whether that is crew safety or a passenger safety, it’s about environmen- tal impact. And it’s also about sustain- ability – sustainability of their business and sustainability of the environment. So those are three themes (ef? ciency, safety and sustainability) that are speci? c to the marine industry.

What is the challenge of being an en- gineering company in the digital age?

Any established company – whether it’s Wärtsilä or somebody else – that’s being optimized for the world that it cur- rently lives in, needs to be challenged into change, into something that tends to be much more value-based. We have some of the most talented engineers in the business, and we are by nature an innovative company. We change every generation: two generations ago, we were shipbuilders; a generation ago, engine manufacturers; and now a smart technology company. So we are, per- www.marinelink.com 71

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