Skip Holmes is a corporate automation leader at Procter & Gamble. Here are his thoughts on deriving business value from technology.

LEADERSHIP: One of the aspects of leadership is to put together the right blend of skills on your team. In order to grow and stretch your employees, you need to delegate down. I want to know that I’ve put into place a level of leadership and technical capability that can sustain itself beyond the individual.

BEST PRACTICES: We have moved away from “standards”—that implies policing—and towards a system of best practices. As one of my colleagues says, “Standards should be so compelling that they self-proliferate.”

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT: Our corporate group supports long-term technology development for the P&G business units. There are five strategic areas we look at: machine and motion control; process automation, including measurement; power, manufacturing applied information; and infrastructure.

We want to continue to drive technology development and discover the breakthroughs that will change the game.

THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS: Technologists must learn to speak the language of business to get project funding from their management. How do you do this? Start by answering the “So what?” question. Express the business benefit of your proposed automation solution in financial terms, such as dollars saved, Net Present Value (NPV), and ROI.

LICENSING PARTNERS: A number of years ago, P&G invented a special mathematical algorithm, called adaptive predictive control, and embedded it in our own control systems.

What we did was license the technology to Mettler-Toledo, in Columbus, OH, who embedded the algorithm in its Quantum impact (Q.i) material transfer controller, making it more robust and much easier to maintain.

Patrick Reynolds, Editor