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Interview with Kevin Hazel, Vice President, Strategic Purchasing, Siemens Power Generation

BrownHEN interviewed Kevin Hazel, Brown '77, Vice President, Strategic Purchasing, Siemens Power Generation, Orlando, FL (USA) and Erlangen, Germany

1. Kevin, how did a civil engineer become a leader in the electric power industry?

The path to any leadership position is often indirect, including experiences in multiple business areas.  For me, that path included engineering, technical management, project and program management, quality system design, organizational development, strategic marketing, and supply management.  At the end of the day, I have always felt that if you are trained to think well ("Thank you, Brown University!") and freely apply yourself with energy and passion, opportunity finds you.

2. You know a great deal about electric power generation. Please predict what it will be like in 10 years.

Centrally-based power generation using fossil fuels will remain the primary source of satisfying a continuing growing market globally. In this segment, efficiency of energy conversion will both improve output and address environmental concerns. Fuel gasification (i.e., coal-to-gas) will also rise in response to cleaner emissions demands. Renewables will play an increasing role, as in segments of Europe where commitments are to generate 10% of the total electric power demand in the next few years. Nuclear energy, already on the rise in many regions, will also make a return in the USA.      

3. How can a person be entrepreneurial within a large corporation?

Entrepreneurial opportunities frequently present themselves in the corporate world. One has to be open to seeing and capitalizing on them. In my career, most often the change opportunities came from recognition that a person is multi-dimensional and can create value by increasing the “sum of the parts.”

4. You worked at least one summer making sugar in a factory on the East River. Do you recommend that an engineer gain experience working on the shop floor?

The experience at the Domino Sugar factory was, as they say in the commercials, "priceless." Technically, I learned the importance of the man/machine interface and of training after getting a 440V shock while resetting a circuit breaker. Organizationally, I learned that unions play an important role in the labor/management relationship, but that all roles need membership-driven balance. I saw that first line management, in this case the shop foreman, has a tremendously difficult role and that good performers here can make or break an organization. Practically, I learned the value of hard work. Loading a rail car with 100-pound bags of sugar by hand or scraping an industrial filter after the initial processing of raw sugar inside a four-story boiler are constant reminders of respect for true labor. 

5. Please comment on working for an enterprise that has been purchased by a European company.

In 1998, Siemens AG purchased the power generation segment of Westinghouse. We were blessed with two factors that made the integration of two companies with long legacies (over 110 years each) possible: good leadership and a robust market. The leadership philosophy, backed by action, was that we would not make Westinghouse a German company nor Siemens an American one. The goal was to take the best elements of each company into a globally-managed, regional-acting enterprise. The market boom in the US from 1999 to 2001 then gave us a great platform to implement the philosophy. Fulfilling customer orders distracted us from the inertia preventing change; perhaps this is why some other multinational integrations failed.

6. How is your German?

Thankfully, the official language of Siemens PG is English. Early in the integration, I tried to learn German. This was as unsuccessful as my learning French in high school. At this point, I can manage in a restaurant but little else. 
   
7. As you move into management, do you worry about losing technical expertise?

It is important in this context to decide what career path you desire. Personally, I always looked at career progression as gaining expertise.

8. What are the top five qualities you would ascribe to an entrepreneur?

• Intellectual curiosity
• High energy and passion
• Ability to inspire others
• Determination
• Business-minded sensibility

9. Would you speak about fear as a motivation or hindrance toward accomplishment? How has that played a factor in your path, if any?

Some years ago there was a movie called "Defending Your Life". While a comedy, the premise was that fear prevented us from using the full potential of our minds and prevented us from going to heaven. This makes sense to me. In a personal context, when running track in high school it was wanting to win that drove me rather than fear of failure. I still subscribe to that philosophy today.   

10. As you know, the entrepreneur’s path is filled with trials and errors, and also failures. What’s a valuable insight for entrepreneurs to keep in mind when they’re experiencing setbacks?

You have already given the answer in the question.  Entrepreneurs inherently accept that failure is part of—and not the end of—the process. 

11. What is the latest insight (about life, work, play) that you picked up and would like to share with BrownHEN?

The Asian concept of yin and yang—of balance in all things—has always been attractive to me. Doing is far different from knowing, however. Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits" and his 'roles and goals' exercise in the book is a good tool to organize your behaviors with your intentions. From that exercise, my faith in God has taken a more important position in my life balance. And interestingly, my career accelerated with this improved balance.

12. Who are the three individuals who have influenced your development significantly?

Jesus Christ, my parents and my wife have had the greatest impact on my development as a human being. Professionally, it would be Dean Hazeltine (for giving me an opportunity to grow); my first manager at Westinghouse, Don Akey (for giving a fellow civil engineer a job in mechanical engineering); and Brother Vanard, a teacher in high school (for assuring that intellectual curiosity would be a part of my DNA).    

13. Senior year at Brown you lived among farms in Seekonk. Do you live in a rural area now?

For a person who grew up in Brooklyn, NY, nearly everywhere is a rural area. But seriously, we now live in Oviedo, FL, which is a suburban area northeast of Orlando. My job requires me to spend roughly 140 days per year in Erlangen, Germany, where I maintain an apartment in a rural area—very much like Seekonk. Again, an example of the balance objective.   

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© BrownHEN.org – 2007

Interview with David Durfee, CEO & Chief Scientist, Bay Computer Associates, Inc.

BrownHEN interviewed David Durfee, Brown '80, CEO & Chief Scientist, Bay Computer Associates, Inc., Cranston, RI.

1. David, why did you found your own engineering company rather than work for a large company?

My family has a retail hardware store that we all grew up working in. The environment there and the responsibility given to me allowed me to make significant change. After I graduated in engineering I went to work for a fortune 500 company. As you might guess, sometimes you felt like you were trying to turn a supertanker.

In one sense, I continue to work for large companies as my firm does contract design for large firms. While the Dilbert cartoon sometimes seem all too real in these situations, being a consultant allows us to control the aspects of the job that have been assigned to us without too many big company distractions.

Many of our other clients are startup companies and it is great to be "in on the ground floor" where you can make a significant contribution to the success of a company.

2. We read discouraging things about the future of U.S. industry. Do you believe a place will continue to exist for a company like yours?

People told us we were crazy to start a consulting firm in Rhode Island. When we started, we had to compete with larger firms that were located closer to the 128 tech loop. Now they tell us we are crazy to compete against India and China. It certainly is true that we are competing with overseas vendors.

We believe that customers will always value excellence. As with many vocations, there are large variations in productivity. What good is it to pay 1/3 the US hourly rate if it is taking you four times as long to get the job done? While our engineers may complain occasionally about the "high bar" that we have set, they are proud of our achievements.

3. You are noted for being a very successful teacher at Brown. Teaching must distract from your other work. Why do you do it?

I went to graduate school so I could be a professor. Well, I guess I spent too much time around professors and decided that the job wasn’t for me. The teaching part was always fun. Also, I think it is one way that I can “give back.” I remember sitting in engineering classes wondering, “what the hell is this guy talking about?" I work hard at giving real life engineering examples so that the students can see how important what we’re teaching will be to them.

It’s really great that I get to teach one course a year. I do have to say that I have little free time while I’m teaching but it’s only for one semester.

4. In your business, do you have to spend much time with legal or regulatory matters?

I suppose the answer is yes if the term “legal” applies to submitting and subverting patents. As far as regulatory goes, I think that is one thing that has made us successful. We have designed a number of devices that have been registered with the FDA. Our proven ability to comply with FDA (and European) regulations has been very helpful to our customers.

5. You father was well known in Rhode Island politics. Do you have thoughts of running for office?

I asked my dad a while ago why he got into politics with all the negatives about the job. His answer was very simple. He simply got angry over what he saw and decided to run for office himself. I’m certainly angry enough, I just don’t have the time between school, work, and family right now.

6. Do you worry about conflicts of interest in hiring Brown faculty members and recent graduates?

I worry about conflicts of interest all the time. Honesty and integrity are very important in addition to excellence in engineering. (It's even in the IEEE Code of Ethics!) Any dealings that my company or I have with the University are very public and usually involve me putting in extra hours “on the house.” (I’ve discovered that alumni are suckers for helping the University and I am no exception.)

7. How to you keep up with technological developments?

My wife laughs at me. When we go to the beach, I bring a book on data communications or motor control. Engineering is a craft. Like any craftsman, your vocation needs to be part of who you are and not just a 9 to 5 job for you to be successful

8. What is your vision of the future of Bay Computer Associates, Inc.?

The future vision hasn’t changed much in 17 years. We want to continue to do really interesting engineering designs and work with intelligent, hard working people. It tends to feed on itself. As you hire great people you do better engineering which results in more interesting work. Each year has brought bigger and more exciting engineering work to us.

9. What are the five qualities you would ascribe to a business leader / entrepreneur?

Work ethic, intelligence, experience, honesty, and integrity—there is no ranking. You need all of them.

10. Who are the three individuals who have influenced your development the most?

You’ve posed a very difficult question. So many people have influenced me. If I must list only three:

• My parents for my work ethic and interest in how things work.
• My wife. Without her influence I would have a tendency to treat the whole world (people included) as an engineering problem.
• Barrett Hazeltine for lessons on how to “pay it forward.”

11. Would you speak about fear as a motivation or hindrance toward accomplishment? How has that played a factor in your path, if any?

I guess fear of failure and a fear of losing customers could explain why we work so hard. I prefer to look at it as the desire to achieve excellence.

12. What is it like having a son at Brown?

My son seems to be enjoying Brown. He seldom calls (which I view as a positive thing). I never talked to him about being an engineer but that is what he decided to do. It is great to be able to relate directly to his experiences. In fact, he told me about this really great professor that runs up the aisle to shake the hand of students who give the right answer! (I’m told that Barrett now says, “Am I making sense?” instead of the, “Is everybody ok?” that I used to hear.)

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© BrownHEN.org – 2008

Interview with Naeem Zafar, Partner at Concordia Ventures

BrownHEN interviewed Naeem Zafar, Brown '81, Faculty at Haas Business School, University of California Berkeley, and Partner at Concordia Ventures, Cupertino, CA.

1. Naeem, you have had a highly respected career as a serial entrepreneur. You were CEO of six different companies, I believe. How are you finding being CEO of a consulting company, Concordia Ventures?

I worked at six startups and I was CEO of three of them. One went public and others went through various traumas and exits. Concordia is aimed at transferring my life experiences to other entrepreneurs. I am trying to bring several accomplished entrepreneurs from various disciplines to join me at Concordia where we can advice advise other entrepreneurs who are at the early stage of their learning curves. My work at Berkeley feeds directly into what I do at Concordia. It is liberating to be running Concordia. It is much less stressful than being the CEO of a venture-backed company, yet it is even more exciting and engaging. It is a tremendous learning opportunity as I meet the best and the brightest from all new technology areas. 

2. How can an entrepreneur gain the most benefit from a consultant?

Each consultant offers some area of expertise. As an entrepreneur you need to be able to listen to advice from various sources but you must have enough conviction of your own so that you can evaluate and select what works for you. All of us have our own life experiences. That is why entrepreneurship is not a cookie cutter recipe. It is our own journey but a consultant, once carefully selected, can accelerate our learning and reduce our risk in this journey.

3. The United States has a reputation for being especially entrepreneurial. Is this reputation deserved? If it is deserved, how can it be maintained? If it is not deserved, what should be done?

It is well deserved. There are four key factors that contribute to this and if we maintain these factors we will continue to have the edge and the well-deserved reputation.

a) No stigma of failure. Unlike most places in the world there is very little stigma associated with failure, In Silicon Valley there is no stigma. A failed entrepreneur is more valuable as she/he is not likely to make the same mistakes again – someone else has paid the tuition for his/her learning.

b) Access to capital. It is much easier to raise venture or angel capital in the U.S. than anyplace else. Partly because sharing risk as an investor is in the American psyche. This is how we grew this country ahead of Europe in the 20th century. There are many entrepreneurs who made it big and now are willing to invest to help see new technologies take hold. They understand technology and risk. They help with capital and advice. Our venture industry is the most evolved in the world.

c) The eco-system. The process to start a venture is much easier in America and especially in Silicon Valley. At a well-attended party any Saturday night you probably have all the people you need to start a company. From techies to experienced CEOs, to marketing experts to lawyers and accountants—all have strong networks; and within two degrees of separation one can assemble a team in no time. We take this for granted but it is very unique to us. The systems are set up to make it easy to start companies. The way we can grant stock options attracts a lot of talent.

d) Excellent Brain trust and access to markets. We are lucky that we have an excellent higher education system. Not only do we pour well-trained people into the workforce each year, we attract the best and brightest from all over the world. The U.S. also have the homogenous market of 300M people that is unlike anyplace in the world. If you can sell a product here it gives you the scale to be able to sell it anywhere in the world.

Obviously our immigration policies can put the kibosh on some of these factors. That can hamper our future growth. Changes in taxation can impact our venture capital activity and our ability to grant stock options. These stock options are the essential currency that drives millions to work 70 to 80 hours per week for years and break all the rules needed to achieve new breakthroughs.

4. I believe you arrived at Brown three days after coming to the United States. What was your biggest surprise about life in the United States?

We all grew up watching American TV and movies in Pakistan so much of what we see in the States does not shock us. Nevertheless it was surprising to see that America was not like NYC or the Wild West. People were simpler, happier, unpretentious, and welcoming. People were warm and willing to help. But perhaps the biggest surprise was to get used to people smiling and saying hello in the street for no reason at all. This was not normal to see for me. I was always trying to draw a deeper meaning into each hello and sometimes giving a more complete answer to each “hello, how are you” then was expected!

5. You teach entrepreneurship in the MBA program at Berkeley. A common piece of conventional wisdom is that entrepreneurs are born, not made. What aspects of entrepreneurship can be taught?

Many traits of what makes an entrepreneur are innate. But the method still needs to be learned. We teach about the method (the process) of starting businesses. We teach how to reduce your risk by doing your essential homework. How does an entrepreneur approach various aspects of business versus a professional in a corporation? The to-dos include a long list that starts with doing basic research on your idea, developing a scalable business model, hiring, financial planning, and thinking about exits. We arm the entrepreneur with this knowledge and our own experiences to help him/her be more successful with fewer hiccups.

6. Your companies have been in several different high technology fields and you have written scholarly articles about starting small businesses. You seem to have time to be involved in professional activities. What is your secret about learning new ideas quickly?

Asking a lot of insightful questions and listening well are essential to fast learning. You must also be very good about time management and selective consumption of information. If you are not careful you can drown in too much information. You must develop a technique to quickly compartmentalize and index information in order to be able to access the information that you gathered.

7. Do entrepreneurial opportunities still exist in electrical engineering / computer science fields?

Is this a trick question? Of course, we have not even scratched the surface yet. We are now in the field of EE and CS where we were in 1920 about automotives and aviation. You have seen nothing yet. We still think of computers as things like we looked at internal combustion engines in 1920s. Today we don’t talk much about engines but we deal with myriad things that use engines. The same thing will be true about computers. There will be hardly a discussion about computers. There will be convenience appliances, highly connected and consumers of information that will make our life easier, more connected and our work processes automated.

8. What are the top five qualities you would ascribe to an entrepreneur?

• Perseverance
• Clarity of objective
• Resourcefulness
• Strong desire to bend rules or make your own rules,
• Salesmanship at all levels.

I describe an entrepreneur as a person who is willing to pursue an opportunity with the resources that he/she does not currently control. This definition says a lot. It is about being persistent and finding ways to go around the walls that will come in front of you. Salesmanship comes in various ways. It is about selling your vision to other employees and team members, to selling your ideas to investors to selling your value proposition to customers.

9. Would you speak about fear as a motivation or hindrance toward accomplishment? How has that played a factor in your path, if any?

Fear can be a motivator or a hindrance – sometimes both, depending on your personality and the situation. My biggest fear is usually letting my investors down or the people whose livelihood depends on my decisions. The families of employees all depend on your actions and results of your decisions. But you must get over your fear, otherwise you will be paralyzed. This is when I seek out my mentors and get advice from people that I trust. You always get through it.

10. As you know, the entrepreneur’s path is filled with trials and errors, and also failures. What’s a valuable insight for entrepreneurs to keep in mind when they’re experiencing setbacks?

Analyze the situation. Post mortem is key. Figure out what did you do wrong or what you could have done differently. Talk to others and your mentors. Improve thyself. Stop feeling bad and get back in the game. Remember getting a gym membership is not enough to get fit or lose weight – you must participate in the game.

11. What is the latest insight (about life, work, play) that you picked up and would like to share with BrownHEN?

The latest insight is about getting intensely productive with your time. This is your most important asset. Constant email is a terrible thing to distract you and Instant Messaging (IM) is even worse. I want to automate things in my life and get control of my time so that I can use it to do things that excite me and are rewarding. Limiting distractions, limiting meaningless television, unnecessary meetings and conversations that are pointless must be limited and eventually eliminated. I am reading this book, Four Hour Work Week, which speaks to me and what I had been trying to do for the last couple of years.

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© BrownHEN.org – 2008