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SPOTLIGHT: PERSPECTIVE

Growing Our Industry Younger

Ken Sinclair These new hires will likely not have the necessary training and
Publisher will need to quickly jump the skills gap. The requirement for the
AutomatedBuildings.com next generation is that they need to be curious, have an unbri-
dled desire to learn, be prepared to fail early, and then relearn
My title starts with an oxymoron, but in the last year I quickly. The word younger implies that they have grown up in
have become passionate about a crusade to find paths
for our industry to Grow Younger with the introduction an IoT world, which gives them a different view on how they will
of young “Internet of Things” savvy folks. learn. They need access to our existing assets, the valuable knowl-
edge locked in the older minds of our industry, but we have not
Where did my crusade start? At last year’s IBcon conference yet devised the best method for this knowledge transfer.
in Las Vegas, where I met up with an old acquain-
tance and fellow advisor, Paul Oswald, President at Bridging the skill gap is critical. But how do we accomplish
Environmental Systems, Inc. He inspired me during his this feat?
presentation when he said:
• How do we motivate them to be curious?
“Most of the system integrators in this industry have • How do we create unbridled passion?
only one asset—people. Contractors may have trucks, • How do we let them know it is OK to fail?
tools and inventory, but their number one asset is • How do we teach them that their success is tied to the num-
people. Let’s face it, integrators and contractors don’t
manufacture anything, they typically don’t have any ber of questions they ask? And to how quickly they fail and
patents or licensable IP. They have one primary asset then recover?
and it goes home every night. How do we manage Technologies may come and go, but at the core of the industry
this number one asset? What do we invest in it, how are the same people that have been there for years. As our core
do we attract it, how do we retain it?” people grow older, we must plant new people, nourish them,
and help them grow.
Paul has elaborated on this topic in person and in I recently heard this great quote on the subject: “Only if you
industry articles. He had this to say about addressing can hire good people, train them well, and ensure they continue
the skills gap: “It’s time we as an industry begin to to learn throughout their career will we see industry, from the
focus our efforts on investing in the people neces- operators to the engineers, achieve the potential we all know
sary to properly apply all the great technology we
have in order to deliver quality solutions that provide real value
to end users.”

His words fueled my mission to create a Young Energy out-
reach and started a personal crusade that provided focus areas
for the future. Recent editorial titles published in our magazine
on the subject included:

• Autodidacticism
• Creating Your Collaboration
• The “I of Me” of IoT
• Education for Your Vocation
Education sessions at several industry events this year reiterat-
ed the opinion that people are the only assets. Your company’s
and industry’s technologies may come and go, but people are
our only true asset that remains and recreates and keeps the
industry strong.
This greatly increases the importance of the induction of new
blood, younger folks with IoT knowledge into our industry. If we
are to build on our existing assets, the people, then we need to
invest in education and the transfer of knowledge from these
assets. We need to look at new talent as an investment.

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