This episode is sponsored by Lockton, click here to learn more
Watch the full video on YouTube - click here
In this episode of The Automotive Leaders Podcast, Jan Griffiths interviews Qiong Sun, Vice President and General Manager of TE Connectivity's Global Automotive E-Mobility business, to learn what it takes to lead a technology company during this transformative period in the automotive industry.
From the very start, you can see Qiong's passion for technology and leadership come through. She shares how her engineering background shaped her leadership style, which is rooted in problem-solving and optimization.
For Qiong, leadership isn't just about managing teams; it's about building a shared vision, aligning strategies, and inspiring people with purpose—a must for engaging today's workforce.
Qiong explores the wave of innovation reshaping the automotive industry—from electrification to AI—and the challenges that come with it. She explains that collaboration is the key to staying ahead, whether it’s partnering with tech companies, governments, or consumers to create smarter, faster solutions.
Qiong also talks about how the relationship between suppliers and OEMs is changing. They're no longer just filling orders; they're stepping up as innovation partners, helping OEMs navigate the complexities of new technologies. She shares how TE Connectivity is here to support both traditional and up-and-coming automakers by offering solutions that fit their specific needs.
Resilience has been a big part of Qiong's leadership journey. She recalls the early days of her career when she tested safety systems in harsh conditions and earned the trust of her team through perseverance.
Now, she fosters that same resilience in her team, building a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth and innovation thrives without fear of failure.
Her advice for leaders? "Believe in what you're doing." She encourages everyone to embrace collaboration and tap into the industry's strengths—its talent, resources, and expertise. Whether working with established automakers or new players, the key to progress is pushing each other and working together.
Themes discussed in this episode:
- The rise of disruptive technologies like electrification, connectivity, and software-defined vehicles reshaping the auto industry
- Why speed and agility are the key to staying competitive in the automotive industry
- Why traditional automotive processes no longer work for today’s fast development cycles
- How collaboration is the key to managing fast-changing requirements and shorter product cycles
- The importance of building partnerships with non-traditional players, such as governments, tech companies, and infrastructure providers
- The evolving role of suppliers as innovation partners driving transformation
- How teamwork between legacy automakers and new players drives faster innovation and progress
Featured guest: Qiong Sun
What she does: Qiong Sun is the Vice President and General Manager of the Global Automotive E-Mobility Business at TE Connectivity, where she leads strategy, product management, technology development, and market delivery for high-voltage solutions in the electric vehicle market. With a passion for innovation, 30 years of experience in transportation, and a diverse industry consulting background, she drives the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies to advance vehicle electrification, energy storage, and active safety systems, making a significant impact on the industry.
On Leadership: “I always believe that you have to have a vision, you have to have a strategy that is clear to all the people working with you on your team, your customers, your suppliers. When you have a common goal, you can put the plan together. This is how you bring people along, especially with the nowadays generation, a newer generation. They do not just go to work for a job and get the pay. They also want to have a purpose. And this is the purpose that we need as a leader: bring everybody together.”
Mentioned in this episode:
- Collaborating with Giants: HAAS Alert's Successful Startup with Stellantis
- Combined Charging System (CCS) Standard
- North American Charging System
- The Infinite Game
- Get to know TE Connectivity
Episode Highlights:
[02:24] From Engineer to Leader: Qiong talks about how her engineering background shapes her leadership, using clear strategies and shared purpose to bring teams together and inspire a generation that values more than just a paycheck.
[00:00] Breaking Free from Legacy: The auto industry is merging traditional methods with software-driven agility by embracing collaboration, modular design, and parallel development to tackle rapid innovation cycles and meet fast-changing market demands.
[00:00] From Order Takers to Innovation Partners: Shifting from simply following OEM directives to actively helping them scale and simplify new technologies, suppliers are redefining their role in driving the future of the automotive industry.
[23:12] Got to Have Resilience: Resilience has shaped Qiong’s career, from earning her team’s trust in harsh testing conditions to driving progress in the EV space, proving that persistence is key to overcoming challenges and achieving success.
[28:06] Mistakes, Mindsets, and the Infinite Game: Innovation thrives where mistakes are seen as stepping stones, and Qiong highlights the power of embracing an infinite mindset to build a culture that values growth, sustainability, and long-term success over short-term wins.
[34:30] Advice for Leaders: Facing industry disruption, Qiong encourages leaders to believe in their mission, embrace resilience, and work together—traditional automakers and new players alike—to unlock the full potential of US talent and resources.
Top Quotes:
[07:24] Qiong: “Whenever you have so many new things happening at the same time, it comes with a lot of challenges, as you mentioned. One of the challenges that I see is how to manage this transition of the megatrends and respond to these fast-shifting requirements while maintaining profitability and competitiveness. I believe that in order to achieve it, you have to collaborate with the other players in the ecosystem. Collaboration is really the key to win because the ecosystem is really expanding from government, utility companies, infrastructure providers, and to the tech industries for electrification.”
[13:55] Qiong: “We help both sides. We help the ones that are coming from outside the auto industry who can be fast, but a lot of times, they might not always make sure they test out the two, every scenario, the quality. So, we helped them bridge this gap. Same thing with the traditional OEM; we also helped them because we know how to make things faster, and all OEMs want to be successful. So, when they see their suppliers work with them and provide them solutions, provide them with anything that they might not have thought about, they love it. So, this is how we actually work with them, and we have been very successful in this area.”
[15:51] Qiong: “What we do is we work with all OEMs, collect all the market needs, and then think through how to simplify. In the end, it's not always more complex is better. That's my philosophy and just really finding those solutions and how those can apply to their specific application. And so, hopefully, by the time we develop those platform products and then when they take it, they only need to apply 20-30 percent of the effort to do that. That will help them gain scalability because they can share even with the other OEMs what the tooling, manufacturing, capital investment, and things like that.”
[23:53] Qiong: “I was very fortunate to find a job working at the forefront of several key active safety technologies that today we take for granted to get our family home safe, such as the anti-lock braking system, traction control, vehicle stability control. But the development of those technologies usually involves a lot of test trips all year round to some very severe winter environments around the world. As a woman engineer in the entire department, I probably could have made a lot of excuses and avoided some of those trips, but I didn't. Because I went on every one of those trips, I not only learned but also worked on this system so that I can really actually be an expert on them. But more importantly, you know, through this, I earned the respect and trust of my team.”
[29:51] Qiong: “If you think about whether it's about our business or our life, it is really an infinite game. There is really no winner or loser, and there is only what's ahead and what's behind. Especially in business, when we have leaders embracing the infinite mindset, we are more likely to build a strong, innovative, and inspiring organizational culture, as you said, the culture of innovation. And this is the same for life; all of us come and go; our lives are finite, but really life is infinite. We are just finite players in this infinite game of life. So, I really think about that a lot of those apply to me for business very much. And I don't think about it as a win or lose in my business. I think about it is how I perpetuate it, the business, how do I actually make sure this business always keeps going.”
Mentioned in this episode:
This episode is sponsored by Lockton, click here to learn more
[Transcript]
[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: Welcome to the Automotive Leaders Podcast, where we help you prepare for the future by sharing stories, insights, and skills from leading voices in the automotive world with a mission to transform this industry together. I'm your host, Jan Griffiths that passionate, rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales with over 35 years of experience in our beloved auto industry and a commitment to empowering fellow leaders to be their best authentic selves. Stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership. Let's dive in.
This episode is brought to you by Lockton. Lockton redefines business insurance and people solutions with a personal touch. Their global team of 11,000 is driven by independence, not quarters to tailor success for your business. Discover the Lockton difference, where your goals become their mission. Independence, it's not just how you think but how you act.
What does it take to lead in the world of technology and electronics in our beloved auto industry, and how has that changed? To answer this question, we're going to talk to a woman who has been at the forefront of technology in the world of electronics in the auto industry for her entire career. She once led the electrification business at Lear, and she now sits firmly at the top of TE Connectivity as the Vice President and General Manager of the Global Automotive E-mobility business. Please welcome Qiong Sun. Qiong, welcome to the show.
[00:02:17] Qiong Sun: Thank you for having me, Jan. It is truly my pleasure to be here with you.
[00:02:22] Jan Griffiths: It's great to have you. So, Qiong, you know, I don't waste any time. I'm going to go right in and ask you, who are you as a leader?
[00:02:30] Qiong Sun: I consider myself a global citizen and an automotive business leader who has a deep passion for driving cutting-edge technologies toward a safer, cleaner, and more sustainable future. At my core, I am an engineer; I find that the same principles that I used to lead technical projects successfully are still applicable to me today to lead the business.
So, that means you always need a solid business strategy and plan that everyone understands and works towards it. As an engineer, I'm wired to always seek the most optimized solution. I've learned it is really critical to be surrounded by talented people from different backgrounds and with a different viewpoint and skillset. So, basically, I always try to stay authentic to myself and my strengths.
[00:03:35] Jan Griffiths: How do you lead in a technical field? Clearly, you're at the top of your game from a technical standpoint, right? When you see people move from a technical field into a leadership role that's sometimes hard for them. How did you embrace that Qiong and how do you make sure that you bring the people along with you? How do you inspire the people? It's one thing to be good technically and know how to put the business case together, but how do you bring the people along with you? How do you do that with your team?
[00:04:10] Qiong Sun: I always believe that you have to have a vision; you have to have a strategy that is clear to all the people working with you on your team, your customers, and your suppliers. When you have a common goal, you can put the plan together. This is how you bring people along, especially with the nowadays generation, a newer generation. They do not just go to work for a job and get the pay. They also want to have a purpose. And this is the purpose that we need to as a leader. Bring everybody together.
[00:04:40] Jan Griffiths: And how do you do that, Qiong, with your team? Is it an annual thing? Is it a quarterly thing? How do you develop the vision and keep it in front of everybody, and keep them motivated?
[00:04:51] Qiong Sun: So, this is in everyday business for us. So, we do actually have a five-year strategy that we meet every year to come up with that and we tune as we go. And according to the market, we responded to what the market needs is, what did the regulation pressure or, you know, even coming from a geopolitical, all kinds of situation. But in the end, when you have those, right? It's a plan set, and it can be, you know, just never change, and you're going to do the changing along the way because you gotta be agile, adapt to what's going on. But what really showed it up is every day working with your team, right? If you act as an example and make sure that you always service your customer while you deliver the technical solution. Always keep in mind that you need to make sure that the product is what your customer wanted and your customer is willing to work with you, and that there is a long-term partnership that exists in that area.
[00:05:53] Jan Griffiths: There's a lot of talk, Qiong, these days about getting away from legacy systems and processes. If you mentioned the word agile, and we know the winners in this industry will be the ones that can master speed. And we have gone from this idea of the way that we designed and produced and think, quite frankly, in traditional legacy auto. And you've grown up with it, you've seen it, but now that type of thinking will not take us into the future. We have got to be able to respond quickly to changes, to needs in the marketplace. We have to be able to develop new products and change new products on a timeline and at a speed that we have never been used to before in the traditional auto industry. Now, maybe the software business, yes, they get that. So, you've got to try and merge together this way of doing business and way of thinking of the software type of company with traditional automotive. How on earth do you do that?
[00:07:01] Qiong Sun: That's a great question, Jan. Our industry currently is really going through an unprecedented wave of innovation with a lot of disruptive technology, electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving, software-defined vehicles, digitization, artificial intelligence, you know, all of those, they are rapidly reshaping our industry. But whenever you have so many new things happening at the same time, it comes with a lot of challenges, as you mentioned. One of the challenges that I see is how to manage this transition of the megatrends and respond to these fast-shifting requirements while maintaining profitability and competitiveness. And I believe, in order to achieve it, you gotta collaborate with the other players in the ecosystem. Collaboration is really the key to win because the ecosystem is really expanding from government, utility companies, infrastructure providers, and to the tech industries for electrification. We see battery, consumer electronics, software, and the most important, let's also don't forget about our consumers. We need to engage them, listen to them, and figure out what they want. A part of that is how to bring the public knowledge and educate them that they understand the advantages of this technology, why they are good for the consumers, and why they are good for society. So, when you have those, right? How do you actually go faster as you're asking about it? And I think that these collaborations will help you to understand that, and that allowed you to design and develop the product that is modular as the platform product. So, when you have those, you can be much faster to reuse the components quickly applied to the applications, and also, we use these manufacturing processes. So, this will help you reduce the cost and also it helps you reduce the development of time. So, this is very important is how do you reuse. And how do you actually gather these requirements all together, and to be able to respond fast and collaborating with the other players in this ecosystem?
[00:09:19] Jan Griffiths: And I agree with you that it is about an ecosystem and connecting very different sources that are not traditional suppliers to work together, but that is much easier said than done. To change an organization that is used to maybe with a traditional purchasing function, where every time you have to pay somebody or involve another organization, you have to go through purchasing or you have to go through certain channels. Now, you're dealing with maybe government compliance organizations or utility companies, like you said, right? Traditional suppliers, software suppliers, you're trying to pull all that together. You've done that. What are some of the lessons learned that you could share so that somebody who is in a role like yours right now, leading technology in an organization in Tier One, they are thinking about how on earth do I connect this ecosystem? Some lessons learned some tips you could share?
[00:10:19] Qiong Sun: Absolutely, Jan. You've been in this industry long enough and used to be it took a long four years for us to develop any Internal Combustion Engine product. And today, as we work in this electrification autonomous vehicle, the cycle of those developments is much shorter, maybe still here 24 months, but for some of the regions, like China, it could be actually less than one year. And when you have that, you can no longer go through this traditional process of purchasing the parts, and you're dealing with a lot of industry really coming from consumer electronics, coming from the battery, coming from, you know, software, and they have a different requirement.
And this is why collaboration is so important because you need to innovate with people together. They need to understand your requirements; at the same time, you have to actually be able to collaborate and innovate the solution at a much faster speed. And we do that all the time. And a lot of times when we release the parts for these electrified vehicles, it's a very different way. And also, the design, it's like a clean sheet design. It's no longer doing, you know, you are doing the modification on what it is before. And the other thing we do is actually a lot of testing, not necessarily in the vehicle; everything has to be ready. So, you're parallel doing a lot of testing, you're doing a lot of regenerative AI methods, use a lot of simulation, digital twin type of a method to make sure that you can test those driving events much earlier before everything is ready. So, it's not a serial development; it's a parallel development and being agile and working with your suppliers and the customers together.
[00:12:12] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, that's such a change to the way that we're used to doing business. And from an OEM perspective, we still have a lot of OEMs, traditional car manufacturers who are following the traditional purchasing route. You can't work with an OEM early, early, early, early, early on in the development of a product without knowing that you're going to be the source. You can't put millions of dollars into the development of a product, and then it runs through purchasing, and guess what? They find another supplier somewhere, and boom, you're out because they have three competitive bids or something of that nature. I mean that process doesn't work. Either we're going to all partner together, and we're in this together, or we're not. And I think that the OEMs are going to have trouble with that, but some of them do a better job than others. So, have you experienced some relationships at the OEM level where it truly is collaboration way, way early on in the process?
[00:13:15] Qiong Sun: Yeah, so I would tell you since we work with nearly every single OEM in the world, we see all kinds of OEM behavior. The nice part is we work with a lot of, I will call emergent EV companies, even though they are now so huge, right? And that the pace of how they do the work they are not always the following traditional automotive the same process. But then, we also see the other side, which is the traditional OEMS; as you said, you know, probably some are making changes now, transitioning as well, and others are still using the old ways. The beauty is because we know all those, right? We help both sides. We help the ones that are coming from outside the auto industry who can be fast, but a lot of times they might not always make sure they test out the two, every scenario, the quality. So, we helped them bridge this gap. Same thing with the traditional OEM; we also helped them because we know how to make things faster, and all OEMs want to be successful. So, when they see their suppliers work with them and provide them solutions, provide them anything that they might not have thought about it, they love it. So, this is how we actually work with them, and we have been very successful in this area.
[00:14:34] Jan Griffiths: You know, something you just said reminded me of an interview that I did a few months ago. You have to bridge the gap, you have to help the OEMs that in itself, Qiong, is such a mindset shift from somebody leading in a Tier One supplier. It was always about doing what the OEM wanted. It was never really about helping them figure this out for the future.
I've interviewed another company called HAAS Alert. They do the alert system that tells you when an emergency vehicle is in the area, and they are in production with Stellantis, and they're just launching with Volkswagen, and they see their role as exactly that. Their role is not to just do what the OEM tells them to do. It is to help them launch, scale, and integrate new technology. That's a huge mindset shift, Qiong, that I think is underestimated. What do you think?
[00:15:37] Qiong Sun: You summarize really well, Jan, and as you said, when you work with your customer and help to find a solution, especially a solution not just for one application, and this is what we do, we work with all OEMs, collect all the market needs, and then think through how to simplify. In the end, it's not always more complex is better. That's my philosophy and just really finding those solutions and then how those can apply to their specific application. And so, hopefully, by the time when we develop those platform products and then when they take it, they only need to apply 20-30 percent of the effort to do that. That helped them gain scalability because they can share even with the other OEMs, what the tooling, manufacturing, capital investment, and things like that. It's absolutely a shift of mindset. And even though these are the ways that I don't think that we reinvented, but in the end, how you actually increment and truly do it and make it happen, that's how any business will be successful taking that approach.
[00:16:48] Jan Griffiths: Often, the OEMs just don't see the value that they have in their supply base and what you can contribute, and you can bring knowledge to the table. And I was recently at the MEMA event, listening to Terry, the president of Caresoft, and he was talking about sharing examples of designs and specifications and how in legacy automotive, we tend to design with ICE vehicles' specifications in mind, even though we're designing for an EV, whereas a Chinese OEM is starting with a clean sheet of paper. So, they don't have all of those legacy processes and specifications that they're designing to. So, their design tends to be far more simple and, of course, much more cost-effective, but you, as a supplier, you see all of that, and you can help the OEMs bring this knowledge to the table, right?
[00:17:44] Qiong Sun: Absolutely, you are correct. And you are seeing more and more of those sharing happening in the industry already. I'm very sure all these traditional OEMs also partner with these EV companies, and they are looking for how I can actually launch my product much faster. Because that's what the consumer wants, right? In the end, the consumer wants something that works, performs well, and is also cost-effective. If we are taking the same time, because in the past, for ICE engines, the technology has not been really changing that much. It's taking more time, and consumers are not going to feel it, but with the EV, that's a completely different situation. you have a lot of competition around the world, and you need to be fast. And in order to do that, to be successful, you have to really partner with whether your Tier One supplier, Tier Two, or whatever. It could be suppliers that a lot of times they are actually off the vehicle, like the cloud, the software server, and all those. So, yeah, this is happening for sure. So, I will give you another example of EV charging infrastructure in the States. We have been having this combo we call CCS1 Combo Charging System One that with the AC charging, which is normally you do at a home or in the office, and then the DC charging, which is the fast charging when you go travel from point A to point B. And the charging inlet is really bulky and it's more complicated. And now, since 2023, Tesla actually decided to actually open up their charging system, which is called North America Charging System, NACS shorted for. And so, now everybody, whether it's the big threes or the Asian OEMs or the German OEMs who are having the vehicle EV in the United States, they all actually decided to take this standard. So, by doing that, and not only now you have the same hardware, now the fast charging DC and the AC the slow charging, they are the same hardware; you are just using software to differentiate and turn on and off. But this really add a lot of value because you have the scalability up. And so, we are actually very quickly working on those, and for all these OEMs who used to be on this CCS1 charging inlet, now they have a solution with NACS solution quickly. So, these are how we can, as a supplier, can bring value for them. And we also understand the different charging standards in different regions and countries because electrical power systems are all different. And even though you have the same vehicle, but you don't have the same charging connection system. So, we have the knowledge to help them to be compatible or how to get the best performance with the lowest cost.
[00:20:39] Jan Griffiths: Yeah. Well, it's clear that you get it. You have the right mindset to support helping the OEMs with new technology. But, Qiong, how do you get your entire team to think the same way? I'm sure you've got some people that are traditional legacy. They're like, you know, "We just do what the customer tells us." But now you've got this mindset of, "No, we need to support the customer." Your team, the people that interact with the customer, that's a different mindset. How do you nurture that? How do you encourage that?
[00:21:09] Qiong Sun: First of all, I look at it, you know, we are in this industry, right? And we need to be successful together. It's no longer about the command and control type of a leader, and I read your AutoCulture 2.0, and I so much agree with that. And it's about how you actually make sure they understand the right purpose so they can work together with you. The organization is no longer very hierarchy. And I would tell you, even in my organization, it's more and more getting flatter. And the reason is you want to empower people to be able to make decision. Once they understand the purpose they are doing and they can make decisions, they can go much faster; not only does the leader know everything, but it doesn't exist anymore in this world because there is just too much knowledge, too much information. You have to actually trust your team. With that trust, you can go much faster. Building that trust also requires a lot of certain behaviors and how you get there, but I would say trust is the most important thing to bring your team together and go faster. And I look at my organization, sometimes it's just more like a startup. I try not to think about it as a traditional organization but more as a startup kind of organization.
[00:22:29] Jan Griffiths: And you're right, startup culture is far more agile. It's all about speed and adaptability, resilience, moving and pivoting. To have that culture, you cannot have this fear of failure. As you started to learn and grow as a leader and empower people and trust people, you had to, at some point as a human, I know you did this fear of, "What if they fail? What if they mess up?" That's going to come back on you as a leader. How did you work through that so that now you are a leader who's comfortable empowering and trusting people? How did you get there?
[00:23:11] Qiong Sun: Yeah, so I look at the 21 traits that you have listed and one really resonated with me very well is resilience, and why resilience? Much of the success I've had in my career, the mistakes that I've made, the failures that I've encountered, and a lot of challenges that I've overcome can be all directly linked to resilience. Resilience, as you said, is the most important part that have your team to help your team build the trust and maintain this trust. And I can give you a lot of examples, but I kind of look back on when I first started right after my grad school, I was very fortunate to find a job working at the forefront of several key active safety technologies that today we take it for granted to get our family home safe, such as the anti-lock braking system, traction control, vehicle stability control. But the development of those technologies usually involves a lot of test trips all year round to some very severe winter environments around the world. And as a woman engineer in the entire department, I probably could have made a lot of excuses and avoided some of those trips, but I didn't. Because I went on every one of those trips, not only learning, but also working on these system so that I can really actually be the expert of it. But more importantly, you know, through this, I earned the respect and trust from my team. I showed the resilience. Week after week, trip after trip, and often snowbank after snowbank.
[00:24:56] Jan Griffiths: Yeah.
[00:24:57] Qiong Sun: And so, as I progressed my career, I really find that this resilience is so important, and it sticks with me, and it's a key part of how I use it to build and maintain trust with my team, my customers, and my suppliers. And that's also how I use it to apply my leadership approach as we said about the vehicle electrification for some of us being around for a long time. This industry has not always been a smooth ride; there are ups and downs, and we have made great headway, but if you're really looking at it, there is a long way to go. But if you look at it today, globally, there are 23 million electrified vehicles on the road globally. And we have like 85 million vehicles total, and that's actually a pretty big number, but the majority of those are in Asia Pacific and specifically in China. So, in the United States, we are quite behind; we have about 2 million, and 50% of those are pure battery electrical vehicles, and the other 50 percent are split between hybrid and plug-in hybrids. So, now the question is: how can we catch up? And I think resilience has been, you know, a key part of this journey because, as someone who is truly passionate about this transition, I realize only resilient people and resilient companies will have the fortitude to lead us through. And because the resilience give us the mindset of believing in yourself and believing in your team. Resilience keeps us going forward, and we never give up until we succeed. And that's what I see. Even though maybe today it's only 2 million, I'm very sure eventually we will have more and more on the road, and we will succeed in this industry.
[00:26:59] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, and you're right, there's a relationship there between resilience and this fear of failure because if you're resilient, you might have a little bit of fear of failure, but you don't let it stop you from taking action. That's the key. Because in traditional automotive, where there's fear of failure, you're going to be afraid to make a decision, you might be afraid somebody's not going to like it or that you're going to get fired, and you can't have that. So, when you're resilient, you're not afraid to make a decision, and if you do fail, you get back up and keep on going, but the leader and the culture of the organization support you in doing that. That's what makes it work.
[00:27:43] Qiong Sun: Yes. And you have to demonstrate that set of examples, and eventually, more and more people will follow. The other thing resilience is the most important when you are in a difficult time; it's not when everything goes perfectly. And this is what, as you said, resilience actually helps you; even when you have a failure, make a mistake, it will have you keep going.
[00:28:06] Jan Griffiths: What happens when somebody makes a mistake on your team? How do you handle that?
[00:28:11] Qiong Sun: We all make mistakes. We are human beings. One of the things is we learn from that. And one thing is, success is actually built upon the mistakes you make based on the failure that you had. So, I do not see, you know, making mistakes is a really issue. So, for me, you just have to try to learn from what happened, how can you continue to improve upon, and how to not make this same mistake again. And there is always so much to learn from that.
[00:28:40] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, I love that. You're absolutely right. But again, it's easier said than done. And a lot of leaders have trouble accepting and viewing mistakes. Again, it comes back to mindset, right? To seeing mistakes as a building block to success. Innovation, by definition, is to try something and you fail, and you tweak it, and you fail, and you tweak it, and you fail until you get it right. And it makes me laugh sometimes, Qiong, when I see people in the Tier One space. They talk about innovation and they go, "Yeah, that's on our VP of engineering's agenda." Well, it's not an agenda item; it is a culture. Either you have a culture that nurtures and promotes innovation, again, lack of fear of failure, or you don't. What are your thoughts on the culture of innovation?
[00:29:33] Qiong Sun: Yeah, I so much agree with you, Jan, your points on this culture of innovation. And also, the early on about not being afraid of making mistakes, right? And they are kind of a go-together. This made me think about the book from Simon Sinek called The Infinite Game. And if you think about whether it's about our business or our life, it is really an infinite game. There is really no winner or loser, and there is only what's ahead and what's behind. Especially in business, when we have leaders embracing the infinite mindset, we are more likely to build a strong, innovative, and inspiring organization culture, as you said, the culture of innovation. And this is the same for life, all of us, come and go; our lives are finite, but really life is infinite. We are just a finite player in this infinite game of life. So, I really think about that a lot of those apply to me for business very much. And I don't think about it as a win or lose in my business. I think about it is how I perpetuate it, the business, how do I actually make sure this business always keeps going. We are providing value to our customers, to the consumer, and also to the business, the shareholders because we want to make sure that we bring profit so we can be a successful business to continue on. It needs to be sustainable.
[00:31:09] Jan Griffiths: Again, that's another huge mindset shift. Qiong, come on, we've been in this industry a long time, right? It was all about winning and losing. When I look back to all my experience in supply chain, it was all about, you know, debit the supplier, right? Win or lose, get this money; if not, dispute, go to litigation, escalation. It's all about winning or losing, and it's all about who's right and who's wrong. And that is not the game that we need to be playing. As Simon Sinek says, it is an infinite game, but that is a huge mindset shift. But when you, as the leader, at the top of your game, believe that, and you get a whole team of people behind you believing that, then you can run fast, right? You can really make it happen.
[00:31:59] Qiong Sun: Absolutely, Jan. I can't agree with you more. This is absolutely the case for my team and for many of the teams at TE Connectivity. Actually, my company set up a vision that really makes the world safer and more sustainable. And all of us believe in it, and we take this to our everyday life, and when we behave with our team, customers, and suppliers, people see it, and people actually appreciate it. And that's why I think, in the end, it's a win-win situation. You do not look at it as who's the winner, who's the loser.
[00:32:36] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, I love that. If I were to summarize what I've learned from you today, here we go, let's see if I get it right. So, to answer the question I opened with, is what does it take to lead a technology organization in the automotive industry today? First and foremost, it's a mindset; it is about the infinite game; it is no longer about this transactional win-lose type mentality. So, that's the first thing you have to view the business differently.
Secondly, you have to view your role with the OEM as one of support and coaching; that's a huge shift. Then, you have to establish a vision, get your team behind that vision, get used to the idea of an ecosystem, no longer this linear buyer-supplier relationship all the way down the chain, and figure out how to connect all these very different types of organizations to help you move fast.
Then, the ultimate leadership requirement or leadership trait to succeed is to trust and empower your team. Show role models and resilience, but make sure that you build upon the failures to the ultimate success. Again, if you're playing the infinite game, that's going to come naturally, but that's going to be part of the process. So, in my mind, that summarizes your beliefs on leadership and technology, and automotive. Did I miss anything?
[00:34:12] Qiong Sun: You summarized so well; you got it all: the mindset, the culture, the behavior, resilience, how to build trust with your team, how to collaborate with others. I think you really covered everything, Jan. It's perfect.
[00:34:28] Jan Griffiths: Well, thank you. Now, what advice would you have for leaders out there in the industry today? I mean, let's face it, we're all a bit scared right now, particularly in Detroit, because we've got the Chinese OEMs that are sweeping up the market and taking over the industry. So, there's a lot of culture change that needs to happen. To leaders that are embarking on this journey, maybe partway through this journey, what advice would you have for them?
[00:34:57] Qiong Sun: I would say, first of all, believe in what you are doing. And second of all, continue to have this resilience behavior to achieve that and enjoy it and don't be afraid. And I think we are somewhat behind in certain areas, but we have so much to offer, we have so much talent, we have so much knowledge, and we also have a lot of resources actually in the States so that we can achieve. And we have one of the biggest, the best EV companies in the world, you know, very successful everywhere, not just in the United States. And I think for our industry, the advice I would say is we need to actually work even more so with all the traditional OEMs along with the newer players. And we need to push each other and also collaborate. And this is how we can get there faster. And I'm sure we will get there. And in the end, I have to say, it's not like every vehicle needs to be EV. It really needs to be looking at what really makes sense. If in long distance, long haul, you're not going to stop all the time, you know, is the big battery really the best thing? Probably not. But there is a lot of those applications that actually need it. I do see we have a lot of opportunity out there and we can do well, you know, as an industry together.
[00:36:26] Jan Griffiths: No, I totally agree. Well, Qiong, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:36:33] Qiong Sun: Thank you so much for having me, Jan. It's really my pleasure.
[00:36:38] Jan Griffiths: Thank you for listening to the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Click the listen link in the show notes to subscribe for free on your platform of choice. And don't forget to download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership PDF by clicking on the link below. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership.