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In this episode of IT Matters, host Aaron Bock interviews Curtis Hughes, CIO of steel manufacturing company Midrex Technologies.Conversation Highlights: Curtis’s journey to becoming a CIO (2:29)How Curtis’s consulting background has guided his leadership at Midrex (4:20)What IT means to an organization in 2022 (6:17)The importance of a people-centered approach to technology (7:38)How Curtis got started in technology (9:23)Automation trends and technology priorities across industries (11:...
In this episode of IT Matters, host Aaron Bock interviews Curtis Hughes, CIO of steel manufacturing company Midrex Technologies.
Conversation Highlights:
About Curtis Hughes:
As the CIO of Midrex Technologies, Curtis is responsible for defining and executing the company’s global technology strategy across more than 20 countries worldwide. Prior to joining Midrex, he spent nearly two decades as a trusted business leader and technology advisor to organizations throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, founding three technology companies along the way.
Curtis holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UNC Charlotte, has been named as one of Charlotte’s “40 Under 40”, and frequently shares his experience by writing on leadership and technology trends, and speaking at business and technology conferences around the world.
Welcome to the Opkalla IT Matters Podcast, where we discuss the important matters within IT as well as the importance of IT across different industries and responsibilities.
About Opkalla:
Opkalla helps their clients navigate the confusion in the technology marketplace and choose the technology solutions that are right for their business. They work alongside IT teams to design, procure, implement and support the most complex IT solutions without an agenda or technology bias. Opkalla was founded around the belief that IT professionals deserve better, and is guided by their core values: trust, transparency and speed. For more information, visit https://opkalla.com/ or follow them on LinkedIn.
Narrator: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast, where we
explore why it matters and
matters pertaining to it. Here's
your host, Aaron bock.
Aaron Bock: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast. Excited to be
here today, we've got a great
guest. But before I introduce
him, I want to call out that we
are going through, I think
record highs right now for
Charlotte, North Carolina
yesterday, where actually two
days ago, we cracked 103 degrees
from what I saw. So if you are
in a part of the country
listening, going through this
heatwave, we're suffering right
there with you. So hope everyone
is enjoying their summer. We've
got a great conversation today.
So I'm gonna introduce our
guests. We've got Curtis Hughes,
who is currently the CIO at
Midrex technologies based here
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And I'm gonna start off with
I'll let Curtis explain more and
tell you a little bit about him.
But I love Curtis's tag. He's
got it on LinkedIn, you can
follow him, but he says he's a
digital leader with a passion
for culture and people. Curtis,
welcome to the show.
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, thanks,
Aaron. Appreciate you having me
here. Glad to be here.
Aaron Bock: We're excited to
have you and I'm gonna start off
I ask every guest who who comes
on this question. But before we
go through, I want you to kind
of explain if you had a
summarize someone you meet new,
who is Curtis Hughes,
specifically your, I guess, in
your professional and personal
background? What would you want
people to know about you?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, first and
foremost, dad and husband and
and love my family and love that
time. And so really just try to
work hard play hard kind of
thing and try to find the
balance between those two, I
think a lot of people coming out
of post COVID. And everything
going on, I think that's really
important to people as well. But
I really do kind of like my
tagline says, I really do like
to sit at that intersection of
where technology and people kind
of collide. And there's there's
everything today's digital, when
we'll probably talk more about
that. And every company is a
technology company, whether they
think they are or not. And it
impacts our people. And we're
seeing that across the board,
whether it's culture engagement,
how our how our teams can work
wherever they are in the world,
flex, Hybrid work, all that kind
of stuff. So I really like to
work on projects, work on
challenges and solve problems
where we're really impacts
people.
Aaron Bock: That's awesome. And
I know from talking with you
before, you're unique, you're a
little bit unique, because right
now you're a CIO title. And a
lot of people who end up in that
role have been kind of working
their way up. They were
director, they were manager,
they were on the help desk, you
were actually in in an
entrepreneurial role. I can't
even say that word today. Less
in the last 10 years. So maybe,
if you could share with our
guests a little bit more about
that, at that point in your
career, what you were doing and
kind of how you transitioned?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, I love the
the consulting side, I've
started a couple of companies
and ran those. And I said early
in my career, and I try to tell
others this as well, when I when
I talked to them and people I
talked to is, I really tried my
entire career, I was kind of one
of these people that wasn't
defined by a title. Even when I
was first coming out of school
and software engineer developer,
I was interested in what
marketing was doing to sell the
software, whatever it was. I was
just always interested in more
than just my, and for better,
for worse, I think it's actually
turned out better, where it's
led me to all these different
places, rather than just putting
up putting a title on it. I'm a
software engineer. I just love
technology. I love how it
impacts business. I love making
businesses better. I love
growing businesses. And if I can
do that with technology, if I
can do that, as a leader of an
organization, I just I go where
I see challenges I like to build
I like to I like to solve
problems. And sometimes that's
with technology. Sometimes it's
not. So yeah, I took kind of my
consulting 10 plus years
consulting and growing
businesses, turn that inward on
Midrex. I've been here for the
last five years and just kind of
pouring that into helping Midrex
grow and helping veterans kind
of transform from the inside out
from a technology standpoint for
sure.
Aaron Bock: How do you think
your consulting background has
helped you be a better leader, a
better CIO for a technology
organization at Midrex?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, it's good
question. I think part of it for
me was always loved being a
smaller companies like I've
never been at the huge, huge
organizations, many, many 1000s
of people, even Midrex is a
fairly, fairly small
organization. And I think it
allows you to wear a lot of
different apps like wearing
hats. I don't like just wearing
one hat. And when you get to
wear wear multiple hats and you
have some experience, across a
variety of things. It helps you
just understand when things come
you see things from a different
perspective and I think that's
probably the best. That's where
it is perspective, all my
experience, up to this point,
even though it looks like a
winding road, sometimes I think
it's been perfect for where I am
today and I am an everything
happens for a reason, kind of
guy. So it's allowed me to have
a unique perspective on growing
it. A lot of folks that are in
technology, especially probably
don't think like a business
owner, right? How do I manage
cost? How do I do, and having
that and grown a company manage
P&L, how to hire people, how to
let people go, when you're
starting a company, your HR,
your accounting, your
everything, right? And so you're
just having that perspective has
allowed me to take that. And
when I speak with our accounting
teams, or anyone internally
here, as a CIO, it's just helped
me connect with those folks more
and just understand kind of what
the problems they are, they're
having.
Aaron Bock: Yeah, as a small
company, you are all those
things, but you pretend to be
bigger. So you make email
aliases for each one that all go
back to you.
Curtis Hughes: Exactly.
Aaron Bock: And you mentioned
sharing your perspective. And I
know, I'm excited for our guests
to be able to listen your
perspective, because I think you
really do approach, technology
and IT different, differently
the way you talk about it. And
a lot of people talk about the
tech. So before we get down that
road anymore, I want to ask the
same question that I asked all
the guests. So, you're in your
CIO, now, you lead the
technology department Midrex,
you've done consulting for
technology, what is information
technology to an organization at
this point in time? And 2022?
What does that mean?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, I think it
was, I'm a big quotes guy. And I
just, I take bits and pieces
here as well. I think it was
Drucker that said, and it was
back in the 90s. He said, we
spent the last 30 years thinking
about the technology, and we'll
spend the next 30 thinking about
the information or something
like something to that effect,
I'm paraphrasing, but I really
do think it is, today, we're in
the age of data. And as much as
there is technology, data is
huge. And when I think of
information technology, I really
do kind of center in on that
information piece. And that was
one of the reasons I came to
Midrex. And Midrex has been
around a long time but but
wasn't leveraging all the
information and the experience
and all the learnings to take
that and pour it back into the
organization and do things
better. And so I think we used
to see data as, as maybe the
exhaust like, hey, let's build
all this technology. And all
this data comes out the end. And
yeah, we don't know what to do
it. Today, data is the fuel,
right? We take that data, and we
pour it into things to kind of
to kind of drive it. So it's,
it's a huge shift. And I to me,
I think that's that's one of the
most powerful things about
information technology today in
organizations.
Aaron Bock: So we're gonna come
back to this because you
mentioned data three times, I
think, in that cover in that in
that snippet, but is kind of a
hard question maybe to answer.
But how does data so when we
talk about technology, we're
talking about the data, we're
talking about the systems behind
it, but you always talk about as
a person, people are the
crossroads. People are, what
drive it and people is what
really is driving the change.
Why do you say that? Like how
does people in tech, like
information technology? How do
they relate? And why is why are
people so important to it?
Curtis Hughes: People are what
organizations are about and
people do, companies do business
with people and not not
companies and not technology and
those kinds of things as well, I
think people are at the heart of
everything we do. And so I think
it's easy to get lost in new
shiny technologies, and data and
KPIs and all these things. But
at the end of the day, I
continue to, I'm not always
perfect at it, but always try to
come back to why does that
matter? So what I've heard
someone tell me asked me that
before, like always, so what.
Like, yeah, great. We've got all
these KPIs. And we've got all
this great. So what, what does
that like? What do we do with
that? Does that help somebody do
something better? Does that give
someone insight that makes them
change their strategy on how
they recruit new employees? What
do we use that data for? And how
does it impact it? And that's
what's powerful to me is I've
got all these these tools over
here, my garage full of tools.
Here's the problems that we're
trying to solve as an
organization, as people as
departments as a business. How
do I go there and get my
screwdriver, my hammer and come
over here and try to solve that
instead of just walking around
with a hammer saying, Hey, I've
got this technology, what
problem can I solve with it? And
the old adage, right? When
you're when you're a hammer,
everything looks like a nail. So
I really don't ever try to leave
with technology and really try
to understand, like, what are we
trying to solve here? Like, what
are we trying to do?
Aaron Bock: So we're gonna pivot
a little bit. Curtis, I want to
go back a little bit in your
career. How did you actually get
started in technology?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, so it
depends on how far you want to
go back. But I think I was
always one of those kids that
like, my parents, I drove them
crazy, I'm sure. And now my son
I see this in him as well. Like
to take things apart. I like to
figure out how things worked.
And so all through school in
high school, especially, you're
looking at technology computers
are the guys okay? I enjoyed
working on computers, that kind
of thing. It was good thing jobs
for sure. And so that's what I
did. I focused on computer
science and went to school got a
computer science degree from
here in Charlotte, UNC Charlotte
and came out at that time, most
folks that came out with a
computer science degree, you're
basically a software engineering
writing software. And so that's
how I started is building
software, but thankfully got in
at a company that was a small
growing startup. And so I was
able to, like we talked about
wear a lot of hats, and that led
me to things. I really think
it's really a benefit, to see
what you really enjoy. I enjoy
this. And so I moved from, from
writing software to
architecting, to designing, UX
and interfaces and things like
that. So I've done everything
from user interface design, to
building out full product to
writing software across and then
leading teams and then growing
from there to leading teams of
software engineers.
Aaron Bock: Did you always want
to be a CIO at some point? Or
did that just happen? Naturally
or by accident?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, if you
know, me, personally, you know,
I don't think there's any
accidents. So, I don't think it
was an accident. But it was
never something that was a
milestone, I had always said,
when I have my own company,
like, hey, if I wasn't running
my own company, that's probably
the right fit, because I don't
want to just sit and write code,
or I don't want to sit and just
do that. I like the variety that
comes with the business side,
the technology side, bringing
those two together. And I like
to sit right in the middle. And
I think it's a it's a perfect
role for that. So it kind of
just evolved, and I knew what I
enjoy it. I knew myself, I knew
what I was good at and knew what
I enjoyed doing.
Aaron Bock: Yeah. So we talk on
this podcast a lot about IT
matters. Obviously, it's written
above my head, what does that
mean? So why IT matters, and
what are IT matters. And so what
we mean by that is, we talked
about, you defined information
technology, but let's talk about
why IT matters. You're a CIO, at
a midsize manufacturer with an
interesting place in 2022. With
the political climate, you guys
being international. So why does
IT matter to Midrex? Why is it
an important function? Why is it
going to continue to grow in
importance at Midrex?
Curtis Hughes: That's a huge
question. I think if you look
across the board, and most
organizations, and I think I
said it earlier is that every
company is a technology company,
right? And everything's so
digital these days. But
certainly, technology helps us
do things better, faster. So
automation is a big piece of
some of the things we're working
on now, what used to be, five
people doing something manually
now. And it's not necessarily
about removing jobs. It's about
putting that unique talent of
those people on other creative
work that a computer maybe can't
do and automate, right? But the
things that happened the same
way all the time, how do we
automate those things and make
us more efficient so that we can
scale and grow our company,
maybe without having to add a
lot of headcount sometimes, and
we can grow and do new things.
So I think that's a big piece of
it. But also, one of the areas
I'm really interested in is
really that intersection of
people so how does technology
help us engage with our
teammates more? So whether it's
internal enterprise social
network kind of stuff, even
looking at things like sentiment
analysis. And how do we stay at
the pulse of our teammates, and
especially with hybrid work, and
how do we bridge that gap and
stay connected with our
teammates, when they're halfway
around the world and we don't
see them that often or ever? How
do we use technology to close
those gaps. And I think that's
been one of the amazing things
to see over over COVID When
people couldn't, then they adopt
a team zoom, all these kinds of
things. We were using teams
before COVID hit, thankfully.
But I think there's a number of
ways and I talked about the data
piece, too. And we're doing a
lot more with data now, where
we're getting data from, from
plants, and looking at that and
helping us develop new products
and our r&d and how we design
these plants and do it
differently.
Aaron Bock: You mentioned
automation. And I think people
hear that they hear it on the
Superbowl commercial at halftime
that everyone talks about
automation. If you would be so
kind help us understand, within
Midrex, for example, give an
example of where automation when
we talk about it. Give a real
life example for our listeners.
So they understand what do we
automating? I think some people
just think it's like this made
up thing that just data runs
through a robot, but it's not.
Curtis Hughes: No, there's a
number of them. I think
something really simple that
people will get is, when I came
in a few years ago, every
computer and again, we're not a
Bank of America, huge company or
anything like that, where we've
got, 10s of 1000s of computers
to deploy, but still a number of
computers and things like that
refreshes, building all those by
hand. So someone going in and
you think about setting up the
operating system, installing the
software. That takes a lot of
time. It takes a person almost
full time building those things
out, staging them up, automating
that so going to things where
these automated builds go. And
it deploys our software based on
who you are in the organization.
So if you come in, you're in
accounting, you get this
software. And then there's ways
we can do that. Another area,
we're using it a ton is on the
security side. So with security,
and a small team like ours, all
the threats that are out there,
just because we're small,
doesn't mean we don't have the
same threats. The bad guys don't
care what size you are, they're
just coming after anyone. And so
how do we look at, threats and
things that come through and
sift through the noise and so
automating some of that, and
even using things like
artificial intelligence machine
learning to figure out what's,
what's good, what's bad, so that
we can quickly sift that out and
say, yep, we know that that's
not something to look at, or
yeah, this person never does
that on their computer, why are
they accessing that server? And
so we've used automation in that
way, so that from a monitoring
standpoint, and security
standpoint, so that we can see
kind of what's going on within
the organization?
Aaron Bock: Yeah. So you have an
organization right now of we'll
call it a midsize organization,
I don't know exactly how many
employees, but if you could go
around to each person, and you
mentioned automation, how
everyone is using technology,
two questions, and you can kind
of go which whichever way you
want here. One, what do you
think people not understand
about the IT department and
technology? And what do you
think? If you could talk to each
of them and sit down and say,
please know this or please
consider this? What would it be?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, I think a
lot of times one of the things
that I think people maybe don't
understand about technology is
the iceberg effect, right? You
see the 10%. But there's all
this stuff that goes on behind
the scenes. So just just to keep
everything running and what goes
on to to help computers run and
all the software work, I think
that's a big piece of it, right?
Just helping them understand all
the bits and pieces that go into
it. But also helping them
connect the dots. And that's
something that I really try to
do a lot of here we hold town
halls, we hold tech cafes every
month, my team and talking about
new technology and and why it
matters. So we talk about these
things. And I think that's
probably one of the best places
to start is to talk about it.
Don't make it some black box
over in the corner, where it's
just no one knows what kind of
goes in and out of it. Why does
it matter? What are the things
we're doing? Why are we looking
at data and launching new
dashboards? Why does that matter
to accounting or whatever. And I
think it really impacts them and
helps them do their job better
if they know why we're doing
certain things, it certainly
helps change happen better,
right? When someone knows the
why and kind of what's in it for
them. But I think also just, if
I had to sit down and let them
know about, things that IT is
doing. Really my goal, my team
hears it all the time is
invisible IT. I don't think IT
should be something that's
visible, like the best
technology is invisible. It does
work. We all use things and
whether it's iPhone, or whatever
it is. And I actually have a KPI
and measurement. And we actually
measure and kind of like an
invisibility index. So based on
tickets and things like that,
like how visible is technology
to our teammates. And I use that
to kind of gauge and we change
directions and do different
things because no one comes into
the office to use Excel or
Outlook. They come in to solve
problems and to do certain
things in their group. And for
me, technology should get out of
the way and just help them do
those things better. So I think
trying to try to make sure that
we were always as invisible as
possible, I think is one of the
things that I like to do.
Aaron Bock: Yeah, I want to
drill into this a little bit
more, because I've not heard of
the invisibility index. So you
actually track how visible IT
is? How many is it? How many
tickets meaning if there's less
tickets, that means the more
invisible you are?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, that's the
key. Tickets walk up things we
hear things we get through our
tech cafe. So I try to have a
lot of touch points. We do walk
through talk through kind of
things we walk around. We have
all kinds of things I push my
team out of, get out of your
desk and talk to folks and try
to learn so we're always talking
to the business in different
ways. But yes, certainly tickets
is one of those. But every
ticket is not obviously
something that's visible,
something maybe just be a
question like, hey, where do I
find something or whatever it
is. They can be all kinds of
questions. So certain types of
tickets. Yeah, we try to track
that and say, this is something
that shouldn't have been there,
right? It's something that was
visible that should have just
worked and so we try to track
that. I wouldn't say it's
perfect by any any stretch, but
half the time and half the
battle is just the
intentionality around, let's
start using this terminology.
And let's try to understand and
let everybody on the team try to
work to make technology
invisible to our teammates and
it changes your behavior when
you just even think that way.
Aaron Bock: It's interesting. I
feel like there's a lot of
people out there that might want
to when to take that metric and
and talk to you about it. So
I'll let them hit you up on
LinkedIn because I think it's a
really fascinating, you hear
shadow IT and I think we've all
heard shadow IT. I've never
heard of invisible IT. You
already talked about your
consulting for 10 plus years now
you're in an organization
running IT. How do you think
things have changed when
considering big projects? So
like, take a product officer or
take a plant manager right now
where you're at, like, 10-20
years ago, I assume decisions
were made, IT was sort of an
afterthought, go do it, make
sure this works, blah, blah,
blah. I feel like Today things
are a little bit different, you
have to consider the technology
aspect of it. So how has that
changed from what you've seen
from your consulting days? where
you're at now? Like, how do you
have someone who might be in
charge of something who doesn't
have a lot of technical
expertise? Consider IT well,
like, what do they do? Well, to
make sure that it goes that the
technology behind it is thought
through properly?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, make sure I
understand the question. So I
really think that it all goes
back to technology, like
manufacturing anything else,
it's there to solve a problem.
And really, that's probably
people get tired of me saying
it. But to me, it really comes
down to being that simple, like,
whether you've got a technical
background or not, and trying to
understand, I think a lot of
times, when technology was
coming up, yeah, we were using
it to solve problems, but it
was, it was heavily focused on
the technology. Now, there's so
many aspects to it, and
especially how it impacts the
people. And even today, we hear
the term you can call it
whatever you want to, but your
retention and hiring and those
kinds of things as well. But I
think to me, it goes back to
solving the problem, and what do
we try to do to solve the
problem? What new problems do we
have that we didn't have before?
And companies have to keep a
competitive advantage, and they
have to continue to grow and
adapt to that. And I think
technology can help them get
there, get there faster.
Aaron Bock: Yeah. So you would
agree that organizations that
take a step back ask the
question, what problem does this
solve? When we're making a
technology decision? You've seen
those organizations do IT
better. I mean, is that, would
you agree with that statement?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah. And I will
say the company's data, that
consider really that focused on,
we hear it all the time, people
process technology, data is in
there as well. But used to say,
in the consulting days, spend
80:20 kind of thing, right? 80%
of your time on your people in
your process, and 20% of the
time on technology, because
technology really is, at the end
of the day I don't want to
oversimplify it, But it is the
easy part. Like anyone can do
technology, you can implement
certain technologies, find
someone to implement
technologies for you. But
understanding how it impacts
your people, short term long
term, what processes need to
change? How do we need to do
things differently? Do we need
to change our business, because
of certain things that are
happening and those kinds of
things? To me that's like, when
an organization comes in, tool
first, technology first kind of
thing versus someone that thinks
about how it's going to impact
the people, the processes, how
we do business, all the things
around the edges. I think they
do it better for sure.
Aaron Bock: Yeah. We've heard it
a number of times before
actually a couple things you
said, other guests have said
like you mentioned in a previous
thought, highlighting what
impact IT has had for others
that don't understand that the
iceberg effect. There's 10% They
see the rest they don't. I think
it's a great practice to help
people understand this is what's
happening in the background and
in allowing people to see oh,
this is actually what goes into
this, ,but to your point, the
planning behind it, the impact
of it, but what problem does it
solve? And how do we become more
efficient before we move into
like trends? I guess I'm curious
in your personal life, because
you've spanned across a number
of industries. What technology
personally do you I guess, what
technology do you like the most
what technology has changed your
life the most? And why?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, there's
hardware there's software
there's all kinds of different
ways you can look at technology
for sure. I'm a I'm an Apple
iPhone, it's really the only
Apple I use I use these PCs but
my iPhone is probably
transformed my life and it took
so many things and put it in
your pocket where calculator,
music, whatever it is and so and
today just to see how far it's
come and the camera. I'm a big
photography guy did full
photography, but full cameras,
all that kind of stuff, kind of
amateur photography. You can do
so much on the camera on the
iPhone now and don't even need
like the larger cameras. So I
think the iPhone for sure. But
from a software standpoint, I
think one of the things that I
love everybody tells me I'm
maybe weird about it, but
OneNote. I'm a huge, huge
believer in Microsoft OneNote.
I've used Evernote and some
other tools like that, but I've
been using OneNote since about
2009. I would call myself a
pretty heavy power user of
OneNote and just organization
brainstorming all kinds of ways
to use that tool. And then I
think the last one is just the
new things that you can do with
voice. Whether it's Siri whether
it's Alexa, we kind of go with
the Alexa. It's a love hate
relationship right now with
Alexa, because some of the
updates I think they push out on
Alexa don't always work the way
we want them to. But, it's great
tools. it's got a lot of promise
that things you can do and
driving down the road and speak
to my phone and put something on
my to do list for tomorrow while
I'm thinking of it and not have
to write it down or try to
remember it. That's pretty
powerful stuff, the ways we can
use some of the technology.
Aaron Bock: My kids like using
Alexa to they like yelling at it
as loud as they can to play
Winnie the Pooh and Disney songs
over and over and over. So thank
you for sharing. So let's let's
kind of transition over to some
of the trends and what we're
seeing in IT. So I guess you
mentioned in a previous thought
you talked about cybersecurity,
automating it talking about
tasks, onboarding and off
boarding. What trends are you
seeing in let's talk about
Midrex for a second through the
manufacturing industry? What
trends are you all seeing in IT
that are going to matter now and
in the future? And I can guess
one? I think from what you've
said data a number of times, but
I'm curious to dig into these a
little bit more?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, there's a
number and they've been out
there. They've got different
levels of adoption across the
organization. I would say we're
still trying to get our hands
around some of these. But
certainly, how do we use AI
machine learning those kinds of
things for these plants. Some of
these plants that we have
running for 30-40 plus years, so
we don't own and operate the
plants, we build them and design
them and for other customers,
but using that data to help us
know how certain components that
we designed from an engineering
standpoint, function and certain
locations and geographies around
the world. And we just, using
data to do that, what about
predictive maintenance, knowing
when a component may fail or
something based on it's in the
Middle East in the desert versus
some other place that's very
cold, or whatever it is. So, I
think using that more to really
understand and learn more about
the data and the plants and how
they kind of operate. And then
kind of going into that there's
a term, people probably heard
it, but this concept of a
digital twin, right, so you have
a digital version of a physical
automotive and using it,
manufacturing, steel means steel
is always a little bit slower to
change, but really in steel and
manufacturing, as well like
having this this virtual model,
that's the exact counterpart or
twin of a physical thing. So
while we've got the physical
plant, and we used to send
people over to look at the plant
and see where something was
leaking, or whatever it is, now
how do we take that get get real
time data, overlay it on the 3d
model of the plant, and we can
see this living breathing like
plant here in Charlotte seeing
it on a screen and how its
operating and how its
functioning and what's going on
and being able to see how it
reacts and run simulations,
that's one of the biggest things
is hey, what if we change this
or reduce the diameter of this
pipe? Well, that makes it you
can do all that in real time,
because you've got to fill it,
the virtual representation. So
that's, that's a big piece, I
think, especially around what
what Midrex is trying to do
that's changing a lot of a lot
of what we're doing.
Aaron Bock: So you mentioned the
ability to have a digital twin,
I actually am not that familiar
with the concept of a digital
twin. So if you don't mind, just
for the for the folks that
haven't heard it like me, what
do you mean, elaborate a little
bit more on like digital twin?
So you have a physical plant?
You have, obviously the digital
copy of it, what else can you do
with a digital twin?
Curtis Hughes: then you have the
physical plant that's running
and sensors in the plant. That
is you could have vibrations,
you could have temperature, you
could have sound, whatever it is
speeds of motors and all that
kind of stuff. So the data is
coming off. It's flowing now
onto the screen, right? And so
you can see on the screen
instead of just like yep, I
design that compressor. Now you
can see what that compressor is
running at this mini RPM, or
whatever it is. And then what's
nice is once you have that, and
you have real real data coming
in, then you can run like what
if scenarios, like I just talked
about, where, hey, what if we
change this or reroute something
here because this new plant
needs to do something a little
different? Well, how's that
going to change how this thing
runs, you don't have to guess
and try to go through it set up
big, you can do it all right
there, because you've got data
and you've got the digital
representation and you can see
how the hell that will function
in automotive. Like I said, I've
been using this for for years
and you take wind tunnel data
and they can take the digital
twin and shape the car, all
kinds of stuff like that. But
um, you don't need to travel as
much you can. You can be a much
more proactive around how you
make design changes, predictive
maintenance, like I talked
about. So I think that's one of
the powerful things about it,
for sure.
Aaron Bock: And I assume that's
what's driving you've mentioned
data a number of times, like
that's what's driving the amount
of data increasing and the
reliance on data, because you're
getting more real time data of
real time processes that maybe
we haven't had before. Is that
true?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, exactly.
And obviously, the more data you
have, the more you can train and
learn from that data, right? And
so data is becoming very
important to get data, how fast
can we get it? Even data that,
hey, it's great. We used to be
able to get data and we can get
it in batches once a week, well,
now we need a daily or now we
need an hourly to try to get it
and to see these things more
frequently. So it's pretty
interesting. I think the latest
latest Gartner stat as of 2021,
was that it's great, but only
11% of businesses have really
deployed digital twins at large
scale, right. And so it's still
some of the larger
organizations, obviously, are
doing it and doing it well. But
it's still, what 10, 11% of
organizations out there that are
that are implementing stuff like
this. So I think that's a pretty
big thing that's going to help
us in the future for sure.
Aaron Bock: Yeah, that's a low
adoption rate. So it seems like
so when you go to a conference
for your industry? Is everything
is it all about automating
sensors, how to get the data
from the sensors? Is that kind
of the trend that you're seeing?
or is there other technologies
around there?
Curtis Hughes: Yeah, the big
things right now, if you go, I
don't go to a ton of the iron
and steel type stuff. I go to a
handful. But a lot of it right
now is around for the industry,
decarbonisation. So steel making
steel, very dirty, very bad
traditionally for the
environment. How do we how do we
reduce carbon footprint? How do
we decarbonize, still make them
go into green steel and things
like that. So Midrex is smack in
the middle of doing that. So
that's a big plus. But also,
every magazine I get on iron and
steel, huge sections in there
around AI, machine learning
digitisation sensors, just like
what you talked about, like
data, and predictive and all the
ways that we can help things run
smart, and they can learn. You
can have assembly lines, and
steel mills, change how they run
based on, no one having to
program them that they just
learned. They learned that when
this happens in this time, that
whatever it is, and it's pretty
powerful when you can have,
technology start to learn from
itself and start to start to
change how it operates.
Aaron Bock: It's like 94, a
little scary, but I guess that's
where we're going. So we're
changing the subject just a
little bit, but it's kind of
related, right? So you're
talking about, very, I would
say, cutting edge trends in your
industry. But then you take like
the traditional, like what
people think of IT, and it's the
helpdesk person, that's the
person fixing the computer? How
does someone start a career in
IT? Where would you tell them to
start now? And how do they learn
about AI and digitization and
digital twins? How do they get
there to have that knowledge to
properly do this for an
organization like yours?
Curtis Hughes: Man, it's a good
question. It's changed a lot
since I came out of school and,
I look at it now. And some of
the folks were hiring and in
school and things. And in,
there's so many paths you can
take with technology, right? And
you can go into data science,
and business intelligence, and
all that. And data analytics,
like I said, when I came out, it
was either a software developer,
or you're building the hardware,
you're like a computer engineer,
computer science, and you build
the processors, or you build the
software kind of thing. And now
there's so many areas, whether
it's machine learning AI, like I
said, data, still writing
software and user experience.
There's full jobs that are just
designing the interface, if you
like, the marketing. So for me,
it really is true, they say, do
something you enjoy, find the
things you enjoy. And honestly,
there's a technology element to
nearly everything that we can do
these days, if you're on
marketing, and designing and
drawing, you can do that
technologically, you can be on
the front end of designing, take
your pick, right and anything
you want, whether it's software
or not, and really finding out
what you're good at. What things
are hot right now. But there's
also so many more ways to get
learning and certifications,
whether it's LinkedIn learning
or these other ways, like
there's so many ways to get up
to speed on stuff that just
didn't have all those options
back when I was coming out. It
was, literally, you grab your
book that looks like this off
the shelf, and you're reading it
a night or whatever it is to try
to get up to speed now so much
is on the internet learning.
People can people can get
certified on AI and machine
learning in a short period of
time or date or whatever it is
so, I think probably for a lot
of people, you got to try things
out. That's why I like wearing a
lot of hats. I got to see what I
liked. And what I didn't like is
things really quickly that,
Yeah, I didn't like being on the
front lines and supporting and
help desk ticket stuff. I like
building and kind of creating
behind the scenes. Everybody's
going to be different.
Everybody's going to kind of
figuring out what they what they
enjoy most.
Aaron Bock: It's really
interesting. So you just said
like there's a number of sources
out there that you can go, the
YouTube, internet, whatever to
go get get the answers. I was
listening to a podcast the other
day about a guy who's in
finance. And he was talking
about he started in 19, I think
it was like 1986 or 1988, or
something like that. And his
boss walked in and said, I need
you to do blank, blank, blank,
blank blank. And he said, The
phenomenon that went through my
mind and in what raced through
my mind about how little I knew
what he just asked, was so much
more severe back then, because I
couldn't just go to Google and
type in what he asked and figure
it out. I had to literally think
through it, ask colleagues, go
find a book, or just admit, I
didn't know it. And so the
amount of like, you can only
fake it so far, if he didn't
know it. Whereas today, I think
we can go out and Google read a
quick article and become an
expert. I agree with you, it's
really do what you're
passionate. One of our last
guests, his whole, his whole
mantra was, you have to have
passion for what you're doing
for what you do. And I think
that applies to any industry.
If, let's say, the CEO of your
organization, or you're making a
prediction, I want you to look
five years, 10 years out, right?
And someone says, Hey, Curtis,
what is our IT department going
to look like? What are the
things what changes are going to
happen in 10 years? And what
like, you could talk about the
trends that will get us there,
and the why, obviously, this is
just a prediction, but like,
what do you think will change?
And where do we think IT
departments will be in 10 years
for like a manufacturing
organization? For example?
Curtis Hughes: I think, man,
that's tough. I try not to
crystal ball too much. But, you
got to kind of stay on top of
this stuff.
Aaron Bock: Indulge me a little
bit, if you will.
Curtis Hughes: Yeah. I think I
think we talked about some of it
already, I think things will
continue to be automated things
will be continued to be
commodities, right? I mean, even
the ID, even help desk, for me,
it's something that I've been
looking at here haven't made a
ton of progress, because it
hasn't been high on the list of
things that we were tackling
right now. But even with some of
the topics we talked about,
machine learning and things like
that, you could have a machine
that that answers 50, 70, 80% of
the tickets that come in,
because you've already moved
most of them, you've answered
before, right? Most of them are
repeat things or something, a
handful, it's the 80: 20, right?
20% are probably new problems or
something like that. And it
continues to learn. So what
about a bot or a series of bots
out there that these software
bots that answer tickets and get
rid of the helpdesk and put
those people towards other
things that are, like I said,
more creative and kind of the
building of things versus the
the tactical, that's really a
big focus of mine is like, if
it's something that's just very,
very tactical, we can automate
it, let's automate it, automate
the administrative is kind of
what I say a lot of the times,
like getting rid of all the
things it takes someone. because
it's not only take time, but it
also, people that enjoy building
and they're doing all this
administrative work kind of
grinds on them too, and can lead
to burnout and some other things
too. So I think letting the
automation kind of take hold, I
think is a big, big area that
we'll see. And then in general,
I think we'll see things become
more and more connected. So
getting data, we're already
seeing it. We get data from
machines, and we can see things
early and detect them, where we
couldn't before. So even,
telemetry from some of the
laptops that we've got out there
and stuff that we've deployed,
we can start to see problems and
see things going on, before
someone even knows it's an issue
and stuff. So how do we connect
all these pieces to, again, get
back to invisible IT and just
helping things run better and
get things out of the way? It'll
be interesting to see how hybrid
and this work anywhere? And
whether or not that that sticks,
and are we going to swing back?
And everybody's going to come
back in? Or is it? Is it really
gonna go? I don't know, this
depends on who you ask. I think
these days.
Aaron Bock: Yeah, we don't have
to make that prediction. Because
I know that that's controversial
organizations right now. Funny
test for anyone at home that to
what's the one thing Curtis
said, that's really interesting,
if you ever want, he mentioned
about more things being
connected. If you ever want to
play a fun game at home with
your significant other, whoever
you live with, take a guess on
how many devices are connected
in your house. I remember my
wife and I did it. And I said
there's only 20 or 30 devices
connected. It was a lot higher
than that when we ran the actual
test. And it was kind of crazy
to see how many things were
connected. So fun game for all
the listeners. Curtis, I really
appreciate you being on I want
to ask you one final question
that we ask all of our guests,
and this is really your State of
the Union. Curtis Hughes giving
a State of the Union in front of
a million people and you are
leaving your best advice.
Whether it's about career
advice, technology advice for
those don't know, any kind of
advice as it relates to
technology, what would it be?
What would you say?
Curtis Hughes: Million people,
wow.
Aaron Bock: Billion people, it
can be as many people as you
want.
Curtis Hughes: I think a few
things maybe number one, Expect
the unexpected like things are
no longer, except number one
success is not linear. And if
you look at my background or my
history or whatever it is, and
just how the world's going and
COVID and all these things have
proven that, right? Just expect
the unexpected and kind of
balancing to what you're working
on today with kind of where
we're going tomorrow. But also
being being agile and adaptable.
I think the more rigid we are
the the worse off we're going to
be in the future. I think we
really have to bake flexibility
and everything. We're everything
we're doing. I talked about it
already. But starting with the
tool first mindset, I think
that's me really I say a lot
people that know me have heard
it a ton. But don't start with
the tool, start with the
problem, start with the people
and and really try to understand
that first and honestly, even
when I'm hiring, looking at
people, technologies are gonna
change skill sets are gonna
change what I hire somebody for
today, they're going to need to
know something different in five
years, 10 years, whatever it is,
or even sooner. So hire for
culture, hire for people, hire
for the ability for someone to
kind of think creatively and
solve problems outside of just
technology. And then the last
thing is just always keep in the
back of your mind and or the
front of your mind, the impact
that whatever you do has on
people, I think sometimes we
just forget that we just solve
problems and technology and we
don't think downstream like, how
is this going to affect someone
that uses this or someone on my
team? Or how do we support it,
whatever the people impact may
be think about the people impact
of what you're trying to do.
It'll be much more successful
when you do that, and it'll make
you think differently.
Aaron Bock: I love it. And I
really do appreciate you sharing
this with myself over the years
and then with our with our
listeners, I think embracing the
people understanding the
technology and the why behind it
is super important. And this
seems to be a theme on this
podcast. So Curtis, I want to be
respectful of your time. Thank
you very much for joining the IT
Matters podcast. This was
awesome talking to you today. I
always enjoy it. For those
listening. What's the best way
to get in touch with you?
Curtis Hughes: I think LinkedIn
to find me on LinkedIn. Yeah, I
think it's /CurtisHughes on
LinkedIn. And you can you can
look me up or just its not a ton
of Curtis users out there. So
find me pretty easily here in
Charlotte. But yeah, it's
probably the best way.
Aaron Bock: Well, thanks for
joining us today. Curtis Stay
cool. Really, really enjoyed the
show and have a great week.
Curtis Hughes: Thanks Aaron.
Appreciate it.
Narrator: Thanks for listening.
The IT Matters podcast is
produced by a collar and it
advisory firm that helps
businesses navigate the vast and
complex IT marketplace. Learn
more about kala at op klla.com