In this interview, Heidrick & Struggles’ Jerry Gorss speaks to Karl Iagnemma, the CEO of Vecna Robotics. Iagnemma shares how the talent needs of the robotics and automation sector are evolving as the sector grows, as well as how he thinks about finding and training the right talent. He also shares his perspectives on managing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, industry consolidation, and the evolution and importance of implementing the flexible and collaborative automation technology for case picking in today's supply chain operations. Finally, Iagnemma also discusses artificial intelligence and what its advances mean for the human leader in terms of the skills or capabilities they will need to manage a workforce with an increasing share of machines and collaborative work.

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Welcome to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of diversified solutions across senior-level executive search, leadership assessment and development, team and organizational effectiveness, and culture shaping. Every day, we speak with leaders around the world about how they’re meeting rising expectations and managing through volatile times, thinking about individual leaders, teams, organizations, and society. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Jerry Gorss: Hi, I'm Jerry Gorss, a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Boston Office, and leader of the global Industrial Goods & Technology Sector for the firm. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Karl Iagnemma, the CEO of Vecna Robotics. Karl is an authority on robotics and autonomous vehicles whose opinion and commentary [have] been published and broadcast worldwide on Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, and many other media outlets.

As former director of the Robotic Mobility Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his research resulted in more than 150 technical publications [and] 50 issued or filed patents. He acts as an advisor and angel investor in numerous startups in the robotics, automation, and related spaces. Karl holds MS and PhD degrees from MIT, where he was a National Science Foundation fellow, and a BS from the University of Michigan.

Karl is also an award-winning author of fiction whose novels and short stories have been translated into seven languages. Karl is co-founder of NuTonomy, later called Motional, which was named a World Economic Forum Technology pioneer and was acquired by Aptiv in 2017. He serves on the Global Advisory Board of the MIT Mobility Initiative and is a member of the University of Michigan Department of Mechanical Engineering External Advisory Board.

Karl, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Karl Iagnemma: Thanks, Jerry. My pleasure.

Jerry Gorss: Excellent. Well, let us get started with our first question around robotics and autonomy. Karl, robotics and automation is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, obviously, as you've participated in and as you've seen. Can you share with us, as the sector has evolved, how the talent needs in the sector have evolved.

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah. You know, robotics is really in the midst of a transformation from really an experimental activity, an R&D activity, to a true essential activity for businesses worldwide, especially in logistics and manufacturing; you have to have robotic automation strategy, and so the talent needs have really shifted from more of a niche focus on researchers to a broad need for interdisciplinary leaders who understand automation, who understand AI, but who also understand product development and operational impact. So at Vecna, we're seeing, you know, internally we have a lot of demand for robotics engineers, but in particular those who have a real systems-level view, who can view not just the technical dimension of the problem, but understand the impact on workflows, [the] impact on organizations. And the good news is that the talent pool has gotten broader in recent years; it's expanded. Industries like driverless cars, like logistics automation, which Vecna’s in, and others, they've really driven interest in the sector, and so that has led to more people entering into robotics. But I think it's really important to emphasize soft skills, organizational skills, the ability to collaborate cross-functionally. Those skills now are just as important as the ability to code or do electrical or mechanical engineering,

Jerry Gorss: And it's very interesting, Karl, how do you think about finding the right talent? In other words, in looking to the early stages of [the] leadership pipeline, it sounds like there are people that are getting the right training and the right skill set, and that has expanded as the sector has grown. Would you agree with that?

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah, I really would. You know, at Vecna we have a great advantage as a startup. You know, a lot of talent is drawn to tech startups like ours. We can offer a lot. We offer learning and development experience. We offer opportunities to cutting-edge technology. People are drawn to businesses, broadly speaking, with great culture, as you know. I'm still not sure I can define culture after many years in industry, but I do know that culture is fueled by, well, exciting work, by growth opportunities, by constructive change, and by an environment that really celebrates dialogue and inquiry, and we have all of that at Vecna. So we look for people that want to work in an environment like that. We look for curiosity and resilience as kind of core attributes. We also prioritize internal development, so it's not always about finding the most senior people out there; it's about bringing in junior people but helping them grow in their professional career. So upskilling, cross-training, those are things that we focus a lot on. You know, it's actually pretty easy to do in a startup—sometimes you do it by necessity, because we're relatively small in scale, [and] a lot of times, you know, we have a need, we point at someone and say, ‘Hey; yesterday you were product development, and today you're going to learn something new.’ So of course, robotics is an industry we continue to need and will continue to need kind of hard technical skills, and in particular around applied AI, robotic integration, [and] supply chain literacy, but we look 360 when we're looking for candidates and evaluating candidates.

Jerry Gorss: Excellent. Excellent. Shifting gears a little bit here, Karl, you mentioned where robotics and automation is integral these days, and as we all know, I think the word of the day is uncertainty around the geopolitical and the macroeconomic environment. How are you at Vecna managing that uncertainty, not only within, but within your ecosystem among customer suppliers, etcetera.

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah. We are a robotics business, so by definition we are doing both hardware and software development. That hardware has to be built somewhere. We have our own suppliers, of course. We've really had to build resilience into our strategy. We've diversified our own supply chain to mitigate the effects of the uncertainty. We've ensured that our business model is flexible and adaptable. We have a robotics-as-a-service offering, which is very attractive to customers in particular at the current moment. Our customers are also facing that same uncertainty; they're facing labor uncertainty, they're facing significant cost pressures, and what we've seen is that that uncertainty in our customers has really increased their urgency to automate as a way to get more efficient, as a way to save on cost. As we see more reshoring and we are beginning to see the beginnings of more reshoring activity, automation is going to be a necessary component to a reshoring strategy; it simply won't be possible to do large-scale reshoring without an automation strategy. So putting it all together, we're really doing our best to convert the headwinds resulting from uncertainty into tailwinds for our business at Vecna. 

Jerry Gorss: Excellent, excellent. And what we're also seeing as a result of some of these uncertain factors is, and even before, is consolidation within the industry; it's increasing and I think perhaps increasing at a more rapid pace. How does that impact how you look at the sector, your strategy as a business, and moving forward? 

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah, consolidation I think is normal and healthy in any industry. Where people see an opportunity, typically there's this kind of Cambrian explosion of startup activity, which eventually gets consolidated down either through M&A activity or through some businesses falling by the wayside. So I think this is a very normal evolution of a maturing industry. Consolidation creates opportunity for those that are going to become winners in the space, either through M&A [or] through market share capture, and so Vecna is in a great position to benefit from some of this consolidation as customers look for integrated solutions, and that's what all of our customers want. So that's what's going to protect us through this consolidation is what's going to prevent us from becoming really a commoditized hardware provider. And as this consolidation continues, you know, we look for opportunities for partnership, strategic partnerships with today who might be some of our potential competitors, the systems integrators of the world, and other potential players in the ecosystem.

Jerry Gorss: And further to that, Karl, I know this is something that you are passionate about. Can you share with us your point of view on the evolution and importance of implementing the flexible and collaborative automation technology for case picking in today's supply chain operations? 

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah, you know, I've been in robotics my entire career; one of the dirty little secrets of robotics is that it's actually pretty easy to make a robot that can do 90% of the task, but to get to that 95 and then 99 and then 99.5% of the task becomes harder and harder still. So I'm a big believer in collaborative automation, which is to say, let's not try to solve every final edge case with a robotic solution, let's try to strategically have humans in the workflow but also robots, and let's figure out how they can work in a complimentary fashion. And it's kind of an optimizing the bang for your buck, if you will. You mentioned case picking; case picking is a workflow that operates just across the country in just about every business you can think of and consumes an enormous amount of resources; today it's almost entirely manual. At Vecna, we launched a product called Case Flow, which is a collaborative case picking solution. We deploy a fleet of robots that work alongside some human workers, [which] amplifies their productivity tremendously, while saving significantly on costs and increasing overall throughput of the system.

It's a great example of how if you think from a systems perspective, you can optimize the performance of a system, which in this case includes both humans and robots, and ultimately deliver a better ROI for your customers. So we're huge believers in collaborative and flexible automation and Case Flow is really a great product for us.

Jerry Gorss: Excellent. Very good. And of course, another topic du jour is artificial intelligence and the use cases around AI, and so clearly there are lots of advances in robotics and applied artificial intelligence, notably the growing sophistication and range of robots. What does this mean for the human leader in terms of the skills or capabilities they will need to manage a workforce with an increasing share of machines and collaborative work?

Karl Iagnemma: Yeah, that's a great question. And again, really it goes back to having systems-level thinking. Future leaders in a technology space where there are robots deployed will have to have a systems-level understanding of not only the robot performance, but also the human performance and be able to optimize that combined system.

You really need to have kind of a technological empathy, if you will, you know, really understand how people and machines can complement one another. Because again, it's not always about replacing every human worker with an automation solution; often that will not be the optimum solution. Maybe in the future, maybe at some point it will be, but for many workflows that won't be the answer. And so having that systems-level thinking [is] incredibly important. You know, there's the organizational dimension as well, having high EQ, emotional intelligence, understanding how to introduce technology into a workflow; it's not just about having a great product, it's equally having a product that an organization, the workforce, will accept and embrace; [I] can't overstate how important that is because if you don't get that part right and your workers don't want to work alongside the robotic systems, it can be a real problem for the organization. So, the future is really going to belong to those companies and those individuals that can lead transformation; not just manage operations, but lead this transformation to a human–robot collaborative future.

Jerry Gorss: Karl, this has been great. Very exciting times for you and for Vecna Robotics. I want to thank you for taking the time and for sharing some of your insights around the sector. Thank you. 

Karl Iagnemma: Thanks a lot, Jerry.

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About the interviewer

Jerry Gorss (jgorss@heidrick.com) is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Boston office and leads the global Industrial Goods & Technology sector. He is also a member of the global Industrial, Human Resources Officers, and Supply Chain & Operations Officers practices.