Avoiding the Quiet Crisis in Industrial Technology & Engineering Leadership

There’s a lot of momentum in the U.S. industrial sector right now. Between reshoring, data center buildouts, infrastructure spending, and the energy transition, it finally feels like the sector is getting some attention. However, beneath the momentum lies a quiet crisis: the erosion of deep technology & engineering leadership. This is due to:

The strategic value of technology and engineering leadership

The success of industrial companies depends on the design, reliability, and integration of physical products, assets, and systems. Not only are these leaders responsible for these fundamentals, their expertise remains a critical source of differentiation and innovation.

Despite its importance, we are seeing that the bench of experienced leaders is not expanding at the pace the industry requires. In many cases, it’s contracting. The forces behind this challenge are structural, not cyclical, and they are reshaping the sector’s ability to build, retain, and transition technical expertise.

Authors

Jason Jin is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Industrial and Natural Resources practice and Technology Officer Practice. He is based in New York.
Sarabeth Tukey is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Industrial and Natural Resources practice and lead of our Operations and Supply Chain Practice for the Americas region. She is based in New York.
Kannitha Than is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Industrial and Natural Resources Commercial Strategy & Insight team. She is based in New York.