Harnessing Leadership and Innovation: Brontë Hamilton, VP, Strategy & BD at TE Connectivity

In this inspiring episode of TBCY’s Leaders Who Care series, Brontë Hamilton, VP, Strategy & BD at TE Connectivity, shares her remarkable journey from growing up on a remote farm in Western Australia to becoming a leader in global technology, strategy, and innovation. Hosted by Mark Sadovnick, the conversation explores Brontë’s experiences in the Australian Army, her deployment to Iraq, leadership lessons learned through working with horses and high-performing teams, and her transition from military service to the corporate world. Brontë also shares her perspective on the future of AI, technology, the workplace, and the 5th Industrial Revolution, while discussing the unique challenges and opportunities facing women in leadership. Building resilience through challenging experiences Learning trust and leadership from horses Turning diverse experiences into professional strengths Transitioning from military service to corporate leadership Building high-performing teams through trust and clarity Understanding the complexity of global technology and supply chains Preparing for AI-driven disruption and the future of work Balancing technological progress with humanity and social responsibility Leading with optimism, empathy, and purpose Brontë’s reflections on career transitions, military service, leadership, innovation, and the future make this episode a valuable conversation for leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone navigating a rapidly changing world.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  All right, I'm excited for a lot of reasons to welcome you Bronte to the Leaders Who Care series, because I do love people that have unique names.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  More unique probably here than there, but Bronte, now, do you pronounce it Bronte? Or do you put some flair to it like Bronte?

• 0:28Speaker 01

  Well, if I'd have known you were talking to me just for the name, Mark, maybe.

• 0:32Speaker 00

  I didn't say it was just for the name, I said that was a unique.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  No, I pronounce it Bronte, but I do respond to a lot of variations on it. And a little side note, it comes from ancient Greek and it actually means thunder.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  So hence my nickname at school was Brontosaurus.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  Well, you do know Fleetwood Mac has a song, "Thunder only happens when it's raining."

• 1:02Speaker 00

  So maybe you can do Bronte always happens or something.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  So that's, that's good, you know that thunder, how cool. Welcome to the series. People will see why you truly are a leader who cares as we go through, as we go through this. Always the best place to start is if you could briefly introduce yourself, and I always have to clarify this, especially for men, because the first thing they usually tell them is their title and what they do. Can you tell, we'll get to the business stuff in a minute, but where are you from originally? Where you are now, whatever you want to share about family, siblings, maybe something you've never told anybody, you want to reveal to the world now, that's always.

• 1:45Speaker 00

  Tell us a little bit about thunder always happens when it's raining.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Well, thanks, and thanks for having me, and I greatly appreciate what you're driving with the leaders who care, I think that's critical now more than ever. A little bit about myself, if you can probably hear from the accent, it's a bit mixed up. I'm originally from Australia, and for those who are curious, Western Australia, there's Perth, which is the most isolated city in the world, and then you drive six hours away from Perth and you get to the town that I lived outside of, so you drove outside of that town. So I didn't get out much as a kid.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  So I grew up on a farm, a lot of cows, a lot of horses, chickens, ducks. But I think it was a good life, and it's a good way to grow up and, and I think understand a bit of the work ethic and understand, you know, cows don't care, if something needs doing, it needs doing.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  So that's where I'm from originally, I have one brother and obviously parents, parents are still in Australia, as is my brother. I have bounced all over the world and I followed a long arc to end up where I am today, which is in Zurich, Switzerland, which is absolutely like a fairy tale and is completely different to Western Australia. But I, I love it here and I have just, and we can touch on this more later, but I think this is where I'm going to settle. It's a really good place to be.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, Zurich is beautiful, it's almost like a big small town or something, it's got a lot of character and stuff. Do you have brothers, sisters?

• 3:25Speaker 01

  One brother, who's pretty close in age to me, and he's still back in Australia and Queensland up on the Sunshine Coast, which is exactly as lovely as it sounds, there's a lot of sun and beaches.

• 3:37Speaker 00

  I love the way you say Australia versus Australia, because I know in Miami, when I first moved to Miami, the people that have been there a long time called them Miami, and there's also Washington DC and things like that. I guess it creates a uniqueness in that by itself. I love the fact that you said you grew up there and I love that, what did you say? If the cows don't care, if something needs doing, then you're doing.

• 4:09Speaker 00

  But share with us a little bit of what were you like as a kid and a teenager? Were you like up early all the time because of chores? Or were you pretending to sleep so the parents wouldn't wake you up? Or did you ride the cows? What were you doing?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  I was probably what would be described as a tomboy. I was usually up early because we actually only had wood fires growing up for heating and cooking and hot water, so that was my job, light those each morning, get ready.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  The other thing, two other things I love doing that outside of school was horse riding. So I'm the black sheep in my family at the moment, because I don't own, race, breed, compete, do something with horses. But I grew up riding nearly every day and I credit my mom with that, she's a brilliant instructor, brilliant with horses. And horses can teach you a lot about leadership as well, because, you know, they're, they're a large animal, and if a thousand plus pound animal doesn't want to do what it doesn't want to do, you're not going to make it. So did a lot of horse riding and then my mother was a librarian, so I wasn't allowed to watch TV, except for the Olympics.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  And so I was an avid reader and I literally used to have a stack of books beside my bed. I think I was on to adult books by 11 or 12, I blame my mom for that. But I love reading to this day.

• 5:35Speaker 00

  We'll clarify adult books, by the way, just to.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  We're getting into a whole Jeff Epstein conversation.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, appropriate books.

• 5:48Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  But I love reading and I still read to this day, I think it's, it's a brilliant way to learn about the perspective of others and to build that empathy muscle without actually, you know, having to go there or be there, you can learn it, which I think is just amazing, so.

• 6:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is, there was a video a while back showing a two-year-old was given a book and he was trying to slide.

• 6:16Speaker 00

  Basically, why isn't the, weren't the pages?

• 6:20Speaker 00

  Which is scary in its own right.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  Did you, did you ride like competition wise or for fun or a combination when you were younger?

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Just for fun, just for fun, so, you know, for probably, gosh, I want to say a large number of years, mom wouldn't let me ride with a saddle, so I had to ride bareback.

• 6:41Speaker 00

  Hang on.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  I'll, I'll credit that with my resilience, because I fell off my pony every single time, and if my friend was with me, we both fell off the pony every single time. But as soon as I started riding in a saddle, I never fell out of a saddle, so.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  I have a friend of mine, she did dressage.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  And yeah, those horses are beautiful and big and strong. And in a way scary, because you really, it's amazing, you really have to develop a trust with them, right? To work with them, and she was a small woman, but the horses trusted her and did, and I always found that amazing, because they are beasts, man, it's incredible.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  They're, they're huge, and I think one of the special things, mom had ridden a horse in competition when she was younger, and through connections, we found out where he was, and he ended up being able to retire, sort of 12, 13 years later on to our farm, and he became my schooling horse. And I think this is a concept we can use more of in, in businesses. Here's this horse who is now at the end of his career, but I learned a lot riding that horse, and he was huge, he was big 17, 18 hand horse.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  So I think that, that was pretty special, yeah.

• 8:07Speaker 00

  For both, I think, for the horse, because they do feel in a different way. We do it, it's, it's something that we call untapped talent, and it actually applies to grandmothers, grandfathers, people too, of how do we, how do we engage that wisdom and give them purpose still in their life as well?

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 8:30Speaker 00

  By the way, there's a great movie, I'll, I'll talk, it's called Nona on Netflix. It's a true story about grandmothers that were, weren't doing anything in particular, but brought into a restaurant and they became the chefs of the restaurant and it became a big hit, true story. Everybody went, won on that, because people, what grandmother's cooking was and so on. So moving forward a little on, on education.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  You've got an interesting background, you're a bachelor's in information systems, management and politics, interesting.

• 9:04Speaker 00

  As at both UNSW and the Australian Defence Force Academy. What were you envisioning for yourself?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Well, I get bored easy.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  So actually, it's even a little more complicated that I was initially accepted into law at the University of Western Australia, which is reasonably hard to do.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  But my mom had gone through one of the first, I guess, workers' compensation, sort of discrimination cases early. And I sort of walked away from that, even at a young age, thinking, I'm not sure I want to be in that space. You know, it's a good space for a lot of people, but I wasn't sure it was for me. And around that time, someone mentioned to me that the Australian Defence Force Academy offered scholarships. And given I was on a farm in a small town, this was a way to get up and out and to get an education.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  So I decided to join the army, which the conversation with my mom literally went, "Mom, I think I'm going to join the army." She went, "Well, is that what you want, dear?" And I said, "Yeah." She goes, "Okay, excellent."

• 10:13Speaker 01

  Had no, no clue what it would entail.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  But to do that, it's kind of similar to West Point, you do, you actually do a university degree or college degree, but at the same time, you're doing full military training, and then after that, you do a year of full-time army training. And I started with information systems because I thought that was going to be a critical area. And then economics and management seemed like sensible thing to do. And then politics was easy to pick up and. Um, you know.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  They all come together, don't they? It's interesting. Um. Yeah, before I I got into college, I um, I was in the militia. They called it the militia in uh. In Canada and but it was a focus on communications. Predominantly rather than information systems. This is waiting. It was a great um. A background. It was a great experience for so many things. I didn't stay in it after that, but uh. But it was, I almost think everybody should do it, if not, if for and and and other things um. Um, so then moving forward from there, um, while I'll back up a bit, you know, we found that our firm. Uh, fifth on the basis that leaders and their organizations, whatever it was, um, for profit, nonprofit and um.

• 11:28Speaker 00

  Family officers and whatnot could always do better when they're doing good at the same time.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 11:33Speaker 00

  I never understood why it took so long to to get that, but um. Can you share with us how you evolved from, I mean, the Royal Military College? You were second in command, you were an instructor there, you did some different analyses roles that you were in.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  Then you got your MBA, I believe at Penn, if I'm not mistaken, um. And then you were like a staff officer in the Australian Army. There's a lot going on there. So. Was there something in the back of your mind about making an impact and um? What were you thinking? But was was there a combination of you wanted to make some kind of impact, but you also wanted to make money?

• 12:10Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  What was going on with those different evolutions?

• 12:15Speaker 01

  So, great question, and and I could probably talk for hours, but I'll try and keep it as short as I can. Um. Yeah, something that's stuck with me and it's it's a motto of the army or an ethos, if you will, is protect and serve. And I I think there's a lot to be said for that, and that really resonated with me. Even when I was young and didn't really honestly have much of a clue and had a lot to learn out in the world. Um, but this concept of. Protect that which is valuable so that it can be better and to serve those that you protect. And I think that's really critical, especially in today's world. And so when I joined the army, we'd actually been a relatively speaking a peacetime army for a couple of decades.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  And just as I graduated. Um, there was the East Timor conflict. Not long after that was Second Gulf War. Not long after that was Afghanistan. So. Myself and my classmates graduated at a time where everything was shifting fundamentally and and. Literally, we were being sent off into these combat zones. Um. My first specialty was communications or Signals Corps. So you you kind of they smoosh a year of electrical engineering into six months and shove it in your head and then. Um, before I knew it. Um, I was in my next role, which was intelligence. Um, at the D I A equivalent in Australia.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  And this is one of the classic things in life. There's a lot of serendipity in life. I turned up and I was meant to be covering China. Army being army, like most bureaucracies. When I rocked up, they said, why are you here? When I'm here to report for my role. And they went, well, we didn't know you were coming. Um, someone's already covering China. Uh. Iraq is really quiet at the moment. Go sit over on that desk and get used to this. Well. Couple of months later. Things happened. Um, so suddenly I found myself. You know, right at the center of. Some difficult decisions, even for Australia as a distant nation. How do we support the U S?

• 14:27Speaker 01

  How do we support our allies? Do we involve ourselves in this war?

• 14:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Um. And I ended up deploying to Iraq, uh. As part of the search for W M D, I worked with Charles Dolph for a little on the um. The report that was issued on W M D and counterterrorism in Iraq. And I think that really shaped my worldview because. Now you're in the heart of it and now you're seeing. Um, the cost of things when they go wrong or. You know, seeing a different model how things can unfold.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  Well, that's heavy stuff. Um, one minute you're. China bound or whatever, and then the calm before the storm, nothing's going on, but then everything's going on. Um, how long were you actually um in Iraq, I assume?

• 15:17Speaker 01

  I was there about eight months and I was working with um, you know, it was an international force. So I was there. With Americans, British, other nationalities. Um, so again, that was, I think. You know, touching on diversity. Having different nations come together, bring those different perspectives, come together as allies. And I think that also shaped. And I was very grateful for that experience. So.

• 15:40Speaker 00

  Call your mom and say, remember I asked you, I told you I was going into. Okay.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  Um, you know, I I really. I'm incredibly grateful to my parents and I still am, um, because. I actually think it's easier being the person on the ground because this is what we train for. This is what we go do and usually. All else equal, we're trying to do something for good. Um. But, you know, my mom had to sit on the other end of a phone and sometimes the phone would get cut off because things were happening. Um, and then they just don't know and they're sitting there for eight months waiting for a phone call. Uh, but they never ever once. You know, said. Stop doing that or they always supported me in that, so. Yeah.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  Never said, can't you join something like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or something?

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Oh, I would in a heartbeat because I could ride horses. That was my, that's my alternate dream is is to do something like that.

• 16:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. Um, wow, um, um, yeah. You can't even imagine. We we always say, people say it sincerely, they mean it. We can, we can only imagine. We can imagine. You can't really imagine. Um, and for a parent to sit back and wonder is hard.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:53Speaker 00

  It's hard. It goes on there. Um, you know, we um, as a firm also, we were launched um. About six years ago at the U N headquarters in New York on International Women's Day because. One of our major um initiatives was women leadership, women empowerment, diversity, et cetera, equal opportunity, et cetera, et cetera. And and everything we do now, whether it's searches or projects, is based. Diverse experiences and stuff like. Can you describe the the experiences that you've had? Can you describe it? Um, being a woman, obviously, in in. In a man's world still to to a great degree and um, you know, what that. You know, what that meant for you, you know, physically, mentally, um, everything you you went through.

• 17:38Speaker 00

  You know, um, doing that.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  Well, it's a great question, and I think, like I said, I didn't know what to expect when I joined. And I think it was both simultaneously incredibly challenging. Um. In my class, there were fifty women that started and only half graduated. And of the half that graduated, we all, most of us had injuries of some kind or another. Because you just, you train to the same level as the men. And you do everything and you, you know, that's what you do. Um.

• 18:12Speaker 00

  Like the cows.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like the cows, you know, cows don't care. Um, now what I. But that said, the esprit de corps and the camaraderie, and when you do earn your place. Um. It's gender blind and it's, I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I I cherished that because once you earned the respect in the place. Then literally my brothers in arms would go to battle for me. And I think that's that's something incredibly rare and and precious. Um, and I do still miss that about the military to some extent.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  But it was hard. Um. You know, I deployed to Afghanistan as well, and one of the things you get used to is. I think there were five percent women out of the fifteen hundred people there. So everything you do is talked about, noted. Watched. You can't go anywhere any minute of the day without someone watching what you're doing. And so you just have to learn. How to live with that and be comfortable in your own skin and hold your own. Um. Yeah, but I do think.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  The other, you know, and I, I talk a lot and, and I'm very careful about talking about women versus men leaders. To me, it's the gap between good and bad leaders is the one that we should be talking about and what makes good leadership and not so good leadership. And I think that's one of the things I do value from the army and I try and use today is it's actually a very um context-driven style of leadership. You lay out the situation, you lay out the intent, one and two up, you lay out the resources and you try and set the conditions for success for your people. Um, so there are a lot of contradictions.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  I think one thing you said that I do love though, that you get out of it and we, and it was kind of the same word even working with horses. Um, if you develop that trust and respect, the foundation of that trust and respect, then it's a lot easier to achieve your mission because you trust that other person. And, and even in business, sitting in a board meeting or whatever, um, the management teams that we deal with that are successful, we find are the ones that can say anything to each other. Not malicious stuff, but anything to each other. Um, because you know, you trust where it's coming from to achieve the mission. And not like thinking about hidden agendas or this or that or, or whatnot.

• 20:38Speaker 00

  Whether it's trust sitting on a horse or trust in whatever battle, be it army or business or whatnot, it seems to be the foundation of anybody's successful.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I a hundred percent. And I think there's this misconception sometimes that in the military, you just run around yelling orders at people and they jump up and run around and do it. But we know humans, right? If humans don't want to do something, they're not doing it. And so if you're going into a combat zone or a complex peacekeeping activity or anything, what you have is a team and that team needs to trust and respect your credibility, trust that you have their best interests and will set them up for success. And if they don't trust you, they're going to find ways to not do what you need doing for the mission. Um, and I think transparency is a critical piece of that. And you know,

• 21:32Speaker 01

  because it's kind of like the cows, cows don't care. Um,

• 21:35Speaker 00

  I love that.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  The battle doesn't care if you were having a bad day or you had a separate agenda or you were trying to do politics. It doesn't care. It's, it's, it's the great leveler and teacher, right? So that's, that's something I try and bring forward as well as it's like business, right? Business doesn't care. It'll, it'll teach you one way or the other.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, although I think there's leaders who do care and make a difference, but they, they care about, um, they care about a foundation of trust. They care about, that is, as an expression we use a lot is clear is kind. The clearer you are about everything, the kinder you are. And in the opposite, the not, the, the worse it gets if you're not clear. That's not being kind to achieve the mission. So I did see, I did see a, a, a repeat of Friends. I don't know if you ever saw the show Friend? And Joey, who's not portrayed as the smart one in the group, uh, kept saying, it's a moo point. And he said, well, the cows don't care. That's what makes it moo. It's a moo point.

• 22:42Speaker 00

  And it was hilarious. And they're looking at him like, okay, Joey, it's a moo point. Um, but then, and then they were saying it, we know he's wrong, but it actually makes sense. The cows don't.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  It's funny. I, I have to say on the cow theme, I had a friend in the army once who said, whenever she had a difficult decision to make, her window of her office overlooked a field with cows. And she'd draw a circle with a texter through on the window around a cow. And when the cow walked out of the circle, she'd have to make her decision.

• 23:17Speaker 00

  Well, that's a good way. Why not?

• 23:19Speaker 01

  It worked for her, you know?

• 23:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's not a moo point, but it could be.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  It's not a moo point.

• 23:27Speaker 00

  Well, to, to another point, um, you know, they say the, the fourth industrial revolution is about AI and technology. And it's moving faster than anybody could have ever imagined. But there's also conversation that the fifth industrial revolution is about humanity. Um, and how these things come together. And we, when we, we, we focus on how, how talent tech and impact in harmony actually works really well. Your, your next adventure, adventure is pretty major. We're with TE Connectivity. We talked about this a little bit when we met in Davos and you were there twice over 10 years and interrupted by a four-year stint with Subcom. Can you share with us what's, what experiences stood out for you in terms

• 24:11Speaker 00

  of innovation, literally on land and below sea? I did see you at Sharks below sea, uh, actually, which is crazy. But, but in terms of innovation and, and from a business, professional, even personal experience, you know, perspective, and did it turn out as you envisioned? And then we'll get into what's next.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  So a quick note on how I ended up at TE from the army. Um, I got the first ever Chief of Army Scholarship to study overseas. And I thought, well, if I'm not going to be in hot sandy places, I probably need to diversify my skill set. So I ended up getting an MBA at Penn State, which I am forever grateful to Penn State and I've, I've stayed involved with them since then. Um, because I call it my halfway house. They helped me transition and learn how to be, you know, functional in the civilian world, which is important. Um, so after that, I went.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  On that point, I interrupted. It's a really important point because we, we do work with a lot of veterans and I find so, so often there's a stereotype that they're only good at logistics and certain leadership and that's all they're good at. And, but they are really good. They isn't a general term, but they're all really good at, at what, at pointing out what is, and creating a good team and what's the mission, how to get it done. And it's not just about logistics.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And um, I'll do a free shout out to Transition Overwatch, who are a group that tries to help transition veterans into, um, you know, civilian roles in business. And I think there's enormous untapped talent there. They have resilience. They deal well with ambiguity. They understand at, at its core what teamwork means. And I think it's easy to teach someone technical skills, but teaching that is really hard. And I think it's a necessary skill set for our world. Um, so I was grateful. Yeah. Grateful to Penn State for that. Went back briefly to the army to pay back my time. I was in a large building with no windows and biometric scanning, writing very classified things about very

• 26:13Speaker 01

  classified stuff and decided that longer term, this wasn't for me. And it felt like the right time to make a pivot, do something different. So I jumped to the US. I had no house, no job, started interviewing, started all over again from scratch as a finance analyst. Um, with TE Connectivity who do um connectors, sensors, harsh connectivity, large industrial manufacturing company. Um, what did I learn over the last, gosh, time has flown 14 years? And the Subcom business was actually owned by TE, but I ended up um helping lead an effort to divest that business. And so we sold it to private equity. And uh, I was

• 26:58Speaker 01

  one of the only people that got pulled back to the mothership of TE. Uh, everyone else went with the business. I think one of the key things I learned was, and I love this, and this is what motivates me still. The world is such a wonderful, complicated place. And when a fridge rocks up on your doorstep or you look at your phone, most people have got no concept of the global complexity and the work of thousands and thousands of people to get that one thing to you at that one point in time. And, you know, TE sells over 200 billion connectors a year. We're in everything. And yet, most people don't know

• 27:38Speaker 01

  the company. And there's this whole ecosystem so that we can continue to do research and development, engineer, logistics, supply chain, right back through to how do we make sure we track conflict-free minerals? How do we do everything correctly? How are we compliant? How do we look after people? So that just fascinates me. Um, Subcom in particular, that's the internet. People think it goes over the, the satellites. Now we have Starlink. Ninety-five percentage of the world's traffic intercontinental goes over these little pipes under the sea that the size of a garden hose. And there's only really a few companies in the world that can do these big systems. So.

• 28:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's where you wonder with terrorism too. In that sense, it is quite amazing. You know, we've done a lot of work in supply chain, which is, I think, the heart and soul of every company. The day and it's kind of what it's amazing with Amazon too, how they can get something to you in like hours and stuff. But yeah, you're right. The connectivity, we take a lot for granted. And in our lifetime, we've seen so much, you know, I remember when at Deloitte, you know, the people in the they called the word processing department were some age here. We're all excited when the eraser was in the computer in the type.

• 29:06Speaker 00

  You know, that was a big deal. You didn't have to do the whole thing over. You can erase it right there. And fast and furious forward, we've seen a lot, but now we're going to see even more. How do you see? How do you see AI evolving?

• 29:21Speaker 01

  Oh, I think. I think it's going to be incredibly disruptive. At my heart, I'm an optimist, so I don't fall into the Skynet, the whole world is going to collapse into the scale.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  I see the two major disruptors for the next five to 10 years, 20 years are AI and global climate change. And I think the intersection of those two is is going to be interesting, volatile and disruptive, but will bring opportunity as well. The biggest thing I think with AI that I think is consistently underestimated.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  And I think companies know that it's important, but are struggling with how to answer the question is, you know, what work will be done by whom in the next five years? And I think there's going to be large disruption for yourself and me will probably surf the wave ahead of this a little, maybe. Maybe, but you know, to use your analogy, I learned typing at school on the old Olympias that and now I have chat GPT.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  And now I'm looking at how to embed AI in my pricing team or in in work processes. I think that's one piece, what work gets done. I think the other piece we need better discussion on and better answers for is historically, the working hour week was how we redistributed productivity from a company or a group or economy back to the participants of it. That I don't think is going to be as useful a measure in the future. And this is where people usually get very upset and start running around and using isms a lot. But I think this is a very real question, because if you don't bring people with you, they will simply break what they're not a part of.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  And I think that's going to be some challenging questions for us.

• 31:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, we're having some interesting discussions with executives right now about about two things. If there's no entry level positions that people can learn to go up into the next positions.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:27Speaker 00

  What's going to happen with that? Are we going to get your mid leaders positions? But secondly, there you can you're going to make a lot more money with some of the layoffs because they're not going to be paying salaries and healthcare. However, they have to make a mindset change of you'll be able to upskill some people, but there'd be others may not be able to upskill and does the company take on a responsibility of keeping some of those people to maybe commit them to the community to do stuff in the community? Or do they say, no, that's not what we do. This is capitalism and all those people on unemployment and they get sick because they can't afford healthcare and this and that and the other. And then you have taxes or something because who's going to support people? Even though there will be new jobs come up and everything, but

• 32:12Speaker 00

  it's going to it's going to create a challenge to your point of preventing a, if you will, an Arab Spring type of deal. But there's if there's a mindset change, I think I actually think AI has the opportunity to finally be the major impact on making people happier.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:31Speaker 00

  If we do it properly and healthcare is going to be maybe the biggest thing ever. And that's so, but to your point, it's we're going to have to do some some really good thinking and not be the same mindset as we just need to make money and whatever happens, happens.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I think you touched on it before. It's the combination of of tech and humanity and the impact. It's and I think it's dangerous to think that we can separate ourselves. You know, we're all in the same fish tank. And so you can't separate. The cost is carried somewhere.

• 33:03Speaker 00

  Right.

• 33:04Speaker 01

  But again, like I said, I'm generally an optimist. I think this there's immense opportunity out of this. And I see good corporations leaning into this, and I do see them taking on a different role that I would never have thought of 15 or 20 years ago. So.

• 33:20Speaker 00

  They haven't either, but they're going to. The mindset has to change. It is an expression. One way or another, you'll brand yourself.

• 33:30Speaker 00

  By doing nothing, you brand yourself, but do something you brand yourself, etc. So well, you know, one thing we say in Los Angeles is we've got to leave them wanting more so we can do a sequel. So we'll do that. But I have one more question here. A client told me in 2021, he said to me about 2020, the COVID year, said, you know, year that flew by slowly. And I thought, really right on almost. And and so many people I talked to, they feel like COVID was yesterday, but also years ago. Same thing. With all that said, we're already into the second half of 2025. Can you show us what you're most grateful for and also what you're most hopeful for?

• 34:13Speaker 01

  Wow, great question. What am I most grateful for? I'm most grateful for

• 34:20Speaker 01

  I think I have amazing people in my life and I'm humbled and grateful for that. And consistently, I just think when I look at a lot of the people around me, what they are doing, how they are trying to make things better in their own space and in their own way and their commitment to that and the energy they give, that gives me a lot of hope.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  So I think, you know, what am I most optimistic for? I am a firm believer that there's going to be steep levels of disruption coming. But I think this is a chance for you know, the people I see who shaped these things to also drive positive impact. And I think to be a part of that is is exciting.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  So I think it's I think it's going to be a really interesting next five years.

• 35:11Speaker 00

  It is. It started at 20, then went to 15 and 10, and then they're saying the next two is happening. Well, I'm grateful that I have a new friend and who I got to meet really quick in Davos and then we had a good parting hug and now, you know, here we are, which is which is fantastic. You never know. You never know in what moment you're going to meet. That make difference. And that also makes me hopeful because you are one of the leaders who care about getting stuff done and and you're saying you you do get because when because the cows don't care. And when there's something you're doing, you've got to be doing or something to that effect. And so and that's not a moot point. That's a real point.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  That's not a moot point.

• 35:53Speaker 00

  So so with that said, thanks for being on the on the Leaders Who Care series and for being one and we'll talk to you again soon.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Thank you. Much appreciated.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  Thank you for listening to the brand called you videocast and podcast. A platform that brings you knowledge, experience and wisdom of hundreds of successful individuals from around the world. Do visit our website, www.tbcy.in to watch and listen to the stories of many more individuals. You can also follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just search for the brand called you.