YouSaid · the spoken record

Mary Erdoes

lines on the record
25
first
2017-03-27
most recent
2017-03-27
sittings or episodes
1
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podcast

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  1. “Cafeterias. But isn't that interesting that that's what he was worried about? And we got to the company, we started the meeting at the cafeteria, eating sandwiches. Fifteen minutes into the meeting, he no longer was focused on me being a woman. He was focused on my content. He was focused on the fact that I actually knew the most about the topic he wanted to cover within the Goldman Sachs network. And the cover of the book didn't matter. The content of the book is what mattered. When I'm advising young women, I tell them that the sooner and the more often they can talk in front of their clients and really deliver advice and judgments, the better, because then people are not judging them by how they look. They're not judging the book by the cover. They're judging the book by the content. And that's the way that young women can really set themselves up to succeed.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “This is a problem because I have not made a reservation for lunch at a fine restaurant. We were going to be eating at the company cafeteria. And my colleague said, well, Claire covers industrial companies. She eats at a lot of”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “You are working with are as candid with you as the guys they're working with because sometimes, not always, but sometimes a man can be a little bit hesitant to give harsh or critical feedback to a woman when in fact that's exactly what you need if you're trying to shore up your weaknesses and play to your strengths. The number of senior women is still not as high as we would like it to be. And one of the things I think it's important for women to realize is that we all tend to judge a book by its cover until we start reading the book and I'll give you a very funny example of that. I was flying to Milan to meet with an Italian client and when we land and we're going through customs and immigration, my Italian male colleague got a phone call from the CEO who said, you didn't tell me Claire who you're bringing to the meeting as a woman. And I saw my Italian colleague begin to panic and wonder why in the world is he making that comment. And then the CEO said,”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “The most important lesson I have learned in my career is to always solicit, direct, and honest feedback. And this piece of advice applies to men and women alike. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and we all have blind spots to our self-awareness. I think it's very important to solicit regular and candid feedback. And when doing so, one has to be a good listener. It's very easy to get defensive and say why the person who's giving you that feedback might be mistaken, when in fact what you should do is not talk and listen and take it on board. Related to that, however, is that you should be resilient. So when you get constructive feedback, you shouldn't let that get you down. You should actually celebrate that someone cared enough about you to give you some things that you could work on to improve your forward. And I would say that for women in particular, it's very important to make sure that the guide.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “So, Claire, you've been at the firm now for 20 years. You have been a senior woman in what's historically been a male-dominated field, particularly in the industrial space. So what are some of the most important lessons you've learned in terms of navigating your career?”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Innovation is in water technology, and a very simple of that is irrigation. So farm And how the irrigation is administered to the crops and how to ensure that you're getting just the maximum efficiency and maximum productivity from a scarce resource. So I think we're seeing exciting business models that investors want to invest in because it's secular growth. So many of the, as you described, old line industrial businesses are cyclical. And so there's obviously cyclical growth, but investors are looking for opportunities where they can have true secular growth. I think also some of the old line companies that you mentioned are very happy to put money to work to be environmental leaders because they know that increasingly that's a factor that investors are looking toward. And frankly, potential employees are looking toward. Investors and employees want to invest their time and energy and capital in companies that have ideals that they care about.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “We're seeing a lot of exciting business models that are looking for capital, which address environmental needs. One example over the past couple of years is smart meters. So if energy is a scarce resource, one of the ways that we can expand or stretch the energy generation capabilities that we have is for end consumers to conserve. So if they have a smart meter which shows to them very clearly how much they're spending on electricity and gives them information, they can then make the choice to conserve in a more real-time tangible way. And studies have shown that people who have a smart meter in their home sometimes can serve up to 15% of their electricity consumption, which means their electricity bill goes down. So that's a really interesting example of technology that can cause a change in behavior. Another example where we've seen some really interesting”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “I think that today companies have to think about what are responsible policies for their customers but also their employees. They have a lot of constituents whom they need to look out for. And depending on what the product is they're manufacturing or who they're selling it to, they need to really think about what puts them in an advantaged position globally to sell to their customers. But part of being in a globally advantaged position is having a workforce who's skilled, who's loyal, and who really can be a competitive advantage for you. So capital can be an advantage, but a workforce who's skilled and loyal can also be an advantage. And so I think that increasingly the rules that applied over the last decade about where supply chains were based and how they were being constructed, some of those rules are changing. And potentially in some cases in pretty material ways. And so I think it allows people to sort of reopen the equation and think about the human impact.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “So, in developed countries, it's been the service sector where a lot of the job growth has been concentrated in recent years. Today we have a president in the US who's talking a lot about job growth and manufacturing, and there's a lot of political emphasis on manufacturing. He's had the CEOs of old line-ish industrial companies in to see him a couple times now. So how does that political emphasis on manufacturing help or hurt industrial companies that are trying to operate today?”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “The factory of the future is a very data rich environment. So suppliers are connected to the manufacturer who are connected to their customers and are further connected to their end product and how it's used in the field. Software and robotics and intelligence solutions are becoming pervasive. So I think we are going to be headed toward a more data-rich environment, but at the end of the day, humans need to provide the intellect and the judgment to sort through what do we do with all this data because it's otherwise just data. It's not judgment and it's not anything that can be acted on.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “So, the industrial space has always been a place that highlights the changing nature of work, whether it's the Advent, the Assembly Line over 100 years ago, or the offshoring of manufacturing, which we saw a lot of in the 80s and 90s, and today particularly the growth of automation. How are advances in software and robotics that you talked a little bit about at the beginning affecting how industrial companies conceive of their need for talent?”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “I would agree with you. I would say the tide has really turned very much to the opposite, which is they now feel as though they must pay up, perhaps even a little bit more, to be the winner in the end because there are sometimes political sensitivities that need to be worked through. And so they're really putting their money where their mouth is in terms of their strategy to have more globality to their businesses.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “In the past they've always been willing to look at things but not actually pull the trigger. But do you find Chinese companies are now actually willing to pay up? In the past they were relatively value driven, but they seem to be really putting aside value in favor of growth.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “Cases where China has invested in Europe, there have been some very positive results from that, firstly because it enables the European company to then have better access to the Chinese markets, which prior to the Chinese investment they might have been struggling with what's the right way to access the Chinese market. It also can allow Chinese capital to flow in to support European strategies. And then finally, from an M&A perspective, when European clients are looking to divest non-core assets, the Chinese buyers are a wealth of potential buyers that we can turn to.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “We've seen an incredibly unprecedented level of China investment into Europe. However, that has been tempered at the end of the year by some new restrictions on currency leaving China. It has also been tempered by the US and to a lesser extent Germany and some other European governments taking a stricter interpretation on what assets are vital to national security. So I think if we take those recent developments which hamper a little bit the enthusiasm, it's still the case that Chinese companies are still looking to expand overseas. They went through a period of many years where they were building local champions and now they're really taking action to build global champions and they value the management talent that exists in Europe in the US. They value the technology know-how the manufacturing know-how. And so in some cases,”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “When we talk about transactions, one of the things we've seen a lot of in Europe is an influx of Chinese investment, particularly in the medium-sized, highly specialized manufacturing companies that have traditionally exported to China. So how receptive have European companies been to foreign investment? And how receptive have European governments been to Chinese investment? And what does that investment mean for the future of European manufacturing?”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “Going to pass between signing and closing of the transaction. And they really wanted to know with certainty how many euros they would need to deliver to satisfy the dollar purchase price. It's a company that really had not heretofore thought about hedging because heretofore they always quote self-insured. But the magnitude of the acquisition they were doing and also the magnitude of swings we're seeing in the currency market made them think differently this time and act on some hedging strategies.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “The dollar strengthening is having a huge impact on how people plan and actions that they're taking to manage risk. I see clients running more sensitivities to foreign exchange movements, and why are they doing that? Because they want to be correct as much as possible with investors when they're giving them guidance for their forward performance. And increasingly, the FX movement can really swing things in a material way. And so they're really trying to be as thoughtful as possible in a world that's uncertain where we can't predict the magnitude and direction of certain currency movements. But I'm also seeing people really take action behind those sensitivities and hedge currency where they didn't before. An example of that is we were working with a client in Europe who is a euro-based company. They were acquiring a company in the US and paying dollars. And there was a fair amount of time that was”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “When we look at where growth will come from this year, Goldman Sachs research does expect world GDP to increase, but where is that growth coming from? It's in large part coming from the US, and it's also coming a little bit from developing markets who are turning the corner from a very challenging year last year. Our economic forecasts are for Europe to be a little bit weak relative to last year. So exactly as you said, our European clients are looking to increase their exposure in the US. Sometimes they can do this through simply investing in product development, in marketing initiatives, and sometimes they need to do this through M&A because of what their global footprint looks like. We are seeing a renewed interest in European companies despite the strong dollar in finding ways to continue to grow their footprint in the US.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “With respect to what's going on in Europe, we have a lot going on. We have Article 50 being triggered in the UK to facilitate Brexit. We have elections in France, Germany, the Netherlands. We have a referendum in Turkey. The list goes on. Mainly I'm seeing this impact clients because they want to avoid capital raising during any period when there could be volatility in the markets. And that's a pretty wide period of potential volatility depending on the outcomes of those elections. So we're seeing clients looking to raise capital now, try to get ahead of that, or else they're being very careful about assuming what windows will be open because as a rule, you want to raise capital when you can, not when you need it. And in an ideal world, when you can and when the markets are not volatile and investors are looking to put money to work.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “So, this is a company that otherwise would move forward with divesting its non-core division is now pausing and saying that wouldn't be a wise thing to do because even though it's at the moment a low probability that a BAT would go through, perhaps I should pause and wait until there's more certainty so I understand the financial profile of what I'm selling and the capital gains tax implications and move forward at a time when I have better visibility. Another example of contingency planning is one of our clients in Mexico who has most of their supply chain in Mexico but they're selling to the US and while they certainly would not today with what is known put a manufacturing facility in the US it's something that they must think about because again they're of the profile that could be greatly impacted so they're beginning to think about contingency plans.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “First I would say that the din from the US is actually quite loud in Europe because most clients in Europe are not quote European. They're actually global with a European headquarter. So in terms of how they're reacting to Trump, in particular they're focused on what could be potential tax reform. And I think it's having two implications. The first is while they are trying to focus on business as usual, there are decisions which are being delayed and where companies are proactively taking a pause. And in other cases, they're making contingency plans. And I'll give you an example of both. European headquarters company that has a non-core division where most of the manufacturing is in China and the largest customer bases in the US. This is the exact profile of a company who would be most impacted if there were a border adjustment tax enacted in the US.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “And a continuing revenue stream because you'll have a bigger share of the customers spend to the extent you can solve bigger problems for them. And it's also more value add for your customer if you're thinking about the cost of the product over the life cycle of the product”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “When you think about a truck driving down the highway, a Class 8 truck, it's no longer just about the truck, it's about the steering system, the braking system, what's the interface between all of those systems so that if you think about collision avoidance systems, or you think about driver assist in case the driver becomes sleepy, so all those precursors to autonomous driving, In other words, people are no longer thinking about the components or the subsystems. They're thinking about how do they integrate that as a whole to create a solution. Because if you put a product in the field and you deliver it as part of a solution and you monitor it and service it, there's a feedback loop so you're better able to design and engineer the next generation of the product.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “When I think about managing the group, Jake, I think about two imperatives. One thing is, are we global? And the second thing is, are we coordinated with our colleagues in telecom media and technology? The reason I focus on globality is because 20 years ago, we used to have cross-border M&A, which was unusual, or the minority. When you think about M&A today, especially if you're based in Europe the way I am, almost every deal is cross-border. And so if we really want to be the leading edge in giving our clients the best advice, we have to have experts in every corner of the world. And one plus one equals three in terms of tying our advice together. The other collaboration I focus on is with technology, and we'll come on to that, I think, in our discussion, because increasingly hardware companies, manufacturing companies are looking at how they can add intelligence.”

    2017-03-27 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Manufacturing in the Digital Age: A Balancing Act for Businesses · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT