Pictures of the Future Fall 2006
Inventors & Innovators – Dr. Tzoanna Ekaterinidi
Siemens Greece, Athens
Software’s Human Touch
You have to love people and accept them with all their strengths and weaknesses, just like parents do with their children. But you also have to teach them to establish a culture of objective self-assessment," says Tzoanna Ekaterinidi, head of the Software Center (SWC) operated by Siemens Greece. Ekaterinidi, 47, practices what she preaches. "I want to give my employees the feeling that I work for and with them. If we communicate openly, we can avoid errors and do things better the next time," she says.
This attitude may indeed be the secret behind the success of the SWC, whose engineers, computer scientists and physicists develop and innovate in three main fields: telecommunication networks, simulation technologies and security systems. Some 700 people work in the SWC and 40 % of them are women—an unusually high percentage. "Software development is a very analytical and precise discipline that meshes well with female patterns of thinking," says Ekaterinidi, who recalls how the SWC got off to a modest start in 1990. "I had just started working as a software developer at Siemens Greece. There were only 12 developers back then, but we built up the center."
Ekaterinidi, a native of Athens, received a master’s degree in electrical engineering when she was only 22. After taking two years off to start a family, she founded a firm for design, engineering and construction of electrotechnical projects while pursuing and completing a doctoral degree in physics. Eight years later, she decided to give up her business and join Siemens.
Ekaterinidi became director of the SWC in 1997, and under her leadership it has established itself as an international center for research and development, carrying out projects for Siemens in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Among other things, the SWC developed the software for the state-of-the-art security and transport monitoring system used during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The SWC also works on the development of prototypes and innovative services for international markets served by Siemens.
The open communication style at the center is one example of the culture of innovation established by Ekaterinidi, who frequently brings together engineers, researchers, technicians, sales staff and customers for internal workshops. "They have to learn to express their thoughts and opinions freely," she explains. "There’s no such thing as a dumb or wrong idea." Encouraged by this approach, her employees have learned to discuss their proposals and practice the art of persuasion when they run into obstacles. "Basically, you have to be able to clearly explain the utility of what you’re proposing—and you have to believe in your idea and have enough mental stamina to implement it," she says.
Evdoxia Tsakiridou
Innovators
How and Why Innovations Originate. Many management books focus on the theory of innovation processes, strategies and methods—but to what extent can such theories explain the origins of innovations? We’ve put together 14 brief portraits that present Siemens inventors and innovators and their experiences. We explored their personalities and examined the efforts they made to overcome obstacles. In the end, we found that there’s no standard recipe for innovation success. Some innovations result from the pure persistence of visionary pioneers who think out of the box, while others are born of a consistent approach that involves analysis and continual process improvement. Still others bear fruit because inventors incorporated customers into the process at an early stage, especially in their own regions, or worked together with external partners. What all our innovators have in common, however, is a propensity to think independently and the need for a culture that permits errors and promotes employee creativity. Above all, such a culture must always consider the utility of new ideas for customers.