Eric has a broad background—degrees in biology, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and industrial engineering—combined with decades of experience in product and process development at Motorola and Medtronic. He is one of the original founders of both Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma and has given guest lectures, written books, taught classes, and coached engineers and scientists on predictive engineering—the melding of engineering modeling with probabilistic thinking. Products and processes fail or disappoint due to noise factors beyond our control. Predictive engineering incorporates these noise factors through probabilistic modeling and optimization, enabling flawless launches.
Could you elaborate on the nature of your business, highlighting its purpose and the ways it benefits people?
Training, consulting, and coaching engineers, scientists, and business people in modeling and optimizing products and processes. It prevents problems and enables flawless launches of products and processes. For companies, the profit can be impressive (IBM documents more than $100M in a video on LinkedIn). For people, the enhanced skills provide a competitive advantage for advancement—over 70% of the people Eric trained to the highest level were promoted to director level through CEO level.
What inspired you to start your journey as a coach and entrepreneur? Were there any specific events, challenges, or people that motivated you to take this path?
When I retired from Medtronic in 2020, I wanted to continue to make a difference. It is invigorating and exciting to help other people and to help organizations succeed. Fortunately, I was contacted by many companies asking me to provide training, consulting, and coaching for their people, and this has provided a way for me to continue this journey.
Looking back at the beginning of your career, what were the major challenges you faced when establishing yourself as a leader/coach? How did you overcome those obstacles?
When I joined Motorola in 1979, I was the only biomedical engineer in a “sea” of electrical engineers—I felt lost and quite ignorant. I asked a lot of remarkably stupid questions.
I found a weakness in the approach that the electrical engineers were using—they were using deterministic modeling, assuming that the electrical inputs totally controlled the electrical outputs.
This weakness could be overcome by combining the deterministic models with probabilistic approaches such as Monte Carlo Simulation, Variance Transmission, and Bayesian Belief Networks so that products and processes could be designed to be robust against uncontrolled “noise factors.”
Would you like to share any remarkable achievements?
First-pass successful product launches called Flawless Launches, first at Motorola then at Medtronic, including Micra, which was recognized as Medical Device of the Year by US News and World Report in 2016, and the e-Ink display for the original Amazon Kindle.
Women are a growing force in workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. What are your thoughts about women in leadership today?
My daughter Pamela is an entrepreneur and author, and she provides a clear vision combined with compassion. The women leaders I have worked with similarly provide a wonderful approach to leadership:
- Develop a clear vision for where you want to take the organization and its people.
- Leverage your compassion and communication skills to clearly articulate the vision and grow support from the people in the organization.
- Set a great example as a caring, compassionate leader who listens and takes action.
- Recognize your people, with their small wins along the path and even more for their more impressive successes together.
What message/advice would you have for future women leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs?
- Strengthen your communication skills: written, one-on-one, and in front of audiences.
- Develop a passion for learning, and then apply what you have learned appropriately.
- Develop enthusiasm for your work—and find a way to enjoy the tasks that others find boring or distasteful, and be successful at those tasks as well.
Please insert website or social media links (if any):
LinkedIn
6 Sigma Experts
Flawless Launches
