Who makes the best software on Earth? To answer that question, it’s probably best to look to the technology industry: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, of course, not to mention business fixtures like Salesforce and consumer favorites like Netflix.
But Siemens? You might not realize it, but the industrial giant has been hiring software developers, data analysts, and computer scientists in droves, says Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton.
“We have a lot of know-how in the physical world, the operational technology,” she says in an interview with Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky. “But actually investing in software companies has brought the virtual and physical together.”
Even though most people understand that digitization is changing the way business is conducted, that transition hasn’t been easy. “The needs of a digital generation actually are quite different,” Humpton says. “And one of the things we’ve been looking at in our leadership team is their ‘digital quotient.’ Their IQ, their EQ, and their DQ”—as in intelligence, emotional, and digital quotients—”to make sure that these are leaders that are going to be able to take our employees into the future.”
For more from Humpton, watch the interview above.
