Heroes in Business - Mariana Prado Cogan, CMO of Americas at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence hexagon.com

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Mariana Prado Cogan, Chief Marketing Officer of Americas at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, responsible for annual $600 Million with a 6B dollar company, sits down with David Cogan on the Eliances Heroes Show. hexagon.com

Welcome back to alliances heroes We're heroes in business aligned to be part of our super community and find out more about alliances visit www.alliances.com That's right, and I'm so glad again, thank you to to all of our listeners and viewers by the way Thank you for the feedback we had when I had on the Forbes publisher. So make sure that you go to alliances.com or alliances.com and click on the radio section and you too will be able to listen and view past interviews. Well, I'm super excited about our next person that I have the opportunity to interview today. She is the CMO of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. That's a division of Hexagon AB,

the Americas as a region, and is responsible for $600 million with a $6 billion company. And fortunately, a name that I can remember and pronounce, Marina Prado-Kogan. So with that, Marina, welcome to the E-Lion's show today. Hey, David, thank you very much for having me in your show, very excited to be here. And as you say, it's unusual to meet another Cogan, so very easy to remember last name, Cogan and Cogan. So thank you very much, very excited to be here

with all of you and all your listeners. So you've got a huge responsibility at this company. Tell us briefly kind of how did that how did you get to this position? It is many years of working many years of, you know, staying in in marketing, especially in, you know, you especially in smart manufacturing, smart technologies, and things start happening, following a process, delivering results more than anything. I think that's maybe the biggest challenge sometimes as marketeers, really being able to deliver growth to the organizations that we work for. And at the end of the day, building teams,

because when you're talking about a big number, it's not anymore the work that you do as an individual. It really takes a village. It's a wonderful team, it's working cross-functionally, it's bringing everybody on a mission so that we can deliver big numbers. Now tell us a little bit, there may be some people that aren't familiar with hexagon and hexagon manufacturing and that. Can you give us a brief synopsis of it?

So hexagon manufacturing intelligence is the smart manufacturing division of hexagon AB. We're dedicated to empower manufacturers to innovate to produce. If you think about it, we're in the space of designing, making, inspecting. So we help companies to be able to manufacture in a way that is faster, is efficient, avoiding waste. And at the end of the day, it is taking quality so that again, you're faster, you're more efficient, a lot of sustainability,

and just to put things into perspective, I don't know if you knew that, 75% of the smartphones are built using hexagon technology. About 80% of orthopedic implants are built using hexagon technology. And even from an auto perspective, 95% of the cars out there are built using hexagon technology. When we talk these days a lot about electronic vehicles, that is taught by Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. We make sure that all that happens by delivering quality.

Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. And the thing is, is what's interesting, you're in like a majority of a male dominated sector, like manufacturing. How has a female leader, how have you navigated this you know this landscape? I mean it's you have to navigate it to get to where you're at. It is definitely a little bit more complex. It requires a bit of a different skill set that maybe if you were in in fashion you know as a different um you know industry you have to work harder. Yes. You have to really be able to show impact.

I would say that that is one of the biggest challenges that you have as a woman. You have to be able to deliver results relatively quickly so that you can start building a reputation. So that then you start moving away from the gender conversation and being able to deliver results. That's one of the components that is extremely important. Secondly, you really have to build your village. Again, as I mentioned at the very beginning, it's not just you. You have to have supporters at different levels. You have to have your allies, your mentors, your sponsors. You really have to build that network

that allows you to deliver results. Because yes, you're gonna be a little bit different. You're gonna have to come up with different ideas, which I guess is the third component is that it's not a popularity contest. You do have to work in a very nice way, of course, with everybody, but you have to be very comfortable about being different.

You have to be very comfortable with the fact that your ideas are initially gonna sound like totally different to what maybe the rest of the table would have said, and just feel comfortable that it's gonna to take a little bit longer time, but then people are going to, you know, start seeing that, you know, what you're bringing to the table is extremely important. And we know by now that, you know, more diverse, you know, companies are more innovative, and more innovative companies are more diverse.

So it's putting these three components together that allows you to play in a space that you say it's very you know male oriented. Yes absolutely and again you're listening watching to me David Cogan, host of the alliances hero show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com to learn more and also too to be involved within the community and listen to past interviews because again today we are with us the chief marketing officer of the hexagon manufacturing intelligence division of hexagon ab the americas as a region and it's responsible for 600 million with a six billion dollar company marina prado cogan and again you can go to hexagon to learn more about hexagon and that now here's the thing is is i gotta imagine one of the challenges must be recruiting,

recruiting the right people, finding people for such a large company. And with the labor shortage going on and people who are qualified to be able to do it, what is Hexagon doing to be able to recruit, find the right people, train the people and keep them? It is an area that is important to discuss when you're talking about gender equality,

because as you mentioned correctly, we have about 7 to a million of unemployed, 2.7 million women that are unemployed. And at the same time, we have so many jobs available. There's about 600,000 jobs openings in the manufacturing space. So if we could just close the gap, imagine the things that we were able to do. I primarily talk about three components. We had to be able to offer flexibility, visibility, and mentorship. From a flexibility perspective, we need to make sure that women

require a different set of components, especially as they're raising kids, we have to be a little bit more flexible. One of the things that we do at Hexagon is that we really ensure that when we're going through a recruitment process, we really try to have women in the interviewing pool so that we can have that diversity of components. Visibility, if we wanna attract more women, we have to make sure that women know that there are other women in the space. That's why conversations that we're having today are extremely important.

And finally, it's a component of mentorship that we really need to make sure that not only we hire them, but really we continue grooming that career that has to happen throughout the years. And then you mentioned a very important point that is on the training perspective, because especially in the US, where college is so expensive,

you know manufacturing opens the possibility to a space that you might not be in a college degree and still get a very good salary but we need to make sure that we're training people, that we're making them aware that manufacturing by now you're really talking about smart manufacturing which is not anymore that heavy lifting component that we always been thinking about, but it's really much more about data, about innovation, about new ideas, about leveraging technology for training.

There's a lot these days on the virtual reality space or mental reality space that we can leverage to train the workforce. Unbelievable. And you know, and what inspired you to pursue really a career in the manufacturing and technology of all the gazillion different divisions and different careers out there? What drew you to this? That is a great question. and I wish I had a very smart answer to the question, but I think that sometimes life happens in a way that you were not quite thinking from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, I am an economist and then I went into marketing. I took a few years marketing. I took a few years in order to start home with my son and when I came back

I started to work at MadWorks, another player in this business space, then went to PTC, now Hexagon. So I started to find my niche because as you say it's so different that it also makes it more appealing to be able to do digital transformation, to do things that haven't done before. But it was a little bit of a combination of maybe destiny and being in the right place at the right time. What kind of secrets and or advice can you share for women that are trying to get into a male dominated industry?

What can they do? are trying to get into a male-dominated industry. What can they do? I would say that it is about almost removing the impression that it's going to be different and it's going to be difficult. You almost have to tackle it as if it was just another industry. Being comfortable, being different. I would say that that is one of the things that are most important when you're dealing with an industry where it's primarily different to be a female-dominated space. It is that you just have to be comfortable that everything is going to be different. Just don't be afraid.

Come on board. Everything is going to be different. Just don't be afraid. Come on board. Start building your supporters. Again, by now we have a wonderful social media network, like LinkedIn. Connect with the people in the companies that you would like to join. Get to know some of the players.

Become very educated on the space that you want to break them into. And once you start having that network, then you can ask, ask for questions, ask for help. Everybody loves helping and that's why a month like the International Women's Month is very important because it allows for women to realize that there are a lot of allies there. There's a lot of males that are very, very vested in supporting female careers.

You identify somebody, you build a connection, and that is one of the ways to break into a space that is just a little bit different. I think that a lot of people don't realize how much work it takes to get into a space that is just a little bit different. You know, I think that a lot of people don't realize how much work it takes to get into a company and get into a position, and certainly a position like yours. What would you say was one of maybe

the most challenging moments that transpired, and how did you overcome it? Because I'm sure there were a ton of them, but if there was one in particular that stood out, how did you overcome it? Because I'm sure there were a ton of them. But if there was one in particular that stood out, how did you overcome it? That's a great question. And I would say that is that there are going to be many times where you're going to have to reinvent yourself,

that it's never a linear development. I think that we all would like to believe when we were young that it's going to be you join the company, you go through a next promotion, the next promotion, you know, you get to places when in reality, you know, it's going to look more like you go left, you go right, you go left, you go right, up, down. I think that that's the most complicated component to get to where you need to be. As I mentioned at the beginning, I started as an economist. I started on Wall Street in Tokyo.

So it's really almost not related to what I do these days. But the fact that I can leverage financial background, it allows me to do things that normally maybe marketing is not very associated with. So it is that reinventing, because you never know what's going to happen next. How do you continue playing a chessboard, where sometimes the pieces need to be rearranged?

That flexibility that you need, I would say that those are the components that were the hardest. Great. And we have time for one more question. Again, you're watching Listen to Me, David Cogan, host of the Alliances Heroes show. Make sure you go to alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com.

It's the only place where entrepreneurs align. You mentioned in regards to raising your child. I'd like to know, and our listeners wanna know, and this is an important one, what are some of the secrets that you shared with your child in regards to being successful, like you have been doing the right thing? What are some of those things that you shared with him,

with your child that you would could share with us? I think that you're asking me maybe the hardest question. I know, I know. I know. I think this is the hardest question, even harder than all the questions that you asked me before. It's really being a mother, being a parent, it's very complicated because sometimes it's

easier to preach than actually some of the things that happen at home when it's easier to preach than actually some of the things that happen at you know at home when it's your you know It's your own child Work hard There is no no nothing that is gonna win over the working hard You can be smart you can be talented, but it's gonna be really about working hard as You know somebody posted a couple of days ago on LinkedIn. It's not about being lucky. It's because you wake up earlier, because you work harder, because you

put the extra hour, because no matter what happens, you wake up the next morning and you start the fight again. So it is working hard, what is gonna get you to success? Wonderful. Well, definitely Marina, you shared valuable information today. CMO of the Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence Division of Hexagon AB, the Americas as a region is responsible for 600 million

with a $6 billion company. Make sure that you reach out and go to Hexagon. Thank you again, Marina Prado-Cogan for being on the show. This is David Cogan with the Alliance Hero Show. But you gotta dance with me a little bit here too. Thank you very much, David.