Green Tech: Stefan Schwab of Comfy | Enlighted On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact On The Environment
An Interview With Jilea Hemmings
The working world has changed irrevocably already, as the pandemic has opened the door to new ways of working and engaging with coworkers. What our solutions do is make this transformation workable for employers and employees alike. By combining new ways for employees to connect with their workspaces and with each other and by enabling new paths to workplace sustainability, we are part of a seismic shift in how work will be done in the future.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course, many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stefan Schwab, Chief Executive Officer, Comfy | Enlighted.
Stefan Schwab is responsible for ensuring commercial IoT innovation, strengthening collaboration and driving business growth. Under his leadership and direction, Comfy | Enlighted moved quickly and strategically to apply its IoT technology, and to develop new technology, to help get employees back into the workplace safely during COVID-19. Previously, Schwab served as Former Head of Operations, Middle East and Asia Pacific, Siemens.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in the beautiful city of Augsburg, Bavaria, in Germany, about 30 miles from Munich. I completed my education in Augsburg and Munich, where I studied mechanical engineering and political science in college with a focus on economics.
My parents had always wanted me to pursue an apprenticeship, which mainly came from their own life experiences. However, from the onset, this is not how I envisioned my career unfolding. My parents and I had many heated debates about how I should progress my professional life.
In the end, I advocated for my own passions and life goals around combining technology and sustainability. Today, my parents see how fulfilling I find my work and understand why it was important for me to follow my own path. This experience not only helped me find my way, but it also served to shape my point of view around the power of pursuing one’s dreams, something I continue to advocate for when young people are considering making pivotal career decisions.
After graduating, I made the decision to join Siemens in Karlsruhe and start my career in the Siemens Building Technologies Division in 2006. With Siemens, I moved around quite a bit — first within Germany and then overseas to Singapore and Australia.
Since 2018, I have been living and working in the US with my wife and two children in Mountain View, California, in the middle of Silicon Valley.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Probably the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in my career is when I was presented the opportunity to lead Enlighted, the acquired startup as part of Siemens. Enlighted is a Silicon Valley-based company founded in 2009 by networking technologists. Siemens acquired the company to expand its smart building strategy using advanced lighting control and smart sensors as core elements of sustainability and future-proofing buildings.
Not only did I have to learn about what was a new industry to me (IoT, SaaS and lighting), but it was the first time I embraced the role of CEO, a new challenge. While it was a trial by fire to quickly learn to lead the organization forward to profitability, it was a humbling experience that taught me the value of patience and flexibility and the importance of communication. I learned how to depend on my team and to trust their judgment and capabilities. Further, I realized the importance of empowering your people. Because our industry is moving much faster than others and time to market is criteria, decision-making is key and hierarchical organization don’t work in this environment. Empowering employees is the singular key to success.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
I experienced support both from my family and from colleagues at work, for which I am exceedingly grateful. It is my belief that behind every successful leader is a strong support structure.
On a personal level, while we moved from Germany to Singapore to Australia and to our current home in the US, my wife always made sure our family remained our focal point. Without her support, I would have not been able to pursue my career as I have.
On the professional side of things, Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens AG provided a strong and constant guiding hand.
Can you share a story about that?
I first met Roland in 2014 when I led the Siemens Division Building Technologies in Australia and New Zealand. What struck me immediately was his ability to listen intently and quickly understand complex issues. Through his coaching and questioning I was able to tackle new business challenges with confidence. We connected immediately over how to transform the business, implement significant changes and take our people along the journey.
Ever since, I’ve considered Roland to be a mentor and someone to whom I can turn for solid advice around even the most difficult situations. He always brings a thoughtful perspective — with the ability to be direct and unfiltered in his feedback. I appreciate that kind of collaboration and work to “pass it forward” to others in my organization. This embodies that kind of non-hierarchical leadership, which makes me proud to work for a company like Siemens.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
― Albert Einstein
I absolutely love this quote because to me it exemplifies how I like to operate in the world — with the ability to approach new areas with an openness to learn. It’s a freeing experience to put your ego aside and eliminate the fear of the unknown or of being judged. Further, I’m attracted to people who operate in this same way — who aren’t afraid to jump into new endeavors, even if they risk seeming silly or unsophisticated.
For me, personally, this was the case when I was offered my current role, working in the Silicon Valley IoT and SaaS industry. Honestly, I knew very little about it! It was a little unnerving, but I decided to go for it and trust that even if the worst happened, I could handle it.
As it turned out, maintaining an open mindset and soliciting insight from my colleagues enabled me to climb the steepest learning curve I’d ever experienced. I remember my first management meeting in America when I commented in front of 800 leaders that I had learned more in the first six weeks in my new role compared to the last 12 years of my professional life. This might have seemed a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s exactly how I felt. I was so happy I took a chance by taking on this new assignment!
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The three charter traits that have been the most helpful to me are: empathy, authenticity and flexibility.
I have found that employing empathy in my dealings with others helps me quickly understand the root of any issue and to be able to rapidly come up with an effective solution. As an example, a manger in my organization was constantly approaching me complaining about their peer, who also was a direct report. At first, I was taken aback — why would he do that? But as I listened to the litany of grievances it became clear that he really resented his peer’s visibility at our monthly executive calls. He was craving that kind of validation for his efforts, too. It was a fairly simple fix, but we also had to have a discussion around the right way to gain attention.
Authenticity has also served me well throughout my career. This has shown to be true in multiple ways when dealing with customers. I’ve been in the unenviable position of having to face customers that had experienced a failure or disappointment. In those circumstances, the worst thing you can do is feed them a line. They always see through it and it makes the situation worse. Being honest, taking ownership and outlining how their issue will be fixed in a timely manner is the kind of authentic response that customers really want.
If there is one certainty, it’s that you’re going to get some curve balls in life. Being flexible goes a long way towards reducing heartburn. There was a time I was completely invested in a couple of items on our product road map. I thought they were super “cool” and would give us some differentiation in the market. My product team came back with the results of their customer focus group effort — my favorite features received a resounding big thumbs down. I was crushed and at first wanted to send them back to reconfirm! I had to take a deep breath. Clearly, there were other areas where customers wanted our focus. I’m so glad I didn’t slow down the train because what we did launch was so well received.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on the planet and the environment. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve? How do you think your technology can address this?
Over the last several years, I’ve seen our customers continue to make commitments to creating safer, more sustainable and more automated and engaging places to work. This shift is more than just a trend — it’s become a core corporate goal for most of our customers. They want to adopt new technologies that reduce energy use, make efficient use of resources and genuinely improve workplace interactions for employees.
This desire was heightened and accelerated during the pandemic, when companies had to enable employees to work from home while at the same time start planning what a reimagined workplace might be. All of a sudden, organizations had to manage difficult situations, such as capacity control due to local restrictions, retaining company culture and ultimately returning employees back to hybrid working environments. They need technologies to help them address a whole range of workplace challenges.
Our technology addresses the myriad of issues by providing workplace and IoT solutions that improve the lives of employees and make buildings operate with greater efficiency. They fall into the following categories:
Sustainability: Siemens offers a wide range of solutions for energy management that help create more sustainable buildings. Here at Comfy | Enlighted we have a particular offering that is truly unique in that it reduces energy use and cost for building owners while, at the same time, creating more a more comfortable space for employees. This offering essentially democratizes the control of temperature in a building by allowing employees to “vote” for temperature settings from a convenient mobile app, connected to the buildings heating / cooling systems. We have found that our customers actually achieve HVAC savings of up to 20% with this method and employees feel like they have a direct say in their operating environment — it’s a win-win solution overall.
Efficiency: Comfy | Enlighted has been in the lighting and IoT data space for some time. Our lighting control solution creates amazing efficiencies by enabling our customers to configure how they want lighting to engage when no employees are detected by our smart sensors. By providing the means to control the use of lighting, the ROI of our solution covers the cost within the first year of use. More importantly, it reduces energy use by only engaging lights when needed, creating greater efficiency overall. In this process, sensors detect movement and activity throughout the building. This data is collected in our IoT platform, providing insights to building owners and managers to help them make space, efficiency and workplace safety decisions.
Workplace Experience: Along with making buildings more efficient, we have a keen eye towards enabling a positive hybrid work experience for employees. That’s where our mobile app comes in — where a typical day in the office begins with checking transportation, parking and co-worker locations with the app. With hybrid working, it’s important to know when colleagues will be in the office for collaboration. From there, employees can reserve desks, rooms and lockers, can check the cafeteria menus for the day, way-find their way to co-workers and the availability of other corporate amenities — all through the convenient mobile app. Space managers can use this reservation data to see employee trends and preferences to better design activity-based workplaces for the future.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
Where I grew up in Germany, there was always a big emphasis on being ecologically minded. Recycling, reducing energy use and implementation of renewable energy sources were commonplace ideas I witnessed in practice as part of everyday life. I saw firsthand how a concerted effort to implement solar capacity in most households transformed the energy profile for an entire country.
It was imparted on me at a fundamental level that we all have a social responsibility to care for our natural resources. This was amplified when I jointed Siemens, who have a particular focus in helping businesses create smart and efficient buildings. Just the idea that a global company like Siemens could have such a tremendous impact on a broad scale to help reduce the carbon footprint of building worldwide spaces and improve the workplace for employees was really appealing to me.
How do you think this might change the world?
The working world has changed irrevocably already, as the pandemic has opened the door to new ways of working and engaging with coworkers. What our solutions do is make this transformation workable for employers and employees alike. By combining new ways for employees to connect with their workspaces and with each other and by enabling new paths to workplace sustainability, we are part of a seismic shift in how work will be done in the future.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact:
- Think Big and Think Small: When creating technology for a positive change, you really have to think globally. We’re all connected, especially when it comes to creating a sustainable future. However, some of the most effective solutions I’ve brought to market were started by thinking small — how can employees control their own environmental temperatures? This ended up having a big impact.
- Don’t Wait for the Change Agent — BE the Change Agent: Recognize the power of the individual to affect a movement. If you have an idea, even if you’re a new employee without a lot of connections in your technology company, don’t be afraid to bring it forward. I can guarantee you that, like myself, every CEO is craving new innovations and most recognize they can come from anywhere in the company. It was an engineer at our organization who brought us the idea of using Space Traits to describe reservable spaces at work. This simple suggestion enables workplace planners to track employee trends and preferences for desk types (standing vs sitting), locations (near the kitchen or on an aisle) and things like hubs vs conference rooms. It was a simple concept that turned into a big value proposition for our customers as they plan new hybrid workspaces, and I am grateful for the idea.
- Follow the Trends — But Look a Few Steps Ahead: There are massive shifts underway right now towards renewable energy. Some are apparent and some are happening behind the scenes. Similar shifts are happening with workplace scenarios and employee engagement. If you play this out five years, what will our building and city energy systems look like? What kind of services and technology will be required to support new employee behaviors at work? Always put your “Five-Years-Out” glasses on when thinking of new innovations. As an example, we shifted from being a temperature and lighting control company to providing a comprehensive workplace technology offering that matched a market trend that had already started even before the pandemic: hybrid working. It was a risk at the time, but one that has paid off because we saw early signs of this trend.
- Gather Support Along the Way: You can be the change agent, but you can’t do it alone. Gathering your network will help in so many ways. Look for connectors who can amplify your ideas, mentors who can be your sounding board and nay-sayers who will poke holes in your proposals. This was a lesson I learned early in my career as I took on my first leadership role. I happened to be meeting with a key executive who I’d known for years. As we spoke, he offered some sage advice around the most effective route to business and personal success. He told me that the most effective and happy leaders he’d ever know were ones who leaned into the expertise of those around them, without ego or prejudice of position level. I can honestly say that changed my perspective on a lot of things, helped me to grow into my leadership style today and still influences how I approach organizational health and interactions. I was so grateful to have had that conversation!
- Balance Your Business Savvy with Tech Savvy: To really successfully launch and sustain a technology business, you really need to understand both sides of the equation. By ”business savvy” I mean understand the markets you’re after, the competitors and the trends. It also means understating people and their motivations — how to read a room and be able to connect with others in meaningful ways. By “tech savvy” I mean try to stay on top of digital trends and tools. This means absorbing information through a wide variety of channels. Proactively seek out information about what’s new and working for real companies. There was a time when I really didn’t understand the term “edge computing,” but I had started to hear about it applied to how businesses were going to manage tasks and data between on-premise needs and the advantages of cloud computing. I quickly immersed myself in everything I could get my hands on about edge devices: how they worked and what benefits they bring. Today, it’s part of our everyday vocabulary and offerings, but at the time I had to proactively make the effort to learn.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
There are so many ways that individuals can contribute to creating a more sustainable and efficient future for all of us. I’m genuinely encouraged by the focus I see around this from the next generation. That drive to make positive change really has to come from within, from a place of understanding the impact of change, but also the impact of inaction.
The one thing I would tell young people to consider is the power they possess as individuals to be change agents. I’ve seen it firsthand with many of my colleagues at Siemens who are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Some are doing it in quiet ways, for example, by developing innovations that contribute to renewable energy uses. Others are out front, leading the charge, helping Siemens not only to become carbon-neutral by 2030, but also assisting our customers on their sustainability journey. It’s a great example of tremendous change for the world that is actively impacting our customers and employees.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would welcome the opportunity to breakfast with Bono from U2. I’ve always been fascinated by his ability to marshal support from diverse points of view to create programs and outreach for critical human needs. What a talent he must possess to inspire, rally and organize, judging from the real-world impact of his charitable contributions. No doubt there is much I could learn about leadership from him.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Websites:
Comfy: https://www.comfyapp.com
Enlighted: https://www.enlightedinc.com
Siemens: https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/buildings/smart-buildings.html
Linkedin:
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
