湾流宇航CIO谈数字业务加速开启的全新时代

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湾流宇航公司是通用动力旗下的重要业务部门，同时也是公务机领域闻名遐迩的先进技术厂商。该公司的探索起点源自1958年的格鲁曼湾流I号，目前其全球公务机在役数量约有3000架。湾流公司总部位于乔治亚州萨凡纳，公司高级副总裁兼CIO Sheryl Bunton于2015年入职，负责领导该公司的业务技术部门。换言之，她所掌握的正是湾流企业之内一切技术解决方案、网络安全与数字化转型战略。凭借此前在制造业中积累的丰富高管工作经验，Bunton特别擅长以季度为单位生产并交付客户需要的产品。公务机市场有种与众不同的特性，就是当前签下的订单往往需要好几年才会最终交付，而其实际服役周期则可能达到40年甚至更长时间。在Bunton看来，这是一段非同寻常的制造之旅，必须建立起有凝聚力的团队，同时专注于眼下的任务和远期目标。换句话说，各位也需要对做什么和不做什么建立起深刻的共识和理解。

Bunton坦言，“我们不能总是被短期需求牵着鼻子走，也不能被业已存在的数字化转型设施束缚了自己的想象力。未来四年，我们已经设定了完整的发展图景，只有专心一致才能避免分神。我们必须投入充分的时间、资金和变革管理来完成这波转型。”

毕竟，她做出的决定会给整个组织产生连锁反应。“我要支持的可不是五个人，而是五千人。”尽管性格坚忍，但Bunton明白要成为一名卓越的领导者，首先需要关注人——特别是那些刚刚步入职场，在人脉和业务积累方面都很薄弱的新人。

“目前大家都身处特殊且艰难的时期，我想我们还要再过几年才能摆脱困境。所以我们应当善良，以关注和扶持的态度彼此相待。当人们承受着持续性的长期压力之时，其实特别能感受到谁才是优秀的领导者，谁能在需要时给他们一些指引、在晦暗中营造点快活的气息。”CXO UNION（CXO联盟）、数字化转型网（szhzxw.cn）、中国数字化转型展、华东CIO大会、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO、iTdaily 、It经理人、CIO训练营、数字化江湖等

CIO Leadership Live主持人Maryfran Johnson最近采访了Bunton，双方讨论了数字业务加速、IT敏捷层、女性在高管团队中的代表性等问题。下面来看访谈摘要：

关于数字化转型之旅：我们所做的一切都是以客户为中心，确保客户无论是在飞机交付还是服务支持方面，都能获得良好的交互体验和感受。当然，我们也面对着不少遗留债务，我和我的团队正在考虑如何将其化解，如何实现从A到B的转化。数字化转型不是那种“你给我批1亿美元，我在5年内还你一套纯数字环境”的简单交易，其中涉及很多需要循序渐进的环节，所以我们才提出了敏捷层。敏捷层的实质类似于驾驶舱，其中包含8种不同系统，且全部被纳入新的数字前端。这样人们就可以统一访问，不必分别登录不同的系统。以往，这类工作需要在后端以高度手动的方式操作，例如打印出一大堆纸质材料，写下所有零配件编号再记录流程说明。但现在，大家已经可以直接把笔记本电脑带到正在装配的飞机上，直接对照所有细节，确保每项工艺都正确到位。总之，当我们讨论敏捷层时，最重要的就是了解底层技术，利用这种策略改进我们的装配能力。

关于业务技术部门：很幸运，我拥有一支出色的领导团队，感谢大家长久以来的陪伴。我们的探索之路源自七年之前，期间也遭受过不少挫折。我们希望考虑的一大核心问题，就是如何设计未来交付，并确保每个设计细节都对公司业务有积极的促进意义。在结构方面，我们有三大应用团队专门负责业务中的各个部分。首先就是专注工程和创新，包括所有产品生命周期管理（PLM）的飞机组。我们的产品是现代工程力量的结晶，整个业务体系的各个部分由约2500名工程师共同支撑而来。另外，我们还有一支出色的全球基础设施团队，以内包形式管理我们的环境。第三就是信息安全网络团队。幸亏有他们，我们一同度过了那些艰难苦痛的岁月。CXO UNION（CXO联盟）、数字化转型网（szhzxw.cn）、中国数字化转型展、华东CIO大会、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO、iTdaily 、It经理人、CIO训练营、数字化江湖等

关于供应链挑战：现在我们的最大难题就是物资供应，接入点设备和服务器都没法按时到货。但我们已经习惯于在多家供应商那边保留安全库存，也感谢各位合作伙伴的关照。以往我们需要的设备大多能在一、两天之内拿到，但现在已经延长到了几个月。必须想办法解决这些问题，公司给了我一份总长42周的时间表。听起来是按周规划，其实42周已经接近一年时间了。也就是说我们需要规划更远的视野，评估未来的供应链走向，而且我个人认为全球供应链体系应该会在接下来的18到24个月内恢复。

关于混合办公模式：走进我们的机库，看到这里装配制造的令人惊叹的机型，还有产品的质量细节水平、纯粹之美，相信很多朋友都会不禁想问：这一切是怎么办到的？首先得明确一点，无论是混合办公还是远程协同，大家都没法完全靠居家遥控做出这么棒的产品。达成如此成就的原因，在于员工们在车间中的工作感受和流程体验。我们早在2020年6月起就开始从新冠疫情中恢复过来，比大部分其他企业都要早得多。这其实很有远见，因为人们全职居家办公的时间越久，他们就越不像重返办公室。而且这不只是文化，对于制造业这类产业，很多工作就是没办法远程完成。还有个问题，部分人居家、部分人到厂会在不同群体间滋生出不满情绪。所以我们出台了政策，任何不愿返回办公室的员工都立刻暂停晋升。

关于女性代表性：我们最近成立了女性员工资源小组，我是小组的执行发起人。考虑到劳动力短缺这一现实挑战，我们比以往任何时候都需要更多元化的人才供应。相信大家都听说过女性在IT领域遭遇的种种难题，而我希望能用自己的力量让这一切恢复平衡。我非常关注公司内的女性发展，我们最大的业务部门之一就是由女性负责管理，高管团队也很欢迎女性成员的加入，包括我自己。希望这一切能重塑下一代人的观念，毕竟我自己经常成为管理团队中唯一的女性。这真的让人很难受，但愿情况能随时间推移而改善。总之，我们需要分享自己的经验、提供更多机会，努力提升女性在职场上的地位。CXO UNION（CXO联盟）、数字化转型网（szhzxw.cn）、中国数字化转型展、华东CIO大会、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO、iTdaily 、It经理人、CIO训练营、数字化江湖等

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原文：

Gulfstream Aerospace, a key business unit of General Dynamics, is a household name in technologically advanced business aircraft. It all began with The Grumman Gulfstream I in 1958, and today it has about 3,000 business jets in service worldwide. With company headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, Sheryl Bunton, the company’s SVP and CIO, joined in 2015 to lead the manufacturer’s Business Technology Unit, meaning she oversees all the technology solutions, cybersecurity, and digital transformation strategies companywide. This is a role unique to other high-level ones she’s had in manufacturing since before, if something was sold, it would be made and delivered the next quarter. At Gulfstream, what’s sold today might not be delivered for years. And when an aircraft is created, it could be in service for 40 years or more. It’s an extraordinary manufacturing journey, she says, one with a long view that requires cohesive teams that have to be simultaneously focused on immediate tasks as well as on a distant horizon. It also means having a deep understanding of what’s needed and what isn’t.

“We have to make sure we’re not always chasing the next shiny, and not doing our duty around the digital transformation that exists already,” she says. “We have a full plate for the next four years and that’s our focus because otherwise, you can get distracted. We need to dedicate our time, treasure and change management to getting transformation done.”

After all, decisions she makes have ripple effects across the organization. “I’m not trying to equip five people,” she says. “I’m trying to equip 5,000.” And despite a deeply stoic disposition, Bunton understands that to be an effective leader, it’s important to check on people—now more than ever—particularly on those new in their career or newer to the company who don’t have an established network to rely on.

“It’s a weird and rough time I think we’re not going to get out of for a few more years, so let’s be good humans and check on each other,” she says. “When people are under sustained, long-term, incredible pressure, you see who’s a good leader, and who maybe needs some coaching. But find some humor in the dark times. It’s always there.”

CIO Leadership Live host Maryfran Johnson recently interviewed Bunton, where they discussed digital business acceleration, IT’s agility layer, celebrating female representation in the C-suite, and more. Here are some edited excerpts of that conversation. Watch the full video below for more insights.

On the digital transformation journey: Everything we do is customer-centric, making sure our customers have a great experience either in the aircraft that’s delivered or how they interact with us on our customer support side. We have a fair amount of legacy debt, and my team and I think about how to execute well; how to get from A to B. Because you can’t say, “Give me $100 million in five years and I’ll get back to you with a lovely little digital environment.” That’s where we came up with the agility layer, which is essentially a cockpit that takes eight disparate systems and puts them all into a new digital front end so people don’t have to sign into all the different systems. It does this work behind the scenes that used to be very manual. So instead of printing a bunch of paper and then writing all the part numbers and remembering the work instructions, you can now bring your laptop onto the plane being built, see it all there, and have confidence to know it’s right. So when we talk about agility layer, it’s important to understand the underlying technology and that this strategy equips and improves our shop floor.

On the Business Technology Unit: I’m fortunate to have an extraordinary leadership team that has stuck with me. We like to say we are trauma-bonded from how we built this place, starting seven years ago. A major thing we want to think about is how we deliver going forward, and make sure everything we do makes sense for the business. In terms of structure, I have three application teams dedicated to certain parts of the business. One focuses just on our engineering and innovation of the flight group, all the product lifecycle management (PLM) stuff. We have a highly engineered product and something like 2,500 engineers that cross all different parts of the business. Then I have a fantastic global infrastructure team. We do almost everything insource, so we manage our environment. Third is my information security cyber team. I’m fortunate they’ve all stayed with me through some very difficult years.

On supply chain setbacks: The challenge now is getting anything—access points, servers. We’re used to having safety stock at a variety of different suppliers. And our partners always took great care of us. We could need something and get it within a day or two. Now it’s months. There was something big we needed to do and they gave me a timeline of 42 weeks. At that point, let’s not call it weeks; let’s just say a year. You have to plan with an even further horizon. I hope it gets better, but I don’t think it will for another 18 to 24 months.

On hybrid working: If you go into one of our hangars and see this incredible aircraft being built, and the work that goes into it and the level of commitment, quality, and detail, and just the sheer beauty of these things, you have an appreciation that you take back to your support work and say, “What can I do to make this easier and better?” You don’t get that from being fully remote, whether because you’re an outsource employee or you don’t come to the office. It’s that connection to what we do and what it’s like to be on the shop floor, and actually experience what our people experience. We started coming back from the pandemic outages in June 2020, far sooner than many others. It was great foresight because the longer people are home full-time, the less they want to come back. And I get that. But it’s even more than culture. It’s when you’re in manufacturing, when you make things for a living, three-quarters of your organization can’t work from home. You can’t build a landing gear in your dining room. And you have that “You get to work from home and I don’t,” equity piece to pay attention to. The other thing is if you work full-time from home and you want to lead people, you aren’t going to get there in your career until you go back to the office at least part-time.

On female representation: We recently started a women’s employee resource group and I’m the executive sponsor. Particularly in light of labor challenges, you need perse talent more than ever. There’s been oceans of ink spilled about the difficulties for women in IT and we have as much as I can find, but I’d like it to be a lot more balanced than it is now. I am very intentional about development for the women in my organization. One of our largest business units is run by a woman and my boss has been terrific about bringing women onto the leadership team, myself included. I hope it’s very different for the next generation since I spent most of my career as the only woman in the room. That’s a hard place to be, and something if we are intentional about, can be different down the line. We need to share our experience, make sure opportunities are presented, and lift women up.