Reimagining Leadership Roles: The Power of Cross-Industry Experience – interview with Abe Salloum

In today’s business landscape steeped in uncertainty, the value of cross-industry experience and the mindset of ‘being comfortable with being uncomfortable’ cannot be overstated. Leaders who have transitioned between diverse fields bring a wealth of knowledge and innovative perspectives that can drive significant transformation within organizations. More often than not, hiring beyond traditional industry boundaries challenges the status quo and underscores the importance of diverse skill sets in achieving strategic goals.

Take Abe Salloum‘s journey, for instance. Abe has most recently served as Executive Vice President and COO at Tecomet, a global leader in the design, development, and manufacturing of orthopedic and robotic-assisted, and minimally invasive surgical products as well as a leading manufacturer of precision components to the Aerospace and Defense industry. His career spans various industries, from automotive to oil and gas, and since 2017 in the medical device industry with Tecomet and GE Healthcare, each move enriching his expertise and broadening his understanding of complex business environments. Abe’s ability to seamlessly transfer skills across sectors showcases the immense potential of cross-industry and skills-first hiring. Such leaders often possess unique problem-solving abilities, advanced technical knowledge, and a knack for driving organizational change—qualities that are crucial for today’s competitive markets.

Organizations that embrace this approach benefit from fresh ideas and innovative solutions that traditional, industry-specific experience might not provide. By focusing on transferable skills and competencies rather than rigidly adhering to specific industry backgrounds, companies can cultivate a more dynamic and adaptable workforce. In this article, Margaret Jaouadi explores Abe’s experiences and how his varied career path has shaped his leadership style and contributed to his success in different roles. And, what lessons we can learn from that to find inspirational and impactful leaders who can drive transformation and secure their business’s future.

Special thanks go to Dan Rodgers, Head of Sector of Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences, Americas at Pacific International Executive Search, for introducing Abe Salloum to Margaret Jaouadi.

Abe Salloum
Thank you for the opportunity to speak about a topic that is close to my heart. Before answering your questions, may I share a few thoughts on the subject?

There are roles within an organization where having industry-specific experience is crucial. Take, for example, the design of a steering gear for an automotive manufacturer. You need someone who can design, industrialize, and manufacture this gear. If you’re looking for a head of engineering to lead the next generation of steering gears, hiring someone from a medical device company that specializes in anesthesia and respiratory care won’t bring the necessary product-specific value. Sure, they might learn the technical jargon over time, but they won’t understand the nuances of where steering technology is headed. Ten years ago, we were talking about steering by wire, and today, it’s a reality. If you don’t understand the intricacies of automotive gear and come from a different industry, it will take time to catch up.

I call this the difference between hiring for a role and hiring for a purpose. Many times, assignments fail because organizations hire based on a job description that meets the candidate’s qualifications, but they don’t accurately convey or even understand the true purpose of the role. Companies often look for someone to fill a job without realizing there’s a specific need, often related to transformation. While many leaders have been part of transformations, leading them requires a distinct skill set that many don’t possess.

Therefore, you should hire within the industry, considering the mission and deliverables. As a recruiter, I’ve seen the importance of understanding the client’s true needs. Often, recruiters and hiring leaders rush to get the search going and rely on generic job descriptions. This leads to ambiguous roles, sometimes intentionally, to avoid alerting incumbents in the position.

It’s essential for hiring managers to clearly define what they need. For example, if you’re looking for someone to lead a transformation in industrial manufacturing, you need to specify that you want someone with high energy, who understands the industry and possesses strong interpersonal skills. This specificity is often missing in job descriptions, which tend to be generic and not reflective of the real needs.

The crux of the issue is whether leaders are intentional about their hiring practices. They should invest significant time in finding the right people. Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to push candidates through the system, even when they’re not the right fit, leading to wasted time and resources for both the recruiting agency and the organization.

Leaders must adopt a more active and engaged approach in the hiring process. Complications arise when the HR function, often seen as an administrative role, becomes a barrier. HR might struggle to find candidates and fail to understand the leader’s specific requirements, leading to ineffective hiring.

Many companies have internal recruiting teams to cut costs because they believe external recruiters don’t understand their business. However, these internal teams can become another obstacle if they lack the necessary wider insight. Therefore, the hiring leader must take an active role in the recruitment process to ensure they find the right candidate through whatever means they have at their disposal.

Margaret Jaouadi
Thank you for this candid introduction, Abe. To even better understand what drives your beliefs, can you describe your current role and career path, and what motivated your transition to different industries?

Abe Salloum
I describe my career as a series of learning experiences, or what I like to call “learning buckets.” Rather than listing the companies I’ve worked for, I focus on these specific buckets of knowledge I’ve accumulated.

The first bucket: I was incredibly fortunate to begin my career as an hourly worker in an industrial manufacturing setting. This foundational period taught me a lot about how to make things and manage a production environment. I learned key concepts like PDCA, Kaizen, cost tracking, and understanding the interplay between different departments. This phase spanned about ten years, starting on the production line and progressing to roles like shop supervisor, department manager, and product designer.

My second learning bucket came when I moved from a single plant to a global organization. This transition was a shock, going from managing one plant to navigating a massive company with 13 divisions and 150 plants. Suddenly, I had to understand corporate strategies and learn to lead by influence. My role involved developing strategies that could be adopted across various regions, and convincing colleagues from Asia to Germany to buy into my frameworks. It was all about creating effective strategies and learning to mobilize a global workforce.

Since 2009, my career has been focused on transformation, which is my third learning bucket. I’ve worked with companies that needed significant change, whether they realized it or not. My roles have involved everything from relocating billion-dollar products between regions to turning around struggling plants. Some of the toughest challenges included closing highly efficient but unprofitable plants.

This bucket has taught me that transformation requires not just organizational commitment, but also CEO investment, which often means more than just financial resources. It’s about the energy and dedication the leadership is willing to put into driving change. Convincing a CEO to understand and commit to a transformation can be as delicate as telling parents they’re not running their household well—it requires tact, insight, and a lot of perseverance.

So, those are my three key learning buckets, each representing a pivotal stage in my career and contributing to the broad expertise I bring to any role.

Margaret Jaouadi
Can you provide examples of the benefits and unique perspectives you’ve brought to your roles from experiences in other industries?

Abe Salloum
Here’s an example from my career: when I transitioned from Harman International, an automotive group, to GE Oil and Gas. At Harman, I was working on high-tech electronics and navigation systems for dashboards. Then I moved to GE’s oil and gas division, which was a $25 billion operation. My responsibilities included advanced manufacturing technology and product quality.

I remember encountering something they called a “Christmas tree,” which is an intricate web of subsea piping that manages gas flow from a well to a barge or shipment. They also had something called a BOP, or blowout preventer. Coming from electronics, where I dealt with capacitors and diodes, this was a whole new world for me.

What I quickly realized was that they were missing a crucial element: the design transfer from product design to manufacturing. In the automotive industry, this process is almost a science. We have advanced product quality planning (APQP) and an advanced manufacturing engineering arm that acts as a bridge between product design and manufacturing. This team’s role is to develop a full industrial solution, ensuring the product is ready for manufacturing.

In the oil and gas industry, and even in medical devices, this process was lacking. They would often just pass the design over to manufacturing without adequate preparation, leading to prolonged struggles and wasted resources. There wasn’t enough time or intelligent program management to design a comprehensive industrial solution. This inefficiency burned a lot of cash and margin.

I brought in the insight that what we needed was a dedicated team of advanced manufacturing engineers. Their focus would be twofold: incorporating future technologies to improve current products and designing industrial solutions for new products. This ensures that new products are fully industrialized and ready for manufacturing from the start.

I implemented this approach in multiple companies, both inside and outside of automotive. Even within the automotive sector, not every company had this nailed down. Those with tight margins had to get it right the first time. However, companies with generous margins often grew complacent, wasting resources on inefficient design transfers.
Companies must protect their margins by streamlining the design transfer process from product to manufacturing. This isn’t rocket science, but it does require a specific set of skills that are often only found in certain industries.

Margaret Jaouadi
Which skills and attributes do you believe are most critical and transferable across industries for senior roles?

Abe Salloum
When I assess leadership, I consider three core elements in aggregate: technical aptitude, interpersonal skills, and consultancy.

First, technical aptitude is crucial. Whether I’m interviewing for a Vice President of Operations or another senior role, I need to see that the candidate has a solid grasp of technical aspects. This doesn’t necessarily mean they must know our specific product inside out. Instead, they should understand the concepts of product, process, and people management within their domain. I value problem hunters—those who proactively identify potential issues—over those who only solve problems once they arise. Technical aptitude means being ahead of the curve, and anticipating problems before they materialize.

Second, interpersonal skills are vital. Can they communicate effectively without being abrasive? It’s not about socializing after hours but about their ability to connect with others in a professional setting. They should be direct and clear without being punitive, fostering positive relationships across functions and teams.

The third element is consultancy, or what we now often refer to as leadership. This is about being a steadfast ambassador for the team’s mission. Ambassadors might personally disagree with certain strategies or policies, but they remain steadfast in their support publicly. They uphold the team’s mission and objectives, presenting a unified front even in disagreement.

Effective leaders know there’s no room for “agree to disagree” in organizational alignment. We debate until we reach a consensus and then move forward decisively.

Margaret Jaouadi
Tell me how can cross-industry experience make you a better leader?

Abe Salloum
Here’s my take on the importance of creating new perspectives through career transitions and cross-industry experiences:

The way I see it, as you spend more years in any industry, your learning curve naturally flattens out. Sure, you encounter different challenges and learn from them, but there’s a point where you start to hit a plateau in terms of new insights and growth, especially if you stay within the same role or company for an extended period.
Let’s take the example of someone working in medical devices, specializing in designing implants. After several years, they’ve likely mastered the intricacies of hips, knees, and other implants. While they may continue to refine their skills, the scope for radically new learning diminishes unless they switch roles, such as moving from business development to operational leadership within the same organization. This kind of internal transition can provide a fresh challenge and new learning opportunities, akin to reinventing oneself within a familiar environment.

However, staying within the same industry for decades, as commendable as it is for loyalty and expertise, can lead to stagnation in terms of broader perspectives and innovative thinking. That’s where companies like GE stand out—they invest significantly in programs like their Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) and Financial Leadership Program (FLP), which expose their talent to diverse functions and industries. Yet, even with such robust internal development, there’s a risk of employees becoming too specialized or insulated within the company.

I once had a candid conversation with a GE executive about their leadership development programs. While they pride themselves on retaining talent for decades, they acknowledged a downside: some employees may become too entrenched in their ways without experiencing external perspectives. This is where cross-industry collaboration becomes crucial. For instance, partnering with companies like Intel could facilitate knowledge exchanges that introduce fresh insights and methodologies. Walking into Intel’s cleanroom facilities opened my eyes to manufacturing practices and environmental considerations that I hadn’t encountered in my previous roles.

Intel, despite recent challenges, remains a hub of innovation in semiconductor technology. Their continuous pursuit of advancement under leaders like NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, who has redefined GPU technology, showcases the benefits of progressive thinking and the cross-pollination of ideas across industries. By crossing into new sectors, professionals not only gain novel skills and knowledge but also enhance their adaptability and problem-solving abilities.

Ultimately, the value one brings to an organization evolves from these diverse experiences and perspectives. Without embracing cross-industry learning, individuals risk limiting their potential contributions and relevance in an increasingly interconnected and dynamic business landscape.

Margaret Jaouadi
How important is it to increase diversity and representation in senior roles, particularly in traditionally male-dominated industries, and what steps can encourage this?

Abe Salloum
To be honest, we are falling short in terms of diversity, and it’s something I both understand and struggle with. I see the imbalance clearly: out of my 16 plants, only two have female general managers. In my team, while I have excellent leaders like Kristen in HR, the majority of leadership positions in advanced manufacturing and operations are held by men. This disparity is particularly stark in industrial manufacturing, which historically leans heavily male.

I often ask myself why HR departments, in contrast, tend to be predominantly female. It feels like we’re segregating roles based on outdated norms rather than seeking the best talent for each position. I’m uncomfortable with this reality because it doesn’t reflect a fair or effective approach to team building.

Discussing diversity often boils down to numbers and quotas, but that misses the point. It’s not about meeting metrics; it’s about understanding why certain groups are underrepresented in leadership roles. Societal norms and unconscious biases play a significant role here. People tend to hire those who resemble themselves, which perpetuates homogeneity rather than embracing diverse perspectives.

At our organization, I emphasize the importance of embracing discomfort. We must be willing to challenge our biases and seek out individuals who bring different viewpoints and experiences to the table.

Diversity of thought is crucial for innovation and growth—it’s not about where someone went to school or how they look, but about the unique insights they can offer.

Addressing this issue requires a cultural shift. We need to move beyond unconscious biases and actively seek out diverse talent, not just for the sake of diversity itself, but because it enriches our team and improves decision-making. We have a long road ahead of us, but I’m committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone, regardless of background, has an equal opportunity to contribute and succeed.

Margaret Jaouadi
While headlines often tout companies removing educational requirements from job specs, in practice, many still heavily emphasize years of experience. This preference for traditional career paths can disadvantage candidates with diverse backgrounds or non-linear career trajectories, including women who may have taken career breaks. Some companies are starting to rethink this by focusing on skills over years in the industry. This shift could open doors for a more diverse talent pool and foster innovation.
Do you think skills-based hiring could unlock potential and create more inclusive workplaces, reflecting a broader spectrum of talent and driving positive organizational change?

Abe Salloum
Here’s a perspective that might not be popular, but it’s something I feel compelled to share regardless of how it’s received. To me, it all boils down to fairness. The challenges we face today stem from a fundamental lack of fairness in how we treat each other as humans.

I believe this unfairness begins in our most intimate circles—our families, our communities—and extends outward into broader society. It manifests in disparities we see every day, including in the workplace. I mentioned earlier that out of 16 plants under my supervision, only two have female general managers. This disparity reflects broader societal issues rooted in biases and predispositions that limit opportunities based on gender, race, or other factors.

Fairness isn’t just a moral concept; it’s a practical necessity for a functioning society. Yet, we often overlook it or dismiss its importance, preferring instead to stick to familiar patterns and comfort zones. This unconscious bias permeates our decision-making processes, from hiring practices to daily interactions.

I’ve seen firsthand how authenticity plays a crucial role in our professional lives. When we step into the workplace, we bring our true selves, biases and all. This authenticity can either perpetuate or challenge unfairness, depending on our awareness and willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.

There’s a reluctance to address these issues head-on. Many organizations implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, but these often become mere checkboxes rather than catalysts for real change. Addressing systemic unfairness requires more than programs; it demands a shift in mindset and a commitment to challenging our own biases.

I constantly reflect on my actions and decisions. I strive to err on the side of fairness, knowing that how I treat others defines not just my professional legacy, but my integrity. It’s about creating an environment where everyone can thrive authentically, free from the constraints of unfair biases.

Margaret Jaouadi
What recommendation do you have for hiring leaders to consider cross-industry candidates?

Abe Salloum
When I approach hiring, Margaret, I categorize it into two main areas. Firstly, I focus on three critical aptitudes I described earlier: technical ability, interpersonal skills, and what I call consultancy or leadership skills. Technical aptitude is crucial, especially for roles like nuclear scientists working on reactors where specific expertise is non-negotiable. However, beyond such specialized roles, I value diverse industry backgrounds. For instance, I’m currently considering a candidate from a cement and asphalt manufacturing background for a significant operations role in my team. I see this diversity as bringing fresh perspectives and creativity.

My assessment criteria are clear and objective: technical prowess, interpersonal finesse—no “bull in a China shop” behavior—and ambassadorship. Can they align with our mission and represent our team effectively? It’s about bridging knowledge gaps and avoiding homogeneity. If I only hire those with backgrounds identical to our medical implant focus, we risk stagnation. Instead, I believe in meaningful development criteria that promote fairness and openness to candidates from unexpected industries. Whether it’s someone from a compounding pharmacy or asphalt materials, what matters most is their leadership potential, energy, and commitment to our goals.

Margaret Jaouadi
And what would you say to candidates who want to look for a position outside of their immediate industry expertise?

Abe Salloum
Earlier in my career, I was deeply rooted in automotive, having spent 24 years there. Initially, I didn’t realize how transferable my skills were. When I shifted to oil and gas, I just dove in and discovered a lot of synergies. The skills and knowledge were surprisingly transferable.

Recruiters and companies often miss the mark. Companies push recruiters to find exact matches for their criteria. In the rush to meet client demands, recruiters just go along with it, losing sight of creativity and potential.

For candidates, I’d suggest crafting your resume to be industry-neutral. Emphasize skills and competencies that apply broadly. Show your willingness and desire to learn and tackle challenges.

If asked about your approach in a new industry, focus on the knowledge you bring. For example, discuss S&OP—Sales and Operating Planning—it’s relevant anywhere. Problem-solving is universal, whether for a lawnmower or an airbag issue.

Highlight your ability to develop teams, create consensus, and lead with humility. And most of all, highlight that you are comfortable with being uncomfortable. We live in a world full of uncertainty so agility and finding your feet quickly in the ever-changing circumstances is a huge value-add. There are many similarities across industries. I believe recruiters and companies often miss this point, pushing for a perfect match to their criteria, which can limit opportunities for talented but unorthodox candidates.

Margaret Jaouadi
Thank you for your insight, Abe. It has been a huge honor and pleasure talking with you.

For a confidential chat about how Pacific International can assist you with your Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Talent Acquisitions and Diversity challenges, please contact Dan Rodgers or one of our Executive Search Consultants specialising in your sector.