Transcript 0:00 Talk to me. Information, news, and entertainment on demand. WUSradio.com. 0:10 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. [upbeat music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:25 We are coming to you live from CES in Las Vegas. Our next guest is responsible for providing business leadership and P&L management for residential marketing in the Americas. 0:35 He has also held previous roles in electronic sensing and electromechanical businesses. Please welcome AJ Smith, VP and GM for EES Homes Americas for Honeywell. Hi, Peggy. AJ, welcome. Yeah, thanks, Peggy. 0:49 Good, good to be here. Thank you. So AJ, we were just talking about how long it's taken all of us to get over here- [laughs]... you know, [laughs] the halls. We know this every year. 0:56 We, we've been, uh, broadcasting from CES for years, and we're always amazed at how long it takes our poor, our guests to come to the show, but we're glad you made it. Yeah, glad to be here. So let, let's talk. 1:05 Let's talk about the connected home this, uh, this year because CES has really just blossomed with products and things for the connected home. 1:13 Honeywell's view of the connected home's always been interesting because you've evolved and you guys do things, but your view of things might be different than what our average listener's thinking about. 1:22 Let's talk about how do you perceive the connected home. Yeah. So for us, from a, a connected home perspective, we, we s- we start off looking from a consumer basis first, right? 1:30 And, and always customer back, and looking at what we can provide from a solutions basis. So it's not necessarily one device or another device, but it's really what we're providing in the solution areas that we excel in. 1:42 So comfort, security, everything about the home that makes the home work, that's, that's really what we concentrate on. So when you say that from the consumer's perspective, what, what are you actually seeing? 1:53 When you come here and you walk the floor and, and you guys look and you think about... This show has really evolved. It's really not a consumer show anymore. Mm-hmm. 2:02 I mean, even though people think that anymore, it's more about how you as a business evolve. 2:08 So when you come and you wanna exhibit or you wanna provide products and you say it's for the consumer side, you're really thinking about it from a business, what people need and how you can bring product to market. 2:19 Yeah, absolutely. So what I would say is, is the, the way that those two things come together is that from a business perspective, we're looking at it from a consumer back. 2:28 So we are, as a business, bringing these products to market, but those products have to come together and provide a solution to customers. 2:37 We, we've, we've gone beyond just the, "This is a neat tech gadget that's, that's interesting," to needing to really get down to the brass tacks of solving problems for homeowners. So, so let's be honest. 2:49 You guys have been, you know, for years, the king of the thermostat, right? Yep. Google kind of turned everything up, turned everybody on their ear when they acquired Nest, right? 2:57 And now you guys have said, "We've gotta change things, and we understand," 'cause you've known how the consumer's always wanted things. 3:04 And now you've really understood what you have to do and how you have to change, but you've had for years understood the home market. 3:12 How has that changed with the way you see products here on the show floor and the way... Because Google's learned a lot. Even though they have Nest, they- there's not a service. 3:21 Con- uh, consumers don't wanna pay for an ongoing service. So even though Google has Nest, they've learned a lot of things that it's not what they thought it was going to be there. 3:29 So it's easy for Google to say, "Hey, we have Nest." Well, but it's different to have a thermostat than to understand the buying habits of a consumer. Yeah, absolutely. 3:38 And so this, this draws right back to that solution mentality, okay? So you can have a- So see, I helped what you thought- I know. That's great. That's great... you thought I was gonna plug Google right there. 3:47 [laughs] Huh, I got it. No, that's all right. 3:48 But, but, so, but it does, I mean, it does help us make sure that we're taking a look at all of the things that c- that, that consumers and, and our customers are interested in. 3:56 But the things that we excel at, providing comfort to consumers in their homes, providing security to families and homeowners, right? That's, that's, that's where we have to ground ourselves. 4:05 So when we provide a connected thermostat, for example, it has to be under the umbrella of how that connected thermostat works with the furnace controls, the air conditioning system, everything else about a home comfort solution that provides that to the consumer, not just the fact that it's neat to look at what your temperature is or to do some things and interact with that thermostat. 4:28 So over time, have, have you... Has, has Honeywell started to understand that what consumers want in a connected home is changing? 4:36 It's not changing as fast as everyone likes, but the connected home, so to speak, is a very unique one. 4:43 I mean, you know, we're all talking about artificial intelligence and we hear Amazon and Google's new products coming out is, you know, Alexa and all these other things. 4:51 But what the consumers want and what they're really willing to pay for, what they really need are, are sometimes different. They kinda are counterintuitive of each other. Yeah, absolutely. 5:01 And, and this goes to providing that value because people are busy. People have huge amounts of responsibility. It's a more hectic world than it's ever been, right? We're expected to do more with less time than ever. 5:14 So it has to provide the value to them where they say that they're shaving those, those minutes of time that would normally be spent trying to manage their home, and they're taking that away from them. 5:23 We're taking the worries away from them. We're taking that time and giving it back to them, and that's what they have to see the value in when they're paying for a connected home solution. 5:32 Is there something here that you guys are showing, you know, that you say, "Look, this is what's gonna differentiate Honeywell from what, let's say, our, our listeners..." 5:40 'Cause our listeners are essentially the B2B crowd, you know? We k- kind of say we're not that consumer-driven magazine, but we're all consumers every day. Yeah. Yeah. You know? 5:49 But most of our listeners are those types of folks that say, "Businesses. We wanna be that next great innovator who's out there that says, 'I'm running an enterprise, and I'm learning and I'm partnering with Honeywell.'" 6:00 Are those the things that you guys are delivering and say, "Here, we've got a product, but we're partnering with companies who are making better products and solutions with us"? Yeah, absolutely. 6:08 So the partnerships is a big deal for us. Uh, if you go over and look at our booth that we've got here at, at CES, we have a whole partnership wall set up, right? 6:17 And it's everybody from Google Home, from the Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa-You know, smart things, all of those are integral to us providing what our customers want. And that's, and that's why we take that view, right? 6:30 It's not a Honeywell only or Honeywell, you know, against all the other things that people want in a home. Now, that's a change for you guys. For years ago, you guys were very stodgy, very closed, you know? 6:41 Everything was Honeywell, Honeywell, Honeywell, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like Emerson used to be. Years ago- [laughs]... there was a big fight, Honeywell, Emerson, and the whole world, you know? 6:48 It was you guys against the world. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And so we fully embraced all of the partnerships here. And, and so in addition going beyond that, right? 6:55 Because in order to get to that solution set and knowing that we have to get beyond the, the, the gadget or the widget, right? 7:01 We- you'll see lock companies, garage door companies, all sorts of different partners up on our partner wall here, and we're growing that by the day. And so f- to provide the... 7:10 what consumers really want in order to help give them that peace of mind and to help give them that time back in their day that they need to spend with their families and, and to rest assured that their loved ones are safe and secure, we need to have those partnerships to be able to get to market quickly and get to market effectively. 7:26 So that proprietary approach that many companies that are the size of Honeywell have had, y- you've learned that that isn't gonna bring success for the future, you know? 7:36 So the trends for the IoT, looking at what we've had in 2016 to going out to 2017, what do you think that needs to be? It's gotta be an open kind of platform. You know, you gotta work and play nice in the sandbox. Yeah. 7:49 You know, those partners- Yeah... are very critical. That was actually the terminology we were using this morning as we were, we were talking through with people. It's, it's the sandbox thing, right? 7:56 Because we'd spent a lot of time getting our APIs up and available so that all these partners can easily integrate with it, because every i- we all know that everybody's home is different, everybody's personal and family situation is different, so the needs end up being different. 8:11 And to make sure that we get the right combination and get the partnerships that are required for that, we have to make it easy to integrate. So it's gotta be an open solution in that, in that regard. 8:20 So looking at Honeywell, you've, you've had these, these executives that have been around for years, and then now you've got these younger, aggressive millennials, and how do you get that kind of inspiration to bring new solutions to market, finding the right partners? 8:34 How, how do you inspire that kind of crop of talent? Yeah. 8:37 And I, and I think that, that really what it is is making sure that we get out there and, and start looking at all the different areas in which we provide these solutions, and making sure that we really take stock of the fact that it isn't just one group or another group that we're serving here. 8:52 We've been in this market for 125 years, providing comfort solutions, security solutions. 8:58 And for us to provide technology in, in a, in a, at, at a rate that's required now and to endure going forward, we're gonna have to make sure that we're looking very broadly across the demographics and across the generations, and this is where that partnership comes into play. 9:13 Because those solutions are gonna be different, and we need to be able to plug and play things to get the right things for each of the generations. Does that kind of hurt you in some ways now? 9:21 Because companies, you know, or young, new grads say, "Honeywell, they've been around forever. That's not as..." You know, in some ways you kind of say, "Well, are they as, as aggressive as like a Google or an Apple?" 9:33 And people have that perception as a millennial versus... you know. But yet you have the expertise and the wisdom to do things. So it's like a catch-22. Do you, you... 9:42 It's kind of like the double face photograph you're looking at- Yeah... you know, the older woman, you know, younger, older, you know, kind of thing. [laughs] Yeah. 9:48 And I, and I think it can be, but I don't think it, it... I don't think those things have to conflict. 9:52 And, and I think that what, what we bring to the table, when somebody's making an investment in a home, it's, it's likely to be the largest asset that they have in their life, the thing that probably causes them the most worry and also is the most important thing for their family. 10:07 They wanna have somebody who's been doing this for a century plus and is going to be there for decades into the future as well to do that. 10:15 What w- then we need to do is make sure that we're keeping up pace and, but not providing flash in the pan types of technologies and solutions, but things that are gonna endure, things that can upgrade, things that we can have go through them throughout their life cycle. 10:28 And, and that's ex- exciting thing, because if you see the evolution of Honeywell, you guys have done that, you know, from the variety of products. 10:34 And I'd like to, for us to talk a little bit about that and kind of go through some of the stages of what Honeywell's introduced. 'Cause I think that's kind of fun, because- Sure... 10:42 there's been those kind of evolutions for those listeners going, 'cause it's kind of fun to say, "Well, what are some of the products?" So you think about things. 10:48 Sometimes we forget some of the really cool things that have been brought to market and what, what are you looking to bring to market in 2017. 10:55 So we're gonna take a quick commercial break, but we're sitting here and talking with AJ Smith, who's the vice president and GM for EES Homes of America for Honeywell. 11:03 And we're gonna take a quick commercial break, but AJ said he's gonna stick around. He wants me to keep grilling him about- Absolutely... what Honeywell's doing there. So that's the fun part. 11:10 But in the meantime, if you haven't been up to our site, go up to thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 11:15 You can check out any of the other previous shows before we, uh, started, uh, before the show opened, that we had some great guests on. But also stick around, or you can tweet. 11:22 If you wanna tweet at me at Peggy_Smedley, we can ask Andrew a question, or AJ I should say, that he might wanna ask, uh, whether you might want me to ask him. So stick around as always. 11:31 This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. And we'll be right back right after this commercial break. 11:40 [upbeat music] Signal to noise, an electronic term with new relevance on the internet. 12:04 Connected World Media cuts through the noise of data overload and finds you the signal of important information, information that will keep you current and aware of context in the Internet of Things. 12:15 Peggy Smedley shares her insights on The Peggy Smedley Show and in Connected World Magazine, all online at connectedworld.com. Stay current and competitive at connectedworld.com.Thank you for listening to WS Radio. 12:32 Improve your business and your life with useful information from experts and thought leaders. WS Radio is radio with ROI. [upbeat music] With great technology comes great responsibility. 12:49 Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 12:57 Go to Peggy_Smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for Peggy_Smedley to follow her today. 13:13 [upbeat music] The richness of your life is reflected in the shimmering elegance found at DIO Lun Design. One-of-a-kind jewelry and pieces from Cynthia Dillon in silver and gold help to express your unique personality. 13:29 The flowing designs of her creations will empower the way you move throughout your day. Join us online at DIOLUNDesigns.com. 13:43 [upbeat music] Did you know the majority of radio listeners are between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-four, have a household income of more than one hundred thousand dollars, are classified as executives or professionals, and share the show they listen to? 13:57 Become part of The Peggy Smedley Show to reach listeners looking for information on connected devices through cost-effective radio commercials or segment sponsorships. 14:05 Contact us at six three zero nine three three zero eight four four for more information, or visit peggysmedleyshow.com. [upbeat music] Small businesses are the lifeblood of America's economy. 14:17 Every Thursday, SBA Radio interviews industry professionals and is dedicated to provide small businesses with timely insights and innovations. Visit www.sbaradio.us for details. 14:29 [upbeat music] Education, industry experts, back to the basics. Is your company using the Internet of Things to its fullest potential? 14:35 Enlist the Peggy Smedley Institute and its team of experts to create a customized plan for how to apply the IoT to your specific needs. 14:44 Learn everything you need to know to achieve tangible business outcomes in today's digital economy. Contact us at six three zero nine three three zero eight four four. 14:53 That's six three zero nine three three zero eight four four, or visit learnatIoT.com.
