ALTIX INDUSTRY CHAMPIONS INTERVIEW
Each quarter we sit down with industry executives and thought leaders to discuss the trends, challenges, and best practices that are transforming their businesses.
Today we are with Dennis Lewis, CEO & Regional Vice President Americas at Balluff.
Introduction and Background
Can you share about your background and career journey that led you to your current role as CEO and Regional Vice President, Americas?
I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. When I was 13, we moved to Louisiana. My father worked for General Motors, which was going to shut that plant down. So, I finished high school in Louisiana.
The day I graduated high school, a friend’s father, who was a representative for Honeywell, offered me a job. which was with a distributor setting up a new location in Shreveport, and they needed someone to work in the warehouse. I took the job, planning to do two years of college in parallel, then follow my sister into the Navy.
But my boss at the distributor convinced me to go into business. I had zero experience with business — my mom was a secretary, and my dad was a line worker at GM. That boss was influential, and I worked for the company for eight and a half years, moving from warehouse and delivery driver to sales then to manager while pursuing my education. Eventually, I was recruited by a French company called Crouzet, later acquired by Schneider Electric.
I spent 20 years with Schneider, working my way up through various roles. Schneider’s resources were tremendous, and I gained experience managing multiple entities as well as being a leader in an international business environment and dealing with multiple cultures. After Schneider sold its CST (Custom Sensors & Technologies) umbrella, a private equity split the company. Soon after, I got a call from a recruiter that led me to Balluff. Over the last 8 years, organizational changes gave me opportunities and I’ve grown with the company, starting as a VP of sales, then becoming President for the US entity and now as the President and Regional Vice President for the Americas.
Do you remember the moment when you knew you liked the industry and the industrial world?
That’s an interesting question. Years ago, I was told that people don’t know much about this industry until they get into it and then they never leave. Whether it’s because it’s addicting, we like it, or we develop specific skills that apply well here, I’m not sure.
I’ve always enjoyed tinkering and problem-solving. Math and science were always my strengths. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t become an engineer, but my family didn’t know much about that field. While at LSU, I explored computer science and loved programming. I think what makes this industry addicting for me is the problem-solving aspect. It’s cool how we use technology to solve real problems.
Leadership Experience and Influences
What key experiences have shaped your leadership approach in the industrial technology sector?
I think that I’ve got a unique experience in that I started at the very bottom of the organization making deliveries in logistics. And so, I’ve seen and experienced all the facets and all the levels, so I know the challenges of the folks who are working on the packaging line and in the warehouse. I know the challenges of the field sales representatives and the sales management. And I think that has afforded me the ability to be empathetic, but not sympathetic. From a management style, I’ve also met everyone along the way, and I really tried to make a point to get to know everyone—talk with and about their families and participate in activities with the employees—and I just made that a part of my approach.
I’ve got an open-door policy, and I share that with everyone. I also do a lot of management by walking around, and I do a lot of calling people just to check in, including the folks that are in the field. I think it’s important to be a person with your employees, not just a figurehead.
Who were your key influencers in shaping your leadership style?
I learned a lot from my first boss—the guy who got me into the industry—about what to do and probably more importantly, about what not to do. Along the way, I’ve really tried to take the best practices of all my former bosses and implement those elements. My time at Schneider was excellent because we moved around every couple of years in growing leadership roles, so I got different bosses and perspectives. They also had tremendous internal training. I did a program that was like a mini-MBA before my MBA. It was called the PMDP, a professional development management program. I really learned a lot from that. Schneider was serious about developing their managers into leaders, and they had great processes for it.
Here at Balluff, I try to focus on leadership development. One big method is mapping out employees’ futures and the potential development and progression of our talents—Talking to them, understanding where they want to go, and figuring out how it could be a win-win.
Can you share an example of how this has worked in practice?
I had a couple of team members. When they came on board, their goal was to learn as much as they could. I said, “Great, because if you’re learning, you’re getting better, and that helps the company.” One of them later turned in his resignation because he was buying a company to become a part-owner. I said, “Man, that’s awesome.” A couple of weeks later, another talent turned in his resignation to become a VP at a company as big, if not bigger, than ours. I said, “Man, that’s awesome.” One of my colleagues said, “That’s terrible—you lost two key guys in a month.” But I told him, “This is what we aim for: growing our talents. While they were here, they provided tremendous value, and now we have people on the bench ready to step up. While you might lose some talents, most of them will stay if you take good care of them.” From a leadership standpoint, when people know you have their best interests at heart, they tend to stick with you.
About Balluff
Balluff has a strong heritage with its HQ in Germany. Can you provide an overview of the company’s global presence and how it’s positioned in the industry?
Balluff is a privately-held fourth-generation, 103-year-old company, headquartered just outside of Stuttgart, Germany with about 3,500 employees and over half a billion euros in revenue. Our product breadth gives us, I think, a unique market position. We focus within the automation world on sensing solutions, including proximity, photoelectric, capacitive, and magnetostrictive sensors as our core group of sensing products. But in addition to that, we’re the global leader in IO-Link networking solutions. We have the largest market share in IO-Link. Although we didn’t invent the technology, we pioneered it in the marketplace.
Now, post-COVID, we’ve seen an explosion of IO-Link in the marketplace. Anyone in the manufacturing space today has IO-Link products, and we’re very proud of what we’ve done to develop that and enable the technology to become mainstream.
IO-Link is a networking technology that’s agnostic. It allows customers to very quickly attach sensors to the network, wire them in, replace them easily, and get data from those sensors. Initially, 10 or 15 years ago, the big selling feature was how quickly customers could install an IO-Link network compared to traditional discrete connectors wired back to a PLC. Today, with digitalization, it’s not just about quick installation but also about the valuable data these sensors provide.
As a company, Balluff started by making “spaetzle” presses (a kind of special German pasta) and bicycle parts, but then transitioned into automation through mechanical switches and eventually proximity sensors. Interestingly, we were one of the last German sensing companies to come to the U.S. Some of our competitors were here earlier, but we made our move in 1983, starting in New Jersey. We later relocated to Florence, Kentucky, when we asked the owner of our rep. firm to become the president of Balluff in the U.S. He agreed, but only if we set up near Cincinnati. It turned out to be the perfect spot. If you look at the automotive corridor from Michigan down to the Gulf Coast, it’s central to everything.
What about the markets you serve?
Our main market is automotive—over half of our business is tied to it. Beyond that, we have a strong presence in semiconductor manufacturing (wafer fabrication), life sciences (for precise sensing solutions), and energy. In energy, we focus on solar panel positioning, wind turbine blades, and oil and gas. We’re also making strides in packaging and intralogistics. What’s fascinating is how the lines between industries are blurring. For example, intralogistics is now integral to EV production, with autonomous vehicles delivering batteries to assembly lines. Robots are everywhere nowadays, not just in automotive manufacturing, and we supply many products used in robotics.
Balluff has a global presence. Could you talk about how the company has grown in different regions?
Yes, we’ve historically been very Europe-centric. However, in the last eight years, the automotive world, particularly with electric vehicles, has driven significant growth in Asia-Pacific. We have manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Asia-Pacific, but one thing COVID taught us was the importance of having a manufacturing facility to support the Americas as well. That’s why we recently moved beyond just having global sales regions to creating almost autonomous regions with factories producing in the region for the region.
We’ve closed smaller facilities acquired along the way and consolidated operations into three larger scale factories globally, the latest one being in Aguascalientes, Mexico. This setup allows us to shift gears quickly in case of geopolitical or climate disruptions.
And have you decentralized your supply chains too?
Absolutely. We’ve tried to regionalize everything—supply chains, sourcing, and marketing to align with our “region-for-region” strategy. Historically, each country did its own thing, which led to duplication of resources. Now, we optimize by centralizing specific roles. For instance, our regional data analyst, based in Brazil, supports all of the Americas. Similarly, we’re bringing a talented professional from Brazil to the U.S. to become our Head of Finance and Accounting, as our current CFO is retiring. We’re focused on finding the best talent and leveraging them across the company.
Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0
You touched on digitalization, a significant mega-trend. How does Balluff support companies undergoing digital transformations, particularly in areas like Industry 4.0, digitization, and industrial AI?
We’ve been tracking Industry 4.0 and IIoT trends for more than a decade. From the start, our IO-Link technology has enabled us to capture critical data. However, the market is only now recognizing how this data can drive productivity. A persistent challenge we’ve encountered is the disconnect between IT and OT. While OT teams see the data’s potential to boost efficiency, IT teams are often concerned about network security. Bridging this gap required us to work with both sides, which was new territory for us.
For example, we recently collaborated with a leading automotive company to develop an IO-Link networking product with built-in cybersecurity features. This innovation helped us secure an exclusive partnership, demonstrating not only our design speed but also our ability to address their unique challenges, such as minimizing downtime risks and enhancing security. Once proven, the company adopted our system across their factories, accelerating their digital transformation efforts.
We’re also exploring other digitalization avenues, such as guided changeover solutions for the packaging industry, which streamlines the shift between product sizes. Additionally, our condition monitoring sensors can predict equipment failures by analyzing factors like temperature and vibration. This data feeds into AI systems to schedule preventive maintenance, avoiding costly downtime.
Are you also developing software to enhance data visualization and AI-driven decision-making?
Yes, we’ve made strides in software development, particularly through acquisitions. A few years ago, we acquired both a software and a vision company. These moves have enriched our product offerings, especially in AI. For instance, our vision products now use AI to analyze images and deliver actionable insights.
That said, we’re not primarily a software company. While we’ve developed user-friendly tools like an IO-Link architecture builder, our focus remains on integrating these solutions with our hardware. Our guided changeover solution, for example, combines hardware with a software interface to optimize production processes. Our products also integrate seamlessly with major SCADA and MES systems, ensuring compatibility and flexibility for our customers.
Advice for Leaders
Let’s now touch a bit on work-life balance. As a leader in a fast-paced world, in a global company how do you find your own work-life balance? What are your techniques or strategies to stay fresh, energized, calm?
Mine has changed over the years, and I think you have to stay fresh with whatever is interesting to you outside of work. My daughter plays softball, so for 15 years it was nothing but softball. Today, I take a different approach. Every morning, I work out, I do 30 minutes on the bike, every evening, I do a light workout with weights. And when I’m working out, I’ve always got my AirPods in and I’m listening to something, whether it’s a book or a podcast or music; it just depends on what mood I’m in.
During COVID, I convinced my wife to buy a camper. Initially, she was completely against it, but now she’s really got the bug. It’s a lot of work to go camping in a camper, but it takes your mind completely away from work so that your subconscious can really digest the issues. And I feel like since we’ve started camping, I’m actually more creative. I get more ideas, just because I’m able to completely shut off from work. You know, when you’re driving down the highway and you’re pulling a 40-foot trailer behind you, you must stay focused and you’re not thinking about work at all.
If you had some advice to yourself, 20 years ago or to a young leader who wants to make a career in the industry, what would be such advice?
As younger people, we tend to be more emotional in our decision-making. So, I would say, check your emotions, learn how to control them, think logically, and then, make your decisions. Take the time to think about situations. I can recall a few times that when I look back and I was too quick to action, and I think that would be a good piece of advice.
Thank you again, Dennis, for participating in the ALTIX Industry Champions interview. We are excited and honored to feature you and Balluff in the ALTIX ACCESS 2024 Q4 Newsletter.
