Ira Sharp Jr

IIoT-World

IIoT World is a leading digital media outlet, bringing the latest Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) virtual conferences and content to a global community with 650+ contributors and over 284K members

As part of the Board of Advisors, I will provide strategic guidance to help shape the future of the company & community

Board of Advisors

Phoenix Contact USA

Leader of the Industrial Automation products within the US market responsibilities include:
New Market Development focused on Industrial Automation, IIoT, & cloud services 
Leader of product marketing and national sales team
Sales strategy development
Supporting digitalization efforts 
Developing new business models
Budget and P&L management

Overall, As the Director of Product Marketing for our Automation products, I have a passion for complex products and developing effective go-to-market strategies with my team of talented product marketing managers, specialists, and automation sales engineers.

Director of Product Marketing - Automation

As a Marketing Manager for Phoenix Contact I lead the US market message for automation in technology areas of control, I/O, safety, infrastructure, modems, & process. This includes product and brand strategy, new product launches, market development, and product marketing. 

Key areas of focus are:
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) brand strategy for the US market centric to industrial network infrastructure, control strategies, edge, and web and analytic platforms.
Niagara framework market strategy for the industrial & light industrial providing a path the known Niagara framework to be leveraged in application outside of building automation 
Safety system development targeted towards interface components for machine and process safety using PL and SIL.
Process infrastructure market development focused on fieldbus technologies including ProfiBus, Foundation Fieldbus, and HART

Product Marketing Manager - Control, I/O, & Safety 

Marketing leader of the I/O and Networks US subsidiary business unit; Responsible for leading a team of specialists in the area of industrial automation, product and brand strategy development, new product launch and market development, product marketing, and print/ Emedia creation and publication, SEM/SEO.

Responsible product categories:
Ethernet networks - unmanaged & managed Ethernet switches and security appliances
Wireless networks - WiFi, proprietary 900mhz/2.4ghz, GSM & CDMA cellular modems, and 400Mhz UHF
Serial networks - fiber optic media converters, serial to Ethernet converters, & copper to copper converters
Safety systems - safety relays, safety controllers, distributed safety networks ( SafetyBridge technology)
I/O systems - Ethernet & serial industrial protocols (EtherNet/IP, Profinet, Profibus, MODBUS TCP/RTU, etc.)
Process bus networks - Foundation Fieldbus, WirelessHART, & Profibus

Product Marketing Manager Networking & IO

As a lead product marketing specialist in the area of industrial wireless I am responsible for staying current on industrial industry trends, along with the technical and sales aspects of wireless technologies. I have used this experience to design 100’s of successful wireless systems for industrial automation applications, including SCADA, water/waste water, traffic control, petrochemical, and government systems. I have also developed and conducted 50+ classes focused on industrial communications mediums such as wireless, fiber optics, and RS standards, and industrial protocols including MODBUS, Ethernet IP, Profibus, etc. My wireless specializations are in spread spectrum wireless systems, WiFi, UHF, cellular, and wireless sensor networks.

Lead Product Marketing Specialist

Industry 4.0 Club

Co-founder of the Industry 4.0 Club and weekly host of the Clubhouse room, The Future of Manufacturing.  The room is focused on IIoT, Industry 4.0, Smart Factory, & Digitalization.

Co-Founder and Co-Host of the Future of Manufacturing Room

Sharp-Thinking

Lead development, design, and market research for digital price tag system focusing on retail establishments.

President

Passion for IoT/ IIoT & Industry 4.0 | Accomplished Marketing Strategist | Public Speaker | Family Man | Consumer Electronics Geek

I love to create and share my experiences 

Here on LinkedIn, I am looking to make connections and have conversations on IoT/ IIoT, Industry 4.0, Automation, Management & Productivity topics.  

I regularly post on these topics, so follow me to see my random ramblings

If you want to chat, network, or if you need help in any of these areas feel free to reach out. 

Okay, now the typical Bio… if you want the high-level background

With over 15 years of experience in industrial automation, with a focus on IoT/ IIoT, Industry 4.0, Open Automation, Industrial Networking, & Cybersecurity I have been able to accomplish some amazing things. Currently, I head the automation business for Phoenix Contact USA as the Director of Product Marketing - Automation.  

On top of my daily responsibilities of leading Marketing, Engineering, and Sales teams, my thought leadership can be seen across many IoT/ IIoT collaboration and educational platforms including here on LinkedIn.  In 2021 & 2022 I was named in the “whos who” for IIoT by Onalytica, I am a Co-Founder of the Industry 4.0 Club, an Advisory Board Member of IIoT World, and a frequent podcast guest (aspiring Podcast Host).

5 Harsh Truths About Life... 
I came across this in my Youtube feed
It made me think 🤔

The 4,000 weeks put time in perspective. 

Youtube Channel:https://lnkd.in/ec-wPAGa
Keep up the great work Steven Bartlett, Love it

Let’s talk offer negotiations. You went through the interview process, you put your best foot forward and now the company has made you an offer. What are your options? How should you respond? I’ll cover some best practices when negotiating an offer to satisfy both your goals and the company’s. 


1. Be up front about your salary needs during your initial phone call with the recruiter. Take note of their response and whether they confirm you are within the salary range. This number should factor in things like what it would take for you to make a job move at this time, if you are adding or subtracting from your commute, growth opportunity, etc. 

2. When the recruiter or hiring team calls to make the offer, take notes right away. Some companies will present a verbal offer first and wait for terms to be agreed upon before putting together a formal offer letter. We all experience that joy/panic when an offer comes, so be sure to write down any key details so you can recall it later.

3. Take stock on whether this offer is less than, on par with, or above what you communicated needing in your initial screening. If it’s on par with or above, I think this goes without saying, but don’t try and negotiate further. It makes you look greedy and leaves a bad taste in your new employer’s mouth. I have seen offers be rescinded due to poor business ettiquete in these scenarios!

4. Now the tough one: the offer is less than what you told them you needed. Before showing your displeasure, try and get a full picture of the total compensation. Are the benefits significantly better than your current company? Will you be saving money by switching? Is the 401k match better? Can you get tuition reimbursement to further your education? Was there a factor in the team’s decision to offer you less? Do you miss key skills or experience listed as a requirement? Are they handcuffed by internal equity of their team? Gather all this key information so that you can come back to them with a solid reason WHY you require additional salary or funds. 

5. Offer negotiations are FAR more likely to be accepted if there are concrete data/examples and disparities revealed. If you can show that by joining your company, you’d be missing out on $___ or you need $___ to break even on 401k, etc. the company will likely take your negotiation as a serious request and not a hope/wish. 


Hopefully these tips & tricks help you when your find yourself in this situation. Fellow recruiters, would you add anything else? If you used these strategies and it helped you in your job search, please reach out to me! I’d love to hear your experience. 

#recruitingbestpractices #offernegotiations #talentacquistion

What is going on with this CEO report, Tide changed quickly 🚀
Q4,2023 was about economic concerns, Geopolitical uncertainty, etc.
Q1,2024 is all about AI, Sustainability, and Elections

Sure, topics around economics are still hot, and geopolitical concerns are still present, but it appears that these topics are giving way to trend topics.

An interesting rise of Chatbots made the list which I don't recall seeing before. I believe this is great because Chatbots/ LLMs are a relatively low-barrier way to leverage AI

Load documents, HR info, and operational manuals into an LLM, and boom, you can develop a focused bot to help with day-to-day tasks. This can be advanced by introducing operational data for machines/systems/processes and scaling the usefulness even more.

Personally, I just saw a demo of AmazonQ and it was ... in a word, interesting🤔

However, with all of these AI models, it's not only having the data that matters, it's having VALID data that matters. 

I am sure it will not make the CEO list, but clear & valid data should be one of the most sought-after commodities of any company at this point. This will be the lifeblood that fuels the next massive growth curve. 

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't call out that Trump and Bitcoin made the list, next to each other ... of all places 🤣

Fitting as once Trump Hated Bitcoin with a capital H, and now he is releasing his own NFTs... my-my have the times have changed.

What are your major takeaways?

Are you using AI/ Automation in your daily workflow
If you are not, you should take it for a spin... challenge yourself
I have been dabbling in a few areas

I try to carve out a few hours a week to try something new. 
My typical workflow goes like this.

Define a Problem or Goal
Research the topic (Google, Youtube, Reddit, CoPilot)
Select tools/ process
Develop
Test

For me, I recently had the goal of taking various reports I receive daily, stripping off the attachment, renaming it with Date, and placing this on a shared drive for my team to access.

To accomplish this, I selected PowerAutomate because our business lives in the Microsoft ecosystem. And through some development, this is live and ready, making it so much easier to find that report from day xyz.

Could this have been done in other ways, sure! but, I learned a new skill in PowerAutomate and have extended in other areas because of this.

In another project, I used Generative AI as an assistant to help research new markets, develop profiles, develop opportunities, and more. To accomplish this, ChatGPT was used with extensions to load several large PDF reports that were used to build the LLM. From here, I chatted with the system to help define and refine what I needed, resulting in some amazing results. (and yes, I used site source along the way to validate)

I feel like an Excel guru at this point. I am far from it IRL, but using CoPilot or ChatGPT I can ask for very specific functions to be carried out on data sets doing some evaluations I am not sure I would have ever been able to figure out otherwise.

Anyway, I have enjoyed this journey, and I am a firm believer in continuing education. Stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone... 

In the best case, you find ways to do things in completely new ways
Worst case, you find you were doing things better before

Small changes today can make a big impact tomorrow

What interesting problems have you solved or personal goals have you made

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