Folahan Olishile is an IT manager for Siemens PLM Software

“I don’t measure whether a job is accomplished in two hours or two days,” he says, “just that we have the final product when our executives need it.”

“What I like most is the business interaction,” Folahan Olishile says.

Combine the wonders of IT with a major corporation’s need to take the pulse of its economic health, and you have the exciting job of Folahan Olishile.

As an IT manager for Siemens PLM Software (Maryland Heights, MO), Olishile employs business intelligence software to analyze how the company is doing. He oversees a team of seven experts.

“What I like most is the business interaction,” he says.
“I have the opportunity to hear and understand some of the questions the business leaders are trying to answer, and I like being able to provide systems or solutions to help address those questions.”

Managing the warehouse
Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of Siemens’ industry automation division, provides software and services to address product lifecycle management needs for companies around the world. Olishile manages the business’s data warehouse, which tracks the number of orders for software in the system, revenues available and the number of “seats,” or licenses, installed at customer sites. He is a key consultant to the PLM business leaders.

The system, he explains, calculates how much has been sold year-to-date to provide “pulse points” on the health of the business. Team members update the systems frequently, sometimes nightly, depending on the type of application and the need of the business.

Concentrating on managing
Olishile actually was one of two people who created the system, so he’s well aware of the issues his team members face. For the last year and a half, however, he’s concentrated more on oversight as a manager, plus reporting to his own managers about the team’s progress. “Most of my senior staff have at least ten years of experience so there’s no need for me to hold their hands,” he says with a smile.

Team members are spread out geographically. “You have to have trust if you manage remotely,” Olishile explains. “I’m a results-oriented manager. I don’t measure whether a job
is accomplished in two hours or two days; just that we have the final product when our executives need it. I’m there to offer support, but of course I want to be informed as well.”

Meetings and more
Some of Olishile’s days seem to be made of meetings. One day it’s all about service level agreements: meeting customer expectations. Another day it’s the “insight team” of senior directors and operations leaders. “We go over the status of projects that IT has been asked
to address.”

He only travels about one day in ten, but when he does go abroad it might be to Germany, Hong Kong or Japan to meet with internal business users. He also attends conferences covering the latest developments in SAP and other IT areas.

Growing into IT
Olishile was born in Nigeria. The country’s official language is English, and he grew up also speaking Yoruba and some French. Here in the U.S. he doesn’t speak Yoruba to his two children; “My mother isn’t too happy about that,” he notes ruefully. But he continues to speak
it when chatting with his family in Africa.

As a top science student at a prestigious high school in Nigeria, Olishile thought he might go into medicine. But he found the precursor courses heavily loaded with rote memorization. “Other sciences came much easier to me: math, physics, chemistry, no problem.” Computers seemed to be the friendliest study of all.

In 1986 Olishile came to the U.S. He became a citizen in 1995, and got his BSCS from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1999. In 2003 he finished his MBA at Webster University
(St. Louis, MO).

Siemens: employer of choice
Olishile started at Siemens in 1999. The company has continually provided him with opportunities to grow and work on varied projects, he says.

He started as an infrastructure analyst in the Web apps and development group for Unigraphics Solutions. On his first project he was assigned to work alongside the then-CIO. “I think getting to work on that project was one of the things that propelled me in my career,” he says.

The next year he became an IT project manager, and this year he moved into his current position. In ten years at the company he has received great career support from three mentors: Joe Epplin, who recruited him to Siemens; Bill Cronin, the former comptroller and new finance VP; and Jerry Maryniak, a product VP.

“It’s top-notch here”
Some day Olishile would like to be a CIO, continuing his deep involvement with technology
and business growth. Meanwhile he’s more than happy with what he’s doing. The company environment is highly supportive of career advancement, as well as collaboration among
peers, he says.

“It’s top-notch here. We’re very lean, and management is very open to new ideas and willing
to collaborate to complete a project.”

Flexibility is also evident. “I have an option to telecommute sometimes, and that creates a good work/life balance. This is a stable company, even in these tough times.”