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In this episode of The Automotive Leaders Podcast, Jan Griffiths interviews Qiong Sun, Vice President and General Manager of TE Connectivity's Global Automotive E-Mobility business, to learn what it takes to lead a technology company during this transformative period in the automotive industry.

From the very start, you can see Qiong's passion for technology and leadership come through. She shares how her engineering background shaped her leadership style, which is rooted in problem-solving and optimization. 

For Qiong, leadership isn't just about managing teams; it's about building a shared vision, aligning strategies, and inspiring people with purpose—a must for engaging today's workforce.

Qiong explores the wave of innovation reshaping the automotive industry—from electrification to AI—and the challenges that come with it. She explains that collaboration is the key to staying ahead, whether it’s partnering with tech companies, governments, or consumers to create smarter, faster solutions.

Qiong also talks about how the relationship between suppliers and OEMs is changing. They're no longer just filling orders; they're stepping up as innovation partners, helping OEMs navigate the complexities of new technologies. She shares how TE Connectivity is here to support both traditional and up-and-coming automakers by offering solutions that fit their specific needs.

Resilience has been a big part of Qiong's leadership journey. She recalls the early days of her career when she tested safety systems in harsh conditions and earned the trust of her team through perseverance.

Now, she fosters that same resilience in her team, building a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth and innovation thrives without fear of failure.

Her advice for leaders? "Believe in what you're doing." She encourages everyone to embrace collaboration and tap into the industry's strengths—its talent, resources, and expertise. Whether working with established automakers or new players, the key to progress is pushing each other and working together.

Themes discussed in this episode:

• The rise of disruptive technologies like electrification, connectivity, and software-defined vehicles reshaping the auto industry
• Why speed and agility are the key to staying competitive in the automotive industry
• Why traditional automotive processes no longer work for today’s fast development cycles
• How collaboration is the key to managing fast-changing requirements and shorter product cycles
• The importance of building partnerships with non-traditional players, such as governments, tech companies, and infrastructure providers
• The evolving role of suppliers as innovation partners driving transformation
• How teamwork between legacy automakers and new players drives faster innovation and progress

Featured guest: Qiong Sun

What she does: Qiong Sun is the Vice President and General Manager of the Global Automotive E-Mobility Business at TE Connectivity, where she leads strategy, product management, technology development, and market delivery for high-voltage solutions in the electric vehicle market. With a passion for innovation, 30 years of experience in transportation, and a diverse industry consulting background, she drives the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies to advance vehicle electrification, energy storage, and active safety systems, making a significant impact on the industry.

On Leadership: “I always believe that you have to have a vision, you have to have a strategy that is clear to all the people working with you on your team, your customers, your suppliers. When you have a common goal, you can put the plan together. This is how you bring people along, especially with the nowadays generation, a newer generation. They do not just go to work for a job and get the pay. They also want to have a purpose. And this is the purpose that we need as a leader: bring everybody together.”

Mentioned in this episode:

• Collaborating with Giants: HAAS Alert's Successful Startup with Stellantis
• Combined Charging System (CCS) Standard
• North American Charging System
• The Infinite Game
• Get to know TE Connectivity

Episode Highlights:

[02:24] From Engineer to Leader: Qiong talks about how her engineering background shapes her leadership, using clear strategies and shared purpose to bring teams together and inspire a generation that values more than just a paycheck.

[00:00] Breaking Free from Legacy: The auto industry is merging traditional methods with software-driven agility by embracing collaboration, modular design, and parallel development to tackle rapid innovation cycles and meet fast-changing market demands.

[00:00] From Order Takers to Innovation Partners: Shifting from simply following OEM directives to actively helping them scale and simplify new technologies, suppliers are redefining their role in driving the future of the automotive industry.

[23:12] Got to Have Resilience: Resilience has shaped Qiong’s career, from earning her team’s trust in harsh testing conditions to driving progress in the EV space, proving that persistence is key to overcoming challenges and achieving success.

[28:06] Mistakes, Mindsets, and the Infinite Game: Innovation thrives where mistakes are seen as stepping stones, and Qiong highlights the power of embracing an infinite mindset to build a culture that values growth, sustainability, and long-term success over short-term wins.

[34:30] Advice for Leaders: Facing industry disruption, Qiong encourages leaders to believe in their mission, embrace resilience, and work together—traditional automakers and new players alike—to unlock the full potential of US talent and resources.

Top Quotes:

[07:24] Qiong: “Whenever you have so many new things happening at the same time, it comes with a lot of challenges, as you mentioned. One of the challenges that I see is how to manage this transition of the megatrends and respond to these fast-shifting requirements while maintaining profitability and competitiveness. I believe that in order to achieve it, you have to collaborate with the other players in the ecosystem. Collaboration is really the key to win because the ecosystem is really expanding from government, utility companies, infrastructure providers, and to the tech industries for electrification.”

[13:55] Qiong: “We help both sides. We help the ones that are coming from outside the auto industry who can be fast, but a lot of times, they might not always make sure they test out the two, every scenario, the quality. So, we helped them bridge this gap. Same thing with the traditional OEM; we also helped them because we know how to make things faster, and all OEMs want to be successful. So, when they see their suppliers work with them and provide them solutions, provide them with anything that they might not have thought about, they love it. So, this is how we actually work with them, and we have been very successful in this area.”

[15:51] Qiong: “What we do is we work with all OEMs, collect all the market needs, and then think through how to simplify. In the end, it's not always more complex is better. That's my philosophy and just really finding those solutions and how those can apply to their specific application. And so, hopefully, by the time we develop those platform products and then when they take it, they only need to apply 20-30 percent of the effort to do that. That will help them gain scalability because they can share even with the other OEMs what the tooling, manufacturing, capital investment, and things like that.”

[23:53] Qiong: “I was very fortunate to find a job working at the forefront of several key active safety technologies that today we take for granted to get our family home safe, such as the anti-lock braking system, traction control, vehicle stability control. But the development of those technologies usually involves a lot of test trips all year round to some very severe winter environments around the world. As a woman engineer in the entire department, I probably could have made a lot of excuses and avoided some of those trips, but I didn't. Because I went on every one of those trips, I not only learned but also worked on this system so that I can really actually be an expert on them. But more importantly, you know, through this, I earned the respect and trust of my team.”

[29:51] Qiong: “If you think about whether it's about our business or our life, it is really an infinite game. There is really no winner or loser, and there is only what's ahead and what's behind. Especially in business, when we have leaders embracing the infinite mindset, we are more likely to build a strong, innovative, and inspiring organizational culture, as you said, the culture of innovation. And this is the same for life; all of us come and go; our lives are finite, but really life is infinite. We are just finite players in this infinite game of life. So, I really think about that a lot of those apply to me for business very much. And I don't think about it as a win or lose in my business. I think about it is how I perpetuate it, the business, how do I actually make sure this business always keeps going.”

Mentioned in this episode:

This episode is sponsored by Lockton, click here to learn more

[Transcript]

This episode is brought to you by Lockton. Lockton redefines business insurance and people solutions with a personal touch. Their global team of 11,000 is driven by independence, not quarters to tailor success for your business. Discover the Lockton difference, where your goals become their mission. Independence, it's not just how you think but how you act.

What does it take to lead in the world of technology and electronics in our beloved auto industry, and how has that changed? To answer this question, we're going to talk to a woman who has been at the forefront of technology in the world of electronics in the auto industry for her entire career. She once led the electrification business at Lear, and she now sits firmly at the top of TE Connectivity as the Vice President and General Manager of the Global Automotive E-mobility business. Please welcome Qiong Sun. Qiong, welcome to the show.

So, that means you always need a solid business strategy and plan that everyone understands and works towards it. As an engineer, I'm wired to always seek the most optimized solution. I've learned it is really critical to be surrounded by talented people from different backgrounds and with a different viewpoint and skillset. So, basically, I always try to stay authentic to myself and my strengths.

And this is why collaboration is so important because you need to innovate with people together. They need to understand your requirements; at the same time, you have to actually be able to collaborate and innovate the solution at a much faster speed. And we do that all the time. And a lot of times when we release the parts for these electrified vehicles, it's a very different way. And also, the design, it's like a clean sheet design. It's no longer doing, you know, you are doing the modification on what it is before. And the other thing we do is actually a lot of testing, not necessarily in the vehicle; everything has to be ready. So, you're parallel doing a lot of testing, you're doing a lot of regenerative AI methods, use a lot of simulation, digital twin type of a method to make sure that you can test those driving events much earlier before everything is ready. So, it's not a serial development; it's a parallel development and being agile and working with your suppliers and the customers together.

I've interviewed another company called HAAS Alert. They do the alert system that tells you when an emergency vehicle is in the area, and they are in production with Stellantis, and they're just launching with Volkswagen, and they see their role as exactly that. Their role is not to just do what the OEM tells them to do. It is to help them launch, scale, and integrate new technology. That's a huge mindset shift, Qiong, that I think is underestimated. What do you think?

Secondly, you have to view your role with the OEM as one of support and coaching; that's a huge shift. Then, you have to establish a vision, get your team behind that vision, get used to the idea of an ecosystem, no longer this linear buyer-supplier relationship all the way down the chain, and figure out how to connect all these very different types of organizations to help you move fast.

Then, the ultimate leadership requirement or leadership trait to succeed is to trust and empower your team. Show role models and resilience, but make sure that you build upon the failures to the ultimate success. Again, if you're playing the infinite game, that's going to come naturally, but that's going to be part of the process. So, in my mind, that summarizes your beliefs on leadership and technology, and automotive. Did I miss anything?