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#13—Creating the First Penguin Culture: Driving Change in High-Stakes Industries

Author
Outthinker
Published
Thu 22 May 2025
Episode Link
None

In this episode, we’re joined by Sarah Beckman, Chief Strategy Officer of Ulteig.
Ulteig specialized in infrastructure solutions across power, renewables, transportation, and water. Sarah is an experienced structural engineer, shedesigning energy systems spanning the continental U.S., and also spent time in sales before moving into her current role leading corporate strategy. Her deep technical roots give her a unique perspective on solving complex problems and leading transformation in a traditionally slow-moving, high-stakes industry. Today, she’s focused on preparing Ulteig—and the entire sector—for an era defined by AI, electrification, and the race to build faster than ever before.  Sarah brings a powerful systems-thinking lens to transformation in one of the most critical—and traditionally slow-moving—sectors: energy infrastructure. 

Things we’ll cover in this conversation: 

  • How to drive innovation inside mission-critical industries where the cost of failure is high 
  • Why aligning strategy to purpose and stakeholder value is key to building urgency without panic 
  • How Sarah applied engineering skills to transform a sales strategy and sunset a commoditized offering 
  • What CSOs can do to prepare for industry-wide disruption—from AI demands to a nuclear energy renaissance 
  • The leadership behaviors and organizational systems that actually make strategy stick 

Whether you're preparing to pivot, wrestling with internal resistance, or rethinking how to build a transformation-ready culture—this episode is packed with practical wisdom from the front lines.

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