From Light Bulbs To Data Centers

A dangling light bulb in a farmhouse kitchen doesn’t sound like the start of a global story, but that’s exactly where Joel Ross begins. We talk with the former president and CEO of Universal Electric Corporation about how his grandfather learned the earliest days of electrification in Pittsburgh, then turned gritty field work into a durable family enterprise. Along the way, we trace how opportunity often shows up as a problem that won’t go away.One of the most gripping chapters is how industrial risk shaped product innovation. Joel explains the dangerous reality of exposed power on overhead cranes in steel mills and how a safer crane electrification approach, built around insulated conductor bar, becomes a meaningful breakthrough. It’s a lesson in real-world business innovation: listen closely to what can hurt people, fix it, and you may build something that scales far beyond a single plant.Then we fast-forward to the strategic pivots that keep the company alive as industries rise and fall. Heavy industry declines, garment manufacturing leaves the US, and computing explodes into internet-era infrastructure. Joel shares how they recognize a transferable skill in electrical power distribution and ride the wave into data centers, colocation facilities, and the “100% uptime” expectations of modern tech. We also dig into family business leadership, the role of trust and unity, and the idea they call “familiness,” plus Joel’s definition of legacy and why he writes a book about 100 years of a successful family business.If you care about entrepreneurship, manufacturing, change leadership, succession planning, or data center infrastructure, this conversation is packed with usable thinking. This podcast is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. An online master’s designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.