When Nathan Winters led a supply chain team earlier in his career, he noticed something that would shape his leadership style: “The credibility you get by the operating leaders when they see you out in the field… is incredibly important.” Whether visiting customers, walking a manufacturing floor, or sitting in on operating meetings, Winters found that physical presence fostered trust—and that trust gave finance a real seat at the table.
Today, as CFO of Zebra Technologies, Winters continues to emphasize business partnership grounded in proximity to operations. In the four years since he stepped into the CFO seat, Zebra has weathered post-COVID surges, global supply chain disruptions, and enterprise restructuring. The company’s product footprint—often “hidden in plain sight,” from grocery checkout scanners to hospital wristbands—has expanded to include robotics and machine vision, Winters tells us.
He’s also broadened his own remit, taking on IT and cybersecurity leadership, including oversight of both the CIO and CISO. In that time, Zebra has reduced China-based production from 80% to 30% and introduced new AI capabilities like “Zebra Companion” to automate shelf management for retailers. Internally, Zebra launched a private LLM instance—“Z-GPT”—to streamline tasks from expense report queries to sales presentations.
“Your job isn’t to just close the books,” Winters tells us. “If you’re not analyzing… finding new ways to think about things… you’re getting passed up.” At Zebra, finance is not just a control function—it’s a strategic force embedded in every operational stride.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: Zebra Technologies is known for combining hardware, software, and services. Can you share what makes the company unique?
Winters: We like to say that a lot of our products and solutions are “hidden in plain sight.” You might not always realize it, but you interact with Zebra’s technology in everyday life. Whether you’re checking out at the grocery store using a scanner, receiving a package with a delivery notification, or wearing a wristband when you check into a hospital—there’s a good chance Zebra is behind it. That wristband, for example, helps ensure you’re the right patient receiving the right care.
Read MoreToday, we describe ourselves as integral to intelligent operations. What that means is, we give assets and inventory a digital voice. Once that voice exists, it opens the door to optimizing workflows—making them more efficient and data-driven. For instance, if I know exactly where inventory is across the supply chain, I can better interpret that data and optimize the flow of goods.
We also focus on empowering frontline workers. Whether it’s a store associate or warehouse employee, giving them access to real-time information allows them to be more productive and deliver a better customer experience. Over time, we’ve expanded our portfolio into areas like robotics and machine vision. Ultimately, our job is to help customers solve their toughest challenges by digitizing and automating processes to drive the productivity they need to meet their customer demands.
CFOTL: Let’s talk about tariffs. How has Zebra been navigating this ongoing challenge?
Winters: Over the last five to six years, we’ve done a lot of work to diversify our supply chain—especially moving production out of China. Six years ago, the majority of our production was coming from China into North America. Today, that’s down to 30%. So it hasn’t just been about tariffs; it’s been about building resiliency through a more diversified supply chain.
We’ve got a dedicated team that works closely with our trading partners and government counterparts. They’re constantly modeling out scenarios based on policy developments—sometimes literally as things are tweeted out. Our job is to cut through the noise and execute our plan. That takes a lot of energy and coordination, but we feel well-positioned to handle it.
Zebra Technologies | www.zebra.com | Lincolnshire, IL