Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Why Business Needs Blockchain

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Why Business Needs Blockchain · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, Hello. This is Smart Talks with IBM, a podcast
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: from Pushkin Industries, iHeartMedia and IBM about what it means
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to look at today's most challenging problems in a new way.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Malcolm Gladwell. We're taking a bit of a summer
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: break this month. I'll be back at the end of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: September with a brand new episode unpacking innovation led by IBM.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, I wanted to share a Smart Talks
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: episode from our archives. This is a special episode from
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: last season, created in collaboration with the podcast tech Stuff.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: In it, you'll hear host Jonathan Strickland interview Jason Kelly
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: about the dynamic use of blockchain. Jason is a senior
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: leader at IBM and a blockchain expert. Jonathan and Jason
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: attempt to demystify blockchain and explain what it really is
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in its simplest form. Let's dive in.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and I love all
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: things tech. And in this episode of Smart Talks with IBM,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I speak with Jason Kelly, a general manager at IBM
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: who works with a technology that, for many people is
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: something of an enigma. I'm talking about blockchain. As a
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: tech podcaster, I've found it challenging to explain blockchain from
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: a technical perspective because it requires a certain level of
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: familiarity with several other concepts, and by the time I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: finish explaining those basic concepts, there's very little time left
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: for the star attraction. Jason, as you will hear, has
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a very different approach, and one that I find particularly effective.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I chatted with Jason about his work at IBM, how
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the pandemic continues to present enormous challenges to businesses and
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the average person alike, and how blockchain can play a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: role in industries that found themselves in a rapidly shifting
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and dynamic situation. Have a listen, Jason. Before we get started,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I was hoping maybe you could give us a little
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: background information on yourself and what you do with IBM.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: So take it away, tell us all about yourself.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Ah sure, Jana, let me see I can keep this
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: contained in a minute blurb. Probably not so, IBM. IBM's
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: been my career. Within the last number of years I started.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: My first career out of school was a military I'm
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: a Army veteran airborne ranger, all that fun stuff. My
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: body gave up before I did. From the military. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: then went through a number of careers, from running a
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: subsidiary a company that was ultimately sold to Berkshire Hathaway,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: did a stint as I exec on loan and public service,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: and then started my own company, later sold and then
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: ended up at IBM, starting new companies through solutions throughout
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: North America and now globally, having started parts of our
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: business in Southeast Asia as well as China, and so
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: what's consistent and all that is a lot of starting
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: things up, growing them based on solid teams and technology
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: based in data and so here we are now. As
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: I recently in the last five years was running our
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: solutions group for all of our services, I ran an
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: experiment on this thing called blockchain, and so here I
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: am now four years almost four years later, at the
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: head of our blockchain business globally and enjoying some of
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: the most talented people I've ever worked with in my
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: multiple careers.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I love that we've already got the cat out of
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: the bag with the blockchain term. I find in technology
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: that every few years a new term will emerge that
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the mainstream find it difficult to really grow, Like cloud
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: computing was one of those examples, right, and blockchain, I feel,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: is one of those things. For a lot of people
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: where they hear the term, they they might be somewhat
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: familiar with it. A lot of people their touchstone is cryptocurrency,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: but they don't really have any grasp of what it
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: actually means. So when you're describing your work to someone
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: who is unfamiliar with blockchain, how do you explain what
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: it is?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Well, it's great you asked that question, Jathan, because I
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: usually leave out the bee word. Let's think of taking
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the word apart, get rid of the block part. Because
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: people hear blockchain and they start thinking crypto, and that's
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: not what we're talking about. It's what's behind that. So
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: if you just think of chain, I'll give you an example,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: and this is this example hopefully will help you understand
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: the outcome we get from this technology. And if you
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: just put supply where the B word was, and supply
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: chain And let me ask you, so, Jonathan, do you
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: drink coffee or tea or anything of that sort either.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: One I do. Indeed, I drink both tea and coffee.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Tea and coffee. Okay, great, Now let me ask you,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: at any time do you have organic to your coffee?
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  Speaker 2: I have had it on occasion, yes.
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  Speaker 3: On occasion. Well, you probably paid a little bit more
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: for it because it's organic. Now it'll to your fun
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: fact that many people spread and know that there's more
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: organic food consumed every year than is produced. So think
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: on that for a second. Right, So, so somewhere in
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: there in this supply chain, and now think of the
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: linear supply chain. I'm trying to paint a visual picture
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: for you. You know, let's let's think from in this case,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: from from farm to cup using that time farm the
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: fork kind of thing. Think of that that supply chain
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: forget to be where it's supply chain, and think of
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: how that coffee bean or tea leaf grew someplace and
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: then went through a number of stages to finally get
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: to a store where you picked it up, were to
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: a location where you bought that cup of to your coffee.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: So that chain, it's typically these multiple handshakes. So just
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: think about a matter of moving it from one place
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: to the next. Very lineally, and handshakes passed it from
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: one place to the next, so that when you get
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: it that final handshake where you get to consume it, Jonathan,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: you say, Okay, with that handshake, I know that this
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: coffee is organic because it says it on the label
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: or it said it on the menu. That's all you
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: have at this point. And think of those handshakes as
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: just a passing enough data forget the tea or coffee.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: It's just data about the t or coffee that you're
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: going to consume. Something you're putting in your body. That
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: data is going from one place to the next until
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: you consume it. And in that chain, those handshakes are
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: what you trust. And there's something that you're trusting there
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: first that that data is shared accurately, and then no
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: one's changed it. That chain of data is something that
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: you trust just inherently. Now, what if, Jonathan, what if
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: you could guarantee that that bean or that tea leaf
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: that you consume was actually organic by ensuring that that
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: data could be accurately shared and you wouldn't have to
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: worry about it going from handshake to handshake. You would
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: know from where you consumed it all the way back
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  Speaker 3: to that farm or to that tree or wherever it
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: was grown. If you could get rid of the handshakes.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Instead of having a supply chain, you would have a
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: block chain because each one of those handshakes would be
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: digital technology that is unchangeable, often called immutable, and you
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: would be able to make sure that that tea is
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: organic because you, as the consumer, would be able to
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: see digitally all the way back to the point of origination.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: So there you go.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Excellent. Well, I love that explanation. I love that narrative approach.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: From a certain perspective, I think a lot of people
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: immediately can kind of identify with the importance of this technology.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen depictions of have perhaps even encountered
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the experience of the hey kid, you want to buy
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: a watch kind of thing, right, the idea the guy
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: who's got the these are all trust me, these are
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: all Rolexes, These are all brand brands that you want,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: and you're immediately the red flag should come up of really,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: that's probably not true. So in a lot of ways,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: from what you're describing, this approach is a way of
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: verifying through every single step of the process that the
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: thing you are trying to take a possession of or
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: the thing you're trying to purchase or sell is genuine.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: It's the actual thing, and you can easily see where
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: that would be a really valuable approach.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: That's exactly it, Jonathan. And to simplify it even more,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: the outcome is what's key here. Think of that chain
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: of custody almost going from one to next, or here
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: you go watch the day joke. Chain of trustity. So
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: it's that trust going going from source to the consumer.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: And so that's called provenance. And it's one of the
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: three letters that we call out here that you've mentioned
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: in your luxury good or Rolex example. Is that first
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: there's a thought of tokenization. I just mean tokenizing an acid,
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  Speaker 3: digitizing something that has physical value. So you've now tokenized
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: that watch because you've made it digital, given it a
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: digital And here comes the second word identity. And so
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  Speaker 3: whether it's an identity of a good or of a
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  Speaker 3: service or of a person, you have identity. And then
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: I mentioned the p provenance. So tip, if you can
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  Speaker 3: remember those three things, that's all you need to know
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: about that B word because that's what it delivers as
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: an outcome and not mutually exclusively either because as you're
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: in your rolex example, there is a digitization of it,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: so it's tokenized there as you could say, an identity
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  Speaker 3: to make sure it's that same watch. And then from
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: the source the manufacturer to your wrist, so you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: then the provenance. So those three things will be common
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: outcomes of using this new technology.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: To kind of shift a little bit. We've also seen
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: obviously this past year some tumultuous changes as companies have
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: had to find new ways to be flexible in the
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: coronavirus outbreak, and that ended up being a big news
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: story in itself that the coronavirus outbreak in COVID nineteen,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: we're having a major impact on companies and their supply chains.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Can you go into a little bit about why that was?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Why was that such an enormous impact early on with
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the and continues to be for several companies with the
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: outbreak of COVID nineteen.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: I think you hit you got to a key point there, Joatha,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: and it continues to be and it always the thought
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: of supply chains and supply chain visibility, you know, having
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: that that understanding has always been elusive, always talked about,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: so so what's so, what happened with with our current
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: pandemic is that I think everyone realized the just how
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: fragile or in this case, how brittle their supply chains
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: are not flexible at all. And what we also realized
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: was that the current demand is different than it's ever
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: been before. In the pandemic it was, to give you
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: an example, we had everyone needed hand sanitizer and mask
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: right you had ppe personal protective equipment, and everyone was
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: looking for it and could make enough. And we had
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: challenge companies that said, well maybe if I make some
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: of that, I can save save save our company. So
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: a brewery that says, now I'm going to make hand sanitizer.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Now you have a brewery that is creating something they
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: never created before, trying to tie into an ecosystem and
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: a supply chain that they've never tied into, and they're
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: going to try and get that to let's say a
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: hospital that needs a lot of hand sanitizer. Now, keep
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the story going, but not too long. They finally get
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: that hand sanitizer to that hospital, and then a hospital
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: will get so much because they've overbought. Now they need
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: to get rid of it. They want to make sure
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: and They're not just going to throw it out, they
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: need to get to another hospital perhaps, So now they
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: instead of being a buyer, they're now a supplier. So
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: how do they tie into a different type of business
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: process where they're supplying other hospitals.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I imagine that visibility also comes in very handy when
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: you are trying to identify the specific points within a
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: supply chain where you've got either active problems or potential
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: problems down the line. Since I cover technology, I cover
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of companies that are built products that have
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: numerous components within them, all potentially all of them from
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: different suppliers or different manufacturers, and any one of those,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: any one point of failure can cause a delay in
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: production and shipping. So something like this where you're able
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: to have that kind of overview of the full supply
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: chain because of this approach, I would imagine that ends
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: up being really valuable from that perspective as well, being
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: able to detect where any potential problems are going to
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: be and be more proactive in finding ways to solve
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: those challenges. So can you talk a little more about
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: how IBM is specifically helping organizations like hospitals manage their
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: supply chains. We kind of touched on it a little bit,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: but do you have any other stories or examples you
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: could share with us?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Well, I think you started with PPE, but right in
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: we're all talking about the vaccine, right, and this thought
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: that we all and this this crosses hospitals, but then
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: also your your your pharmaceutical dispensaries whatever that may be
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: your your your local drugstore, or it could be a
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: healthcare provider for elderly, and so that thought, how do
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: you how do you take this capability that we've just
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: talked about the operation new operator operation system for trust
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: and look at this value chain now that does, as
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: I mentioned before, cross industry as well as ecosystems. And
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: so we started with this thought of bringing together the
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: the healthcare providers, the first responders with all the suppliers
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: for PPE as well as ventilators. And that's the example
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: I gave before, and I left out the name of
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: what is it was called Rapid Supplier connect, which was
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: really just taking some IBM components and we had in
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: blockchain as well as things that we had and something
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: called sterling from a supply chain perspective, and a solution
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: called trust your Supplier and you brought them together. So
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: that was the first that was so when you say
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: what were we doing, we created that call it matchmaking
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: service on steroids with trust. And then as you progress
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: to the example I'm giving now where we say, oh,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: well what about vaccinations, think about the challenge we have
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: in just the United States. You have federal level people
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: really working hard to get things into states, and we
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: know that that challenge just what we've seen dynamically from
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: how can you get a state or how can you
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: see a state? Back to this, how do you share
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: trust amongst players in what we think are the same ecosystem?
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: And then even within that state, there's even more entities
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: that are moving a vaccine around. And so we have
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: what's called the Vaccine Accountability Network that does just that.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: What you have is a capability that gives you this
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: trusted data that will partner with you. Think of your
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: classic enterprise resource management systems. You have your contact management systems,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: in this case, contact tracing systems. You have all of
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: these systems that are in place. And what's great is
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: because this is delivered in a cloud. I was dropping
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: those hybrid words. It can be on any cloud, it
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: can be multi clouds and on premise off premise, so
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: that's the hybrid term, and you don't have to rip
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: things out. This is a data sharing and data trust
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: layer that goes across what already exists. So you hopefully
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: now see, Jonathan, when when I talk about this thought
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: of a vaccine accountability network, that it brings the capabilities together.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: This is truly where we liked we as IBM, we
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: see this as good tech and tech for good because
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: it's bringing great outcomes for our citizens. It's tech that
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: matters for us and for the world.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, just as a sort of
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: my own little anecdotal edition here, I think that it's
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: incredibly valuable, not just from the supply chain and technical
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: side of things, but the fact that you have that
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: reassurance that this is you know, it's all accounted for.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: We understand exactly where this has been every step of
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the way. It helps combat something that we have unfortunately
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: really seen become more and more prevalent, which is just
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the vast amount of misinformation that can come out, whether
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: purposefully or you know, unconsciously, and then just can it
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: can spread so quickly. Having the capability of saying this
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: is trustworthy, and we have the technology to prove that
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: it's trustworthy and have that reassurance there. I think that
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: ends up being a valuable tool as well. It's sort
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: of an additional benefit of this something that you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: we're fortunate that the technology has that capability while we
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: are unfortunately in an era of misinformation. So having something
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: that you can actually depend upon is incredibly reassuring and
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: refreshing in a world that occasionally feels like that is
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: a luxury as opposed to something you should just expect.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: So to me, like that is another benefit of this technology.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: On top of the logistical side of it, it's sort
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: of a psychological side.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Right right, And I think personalizing it like that, when
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: you start talking about trusted information, it brings to light
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: something else that we've seen in this pandemic where whilst
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: people tend to think trust and information, they go straight
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: to you know, maybe media and news. But we think
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: of things that all of us can personalize, and it's credentials.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: I talked about identity, but not just are you who
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: you say you are, Jonathan, but what about your credentials?
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: What about you know, your your diploma, your learning credentials,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: you know, something that sits somewhere out and we go, wait,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: what government agency that we go to for that? Or
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: do I have to go to my college? You know,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: all of those things that you start thinking about credentials
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: in the thought of, you know, information about my health
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: back to current pandemic. How do I know if I've
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: been vaccinated? Or how do I know if I'm COVID
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: negative or positive? Don't we want to document that in
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: a credentialing type of way. Well, this type of information
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: is starting to become even more more powerful when we
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: take what I've just said and applied it to a
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: vaccine or to your health status, and we have this
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: wonderful way. If we went through that vaccine thing, you know,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: how do you know if you have been immunized? You
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: could have a health pass and that's something else you
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: can google as we work with that capability. But beyond health,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: think about opening up new opportunities with this technology and
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: using information that can help others. Where you and I
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: may use it to validate that we went to high
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: school or that we have graduate degrees or college degrees.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: What about using this to empower information that allows someone
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: who may not go to school for four years, but
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: just needs a certification to get a great job. It
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: can't say okay, well great, go back to college and
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: come back to me in four years. So what if
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: we could put that personal credential on a device that
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: you have in your pocket. So that's what we start to.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: We start about accurate, accuracy, reliability, and trust as well
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: as portability of information. That's what this capability enables, and
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: that's where I think it should really get people excited
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: when we talk about real information and real trusted information
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: is empowering and opening up markets. Finding not something that's
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: a blue collar job or a white collar job, but
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: thinking about these new collar jobs just require trusted certifications.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I love that you have really gone to kind of
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: the endpoint the individual person with that sort of application
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: of this technology and how that can make an impact,
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: because a lot of the time, when we talk about
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: these big ideas in tech, it can seem distance. It
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: can seem like, oh, well, that's something that's going on
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: at like the enterprise level, but I don't see how
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: that has any impact on me. You've turned that around
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: entirely with that description and to show this is a
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: way where the impact of this technology can have a
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: real positive influence on the individual. As opposed to this
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: is like these are these big financial or big industrial
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: kind of ideas that otherwise seem distant. That being said,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: with the new normal that we have, how is blockchain
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: making an impact in other industries outside of the medical industry.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Are we starting to see other sectors adopt this technology
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: and if so, in what ways is it manifesting?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: So you called out one of the first industries that
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: really embraced this, which was the financial services sector banking
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: for example, this thought of transacting digitally in being able
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: to verify, validate, and settle financial transactions. And ultimately, when
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: we think about that original example I gave you, those
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: handshakes are transactions and the more that you can make
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: those trusted and obviously more often than not those handshakes
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: have an exchange of some monetary value. And so industries
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: such as the banking industry have picked this up to say, look,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: can we quickly transact and make sure that it's digital?
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: And we all appreciate this Now when I used to
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: say it, people say, oh, yeah, we we'll go digital
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: somed that. Now everything's you know, we're all trying to
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: figure out how we do everything digitally and touchless. Well,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: we dot Trade as a company that does twelve of
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: the largest banks in Europe that came together, and these
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: are banks that typically compete. And back to this thought
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: of you know, blockchain using the B word as a
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: team sport again, you have competitive banks that say, look,
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: we can actually you know, raise the tide here and
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: raise all boats by transacting digitally and evailing trade finance quicker,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: better faster to small and medium sized enterprises because it's
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: digital and we can make it happen quicker. So you
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: see this, this type of transacting happening in financial services,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: and you see things as I've given a financial services example,
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: it's no different than what you have and in retail
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: here in North America, and you have some forward thinking
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: entities that say, my account's receivable, accounts payable. You know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: it's a process that takes thirty days to settle. But
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: what if I could see all the way through those handshakes,
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: as we mentioned before, I could settle in ten days
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: and I don't have to make phone calls and send
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: emails and that would maybe reduce my overhead. And then finally,
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: when you look at where that's going Jonathan. As we've
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: looked at different industries, I've told you that's going cross industry.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: There's words that identify in most industries, words that people
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: will neither head and say, yeah, we're trying to figure
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: that out, such as sustainability, and so that's where we're
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: starting to see big concepts become material when you can put,
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: as you mentioned, trust and accountability in front of it.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Jason, Unfortunately, when we're recording this, we're recording this as
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: there's a new surge of COVID nineteen and north of America,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: the UK has recently entered a month long lockdown period.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Clearly we're at a new phase that's at least as
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: difficult as the initial challenges were when we first started
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: seeing regions around the world lockdown. Are you seeing any
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: difference in approach this time around? Our companies getting better
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: at handling this with their supply chains, and I assume
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: those that are reliant on things like blockchain are having
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: less of a challenge and adapting to that than others.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: But what are you seeing out there?
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: We're seeing what you just alluded to, where those that
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: have existing capabilities knew before that they were challenged in
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: their supply chain, and now they're thinking beyond a supply
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: beyond the supply chain, and they're aware of the value
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: chain that I mentioned that it's not just that layer
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: of getting a package, good or service across a linear spectrum,
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: but it's very dynamic, more like a series of concentric
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: circles of trying to get from point A to point
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: B wherever that is. They realize how flexible it needs
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: to be and that there's this capability as you call
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: out that says, look, you don't have to do the
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: rip and replace of what you have, but you can
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: actually work with what you have and connected a permission
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: way to use data with more power and no one
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: has to ask to explain the B word. Instead, what
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: they're saying is how can I get the outcomes? And
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: so as you talk about things such as and you
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: alluded to supply chain management, you start to think about
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: using your value chain and value chain integration of these
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: ecosystems for outcome management, not just chain that data, but
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: also think about the business processes that have to change
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: with that, because, as we said, we're pulling out some
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: of those handshakes, which means you're changing the workflows, you're
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: making those those workflows just a little bit more intelligent
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: as well as transparent. Right, So, if you're doing that,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: that's not easy because regardless of how cool it sounds
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: when we talk about it Jonathan on this podcast, it
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: might sound cool, but it's change, and we know that
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: change is not easy. A fortunate outcome of an unfortunate
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: situation is that the sense of urgency and also collaboration
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: and teamwork are overcoming that challenge right now. And that's
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: what we're seeing as a positive outcome here where people
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: are coming together and saying I'm not going to get
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: all wound up in the who, what, why, and how
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: of technology, but I'm going to focus on the outcome
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: and what does it take to put what I currently
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: have on steroids to that next level of capability around
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: data and trust. And that's that's the magic spot we're
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: in right now.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: With this, with this capability, I think once you say essentially,
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: it really does lend credence to the old saying necessity
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: is the mother of invention, uh, the idea that we
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: have found ourselves in this uh incredible circumstance and that
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: it calls for really innovative solutions.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: And so this is an example of that about how
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: when we are faced with these massive challenges, there is
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: a way to rise up to meet those challenges, and
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: it requires that sort of flexible thinking and that adaptability
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: and that uh, that that determination to to adopt these
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: new approaches and and not a fear of it. You know,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: there comes a point where you really need to look
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: at the options and say what makes the most sense,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: what is going to work?
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: With that in mind, to sort of conclude our conversation,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: we're kind of seeing a trial by fire with this
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: particular implementation of you know, this this concept of the
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: value chain in extreme circumstances. But where do you see
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: the future of this?
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: What?
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: What what's in store for us once we have cleared
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: this incredibly important hurdle and we're beyond it. What is
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: the future of IBM's approach and how our industry is
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: going to make use of this moving forward?
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Well, I think use of this, and I would I
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: would I would say the operative word is this because
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: this is beyond that bucket of blockchain I mentioned. I
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: believe that it's this. This thought of an open platform
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: for innovation and platform then becomes this old he said,
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: the big word of platform. What's that mean for? But
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: just think of it as this new capability that says,
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: I'm not limited to the walls of my enterprise. I'm
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: not just a pharma company. I can pull down my
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: barriers of business and work collaboratively with a regulatory body,
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: a government, or a shipping group. I can work all
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: the way down to that retail store or pharmacies that's
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: distributing my good because I can see or I'm somewhere
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: in that value chain where I'm a supplier to a
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: supplier to the supplier to the cooperative that's supplying one
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: of the players. And if you see, if you can
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: get that far down, it opens up the market and
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: allows for new players, new areas of collaboration, and it
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: really allows us then to think about what that platform
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: of business looks like tomorrow. And it blurs the line
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: then between industries as I've called out, because you have
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: them working together. It's then becomes a blurring of my
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: ecosystem and your ecosystem. So it's less about my enterprise
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: my ecosystem, and it becomes a collaborative team sport of outcomes,
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: and your competitiveness becomes based on your ability to transact
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: in that ecosystem and convene outcomes around how you deliver
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: value in that value chain. So it sounds complicated, but
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: think about getting outcomes out of a much more level
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: and transparent ecosystem versus me putting my arms around a
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: walled capability. That's that's where the future is and it's
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: it's it's going to be built on open platforms of
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: ability with data always in the center. So you can
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: call out all the buzzwords from AI, robotic process automation, IoT,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: advanced analytics, all of those use data and they're going
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: to be operating in an open platform. And that's where
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: we as ibm C the future, and that's where we're
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: running hard and fast and leading, leading as quickly as
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: we can.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Well, Jason, that to me sounds incredibly exciting. I love
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: the idea of this approach opening up new opportunities because
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: ultimately that's going to manifest as benefits to everyone down
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: the road in some way, whether it's a consumer good
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: or a service or something like life saving pharmaceuticals. Like
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: the idea of being able to find new ways to
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: collaborate and new ways to innovate, to have that enabler
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: there really makes me excited about the future, which I
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: think is something that is sorely needed. Honestly, the idea
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: of being excited about the future is a great thing.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: So I thank you for coming onto my podcast and
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: explaining this in a way where it doesn't make someone's
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: eyes just glaze over as they start to think about,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: you know, hashing and making up blocks and adding another
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: block to the chain, and all of the ways that
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: you can try to explain that process that tend to
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: lose ninety five percent of the audience right off the bat.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: So I appreciate your approach very much. Thank you for
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: joining the show, Jonathan.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Thanks for the conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed it anytime. All
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: the best to you and the rest of your Stay safe,
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: stay healthy, stay happy.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Jason's focus on outcomes rather than the technical process is
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: a useful one to explain how important blockchain is from
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: a practical application standpoint. As we've seen, flexibility and adaptability
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: are too important qualities for businesses in general, but particularly
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: during times of rapid change. With respect to that, I
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: think it's pretty clear how blockchain technology can play a
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: part in helping businesses understand exactly what's going on throughout
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: the entire supply chain. I would like to thank Jason
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Kelly again for coming onto the show and explaining his work.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: To learn more about IBM's work and blockchain, visit www
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: dot ibm dot com. Slash Blockchain tech Stuff is an
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.