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