Physics, Cloud, Space & Back - Pt. 2

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Episode Transcript

Greg White (00:00):

This week on tequila, sunrise, we wrap up the second part of our discussion with Kevin L. Jackson, starting with the question, what is your super power? Why he owes his effectiveness to his wife, blockchain, crypto securities, and diverse supplier networks. There’s a lot you can learn from Kevin. So listen up. It’s time to wake up to tequila, sunrise, where without the aid of tequila, unfortunately, we open your eyes to how tech founders and venture investing ticks focused on supply chain tech every week at this unholy hour of the day. So if you want to know how tech startup growth and investment has done, join me every single week for another blinding tequila, sunrise, Greg white here from supply chain. Now always happy, never satisfied, willing to acknowledge reality, but refusing to be bound by it. My goal is to inform, enlighten and inspire you in your own supply chain tech journey, subscribe to tequila, sunrise on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. So you don’t miss a thing. We open the second half of this conversation with Kevin L. Jackson with

Greg White (01:39):

What is your disfunction? Yes.

Greg White (01:42):

Question. We ask everyone to discover what their secrets

Greg White (01:46):

Superpower is that some folks might consider a disadvantage listen up. All right. So this is a question that has become sort of a trademark for the show. And I’m just going to apologize in advance. Let me give you, let me give you some perspective on this question. I have come to believe that great people tend to take what others might objectively or even subjectively consider to be a flaw or dysfunction, and they use it to their benefit. If you were to explore your being and think, and I don’t mean for you to dig real deep, but I mean, you know, is there something off the top of your head that someone might go, you know, that’s odd, that’s a failing or even a dysfunction that you would feel like you use?

Kevin Jackson (02:31):

True things, a method you only do. What you see on the screen is the only part of my entire office love it, selective camerawork. And that’s because I hate the details. I hate the nitty gritty of putting one foot in front of the other know. I like to think of the end point and be immediately,

Kevin Jackson (03:00):

Yeah. In some ways, uh, that makes me kind of a bad follower. No doubt. I’m horrible. I’m horrible. If I put in, if I’m put in a position where I can’t contribute to the team where I’m told to do one, two and three, don’t think about it, just do it. And that’s gotten me in quite a bit of trouble in a lot of ways, but what it also has enabled me to do is what we talked about earlier. Like even when I am part of a team, I can interpret and have empathy with all other members of the team. And that has over the years has made me a much better team player. I have to give credit to my wife. She, she taught me that not everyone thinks the same way that I do. So it was important for me to understand that Juul way is not always the only way, um, and understand that, appreciate that and, and leverage other viewpoints as you move forward, don’t just push them away. And that’s taken me a while to, to learn and to do, but that really accelerated my personal view of myself. And it’s enhanced my ability to contribute to society

Greg White (04:37):

Once there for that, because I think that’s something that people should recognize is that other people have distinctly different viewpoints and those viewpoints can be valid, right? They have may have a distinctly different way of approaching life and it can work for them. Yeah. That’s a great awakening. I recall having a similar wakening, I just think that’s really powerful for, for people to think about. And it’s something we could really, really use right now, right? Absolutely. Is that, that there are other ways to look at the world and they are equally as, as valid as your viewpoint. How do you turn that thing that objectively somebody else’s point of view might say, ah, that guy’s messy or he’s too concerned about the details or forgets about the details or whatever it is, but turn that to your advantage and acknowledge that and almost treated as a superpower. I mean, if you think about, we didn’t talk about this when we were kids, Kevin, but now they talk about what makes superhero superheroes. And sometimes it is a dysfunction that they use to enhance their greatness. Right.

Kevin Jackson (05:42):

So I can ignore the details and look towards the future and that’s why I’ve been strategy and I don’t. Right, right, right.

Greg White (05:51):

And, and, you know, you need a wing person to

Kevin Jackson (05:56):

Yeah. Yeah. Because you leave jet wash.

Greg White (06:01):

Okay. You do you leave a jet wash of details. All right. Well, so let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your current initiatives, GC global net, you know, in some of the partner firms that you work with and the main challenge that, that addresses. So I’ve done just a little bit of research there and I’m fascinated by what you do.

Kevin Jackson (06:19):

Well, you know, GC globin is actually a rebranding company. We launched in 2013 of a gov cloud network. I mean, I was working in cloud computing in the government. I had colleagues, I know the companies that wanted to work with me, but didn’t want to work with the company. I was an executive of at the top. So they kept pushing me. Why don’t you start your own company, start your own company to work with you. So I said, Oh, okay. You know, so I took the plunge and started network and I thought it was going to be about helping government contractors and government agencies jump on your cloud. Because at the time it was Rebecca [inaudible] was the chief information officer do on a president, Barack Obama’s term. And the government was a surprisingly leading, at least in United States to everyone or cloud. And then things sort of got bogged down. And my very first contract though, I mean, as soon as I started my company, I got her immediate contract of about $10,000 a month. And then I got another one and I was like, wow, this stuff is easy until like three months later, they stopped the contract for no reason at all. They wanted too early

Greg White (07:39):

Success. We’ll do that to you in a start-up on it. You’re like, Oh my gosh, why didn’t I do this before? And then

Kevin Jackson (07:45):

Reality hits. Exactly. And the government sort of slowed down. And I started shifting towards support support in the commercial world because the commercial world started jumping on the bandwagon. But there was a lot of misunderstanding about cloud and particularly the fact that it wasn’t about technology, that it was really new business models and new acquisition models and new security models. So education became the most important aspect of transitioning to cloud. So I started teaching about cloud and that’s when I wrote my first book, because it was part of a methodology of teaching others about, about cloud computing. Um, Kevin soda. First one was cloud computing for the business of government. Okay. That sounds really interesting, Kevin. I know that’s why nobody read it.

Kevin Jackson (08:48):

I’ve learned, I’m not going to pick that one up for the beach, but you know, I’ve learned a lot too, got to do when you write a book, but I sort of transitioned or training and education. And then I started consulting and then the social media thing sort of blew up because I didn’t, I didn’t have enough money to hire somebody to do marketing for my company. So I wound up using social media because it was free, right? Because it was early as social media grew. My reach grew as well. And then we rebranded to a GC global because most of our work was in a commercial space. Uh, we started working with a lot of large companies, like I said before, Microsoft IBM, 18 T and so forth. And last year, the, uh, diverse manufacturing supply chain Alliance was very interested in leveraging cloud and advanced technologies for manufacturers and supply chain. I think you do something about supply chain, right? I know a little bit, maybe a tiny bit. I never did the blockchain at all.

Kevin Jackson (10:15):

Okay. So actually it came to me and said, do you know anything about supply chain? I said, no, I know nothing about supply chain. So, well, we want our, you know, we want the blockchain or be good for supply chain and cloud would be good for supply chain. And I said, I know those, no blockchain. I know cloud, you want to apply technology to supply chain? Oh yeah, I can do that. That’s no problem. So that’s, that was the Genesis of source connect, which is a B to B e-commerce platform that leverages blockchain and cloud for diverse manufacturers. And, uh, I know, you know, David Berman, so we both teamed up to create towards connect. And that was kind of timely. That was in November last year. And then we, we actually had the platform up and running around February and that’s when COVID hit.

Kevin Jackson (11:11):

Right. All of a sudden the world’s supply chains broke because, uh, we couldn’t do anything physical. Right. Everyone had to go home. Everyone had to work remotely. Virtual became the key to moving forward. And we just so happen to have a virtual platform for supply chain. So, uh, source connect was sort of the right thing at the right time. Since then, we’ve grown from having five companies on the platform to today, we have over 21 plus companies on our platform and we partnered with IBM and the trust, your supplier network that leverages blockchain for information. And then we leverage blockchain for actually managing e-commerce for B to B of, so that looks like a good thing. As about 80% of the whole market is shifting to contact lists, remote virtual business. This wasn’t even a priority when we started. So let’s connect, no companies knew about the technology, but it was something that they would do over the next four or five years when COVID hit.

Kevin Jackson (12:28):

That became an immediate requirement. And it’s kind of interesting because about the same time the federal government started looking at crypto securities. I mean, everyone has heard of Bitcoin, but the underlying technology is a distributed ledger technology, right? And the distributed ledger technology keeps track of transactions for Bitcoin. There are financial transactions, but if you’re in supply chain, if you’re a buying a product or a service, it’s a transaction also. So you can apply the distributed technology or blockchain to supply chain, to support, provide visibility, to reduce friction and to reduce costs. Um, you know, that’s what source connect is doing. But at the same time, the another company called deal box was leveraging a distributed ledger technology to do the same thing for securities typical company. When they want me money, you need to go out and raise funds or raise capital from investors.

Kevin Jackson (13:52):

And that’s called an IPO where they would sell shares of the company in exchange for money. Well, with crypto securities, it’s essentially the same thing, but you use distributed ledger technology for coins. So it’s crypto crypto securities on a distributed ledger. So you can sell a token in exchange for money. So it’s a share of a company and that’s what deal box does. The Jews is digital ledger technology for security and the exchange of securities. And about two months ago, the securities and exchange commission United States actually modified the rules so that you can actually do that. So you can start doing an IPO where you sell shares. I see you, right? You sell tokens for securities. And that’s how I got involved with, uh, deal box. There. They are building an entire ecosystem built on top of crypto securities. That include things like digital names. That’s a TNS where you can have a crypto graphically protected identity that you can leverage across any type of transactions that you may have be it coins, securities, or even supply chain. We’re going to be working with the telecommunications industry association to actually create a blockchain consortium across the telecommunications industry so that you can leverage things like your smartphone for crypto identities and crypto security and exchanging your Bitcoin. Does that make sense?

Greg White (15:54):

Wow. Yeah, totally. I mean, first of all, I think, I mean, you can see where your passion for, for vision talked about and, and for technology have met a fantastic confluence and, you know, we talk a lot about how people are struggling to figure out how to use some of these advanced technologies, particularly in my case, in supply chain, but anywhere really. And with source connect, for instance, you’re using it to verify the vendor, to verify their sourcing, to verify the transactions and the agreements between say a tier one vendor and an OEM or something like that. Absolutely.

Kevin Jackson (16:35):

So you can also prevent counterfeits in the supply chain by doing that.

Greg White (16:41):

Yeah. And, and verify transactions. Exactly. Right. I mean, you can verify a physical transaction, like the handoff of one product to another. I see a ton of applicability in the supply chain. I love the idea of, and I’ve only ever seen it on television, Silicon Valley, the, the ICO, right? The whole create your own coin to fund your company kind of thing. But you can see it look at blockchain in and of itself is an immutable unchangeable record it’s forever. And it’s forever the way it was registered. It eliminates, as you said, counterfeiting, it eliminates tampering and it allows verification and provenance of product and congruency between companies and verification of not just transactions, but agreements and qualifications to say you are who you say you are. Those sorts of things are really important, especially as the world has become and will become even more so virtual. Exactly. How do I know you’re Kevin Jackson

Kevin Jackson (17:47):

And that visibility that’s a Ford, um, as deal box says is the mock retires is the world in a lot of ways, all of the deals that are made in the back rooms, smoking cigars of the good old boys go away because you have this distributed ledger that has the light of science.

Greg White (18:10):

Yeah. It creates a transparency that has, is hasn’t been available until now, right? Some of these things that you’ve talked about and some of the things that you’ve dealt with in the past and some of what you’re dealing with today and that you wrote a book about right. Is another amorphous concept that like blockchain that I think people don’t quite understand digital transformation. So, so tell us a little bit about what you’ve experienced with the myths or misconceptions or misapplications of digital transformation, why you felt compelled to write a book about it, guiding people through that process, again, educating it’s what you do and education and, or, you know, what kind of, what are your key thoughts or what do you hope the book helps people accomplish? So the book is clicked to transform, correct? Yeah.

Kevin Jackson (19:01):

Yes. The foundational aspect of it is that information is created from data. And if you can identify the source of beta, you know, where does data is created and a sink for the data who needs that data to either make decisions or to take action or to create value, then you could form a business model that connects the data source to the data sync. And the business model was really about creating and marketing information about the value of that data flow. Now that’s a pretty simple concept, but you can apply it to any industry and to any process, that’s the definition of digital transformation.

Greg White (19:55):

So for the dummies that we have in the audience, not me, of course, I completely get it. So give us an example of, you know, the application, as you describe it,

Kevin Jackson (20:07):

Tons of examples. One had many you’re all familiar with is Uber. Uber is the largest taxi company in the world owns no physical assets, phones, no taxes. It knows a door, a data source. This is people that are willing to give a ride. You have a data sync, people that are looking for a ride, right? So a business model was connecting that data source to the data sync and marking it its availability. So that’s Uber, they leverage cloud computing and machine learning and artificial intelligence to make that value known. That’s a digitally transforming the entire transportation industry. That’s exactly what Travelocity did with airlines. That’s what, that’s what kayak does for hotel rooms. That’s what Airbnb does just about every new business that, that is this intermediating, the large established businesses are doing that. They are identifying information, data sources, data syncs, and then leveraging cloud technology basically to deliver information reliably and quickly to those that can accept the news that value any company in today’s world needs to understand that process so that it can reduce the cost, improve the value and expand their own business model independent of the industry vertical. This is exactly what’s happening in supply chain.

Greg White (21:59):

So let’s talk about how that impacts, uh, existing companies, not companies that are disrupting or disintermediating existing industry, but let’s say you’re a manufacturer, right? You know, I’ve heard people even consider going from pen and paper or spreadsheets to a packaged or customized solution technology solution called that digital transformation. Do you agree with that assessment and it, and whether you do or not give us an example of, of what you see as digital transformation in existing non-technology type business.

Kevin Jackson (22:34):

So it really doesn’t matter what type of business you are. If it’s technology or not technology, you have made investments in your existing business model that is many call it technical debt. Now technical debt is not necessarily technology, but if you buy a building because you need to store physical things, that’s an investment, that’s a debt. And you still have that on the books. Many companies have technical debt that they can’t just wave their hand and get rid of. They also have existing models and processes that depend on physical things and it’s been working well, but this physical interaction is becoming less and less important in the world, but they still have that debt. And it’s really hard for established companies to rethink their processes and to wipe that debt off of their books. So they have to do so. Yes, changing from pencil and paper to a spreadsheet is a small step towards digital transformation, but you have to have a lot of those steps and it takes time.

Kevin Jackson (23:59):

It takes training. It takes change, takes time. So it’s a slow process. Some said, it’s like taking the aircraft carrier, order your cruise ship and turning it. You know, it takes miles and miles to turn it. Whereas new companies don’t have that prior investment don’t have that technical debt. They don’t have that reliance on an old process. They can just take a couple of credit cards, buy some cloud infrastructure that they don’t even own and try something out. And if they fail, they fail, they just do it differently. The next time that speed and that’s where the world is today. So that’s why all of these launch companies typically what they, what they do is they will start their own new code, uh, as they call it so that the new company can create new processes, um, and leverage technologies like cloud and machine learning and distributed technology. And then they slowly wean themselves off of the old processes.

Greg White (25:11):

So a couple of things I’m taking away from that one is maybe I’m projecting this, but it aligns with what I, what I think, which is, if you are a big company, you better form a new co because as I’ve said in the past, and I’m not the only one you either are the disruptor or the disrupted, you’re not right. And basically you’re creating an entity or organization within your own company to disrupt your business processes and to digitally transform them. And the other that I take away is that just because you’ve plugged in technology, you have not necessarily created a digital transformation. It is about your business processes and the way that you do business going forward as well. Is that fair?

Kevin Jackson (25:54):

Absolutely. It’s these are new business models and it’s not, it’s not paving the cow path that,

Greg White (26:04):

Right. It’s not a faster horse, which is what people were asking Henry Ford for right. Want a faster horse. Uh, it is a completely different path,

Kevin Jackson (26:14):

Completely different practice. Instead of having a power path, you have to build a bridge that goes over the forest.

Greg White (26:22):

That’s fantastic. And I presume that the book is a guide for folks that want to undertake these digital transformations, right? Is that what your goal?

Kevin Jackson (26:30):

Absolutely. So the book really lays out that digital transformation is about new business models. I talk about hybrid IET, the blend of traditional data centers, managed service providers and cloud services that any large organization will need to have. I’ll talk about some of the essential functions that today are implemented through API APIs or application programming, interfaces, things like data security, machine learning block chain. And I talk about how beta is important in creating these new business models, understanding data and identifying data sources and those data syncs and how there are, there are a set of like seven new business models built around data that you can apply to any industry. And then finally, in the end, I’ll talk about different frameworks for redesigning your business models. So it’s really a cookbook on how to understand where you are in your industry and how to disrupt your industry to become a leader

Greg White (27:54):

That’s really useful. And I think that companies, they need that definition. They need the greater understanding that it’s not just plugging in software. It is changing how you do business and a guide book, a playbook for doing that is so valuable. And so, so fitting with your compulsion, right? Your, your obligation to help people be better. Right? I think I’ve nailed this down, but I’m going to ask you, I think what would be really valuable to kind of enlighten our community would be to share some insights on finding a calling or recognizing your gifts and tackling that with the Gusto that you clearly do so that you don’t think of it as work, any tips or guidelines or guidance for folks on, on how to do that. I just think that the joy that you have in the work that you do and the value that it brings to so many people I’d love. If there’s just any small tip you could give folks to help them have, have what you have.

Kevin Jackson (29:01):

Well, absolutely. There’s this to, first of all, expect change, change always happens and look full, look forward to change. And the second is don’t do something that you don’t enjoy. If you’re not enjoying it, you can’t be successful. It’s impossible for you to be successful. So if you’re not enjoying it change,

Greg White (29:28):

So you have to, that’s why you have to embrace change,

Kevin Jackson (29:30):

You know, accept, change, expect, change, and drive, change in everything that you do and, and drive to a better to enjoy what you’re doing to enjoy life, to, uh, feel good about yourself when you wake up in the morning.

Greg White (29:50):

So I sent, you didn’t know that your whole life, and I’m guessing that there, yeah, I’m guessing there are other things you didn’t know your whole life. So if you look, if you look back, what do you wish you had known earlier in life? And what do you think that might have changed or what recognition of that helps you as you go forward?

Kevin Jackson (30:13):

Well, one thing that I didn’t know earlier in my career, I guess I didn’t really know till late in my career is the value of others. You know, you say that you are your network and your network is your linkage to other people. And that network provide you your strength and your insight. And it’s important as an individual to treasure build and nurture your network. When I was young, it was all about me. It was how, what I could do, what I knew, what I want, and I didn’t appreciate the value of others until I became later in life. And, uh, started to see the value of the people that I had met along the way. And the fact that sometimes they helped me. Sometimes I help them. And it was that give and take that improved both of us. Um, and the more linkage that you make with others, the more opportunity you’re have to help others. And the more opportunity others will have to help you. So it’s all about having a neutrally supportive network around you. And that’s what business is. That’s what life is. That’s what family is. And all of those networks need to reinforce each other. Don’t go it alone. Don’t go it alone.

Greg White (31:55):

Considering where you are in your career. Which for me is really hard to gauge because I think you’re the only person I know that has more jobs. If that’s what you want to call it than I do. But let, let’s take a little bit broader view if you think about not just career, but just the world or where, you know, whatever is on your mind. Tell me, what are you particularly at peace with right now? And what are you curious or concerned about these days?

Kevin Jackson (32:27):

I’m really at peace with, with my network, with the people I work with, my family, my colleagues, I think I’ve done well by them. And they do well by me. But what’s really troubling though, is that it seems that many of us are trying to get into our own shell. There’s so much division there’s so much, he said, she said, there’s so much, you know, you don’t know anything. You, you know, I know what’s right. You, you only do things that are wrong. There’s no empathy. There’s no cross-pollination of ideas. And I think that’s just a train wreck.

Greg White (33:09):

Yeah. Tribalism, right? Yeah. I don’t know if you’re a fan of, uh, Stephen Covey, but particularly seek first to understand is so valuable and I think particularly poignant and necessary in this time. Right? Yeah. I could, I can, I, I th I hear a lot of people who have the same concern by the way, a lot of people of varying backgrounds or lifestyles or nationalities. And what I find comfort in is that so many of us are concerned about that. That has to come around to goodness at some point,

Kevin Jackson (33:54):

I believe so. And I believe there’s a minority that ignore that truth, unfortunately, as a Burr sippers

Greg White (34:05):

Yeah, you’re right. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thanks for sharing that. That’s not always the, you know, those kinds of questions are not always the easiest things to share, but what, what would you like to share with our listeners, with our community that we haven’t talked about?

Kevin Jackson (34:20):

Wow, we’ve gone over just about everything. I was awesome. Maybe pour out my entire book, right. My life. And I have no more secrets. Well, we didn’t mention every job. No, but, but in essence, I enjoy what I do and I want to help others enjoy what they do. And there’s so much value in collaboration. I like to open myself up, I’m open to collaboration. I’m hoping that others are open to collaborating with me. And, uh, you know, hopefully in the near future, people will see be seeing more of me.

Greg White (35:07):

I’m open to it. I can tell you that for sure. So if in case someone is, and I have a feeling, this is going to really open you up Kevin, but in case somebody is interested in collaborating or learning more connecting with you, how do they do that?

Kevin Jackson (35:22):

So, as I said earlier, I’m on social media and on Twitter, I’m Kevin underscore Jackson, Kevin L. Jackson on LinkedIn and on Facebook. But if you just Google Kevin Jackson, cloud computing, things, things come up

Greg White (35:40):

Outstanding. Thank you. I’m glad we got to do this. And I always do. Yeah. We wind up cutting these into two pieces. I want people to learn everything you want to give. And I really appreciate what you’ve given here today and what you give constantly too to the community. So thank you. Just in case anyone could possibly not recall who we were talking to. Kevin L. Jackson and founder, GC global nut net, adjunct professor and author of click to transform. And I’m going to give you up a little bit more. You can find [email protected] because his Wikipedia page was not enough, um, LinkedIn or wherever, as I’m sure you can guess by now, wherever innovation is being done. And don’t forget to pick up that number one, new release on Amazon. Kevin, thank you. I really appreciate it. And we’ll talk to you again soon

Greg White (36:49):

For our episode with Kevin L. Jackson, and all right, that is all you need to know about supply chain tech for this week. Don’t forget to get to supply chain now.com for more supply chain now, series interviews and events. And now we have two live streams per week. The most popular live show in supply chain. Supply chain buzz is every single Monday at noon Eastern time with Scott Luton and me, or maybe even somebody else. Plus our Thursday live stream to be named later where we will bring you whatever the hell we want. Hey, thanks for spending your valuable time with me and remember acknowledge reality, but never be bound by it.