What Is Blockchain and How Will It Influence Our Strategy?

Great cartoon - as usual from Scott Adams. But though humorous, the question is of paramount importance. When this cartoon was published in November 2017, an extraordinary amount of attention was directed toward the skyrocketing value of Bitcoin and, to a lesser extent, other digital currencies. Also the subject of great scrutiny was the explosive emergence of ICO's as a funding method for start-ups and increasingly even well-established businesses.

Neither of these phenomena is unimportant. Digital currencies such as Bitcoin will, within a few years, become as widely accepted as a payment mechanism as credit and debit cards have over the past generation. And the financial services industry, and venture capitalists in particular, need to understand that ICO's represent a new funding source and approach which addresses market needs that were not previously not well addressed by the existing industry structure.

But, looking at the big picture and the long term, the next 5 - 10 years, as important as cryptocurrencies and ICO's will be, they are chump change compared to the impact Blockchain, their enabling technology, will have on the broader economy and society.

Implicitly, Dilbert works for some kind of technology solution provider. So it's natural that the question asked would be how Blockchain will influence strategy across all product lines. That is, across the range of technology solutions offered by Dilbert's fictional company. This is a question every technology solution provider should be asking themselves.

But the strategic implications of Blockchain (and more broadly, Distributed Ledger Technologies in general) go far beyond their implications for technology offerings. EVERY organization in EVERY industry, public, private, governments, and NGO's, should be asking themselves these questions:

• What are the strategic implications of Blockchain for our business, our industry, and our broader business, governmental, and social ecosystems?
• How will Blockchain change the structure of various industries and ecosystems in the sense that, through companies like Amazon, Google, Airbnb, and Uber, the Internet has changed the structure of many industries?
• How will Blockchain impact key business processes in our organization and in our broader ecosystem, dramatically transforming the way those processes work, or in some cases, even eliminating them altogether?
• How can we develop a strategy that will allow our organization to add more value and thrive in the Blockchain-enabled economy of the near future?

These are key issues addressed in my forthcoming book, The Blockchain Transformation: How Blockchain Will Change Your Business, Your Industry, and the World. (Click link to see video based on the book.)

While the book is still in draft, I'd welcome examples you can share of how Blockchain and related technologies have already started to impact industry, governmental, or social ecosystems or how it is envisioned that they are likely to do so. Of course, I will be happy to cite all sources used in the book. I'd also welcome any requests you may have as to areas of potential impact of Blockchain technologies that you'd like to see included in the book.

While comments to this article are certainly welcome, please send any such examples, requests, or related questions regarding the book to me, personally, via email: [email protected]