What is information management? How about digital transformation? How can AEC firms successfully merge these two together to be innovative and successful going forward? Well in this episode of the civil engineering podcast Brett Tush house product director at Dell Tech is going to talk about just that And he's also going to talk about how a career change really set him up for success. Let's do it All right, now I'd like to welcome our guest on to today's episode Brett Tush house Brett is the VP of product management at Dell Tech Brett welcome to the civil engineering podcast Anthony, thank you so much for having me my pleasure to be here today Yeah, no, we're excited to have you I know Dell Tech is you know has accomplished quite a bit in the AE industry and they've provided a lot of solutions We meet with them a lot of conferences and I'm excited to have you here to talk a little bit about some of those solutions And so Brett let's get started with your career. Tell us a little bit about your background and you know How you ended up eventually getting to Dell Tech? Sure. Absolutely. So I've been with Dell Tech for about 10 years But prior to coming to Dell Tech I was actually a Delta customer for about 15 years my my background and my educations in Architecture received my masters of architecture at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Graduated from there and went to work for an architecture firm here in the Milwaukee area Name a firm by the name of Epstein you and architects and Worked there for 15 years and I started out practicing architecture and eventually I you know Got into a lot of the technology side of things starting with mostly CAD And 3d animations and things like that and it was a growing firm And they needed help sort of on the broader IT side And I was given an opportunity to take over as IT manager and shifted to that role and worked as a Basically a CIO for about seven or eight years before leaving there and coming to Dell Tech Like I said, I was a Delta customer while working at that firm and Struck up some great relationships with people at Dell Tech got very interested in the technology and the solutions that Delta Provided and the opportunity arose for me to to join the product management ranks at Dell Tech And and that's what brought me here. That's great And let's go back for a minute to that first decision there that you made in terms of going into the IT side of things What was that like? I mean, obviously you were into the architecture side of it You had your degree there and sounded like the opportunity came up and what what made you interested in that? Yeah, so in college and you know, even my early days as a practicing architect. I was heavily involved in technology You know in in school using CAD at a time when CAD wasn't quite as mainstream You know, even my thesis presentation used PowerPoint Which is one of the if you can believe it was one of the first thesis presentations that used PowerPoint so I was heavily into technology coming out of school and the firm that I joined at the time was about 40 people and Experienced a significant amount of growth and and architecture firms at that time didn't really have sort of dedicated IT people and things like that and I was given the opportunity because of the growth of the firm and where things were going and sort of my background with sort of a technology slant to it To help lead the firm and its growth on the IT side of the business And knowing the architecture world having done the architecture and that sort of thing It really was a unique opportunity for me and no regrets certainly looking back at that decision. Yeah, no, that's great All right. So, you know moving into Dell tech I mean Dell tech is a company. I think a lot of AE professionals are aware of Dell tech Certainly heard of them and maybe use some of their their products for sure. How would you? For those not familiar with Dell tech, how would you describe the company? Well, Delta is focused on providing solutions for project focused businesses and when you look at architects engineers And even contractors to a certain extent Their whole business is focused on projects. So Delta is bringing solutions To those those types of companies to help them execute manage And deliver their projects and you know, if you think about the architecture engineering and construction world You know, there's there's I'd like to think of it as sort of a three-legged stool You've got the sort of back office accounting and finance component That is where project management lives and sort of the whole financial side of the company. You've got your your Production portion of the organization, which is where you know drawings are made documents are made and that type of thing And then you've got sort of the project execution component and well Delta doesn't Work in sort of the the CAD in that side of the world or the BIM side of the world those other two legs of the stool You know, we work in very much. So project management project execution project delivery The solutions that Delta bring to the table are aimed at those two legs of the stool very squarely Yeah, that's great and digging a little bit deeper on that in terms of You know Understanding you kind of the challenges of these AE firms I mean certainly at EMI, you know We do try to understand that in terms of the training programs that we develop really understanding the challenges the needs I know that Dell tech, you know Spends a lot of time on that as well in terms of really trying to understand the challenges of these firms so you could build the Right products and services. Can you talk a little bit about? You know that side of the Dell tech business in terms of you know, the customers needs Absolutely, I think They've certainly evolved since my time at Dell tech, you know as I as I look at sort of that evolution I like I said, I've been here 10 years now. So I've seen The needs of the organizations change that we serve specifically in the architecture engineering world and you know Most recently, I think the areas that were most keen to sort of understand and help organizations with their one in project management areas And that's not to say that delta exclusions haven't been focused on on project management in the past, but we've seen sort of a Renewed interest and emphasis around best practices and project management techniques So we've been looking at ways to evolve and refine and expand our solutions to support That sort of re-emphasis on the project management discipline and best practices So that is that is one key area that we're focused on I think another thing that we've seen especially in the past maybe five to six years and this is common I think in business in general, but certainly not out of the ordinary in the AE world is That next generation workforce, you know The tools that that we were providing architecture engineering firms 10 years ago are very different than the tools we're providing today And a lot of that's driven by this next generation workforce You have a different group of people that are expecting different things out of the technology that they used to get their jobs done and You know for better or worse, it's different than the traditional workforce that is sort of retiring from that a ec space today And that means, you know more accessible technology that means smarter technology That means technology accessible that everywhere I go on every device I use So that's been something that we've had to respond to as a solutions provider For this industry as well in regards to sort of where we're going with our products and solutions Yeah, that's great. And I think that honestly, that's a real Terms of companies like Dell Tech. I mean, that's a real important need right now in the industry You know, there definitely are like these generational gaps in terms of like what you know The experience professionals maybe feel is needed or that they're used to needing versus what the people that they're hiring today are needing And I feel like certainly, you know companies like Dell Tech can help to bridge that gap in a way in terms of Because it's not always that the experience the firm leaders are going to be able to understand what those needs are and be able to provide them They need to get people involved like yourself that can help with that. So You know, it's good to hear that Dell Tech is really out there You know doing the homework to figure that out, which I think is important in terms of moving things forward So Obviously we're in an interesting time right now in terms of this pandemic and everybody working differently Let's say whether it's remotely some people remotely some not a lot more than usual People are starting to get back, but I think they'll remain, you know, a number of Remote workers for time being so let's talk a little bit about that in terms of workflow Let's talk a little bit first about information management. What is information management? How would you how would you define that? Well, it's it obviously it's incredibly broad term Um, you know nearly everything a business does Really every day could be considered information management And no doubt that an organization's ability to manage information is probably Contributes to their core competency and their strategy and things like that but if you if you look at the concept of information management more through the architecture engineering construction industry lines You know, it's a little less broadly focused and We at Dell Tech in terms of looking at information management It's it's really all about sort of collecting managing and sharing all of the necessary Assets if you will to execute on a project now That's not to say that corporate information management is still not extremely important It definitely is and enables the business but When you look at information management in our industry or this industry specifically, you know, the number of documents the Drawings the reports the specifications the project manuals, you know, even emails in and of themselves Continues to grow and grow and grow and and giving the Organization the ability to get their arms around that to help execute their projects in a successful profitable Way that delights their clients. That's what really what what information management is all about when you look at Um, you know the project information management discipline itself that that we like to talk about here at Dell Tech right and and digital transformation Which is something that is really been happening and it seems to be happening faster and faster where people are using You know faster digital technology to solve their problems to work on projects. It's like constantly evolving almost by the second You know Something that we're all thinking about, you know, how are AEC firms or how can they, you know, take information management and then this digital transformation that we're going through and kind of You know, bring the two together because it seems like as you said Managing information is critical. I think especially in firms a firms with all kinds of projects and files, etc But the technology is moving faster and faster as well. So how do we kind of marry these together? Well, I think You know, if you look at at the context and I think this is amplified now even sort of where we are today with What everybody's calling the new normal or the new reality I think this is even amplified more the value of something like this, you know, one of the things that we like to talk about when we um represent the value proposition of information management and how important it is to an AE firm Interesting statistic out there 20 employees to spend 20 percent of their time looking for things looking for information And if you think about that obviously if you think about that just in the context of wasted time It's a little bit staggering But the other piece of that that's important to understand is chances are if if if people are spending 20 percent of their time looking for stuff It's probably a good chance that there's times when they're not finding what they need And that can obviously have a direct impact on their ability to be successful on a project So if you think about information management and digital transformation in that context, you know, there's a there's I think there's a few questions that organizations in the AE world You know need to ask themselves. Do they have a A technology based solution in place for for managing their documents and that is you know a system that Through various technologies, whether it be indexing or machine learning or metadata Or even, you know, optical character character recognition can curate and serve up information to project teams And that system has a very robust search mechanism at its foundation You know, that's an important question for an organization to ask themselves as they're going through sort of this digital transformation In the context of information management and the answer is no, I think that's that's An indicator that organizations should sort of take a more close look at that and I think The second question that that I would throw in there is How does that extend to communication and email? I think oftentimes And even sort of where I came from I saw this email was looked at in the communication around Projects were sort of looked at a secondary To the drawings the contract documents the specifications and things like that and you know, we memorialize the contract documents As a part of the process of delivering a project and look at sometimes that email and communication component as secondary or supplemental and oftentimes the difference between a Say an incident-free delivery of a project and a costly errors and omissions lawsuit is Something in one email that is an acknowledgement or agreement that was made during the project that could you know help that particular situation So again another question for organizations to ask do I have a system that Helps me track and manage all the communications around the project and then the third question. I would say is Revolves around, you know, do you have a purpose-built system for helping your teams? administer and manage the contract primarily during construction, you know nowadays A lot of stuff happens on site and with the devices that are out there in the capabilities to leverage technology within a construction site during the construction phase You know the process of managing RFIs and change orders and punch lists and all those things Having something purpose-built to do that rather than excel spreadsheets and word documents and whatever else companies might be using I think it's critical. So, you know, all of these questions are do you have if if an AEC firm answers no at any of those I think it's it's a point to look in the mirror and say, okay This digital transformation capabilities are out there. How can I how can I bring that together and switch some of these No, as to yeses Yeah, that's a great framework of questions that I think firms can walk through and I and I know that You know, we have listeners in varying firm sizes, of course I'm sure there's those of you that work for firms that are you know 10 000 plus and there's those of you that have 20 people So, you know, you're going to be at different stages of this obviously and you know You'll answer the questions that Brett posed in different ways, of course, which will help you With different solutions, but I think Brett, you know one of the question that I have for you I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of kind of like an AE firm owner You know thinking about investing in technology in general And one of the the reservations that I would have is Is I mean, I think we would know that it's a need obviously in the way the world is going but you know Everything evolves so quickly right and any kind of investment you make is a huge investment not just in terms of the dollars of purchasing a product but Really the the hours spent on the training and everything that goes into it, which I'm sure you know well, so What would you say to a leader? You know, how do they make a decision around the right product that maybe is adaptable? Or you know, how do you address that when when someone has that concern? So I think you know one of the big things and I think it it sort of relates or is a line definitely what you said You know any technology implementation I think the the cliche adage is is you know, it's 80 percent or 20 percent technology and 80 percent people And I think that's an important thing for any for any organization to understand when they're going through the process that you just described You know, there's a lot of great technology products out there and Most of those products can can serve the the sort of the fundamental needs that are being pursued as a result of a company You know looking at those products but The important thing to understand is that other 80 percent the people the processes The change management component that needs to happen internally needs to be factored in as well And when you you know, your question is how do what what guidance do you give organizations that are? You know on the cusp of making those decisions or looking at that pursuit It's it's involving the right people within your organization and understanding that it's not just a technology project This isn't something that you say, you know, you go to your it manager your it director and say You know, go find us a piece of software that's going to do project managers project management for us I think that's an incredibly short sighted and setting yourself up for fail And instead you need to say to your project managers listen We know there's tools out there that can make us better at what we're doing in the context of project management You guys are the experts in our organization. You're the ones out there on the front lines managing projects Help us pick the solution. Help us implement the solution. Help us Train everybody in the organization to use the solution. And I think taking that approach Um, you know helps you focus on the 80 percent and the technology almost becomes secondary to that process That's interesting. So it sounds really like when you invest in a technology as much as you're Hoping that this product which I'm sure is going to be robust and have a lot of features As much as you're hoping and you see all those benefits in order to realize those benefits It's really going to take People in your firm to get on board to get trained and to you know I guess creates new habits around utilizing the software effectively In order for that investment to really make sense Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things that I like to tell Um customers when we're talking about change management is this concept that I've used over and over for years It's it's sort of middle out. Um, you know, you hear a lot of times when you talk about Um technology implementations and things like that is the importance of top-down support Which don't get me wrong top-down support is important You need to have support at the top to make any of these things successful But I would I would posit that Middle out support is is equally if not more important because if you've got you know The people that are out there doing their jobs day to day using these tools embracing them and celebrating them That impact on everybody around them is going to be far more profound Than the top-down management support. It's that middle out support that I think is actually huge in situations like that Hmm. It's interesting. So Brett you you know from your seat you get to see I think a lot of things probably from you know What I like to call it the 30 000 foot view in terms of talking to companies and seeing you know projects overall and seeing How some of these technologies have impacts on on firms What are your thoughts on how innovation and technology are going to impact the built environment and kind of shape these projects that these AEC firms are working on now over the next 10 years Yeah, so this is another I think a pretty broad question You know if you look at innovation in the built environment, you can look at through a lot through a lot of different lenses You know, you've got Things going on just in in construction and building materials and building technology that are going to You know change what buildings look like how we experience them how they're built Um, how much they cost all of those things.  So all of those things are definitely going to affect You know, like I said, how buildings are built and what they look like and then you look at some of the technologies that The AE industry is looking at whether it be drones or laser scanners for serving or wearables and portables or even the The concept of augmented reality to help with the design phase and help a client understand what it is We're we're designing for them and building for them all those things. I think Are key to where the industry is going and how innovation is going to change things but You know as I as I think about it more in the context of The solutions that we bring firms and this concept of information management and digital transformation and how The typical AE firm is going to operate and how we're going to see that evolve as a result of innovations in the next decade or so You know the first thing I'd point out and this is going to seem maybe a little cliche But you know, BIM is still front and center. It's the first thing that that comes to mind when I think about this and You know, I think back to my time even before coming to deltech at least in the the area where the firm I worked at for Introducing Revit into the office. We were one of the first firms in the area To introduce Revit and that was you know, 15 years ago and we're still talking about BIM in a way as we're Right on the cusp of it sort of showing value. So I still think that's a huge Innovation that we're going to see really take hold more and more as the decade goes on and I also think you know, we're going to see It may be used in slightly different ways than we're seeing today and this whole concept of a digital twin for for buildings that are built I think we're poised on making that a reality and the benefit that that will Bring to not only our industry in terms of the services we can provide our customers, but also You know how a building is owned and operated after construction is complete So I think BIM is you know, like I said, maybe a little cliche. Maybe a little bit Overused but I still think that's a key innovation item in the in the decade ahead and I think the other one that I would add to that which is I think directly related in a lot of ways But it's data and again, maybe a little cliche to cite big data when we're talking about innovation, but I think this is something that's going to really start to help the typical AE firm You know as the technology has become more mainstream and commoditized, you know, we're going to see a firm's leverage whether it be big data or machine learning things like that in terms of how they design buildings how they Manage the economics of a building project how they identify potential risks and manage those risks Even even to the point in terms of how they select products for the buildings that they're designing I think you know, like I said data we've got so much data and it's time that we start using that and making it do some work for us Yeah, it's all it's interesting. And you know, certainly when you think of technology Certainly the word innovation comes to mind But one of the other words that comes to mind to me is overwhelming sometimes I mean there's I mean just based on what you just said you mentioned so many different roads we could go down in terms of You know another 10 different podcast episodes here and all these different topics and items And so I think just this is just my own recommendation on talking to a lot of firm leaders of different sizes I think one of the things that you just need to do in your firm is You know kind of keep harping on these things whether it's you put together a technology committee or something like that Where you have people reviewing things that are going on in the industry on a regular basis just because I know for the small the mid-sized firm sometimes you may not have Committees like that you may not be looking at things and again part of it could be like it's overwhelming And so I think kind of to Brett's point We know it's going to be critical moving forward And it doesn't mean you need to take every single technology and start using it right away But I think having you know keeping an eye on it can be helpful I would also think Brett not maybe you could speak this a little bit, but just just from my own interactions with people You know the the sooner a company embraces some of these technologies and gets their professionals used to using some of them Even if they're small and they're using some small products or services It's only going to make it easier to grow because at some point you're going to need to utilize more technology And from our conversation earlier, it sounds like the people and their ability to embrace it is critical Yeah, absolutely. And I think you hit on it very Accurately before when you said, you know, even if it's starting small and and sort of moving up from there. That's important I think one of the the the things that we try to tell customers when we get the digital transformation Question is start small and scale up You know, you don't have to make this huge investment in this brand new solution There's little things that you can do in your organization That will help you start down that digital transformation path one of the things that that we often talk to our customers About is you've got these great systems in place. Are you really leveraging to their leveraging them to their fullest extent? There might be a component that you're using in a sub optimized way there might be a component that you haven't even started using yet and We encourage customers to look at those pieces and say, how can you how can you Leverage that piece that you've already invested in to help your organization Maybe be more paperless. Maybe be more connected Maybe be better in terms of how you manage your teams and your projects and things like that So let's start small and and scale up. I think is important and I think you know, you your point about You know keeping an eye on what's going on out there You know, that's huge too because some Innovations some evolutions of technology aren't going to apply to certain organizations And some are going to apply to other types of organizations. So keeping an eye on what's going on out there To figure out, you know, which ones you should pursue and which ones you perhaps leave alone for for the time being is important as well Absolutely. Yeah, I would assume that company like deltech. That's something that you can assist companies with right if they're not quite sure Where did where did they feed in? Absolutely, you know, we we we have what we call optimization workshops with our customers On a regular basis to attack that specific thing, you know Let's figure out where we can optimize what you're doing where we can leverage what you've invested in more than you are today So that's definitely something that we bring to the table and we work with our customers Yeah, and that's something that in doing a lot of coaching and training in firms, you know Sometimes we get into just like personal productivity. So not so much with technology But you know how they set up their day things they're focusing on and oftentimes what comes up in conversations is Is the technology and a lot of times what I hear people say is, you know We've got this elaborate system, but either number one We don't know how to use it correctly or in totality or number two We feel like there's other avenues of it that they keep telling us we're going to use but we haven't got to use it yet So I definitely think that, you know, bre hit something there on that last point and that Sometimes the best place to start is take a look at what you've currently invested in and make sure that you're using every aspect of it And you know talk to your staff and you know, if you're working with a company like deltech I'm sure they can help you do this but talk to your staff and understand We've got this great software Um, you have some challenges Can we help you with the challenges with the software we have because we may be able to but we may not even know that We can or you may not even know that we have these capabilities. So there's lots of lots of roads to to dive down here Um, but it certainly seems like, you know, we know technology is the way of the future It's just to manage Just kind of being able to understand which is the best for you and your company at this time for your staff and kind of Growing from there. So what we're going to do now is we're just going to take a quick break I'm going to come back with bret and we're going to put them on the civil engineering hot seat and wrap this one up I hope you are enjoying this episode of the civil engineering podcast, which is produced by the engineering management institute Please be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel here for more podcast episodes And for all of our engineering manager 8020 shorts videos that we publish weekly where we interview successful Engineering managers now it's time to jump into our civil engineering hot seat segment All right, we are back with bret tussoff's vp of product management at deltech And it's time to put bret on the civil engineering hot seat bret. You ready for this? I'm ready. All right. Let's rock and roll So bret, are there any Specific routines or rituals that you practice on a daily basis?  I think but I'll sit down and before I sort of start my day I have time locked out where I'll go through my email and Look at the things that I need to prioritize in the next, you know, eight hours or so whatever that day looks like And it may sound like a simple thing, but it it really helps me sort of manage my in my head What my day is going to be like and make sure that I've prioritized the things that are Most important that need my attention that somebody might be waiting for And like I said, it sets up It sort of sets the foundation for the day and makes me feel better about everything else that I'm going to have Going on for that day Before I get into the meetings before I get into sort of the everything else that's going to happen in the day You know, that's great. No, that's something that we talk about here a lot when we do our productivity training Is really identifying those most important tasks for the day and it sounds like you know, that's something that you Kind of jump on early in the morning, which is of course I mean, I think at least the best time to do that. All right So next question is there a book that you might recommend or if you think about, you know, your career to date You know personal professional development, whatever it may be a book that jumped out that's been helpful for you That, you know, gave you some tips or strategies that you kind of used to this day So I'm going to answer with two. I hope that's okay, but There's two that come to mind when you ask a question like that. It's drive and switch Both great books and I actually remember reading them when I made the transition from the architecture firm to deltech and They were great just in sort of Philosophical thinking in terms of doing things different and looking at things different and what drives you to You know, be a good leader and things like that. Those are the two books that that jumped to mind and I often recommend to people in the context of you know, that type of You know, what what what what guides sort of your thinking I guess is probably the best way to describe it great All right Next question you've had undoubtedly managers or supervisors throughout your career like we all have and Not asking you to name names here, but if you think of your managers in the past and you think of oh I really remember this manager. They're one of my favorite managers What would be the reason that you identified that person, you know In other words, like, you know, what makes them such a good manager What made one or a couple of your managers so good that they kind of stood out to you in your career path? Are there any specific characteristics or skill sets? Absolutely. I think back to You know, I probably probably identified two and if I think back to my my pre belt deltech days You know in the firm I was in I had a lot of opportunity in front of me and As I you know, it sort of told my story and how I got to where I started in the world of architecture to where I am today I attribute a lot of that to a particular manager that I had, you know prior to coming to deltech and I think the the characteristic that has always stuck out to me as I think back to those times is Just the belief that that that person had in me Um, you know, it instilled confidence in me It instilled Sort of the desire to to drive ahead and and try new things and look at new things So it wasn't you know, this person didn't teach me a specific skill or you know Help bolster my knowledge in any way It was it was more sort of the how they approached their their belief and confidence in me that that helped me I think the most to progress forward And then the the second one I was going to mention after coming to deltech here You know manager that I had here. It was a similar situation, but the autonomy that they gave me Helped me a lot sort of grow and it was a very different world than I came from working in an architecture firm coming to a software company like deltech Um, and I think that that person's ability to give me that autonomy and and say hey You know go go people are are thirsty for decisions people are thirsty for knowledge Help them get to that and that that helped me a lot as well That's great. All right last question for you brett that we'd like to ask everybody. Let's say that you were to Step into an elevator with an AE professional You know and you had 30 to 40 seconds with that person and they asked you You know, what's kind of the best career advice that you could give me in the next 30 40 seconds What do you think based on your career to date and you know working a lot in this industry both as An architecture in as well on the on the product software side What would you say to that person? Well, I think the the first word that comes to mind when I think about that what that 30 to 40 seconds would be on is thirsty um, I think Once some of the best advice I've gotten in the past is always be thirsty And I think that applies not just to the AE world, but in general I think that's applied for me here at deltech as well But you know given if you look at everything you and I've talked about today, anthony the the innovations that are coming The rapidity with tech technology Is going today Not just in sort of the the tools that that help help our run our business But even around design and construction and things like that. Um, I think Getting stagnant or complacent in terms of where you are with your knowledge and what you're interested in is is a recipe for discontent for probably the best way to say it and being thirsty from the start and staying thirsty throughout to learn new things and You know explore where things are going I think that was that's probably the like I said the first thing that comes to mind when I think of what advice I would give in that situation That's great. Awesome. All right. Well once again brett tuss house vp of product management at deltech We want to thank you so much for spending some time with us here on the civil engineering podcast We really appreciate the time brett great. Thank you very much anthony. Appreciate you having me I hope you enjoyed this episode of the civil engineering podcast on youtube Produced by the engineering management institute We're always looking for new ways to help engineers become effective managers and leaders You can view all of our content on our website at engineering management institute dot org And be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel here for our weekly videos until next time Please continue to engineer your own success


What's going on everyone Sam here with late in sports cards rip in 22 penin impeccable football hobby 3 box full case break number 54 Pick your team style gonna read off a list of our names and teams Abhishek M with the Rams Armando be chargers Carlos F Broncos C Chang with the Steelers Colton D Cowboys David W. Bills Greg M with the Saints Jets Seahawks Buccaneers James F. Chiefs Jason a Vikings Joel be Eagles Cardinals and Ravens Joseph be with the Panthers Kevin G. Browns Lindsay H Packers Colts Luke M with the Texans Matthew M Niners All right, so actually that's Matthew M. I with the Niners Matthew MC Bangles Lions Bears Dolphins Matthew C with the Patriots Michael T Raiders Michael C Falcons Michael F Giants Nick L football team Stephen W. Jags and will M with or will L will L with the Titans Sorry will will L with the Titans All right, I don't know why I went over here. That's not where I need to be here. We go. Good luck everybody Yeah, Paul I can do that for you Yeah, no problem, dude absolutely As long as you're cool with waiting. I don't mind at all Yeah, no problem, dude Any time Let me Bar card do that last bar card Bar card Bar card That's gonna get really old Ryan Tannehill that is five out of fifty the Titans Mr. Brandon cooks to 75 30 out of 75 for the Texans It's when they're each town got a rookie auto going to the Cowboys at Jake Ferguson 89 of 99 From their Cowboys We've got for the Ravens That is Kyle Hamilton book at 99 of 99 three colored RPA nice one there Kham defensive Swiss Army knife Swiss Army knife We've got Chris long that is on card Super Bowl out of nice one there for the eels Got rookie landscape Chris Olave 58 out of 99 for the Saints nice when they're Saints And Xamir whites eight out of 75 for the Raiders nice one there Congrats Vegas. I saw commercial for Hogwarts legacy I was Chris long the Eagles Chris long is Super Bowl out of very cool D hop to 75 We got E.J. Brown that is a five out of 25 for the Eagles and James Robinson that is 75 of 75 for the Jaguars Next up. We've got rookie auto Jalen portray 7 out of 35 nice one there one of the better Rookie defenders out of this class cool and here we've got the snake Jake the snake plumber 59 out of 99 and that is awesome did not hear about that shorts. That's very bizarre though for sure This one there Jake the snake We've got Cooper cup immense patch autos going to the Rams nice one there Congrats Rams. I just want to hear going to the Steelers Jack Lambert three of 15 On the canvas creations auto that's really cool Nice Jack Lambert and Traylon Berks four out of 35. That is a patch helmet three color two color Congrats Titans Tray Bob. Hi, so you go Elon the best way to watch breaks dude on the TV the big screen Always watch breaks Try to yeah Devante Adams to 75 God One of one is Christian McCaffrey Printing play got a lot of hate for Jake Lummer into on tiktok right now Shaq Barrett three color patch auto 71 of 75. Yeah, Jake Ferguson's 41 out of 99 for the Cowboys Nice one here. We've got for the Vikings John Randall 17 out of 99 Yes. Yes. Usually it's a One box every case. Oh, did I not say McCaffrey? Yeah, McCaffrey goes to the Panthers. I don't know if I said the wrong one Yes, exactly PSU Yeah, the Christian McCaffrey one of one goes to the Panthers. I don't know if I said the wrong team my bad 14 out of 99 is Traylon Berks. It's cool. He's got this team Going to Lindsay H How about the sheriff two of ten? First ballot auto congrats Lindsay. That's awesome Holy cow. I love it the sheriff Peyton Manning will get that magged up for you Yeah, I know that's awesome Jennings Get that mag right up and then Calvin Austin elegance rookie helmet and glove autos redemption going to the Steelers Martin this is Impeccable pick your team impeccable pick your team. Were you in what I feel like I saw I remember your name in one of the Zenith mixers those should be uploading to YouTube right now. Oh maha and Bar card I'll see some gold. I'll be gold, baby That is eight up 25 Patrick Mahomes There we go chiefs that's James F James F with the chiefs. Congrats, buddy. What a last couple of packs there, man. That was insane Heck yeah, dude Nice mahomi Eight of 25 We've got That magged up. Let's do a quick recap Calvin Austin Austin for the Steelers Traylon Burks Titans John Randall for the Vikings Jake Ferguson Cowboys Shaq Barrett Bucking ears that is Traylon Burks for the Titans canvas creations Jack Lambert Steelers Cooper Cup for the Rams Jake Plummer Cardinals Jalen Petrae Texans Xamir White Raiders Chris Olave Saints Chris Long Eagles Kyle Hamilton Ravens Jake Ferguson Cowboys Got Patrick Mahomes is Bar card for the chiefs and Peyton Manning first ballot Hall of Fame auto two of ten Do for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill next up ten bucks Tuesday


Russia continues mass cannon fodder assaults. The number of dead Russian soldiers is increasing. The Russian invaders in the Tavria war zone keep applying the tactics of the so-called cannon fodder assaults, prioritizing safety of their military hardware over that of manpower. That's according to Colonel Oleksandr Stupun, the chief press officer in the area. Over the past day, the enemy launched eight airstrikes and 26 artillery barrages in the Tavria There were also 42 combat clashes, most of which occurred near Morynka. It is worth noting that the enemy pursues the tactics of cannon fodder assaults and keeps its equipment safe, Stupun said. According to the spokesman, a Ukrainian offensive operation is underway in the Militopol direction. Acting head of the planning department of the main directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine, Mykhailo Urshalović, said that the enemy has been conducting an active counterattack in the Bakhmut Axis and continuing mass cannon fodder assaults in several areas of the Avdiivka Axis, sustaining tremendous losses. In the Bakhmut Axis, in the Krishivka area, intense fighting continues. The enemy has been constantly and actively counterattacking with the aim of stopping further advancement of our detachments and taking back the lost positions, he said. Urshalović stressed that fighters from the 5th Brigade of the National Guard, as part of the Defence Forces, repel enemy attacks without losing previously achieved successes. In the Avdiivka Axis, the enemy continues mass cannon fodder assaults in several directions, sustaining tremendous losses in personnel and military hardware, the National Guard said. Ukraine has already said that more than 305,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.


Welcome to Toffy TV, it's the Everton News Daily, it's the 24th of August 2018. Everton have launched a new thick today, it was out this morning, it was unveiled at 7 o'clock this morning. We've got a video, we got to see yesterday when we got to visit the absolutely magnificent new headquarters of Everton Football Club at the Royal Library Building. So check that video out, it is smart, I really like it, it's blue and white although there's a fancy name for the blue. Blue shorts, white socks and it's really smart and the team will wear it tomorrow at Bournemouth and as I said it is already available to buy in the shops which is amazing. So the back of that Everton have released some data about the most printed shirts so far this summer. Richardlison comes in at 20% of the printed shirts, he's on the back, very popular man already, already a fan's favourite. Gilfee Sigarton and Geng Tolson, the most popular of the international sales and Bains and Tom Davies are the most popular players for the under 16th market which is quite weird isn't it? Because obviously both ends of the scale, one of the young player, one a player, a more mature player let's say but both scouts, I wonder if that's got anything to do with it. Interesting, interesting on Richardlison, I thought it might have been Geng Tolson but obviously that might be with the international market and with the Turkish fans which Everton really have to capitalise on and hopefully they are. Gilfee Sigarton obviously an important player for Everton as well and played in the World Cup and that might have aided his share tales abroad. Henry on Yku Rw, he is back in the Nigeria squad, this is great news because Everton obviously have not been able to use him yet, he is on loan at Galatasaray, he scored his first goal at the weekend because of the work payment issues. Now obviously he never went into the World Cup and maybe if he had Everton might have been able to get him in this summer but he didn't so obviously he had a bad injury last season with his knee. Hopefully if he is back, sometimes after World Cups you have players retiring or you get a clean slate and players come in and get a chance to prove themselves and hopefully if he proves himself plays games for Nigeria and gets that quota within the year that is needed for next season he can come in and be a part of the Everton squad. Galatasaray wanted to have a price in the deal for him to buy at the end of the loan deal Everton set it quite high saying that they have long term plans for him so hopefully he will get that work payment. Hopefully he will play games first for Nigeria and we will get that work payment and we will finally be able to see the play we signed last summer, play some games for Everton. Janak Balasi still hasn't completed his deal to Aston Villa. He's getting boring now isn't he? Just go and sign that. Just go and play first team football. You don't really have a future at Everton.  Go and show them what you can do. You've had a bad injury. Go and show them what you can do and get yourself sorted because that's all everyone wants I think for Janak Balasi. There's no bad feelings. There's nothing. Go and do well. Suffer the bad injury. You should just be playing football. Stop haggling over it. Whatever. I don't know if he really is haggling but there you go. Get it signed and sealed and get playing football. And Jo Anderson has revealed that the stadium situation with the council has not moved forward because Everton are looking around for other lenders. He said that he will be meeting with Farhad Meshiri next week. He said Professor Denise Barham Baxendale has been a breath of fresh air as well after speaking to her but it's a case of Everton looking around at other revenue streams. Now this might be because Everton won a cast iron backup plan or maybe they won a cast iron face plan because obviously there's been problems with the council in terms of not. I don't think there's problems. I think there's been a lot of noise. I think a lot of outside sources. Different parts of the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats have been getting involved. The Liverpool fans. So many of them have been trying to drive a wedge in this one where really if Everton went through the city council being £7 million a year. That's what I would love to see. I want to see Everton go through the council so my city benefit from that extra revenue. All these people who seem to have a problem with it I honestly don't understand why. It could be jealousy. It could be people thinking that if they don't get off the council this magnificent idea for Bramley Mordoch will fall apart. I don't think it will. I think Everton are working really hard to get this done. I think there's other factors slowing it down as well. I think the fact that Everton could possibly lose the World Heritage Sites. I don't think it's a problem. I just think it's something Everton and the council are trying to work round and that's slowing the process down a little bit. I say this going to see the new offices in the Royal Iver buildings. Seeing that and seeing how magnificent it is. Magnificent it is. It just fills me with so much optimism because I've seen this club trying to take steps forward. There are always little steps and it's almost like with the ground, with the stuff that they've put on the ground. It looks great but you want a new ground. I think for years Everton have been doing that. They've been making things that they've already got better but I think we're going to the new offices. It's a move forward. It's a step forward. It was like when we went to Finch Farm. Now this is another one. These new offices. It's a step forward and the next one will be the ground. I think they're putting everything in place to do that. It's just taking a little bit of time. Obviously the financial situation we've seen spares this ground at the moment. I know it's not a massive problem. They've got both these problems pop up and they cost a lot of money. It's about getting the money in place so that not only can it be paid for but if there's any problems that can be paid for and if there's any problems on top of the problems that can be paid for because any kind of problem creates a delay and that means more work. That also means having to deal with that situation. Everton are in a different situation from spares because obviously we'd have a ground. We don't have to knock the ground down but hopefully that will move forward this week. Hopefully that will be sorted this week in the coming months. Hopefully that will be sorted and we can get that all in place. But he's given the update anyway and that's appreciated and he's going to meet Farad by Shading next week and hopefully more will come out of that. Anyway, hopefully we'll get three points tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a great weekend. Make sure you enjoy whatever happens. I'll see you later.


What's up guys today? I am Coming to you live from Edcon here in Toronto. I got my good friend John pallor with me If you guys know who John pallor is John pallor is founder and steward of How do you pronounce that? Opolis and also founder of ETH Denver by the way by the way I've been to a lot of hackathons.  It's like a high the one of the most like high-class events possible That's what we were going for. That's what we were trying to do. I love it. I love it. Yeah, my pleasure Thanks for organizing it. Thank you for supporting it likewise likewise So basically what I want to talk to you today is about well since we're at Edcon here Tokens You know let's talk tokens. Let's talk tokens. What was the saying that we said earlier friends. Don't let friends Create useless tokens. Yeah, that was Jeff Coleman. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was great friends.  Yeah, they don't and so you don't let friends do that. No, you've been in space for a while I've been in space for a while.  Yeah, real quick. Yeah, real quick And so, you know, we're 2018 Q2 right now a lot of talks of regulation SEC talking about it a lot of exchange is being banned on a national scale in certain countries As you see right now in the ICO space. It's more or less pre sales as opposed to public sales, right? It actually defeats the whole purpose of originally what ICOs intended to be a democratized very democratized version of investing was averted back to the old way of saft and pre-sale accredited investor It's only the rich get richer But obviously still investing these useless tokens. So like in the last year or so and based on your experience in the space and Based on what you know about the technology like what's your current stance on ICOs and tokens? I Think generally ICOs are overused. I think that When the SEC says that All if most if not all tokens or security securities at this stage Their argument for that is actually not a horrible one because most of the projects don't have any sort of functioning System or software or tool so there really isn't any utility. It's a future promise of potential utility As we know most of the projects never make it to utility. So there's a huge problem with that I think Wyoming is in the right direction. So from a stateside perspective Wyoming pass on legislation that created a new asset class That basically defines a utility token one of the components of that requires though that the that the utility token is actually Usable at the moment of issuance So they're saying okay. We'll allow utility tokens, but it's got to be usable like now So it's not securities. It's a utility. So utility. So what's the definition of utility token utility token is is basically a digital asset that's being sold with Use with actual use for goods and services inside of a technological path So wouldn't be like 90% of these ICOs was literally a payment token, right, right, which is which is very very Simple thinking in my opinion. It's not it's not innovative at all payment token payment transfer is is like v1 of tokens I think much more interesting uses of utility tokens are going to be around governance and Just more much more complicated uses of tokens. I don't think that you're going to see I don't think it's gonna be I Don't know fashionable the word, but I don't think you're gonna see people doing Things that are gonna like there's gonna be a precedent set and I think once the precedent set and the hammer comes down on some of these projects People are gonna stop doing certain behaviors because they don't want the same thing to happen to them What regulation comes down on a national level or even I mean currently the Colorado State houses considering Legislations around the same topic sure It's gonna be really interesting to see what actually pops out of that because I think that is going to be Really the guidance that gets used for how people are preparing their projects in the future So it's sort of hard to tell April was the lowest Quantity of ICOs in eight months So like I think people are seeing that they're kind of putting the brakes on well This might take on it like For the most part 99% of these ICOs. They don't even need a token. They don't need a token And they can use ETH. They can use ETH, but we can even step back and subtract it a step further They don't have a business. Yeah, well, they don't even need a blockchain. That's precisely it Yeah, so they might have a business, but you don't need to blockchainify everything. Yes So we talk about this a lot In our Colorado ecosystem like we get people coming to eat Denver and and proposing projects and asking for input and ideas all the time and The first question we ask Ourselves if not them directly is why do you need a blockchain? Yeah And if they can't answer that question if they can't give us a little You know quick and it has to be compelling. You can't be just well, you could do this or you could do that Yeah, but why would you? blockchain is slower Today, it's not as efficient. It's more expensive transactions cost-buddy like what are you actually creating? That's going to solve Let's say less of a technological problem sure and more of a social problem Like how does this actually solve a social problem? And if all you're doing is looking for blockchain to create efficiency You're in the wrong game because efficiency is not the name of blockchain right now. It might be You know once we solve scaling, I mean there was a two-hour panel yesterday here with Vitalik and many other brilliant minds talking about scaling solutions around a technology that doesn't scale right now so like Yeah, I mean we're if if you're talking efficiency in Streamlining things if you're not Truly creating a solution for a meaningful social problem, then I wouldn't consider using blockchain It just doesn't make any sense. Yeah, 99% of these I see as like you said don't need a blog Well, they're opportunists. Yes there. So there's there's two different Well, there's several camps that I see in the crypto space And I have opinions about all of them, but I think the thing that's Troubling for me is the ICO space Because when you look at the ethos of what blockchain was originally about even coming from Satoshi's original white paper It was a really around solving a social problem It was around creating impact and democracy for people and creating just better systems. Yep I don't see that in 90 some odd percent of the projects that come through they're opportunists and that's You know look capitalism is a very very good things But but it's a tool capitalism is a tool just like anything else and tools can be used for very selfish and kind of greed-driven purposes and That's just to me strikes against the ethos of the space entirely and so, you know You're talking about Wyoming. They're making interesting or they made the legislation. Yeah, they may they passed it It's past the governor signed it. So yeah Wyoming is officially The most crypto friendly state in the country right now. Now that doesn't mean a ton Colorado We believe that Colorado has the same sort of tendencies and innovation and we should be fine We should be and we're we're working on it. Yeah, we're working with the governor's office We're working with the office of economic development international trade We're working with the Colorado Technology Association. We're working with influential lawmakers. We're working with our national congressman One of which is running for governor. His name is Jared Polis. He's chairman of the blockchain committee in the US House he is He made the statement actually at a meet-up yesterday my friends who are back in Colorado Said that he made the statement that Colorado will be blockchain capital of the US now I Don't want to get down the Colorado rabbit hole too much and she'll Colorado. I think generally You know it'll speak for itself, but yes There's there's there's going to be some very interesting things coming So what do you think your predictions are in like the next six months? What's gonna happen the industry as a whole? well Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. I I am I Don't know that the the space could advance a ton until we solve scaling sure I think that there's there's a whole There's a whole just trail of dapps and But scaling is complex because they're not just scaling the tech Yeah, I know I scaling the governance with the tech as well. I know it's not an easy problem In fact yesterday, I think somebody mentioned I'm trying to remember who that they predicted a year from now We wouldn't be that much further on on solving the scalability So what that means for six months? I think until the regulatory Environment calms down. I think you're gonna see a reduction in ICOs, which I think is a good thing I think you're gonna see potentially some some interesting things just happening in general markets and how cryptos are trading. I think a lot of the Opportunists and FUD people are gonna go away for a while And we're just gonna build I think this is I think probably the six to two six to 18 months is going to be a Heavy just building period and the people that are serious about the space are gonna stick around the people who actually believe in The ethos of decentralization and the good that can bring socially and politically to the world Are gonna do it they're gonna they're gonna put in the time and and it's gonna be easier to spot legitimate projects Because right now it's hard, you know in a bull market everyone's smart Everybody's smart everyone's smart and everyone thinks they're smart and it's really dangerous business because bull markets don't last forever No, and it's actually not good that they last forever. So like this perpetual like let's go to 300,000 Bitcoin and You know $40,000 ethers. Yep. It's like look If all you want to do is be in it for the money Go Wall Street That's what they're about. That's what they do, you know do a high frequency trading like I know people Financial engineering is the name of the game. It is it really is and and I know I know I've got friends that that have spent time on Wall Street. I've got friends that are professional commodity traders I mean these guys are pros. They know how to extract dollars. Yeah in gaming market, and you know what I Don't agree with it. I don't do it. I don't see any value being contributed So instead of being an opportunist and an extractionist I'm very much of the mindset of contribution first So thinking about well like the like what you had it on your Twitter profile is steward. Yeah, it's a keyword Yeah, so I don't see myself as an executive of any sort. I see myself as a role-player So every team has to have certain players and skill sets come to the table I believe in the notion of steward leadership, which is I Don't I'm not a I'm a stakeholder, but I'm not an owner. I'm not a CEO I'm not a I don't I don't believe in that sort of hierarchical governance because I don't think that it empowers people to be creative and express their best and That's what we need. We need people not just me. I mean, I've got some ideas. I think that are interesting I Certainly have no trouble sharing them. I love talking about my thoughts, but I'm also equally as interested in what other people think because I think that that is Where you do where you're learning is through the expression of others Mm-hmm and stewardship really gives people the opportunity to become their best selves Instead of managing them, you know, I don't I think managing people is Not only an insult to intelligence and creativity, but it's it's actually Sort of a weird way of slavery, you know, I mean It's I use that term sort of loosely and it might be sort of offensive in some ways But if you think about it's indentured servitude in some ways Managing people to do processes and checkboxes and you know, you look at the so I'm in the employment space I've been in the employment space for almost 20 years and Our project is around decentralizing employment, right? So we're Well, what do you kind of plug up? Well, I'll do that in a minute. Let me just collapse my thought here but you know, so just a collapse on the Stewart leadership That gives people the opportunity as opposed to management It gives people the opportunity to be their best. Yeah to express their best as I say, it's like express your best Like what's inside of you that you were uniquely created to express in this world? That can contribute something Awesome, like what is your what is your inner badass? What is that? Because I want to see that now some people are not used to that They're like well, what do you want me to do is I don't I don't know what that looks like, you know So anyway, it's a process and people are evolving and I think the the thinking and consciousness around this is evolving I think that You know the next 20 years in the way we engage with work is going to change More drastically than it ever has in like periods of hundreds of years. Yes historically largely driven by technology and The democratized systems that we build that actually facilitate that and you're working on this with Opelus. Yeah, so opelus is is basically decentralized employment protocol and What it what it does is effectively give people portable Self-determined as I call it self sovereign not just identity but employment so we have It's a it's a Dow, but we call it a decentralized employment organization that we're building so this Entity construct would allow a group of individuals to consort together and Become employed by this entity that would then in effect be portable 100% Anywhere they want to go sure so This entity would also provide them benefits. They would have Stake they would stake tokens So talk about you a real live use case for Decentralized governance in tokens They would stake tokens and each deo would have their own set of rules around how many tokens or what the requirements are for membership Mm-hmm, and then they would vote on certain benefits or different components or features of the deo that they would want or get and If they don't like the outcomes of whatever governance Decisions are made they can move to one that fits their social and political beliefs more in alignment So one feature that I use as an example for this is there's a lot of political talk around Ubi yeah, so you know libertarians like that's bullshit. I'm not paying for that Sure, it's not it's you know taxation theft. I get it like if I don't want to pay for something I shouldn't necessarily have to be forced to do it Mm-hmm, but the beautiful thing about this is whereas today employment centralized around an employer who makes all these decisions for you You can actually align with groups of people Not just in a geography, but digitally That allow you to choose whichever social and political system Fits your benefits that you would like to see. Yeah, so you could as a deo vote on having Ubi as a component It's amazing and you could self-tax yourself, you know and be a part of the key. The key though is Opting in choice choice choice. Yeah, it's completely democratic so If I want to go be a part of the libertarian You know group and yeah, and then just bare-bones stop and I'm young and healthy and I don't really care about Saving for retirement or whatever like I can go do that Sure, it just cost me less to do it sure and but then I get to choose that So I'm effectively gonna tax myself at whatever rate I want to contribute Yes, and but my employment's never affected so I can so the way that we see The future of work is I call it the velocity of workers is going to accelerate So right now people are half the labor force in the US is going to be looking for work like right now right now right now oh, yeah, and Gonna be a gig economy like asa well 30% of people are already Participating mostly side hustles today. Yeah, but by 2025 you're gonna see a large portion of people doing gig full-time Yeah, and you're gonna see half of the US labor force Participating in the gig economy by that so the the old-school w2 is gonna start going down because people want flexibility They want freedom they don't they don't want the post-war war to post-depression era Security pension like because it doesn't exist in here. There's no that promise that age and era has so is super pass Sure, so I could work for six companies at one time. I could have three of them be international I could Port my employment anywhere. I want to go and if I need to apply for a home or whatever I have stable employment. I have the same benefits. So when I go from project to project it doesn't affect me beautiful People want to find more information about what you're doing. Yeah, what's the best resource so? We're in the process of updating our website right now so opolis.co you can there's some information there We're we're keeping it sort of thin on the website intentionally if you want to get in touch with me You can do so by John at opolis.co Follow me on Twitter is at power John And yeah, I love talking about this. So the future of employment is is I think in my opinion Probably one of the biggest use cases for blockchain. I agree and it has a practical use It really does actually solve a major social problems. Yeah, which I don't know how else you solve it You know because you can't just create technology around this. They've tried for 20 years in Silicon Valley to throw 20 billion dollars in solving, you know the connection problem between talent and work and LinkedIn sold out to Microsoft because it didn't solve it. That's right And LinkedIn was the hope for solving it But again, there's there's just mechanical issues with that that model So which we're obviously seeing in Facebook and others that the centralized data model and that's I'm excited what you're doing Yeah, yeah, I know he's John and thanks. Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure. Cheers


A plastic anemia means that there is bone marrow suppression. So patients with aplastic anemia are not only low in red blood cells but because the bone marrow also can produce white blood cells and platelets they will also have low counts of those blood cells and that term used for an overall low count of all blood cells is pancytopenia meaning that the bone marrow cannot produce any of the blood cells and therefore all counts will be low that we can see on a CBC. For all the details on aplastic anemia please head on over to YouTube to check the full video.


Okay, welcome back everyone to the special CUBE conversation. I'm John Furrier here in the CUBE's Palo Alto studios. My next guest is Dr. Tom Braddish, friend of the CUBE. Or I said, Hula Packard Enterprise heads up the IOT, general manager and vice president of servers, converged edge IOT systems. But we're here to talk about, not so much, not HPE, but really the work that Tom's done and a topic called First Mover, a book that he's writing. It hasn't come out yet, so we're going to get an early preview of what it's like to create a category, innovation and how to use process to your advantage, not make it your enemy. How to use creativity and how to motivate people and how to sell it through organizations, whether it's venture capitalists or managers. Tom, you get great experience. Thanks for spending time to come into the studio. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me and I'm happy to have this discussion.  You were an engineer, built the first notebook computer with IBM. You've done a lot of groundbreaking things and I like the topic of your book First Mover because it speaks to your mindset. Entrepreneurial, innovative, breaking through walls, you probably got a lot of scar tissue. So I want to talk about that because this is the opportunity many entrepreneurs have. As you know in the CUBE, we really believe that renaissance and software development's coming. It's so obvious. Open source is growing at an extraordinary pace. The use of code. You got IoT, the area you're involved in. You got cryptocurrency, blockchain, all these new waves are coming all at once. So I wish I was 22 again because it's a great opportunity to innovate. But there's some proven things. What are some of those things? Let's jump in. What do you see as the playbook? What have you learned and what can you share? Well, sure. I've been blessed. I've had a career where I've been able to do a lot of innovation. But also I like to separate the notion of innovation from differentiation. And see it's possible to be innovated and not different. Like it's possible for you and I to have the same new suit. It's new, it's innovative, but it's not different. And differentiation is really where one can have a first mover advantage because differentiation by definition is new, is innovation, but it's not always the other way around. So I always tell my teams and I always focus on how can we be two things, both different and better. It's possible also to be different and not as good. You could have the highest failure rate in the industry, you're different, but that's not good. So the concept here is how do you be different, not just new and innovative, but how do you be different and how do you be good? And I've actually faced three risks in mostly the big corporate culture that we've had to innovation. And the first risk is of course the obvious one that people will customers buy it. That's called market risk. Is it something that's good enough to be purchased at a profit? The second risk is it can it be manufactured at quality and at a rate of consumption. And then the third risk is your own company. Does the company have what it takes actually to take on the risk of a brand new product category, not just a new product, but a new category of products that by definition have never been done before. And when one can do that, when one can figure that out, and I've had some significant experience with this, you can catapult your careers, you can catapult your company and your customers to new levels because you enjoy the benefits of the first mover. That's the name of the book, the first mover. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'm going to ask, this is super important because a lot of people, they're really good at something and they run hard, they break through a wall, but might have missed something. So you kind of bring up this holistic picture. What are some of the things that folks should focus in on? Say I have a breakthrough idea, I got a prototype up and running, it's in market. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I'm pushing it hard. People are just going to lap this off. This is going to be great. I know it's innovative, but no one else knows it. Right, what do I do? What's the process? What do you recommend? Well, what I like to do is portion the benefits into two categories. Their supply side benefits, that's to your company, right? Why is this good for your company to do this? And then there are demand side benefits, meaning why is it good for the customer? Most people tend to focus mostly on the demand side. Oh, it solves this problem and the customers will love it. And that's important. And I would call that a necessary but not sufficient condition. The other condition is why is this good for your company? And many times when it's a brand new product category, those inside a company aren't quite in tune with why it's good for the customer. Because again, it's a new thing. It's a new product category. Why is an automobile better than a horse and buggy, right? Why is a laptop computer better than a desktop computer? These are the ideas where it may be intuitive. It may be instructive to talk about that, but when you can get a business model first and start with that, well, the reason is we can enjoy this margin. The reason is we can enjoy this particular first mover advantage, the halo effect, the reputation of being the leader. The reason is because we can penetrate a new market. The reason is we can now overcome falling revenue in a shrinking TAM. Now we can accelerate in another TAM perhaps as well. So by coming up with both the demand side and the supply side, you have a better case to go forward for the support and funding inside a big corporation. There's always product market fit. I hear the buzz words. Oh, I got to get the cash flow positive break even. There's always a motivating force to get something done. How should someone organize the order of their operations to get something done to the market if it's innovative, groundbreaking, differentiating? Because a lot of the big challenges, some people call it landing span. I heard that buzz word too, but you get a champion inside a company and that champion embraces it. And most people think, oh man, I got that customer. But then that person has to sell it through and then it has to be operationalized, meaning people got to get used to it. These are real challenges. They are. What is your view of how an entrepreneur or a business executive or practitioner to get through that? Well, you have to get people on your side and it's really important. Somebody's got to believe in either you, not even understanding what you're proposing, but they'd say, well, you have a track record. For some reason, I believe what you're saying. And then secondly, getting customers. So I have personally never done anything major without a customer that I call an inspiration customer. That's a name I've just made up. So a customer, by the way, by definition is an end user that will buy something from you. That's the definition of a customer. And an inspiration customer is one that will help you that is okay with seeing your dirty laundry, okay with mistakes you might make because they see the value in it and they also see the value in them being a first mover.  So our customers can also be trendsetters in their business right as well. So therefore, by getting that customer support, and that's in the form of POCs or in trials or in just customer testimony, combine that now with a second dimension called the analyst community, which your team resides in as well. Also saying, well, I think this is good as well brings a lot of credibility because there's a saying a verse in the Bible that a profit is not without honor except in his own hometown. Now if you think about that, a lot of times your own company that you reside in has a lower point of view because it's very consumed with indeed what is next and doing the right thing by the way. I have to make this quarter, right? We have to protect the brand. We have to keep the cash flow coming in. These are all important things. So how do you get someone to focus on that? Many times it's not you anymore, it's outside. And I call that the second C, right? The first C is internal company. The second C is your customers and the community that also could include by the way analysts, the media, other experts, consultants, those type of season around there. Now the third C is the competition. This is a little bit controversial. What happens when the idea is now exploited by the competition first? Sometimes that is a motivator for a company to jump on it as well and make the market. But again, if you follow the competition, you're not the first mover. You don't enjoy the benefits of first mover advantage. Higher margin, the halo effect of being the innovator. And also learning, that's an important one. You're a first mover, you're out there learning so that you can respond to the second generation in a better way. I like this notion of differentiation and innovation as two different variables because it's super important. You can be different and not innovative, you can be innovative, not different. Again, it's all contextual, but I want to get back to the pioneering of the first mover. So statistically speaking, a lot of the best entrepreneurs are first movers and are often misunderstood you hear that all the time. Or being a visionary is the difference between being 10 years in the future versus an hour can make the difference between success. We are crazy on one end and you're brilliant on the other because the time to value catches up with that profit if you will. So a question is, is that how does first movers continue to win? Because I've seen situations where first movers come in, get a position and win and stay, keep the lead. Other times first movers come in, set the market up, create all the attention and then have arrows on their back. And a second mover enjoys the benefits. Yeah, so the second mover comes in bigger scale. So there's competition, competitive strategy overlaid on this, which even complicates it even further. Indeed, yes. So who your thoughts on that? Yes, indeed. Well, one way to look at this is the way to move forward is again, when you can get some momentum, that's not you. That's the number one, as a- Market growth, the number of subscribers throwing the internet at the trend, what mobile users- And a third party consultant who has highly respected agrees or an analyst. And I ran into an analyst recently in a coffee shop who agreed with some of this first mover work we're doing in converged edge systems, which is a new class of products as well. But it's really important that you can't be discouraged. Let me point this out. What I tell my team, and I tell students I lecture at universities and I've been an adjunct professor, those younger in their career is if you cast a vision and you have an idea and nobody gets it, don't be discouraged. That's a good sign. That sounds a little bit, you know, funny. Why is it a good sign? Because if everybody gets it right away, it's likely not that novel. It's likely rather ordinary. It's likely been thought of before as well, right? So by the very nature and definition that the average person might think is discouraging on, nobody understands me, nobody gets this idea, should be an encouragement, you know, and a motivation.  So usually when people don't get it, it's either really not good or really amazing that eventually they'll come around to it. I had a boss in one of my career opportunities told me to stop working on a product. I don't want to give too much detail, but he literally told me that. And I said, I don't want to be insubordinate to a boss. We all have them. And I said, you know, can I please just keep working on it, okay, but don't let it interfere with the other stuff, da-da-da. Today that market is a $9 billion market as well. Of that product. A very product that I was told by a very astute person, one of my colleagues, my bosses, said, I don't see the future in this, let's not do this, right? You know, as well. But being able to have a second thing. So number one is don't be discouraged by people not getting it, by definition that's supposed to happen when you have a new. Good point. Yes, yes. I just want to, if I may, at a second one. And as you're moving forward with this, right, as well, is seek out and find those who do agree with you and stick with them very, very closely. And I have, I can say a couple of names. There's one, we've created this new product class called Converge Ed Systems. Alon Andreole is a senior vice president at HB. Yeah, Cube alumni. Great. And he's a Cube alumni and I'm pointing him out because he has publicly taken on this idea that this product category can really, really work. Cloud nine. And he's worked. Is that cloud nine? The Converge Ed System called Edge Line. Okay, got it. The Edge Line product brand, right, you know, as well. So therefore, you know, when you have to, you find someone who has authority. Eagles fly together. You want to get a good beer group. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. All right, so here's a question for you. So one of my experiences that I want to just get your reaction and add on to your thoughts is most entrepreneurs or pioneers have misunderstood. So I agree, don't be discouraged. But also keep validating and be a data seeker. Get the data. But a lot of times just getting something in the market or getting it going creates movement and inertia. You get rolling and sometimes the original idea isn't actually the big idea, it turns into it as you get more data. And you know, examples like Airbnb wasn't what it is. It was basically air mattresses and selling cereal. Yes, yes. That was the original story, right? And then it turned into, but conceptually it was the same thing. So you don't have to be 100% right on the semantics. It's well known that most startups don't end up being successful with the product they started with. That's well known fact. But that's true also in large companies with a product idea as well. So you have to have this interesting balance. It's very interesting as I've thought about this and studied. You have to have deep philosophical and conviction of principles. And here's why. If you don't, you will be swayed by everybody's opinion and you'll never get anything done because oh, well, that's a good idea. Maybe I should do this. Well, that's a good idea. Maybe I should do it. Now I'm not saying that's bad to listen to others, but if you don't have a grounding of principles. Example, we established the seven principles of the IoT over two years ago and we've held on to them and created the success we have based on those principles. Now that's not to say we didn't modify them a little bit, but the point is we were convicted with something and when somebody would come up with a counter to it, we had a way to defend our convictions, if you will, in internal debates and external debates as well. You know, as well, finding that. And then secondly, you got to be also okay with being the sole inhabitant of that field of discourse. Being a visionary can be a very lonely job because of that, right? And again, it's because you are, and your team is, it's not always a lone person, right? The team is actually creating something that literally nobody's ever seen before. Nobody understands before. What process is, do you wrap around this? Because you know, Dave Alonth and I always talk about this on theCUBE and after theCUBE is that process has to be your friend, not your enemy. I mean, it's got to work for you. I've heard he also says that as well on Amazon.  So these are process kind of things, right? So how does an innovator that's a first mover wants to create a category? Because category killers or category creators are huge opportunities financially, so they create a lot of value and wealth and opportunity. What process is best? Is there a view? Is it conditional on certain things? What's your thoughts on? Well, let me say, and I'm going to give you a big company or a medium sized company context, not a startup. I think they're distinctly different. I've had limited experience with a startup, but I've had significant experience in bigger, medium and large now, companies as well. You can't try to change the system because now you have two variables. You got this new product that nobody's ever heard of and now you're trying to change the whole system, right? Now again, this is just advice for bigger companies. So be careful how many things you want to change, how many things you want to stop. So you want to take this new thing and align it with existing processes and existing core competencies as much as you can, even though it's new, it has to have some alignment. I'll give you an example. When we built the Converged Edge Systems, the Edge Line brand, we aligned it with compute. It's not only compute, but we aligned it with compute. Why? Because HPE or HP at the time, right, was and is and now number one in compute when it comes to data center compute systems, when it comes to high performance computing and mission critical, right? So therefore that was easy to understand. So you're okay, you're familiar with this, but now let me tell you this new twist on it. And I would assume, and I don't know this for sure, but I would assume Steve Jobs and the Apple team that was thinking of this smartphone concept, the iPhone, as well, they had to align it with some level of compute capabilities, right? And you notice as it emerged, it also included something that already exists called the iPod, which was already aligned with their laptop computers and their desktops, right? Your music would be downloaded as an app to connectivity, but now you can take it with you. And by the way, now I'll add a phone to it. And so this incrementally built, and by the way, you ain't seen nothing yet. I'm going to add a GPS system. I'm going to add a camera, your flashlight, your wallet, right? I'm going to add all that in. So by, I think you're incrementally moving with not upsetting the system in a, like you said, in a large company. It really, really helps because you can't change everything too quickly. You got to be okay being alone, you're okay not changing the tools. I want to interrupt you there for a second because it's Peter Verst and I talk with him all the time. I love his quote, Peter Verst, head of Wikibon Research says, the iPhone was a computer that happened to make phone calls. Okay, and that's just smart for us. Category creator, and we know what happened, it derests its history. However, you mentioned talking to customers and having an inspirational customer. I love that concept because you need a muse as an innovator. You got to have someone you can trust that knows what you're trying to do that understands the mission. If Steve Jobs went into the marketplace and did market research, he would have probably had the customer feedback to build the best BlackBerry or a better BlackBerry or another device. Instead, he used his gut, was on his mission, and then he understood the inspirational customer, whether it was real or not, he was going down a different road. That takes guts, but also some discipline. I hear you and I agree with this 100%, 100%. When I had the great fortune of leading a team that created the first enterprise blade server or converged system, and today that is pushing about a $10 billion market opportunity, and not one customer asked me for it. Now that doesn't mean I didn't listen, okay? But I had to bring it to them. So here's the difference. We're not responding to trends. This is a key point. We're creating a trend. And what I tell my team is you must create trends, not follow them. Many of my competitors are, by the way, making good money and doing a good business. I'm not knocking it up, but I'm saying they're not creating a trend. They're actually following one. They're in an explosive trend. Very lucrative trend. It can be. Very mature, big market. Dave Thomas with Wendy's followed a trend called hamburgers, and he did pretty well. He didn't create the hamburger market, but he followed one. Now, this is really rather interesting.  So now, quick story. You may have heard this. Maybe your viewers have heard this. A manager of a shoe company sends two guys to an island. He says, I want you to sell shoes on this island. They get to the island, the first guy calls back and says, boss, this is terrible. Everybody's bare feet. Bare feet. There's no opportunity to sell shoes. This is terrible. I'm coming home. The second guy calls us says, boss, you're not going to believe this. There's not a shoe on this island, and I have a Tam. That's 100% of the market to sell shoes, right? I believe, as you pointed out, Steve Jobs didn't go and say, well, what apps do you run on your BlackBerry? What he did is reversed it, and this is what we're doing. We're reversing it. We're saying, if you could watch a full-length, high-definition movie in your hand, would you? Well, I can, but I can't do it on this device. But if you could, right? So now, in the IoT, I hear this all the time from my competitors and even some colleagues out in the industry. Well, oh, we ask them what apps they run at the edge. We ask them what they do at the edge. That's good. That's necessary, but not sufficient. You have to say, but if you had this product, wouldn't you, for example, run an entire database? Would you compile your machine learning models at the edge that you would do in the cloud now? Wouldn't you do that if you had it? Well, I never thought of that because I don't have that capability. Just like, well, I never thought of being able to take pictures and watch full-length, high-definition movies, because they never had it. But what if you did? So you've always got to be setting that trend, not responding to it only. That's awesome. Dr. Tom Bradich, writing a book called First Mover, really about props about being innovative, gives you the final word. Thanks for coming and appreciate sharing the advice. What's going on with HPE and your IoT work? Give a quick, take a minute to talk about what's happening at HPE. Well, thanks, pretty exciting. We've been able to move forward with some really great customer wins. I'm hoping to go public with them. We're in many ways, I know this is an abused term, but we're revolutionizing the industrial IoT in particular and manufacturing floors. We have a large auto manufacturer that has chosen edge line as the standard to produce more and more vehicles per day. That's their goal. How many more vehicles can I get into my customers' hands per day? We have a snack company making potato chips, looking at what we're doing with software-defining operations. We have even, we've talked about this before, space travel, engage with what the space edge is all about. In many ways, we're potato chips to space ships. Data centers on Mars. And data centers everywhere. And then also converging OT. Just like the smartphone converged a camera and a GPS system, we're converging control systems, data acquisition systems. It's pretty exciting. I've been fortunate to have a company and our new CEO, Antonio Neary, has been very supportive. I was with him this morning and we talked about that new first-of-a-kind product that we have at this auto manufacturer. So, as the engineer will let us come in and do an exclusive interview, since he's been a CUBE alumni multiple times. Yes, thank you, Chef. Tell him we said hello. I will, I will. Tom, great to see you. Thanks for having me. Tom Brads, great thought leader, really around category killers, category creators, being innovative and different. That's the key to success. Thanks for sharing. This is the CUBE Conversations here at Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching.