Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

Each month, “Ammirati on Innovation” episodes will look at ways that the disruptive-startup mentality is spreading beyond young entrepreneurs to big established corporations. Serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Carnegie Mellon B-school professor Sean Ammirati, who sits at the intersection of these high-change dynamics, provides insight.Episode 5In this episode, Sean and I discuss how he wants everybody to think about themselves as an entrepreneur – and that includes people working inside large businesses. He quotes Jim Collins of “Good to Great” fame by saying good is the enemy of great – and that’s why some entities don’t become great. Sean says that software, when done well, provides asymmetric value, and how Satya Nadella of Microsoft said that over the next five years, 500 million new applications will be written – far more than in the history of the software industry. And finally, Sean says you can go to corporatestartuplab.com and see free tools that are in development – all the Corporate Startup Lab asks for is feedback. His podcast Agile Giants is on all the major streaming networks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

SPONSORED CONTENTThis episode is brought to you by Oracle.For this sponsored Cloud Wars Live conversation, I sat down for a talk with Bruno Aziza, Group Vice President of Oracle Analytics. Bruno says Oracle Analytics and AI can help organizations make faster and better decisions and help companies be better companies – and better societies. He says if you’re not a cloud-first analytics solution, you’re going to have a lot of issues with data provisioning and data protection.Bruno says it’s not just data scientists, engineers, and business analysts that need insights into their workflow – it’s employees. And yet only 35% of employees can use the data analytics tools that have been produced for them – and 65% of them are in the dark. He calls it the “silent majority.” If you could enable 10% more, how many more ideas could you get to win in the marketplace?Bruno’s weekly YouTube podcast is called “Destination:Insight,” where you can go on LinkedIn and reach out to any customer. He says they have a very engaged community who are dying to tell you about their story. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, “Lochhead on Different” episodes will explore the need to differentiate people, products, and services in a world that encourages a lot of imitation. A best-selling author, top podcaster, and former tech-industry CMO, Christopher Lochhead is a student of not only business and technology and marketing but also human nature, human folly, human genius, and very human joy.Episode 7In this episode, one of his finest, Chris says that Nike acquired a company called “Celect,” which is a retail analytics and demand sensing firm. (Nike purchased it for its omnichannel expertise.) And Chase bought a company called “Persado,” which is an AI company that specializes in marketing and copywriting. (Their AI performed better than ads written by human copywriters – with a higher percentage of clicks in some cases.)Chris then goes on to say he had some visitors from London, and the teenagers were constantly on their phones – the sunset, the S’mores, the beach fire didn’t seem to register with them. He says he went to a Rolling Stones concert at Levi Stadium – and the Stones ARE rock & roll – but you wouldn’t know it from all the people texting on their phones.Chris says you should stick to your vision – people said Chris swore too much, was a bad interviewer, interrupted his guests, was annoying, was bald. Now he has the #53 podcast in the country – outpacing Oprah for a time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

“Wayne Sadin on Digital Strategy” episodes will explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. We’ll focus on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we talk about hyperscaling, digital transformation, and shifts in enterprise technology that are creating opportunities for differentiation.Episode 7In this episode: Wayne looks at Capital One and their data breach. Is it Amazon’s (AWS) fault or Capital One’s fault. He digs down to say that Capital One shoulders the blame – but they noticed the discrepancies and did their best to patch it. Hackers will always be upgrading their technology and sharpening their tools – and we need to be diligent.Wayne compares it to a hole in a fence. You can drive trucks through there and you’re perfectly safe. But what if a human being can walk through the hole; then you have a problem. But Wayne says that no one should spend enormous sums on cybersecurity when you can buy preconfigured solutions for most of the standard problems facing you.He then goes on to say if we turned up everybody’s thermostat to 100 degrees during the middle of a heat wave, how many pets and how many people would we kill? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

This episode is brought to you by Oracle.For this sponsored Cloud Wars Live conversation, I spoke with Craig Wilensky. Craig is CEO at JASCI, a SaaS provider that specializes in warehouse management, order fulfillment, carrier shipping, and labor management software. JASCI also provides data and analytics, parcel shipping, machine learning, and robotics.Craig shares with me the three primary concerns among his customers. First is speed. Next is reliability. Finally, security: JASCI needs to deliver speed and reliability while also keeping customers data secure. It’s clear that Craig has a passion for his customers, which are primarily e-commerce companies with razor-thin margins. So we dive into how a collaboration with Oracle helps JASCI deliver speed, reliability, and security. Specifically, we discuss Oracle's ATP (autonomous transaction processing) platform. Craig tells me ATP has been a critical tool in helping his customers keep up with their competitors, the big tech giants. For example: by leveraging ATP, average decision-making time of JASCI AI software is less than 100 milliseconds. (And he wants to bring it down into the five millisecond range!) We're in a "whole new world" of retail, Craig says. And JASCI software is doing some really hard work for customers, including big data, decision learning, and automation. But what Craig focuses on, and what Oracle is helping JASCI accomplish, is making it look like no work at all.This episode is brought to you by Oracle. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, “Ammirati on Innovation” episodes will look at ways that the disruptive-startup mentality is spreading beyond young entrepreneurs to big established corporations. Serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Carnegie Mellon B-school professor Sean Ammirati, who sits at the intersection of these high-change dynamics, provides insight.Episode 4In this episode, Sean and I discuss how Microsoft and OpenAI announced a joint initiative, which they call AGI, and how $1 billion – no matter how big the company is – is a big investment. I quote from Sam Altman, Chairman and former CEO of YCombinator and now CEO of OpenAI, “The creation of AGI will be the most important technological development in human history with the potential to shape the trajectory of humanity.” Sean says Sam is not someone you would bet against, because it is the best-run tech accelerator out there. He then returns to how Bing feels like the old Microsoft, not the new Microsoft. Sean then notes that with challenge comes great opportunity, and people have some really exciting opportunities in front of them. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, “Lochhead on Different” episodes will explore the need to differentiate people, products, and services in a world that encourages a lot of imitation. A best-selling author, top podcaster, and former tech-industry CMO, Christopher Lochhead is a student of not only business and technology and marketing but also human nature, human folly, human genius, and very human joy.Episode 6In this episode, Chris and I discuss the role of Chief Growth Officer, a hybrid version of the CMO, the CIO, and the CDO. Chris wonders if it’s a stupid thing – or not. We also look at the fact that America is losing the AI war to China and Russia, and the lamestream media is not reporting on it. Chris also talks about how FaceApp, which projects you forward several years is – wait for it – created by Russia. And did you know that 23andMe uses your DNA for the benefit of the drug companies?Later, the conversation turns to private equity. We discuss how and why “Value Extraction Engineers” are putting themselves first—as opposed to the founders, employees, and shareholders. Chris says, “If you lay down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you get fleas.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world: not just how products are designed, sourced and manufactured, but also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.Episode 4In this episode: Tony and I discuss the future, and the near-past. We heartily agree on just how fortunate we have been to have had a ringside seat for the utter transformation of technology in recent years. (We also agree that if you aren’t fluent in technology change yet, you’re going to be left behind.) Next, Tony and I discuss how his company, ThomasNet.com, covers 72,000 categories—and the fact that every second, someone’s buying a product or service.Tony goes on to explore the business implications of massive population shifts. Namely, that the Baby Boom generation and the Millennial generation are now roughly 50/50 in the workforce. Also that there will be 10 billion people on the planet by the year 2050 (which isn’t very long from now). Finally, Tony does a bit of a rant on the restaurant industry – which you definitely don’t want to miss. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, “Lochhead on Different” episodes will explore the need to differentiate people, products, and services in a world that encourages a lot of imitation. A best-selling author, top podcaster, and former tech-industry CMO, Christopher Lochhead is a student of not only business and technology and marketing but also human nature, human folly, human genius, and very human joy.Episode 6In this episode, Chris and I discuss how the Chief Growth Officer is a hybrid version of the CMO, the CIO, and the CDO. He wonders if it’s a stupid thing – or not. Chris goes on to say that we’re losing the AI war to China and Russia, and the lamestream media is not reporting on it. He also talks about how FaceApp, which projects you forward several years is – wait for it – created by Russia. And then he discusses how 23andme uses your DNA for the benefit of the drug companies.The conversation then turns to private equity, and how “Value Extraction Engineers” are putting themselves first, as opposed to the founders, shareholders, and employees. Chris says, “If you lay down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you get fleas.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world: not just how products are designed, sourced and manufactured, but also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.Episode 4In this episode: Tony and I discuss how we’ve been fortunate to have a ringside seat on the transformation of technology – and how if you aren’t fluent, you’re going to be left behind. Next, we discuss how ThomasNet.com has 72,000 categories, and every second someone’s buying a product or service. Tony goes on to say how the Baby Boom generation and the Millennial generation are now 50/50 – and how there will be 10 billion people on the planet by the year 2050, which isn’t very long from now. And, he does a bit of a rant on the restaurant industry – which is something you don’t want to miss. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Visit Cloud Wars for more.