Convergence of Technologies

FountainBlue’s December 7 When She Speaks event was on the topic of ‘The Convergence of Technologies’.  

We were fortunate to have such a range of leaders on our panel, who were all able to blur the lines, shake up our thinking around both leadership and innovation! Although they represent a broad swath of backgrounds and industries, they have much in common:

• They are passionate about continuous learning, in search of a greater self.
• They embrace opportunities to stretch themselves, and accept that they can’t be perfect, but they can learn from every opportunity.
• They are curious about technology, and its ability to solve the problems of the customer.

They agree that many factors are leading to the convergence of technologies, including:

• the established global network and infrastructure and communication channels
• the preponderance of technologies we count on every day, across teams, companies, industries, countries
• the proliferation of data generated by hardware and software solutions
• the empowered users who keep raising the bar for personalized solutions for their everyday problems

The challenges to tech leaders are immense as technologies converge.

• How do you invent and innovate faster and better in less time, with higher quality?
• How do you collaborate and innovate while retaining your IP and core value?
• How do you apply successful solutions in one sector to another sector?

But there are opportunities ahead as technologies and solutions converge.

• Embrace open source technologies which are standardized.
• Build win-win collaborations with trusted partners.
• Empower select partners and customers to help define their needs and potential solutions.
• Leverage the volumes of data to manage your innovations and solutions.
• Embrace ML, AI, IoT, Edge and other solutions – they are our future.
• Wellness and health will be top-of-mind for customers of all sizes and needs. 

The following is advice from our esteemed panel on how to lead and innovate in these exciting times.

• Have the confidence to keep reaching forward, the humility to know your value, the wisdom and self-awareness to listen to and integrate feedback and learnings.
• Be a part of the solution, allowing more diverse perspectives, including your own, to be part of the critical conversations which will define the future of a program/product/solution.
• Know and embrace who you are, where you fit in as technologies converge. Have confident that leaders will be needed as robots/machines/software/hardware can’t run the world on its own.
• Respect the data, but look for the implications of that data, and the actions and decisions which should take place based on that report.
• Know your boundaries and enforce those boundaries so that you can stay on course for being the type of leader you want to be.
• Own your destiny. Know how your choices will support your own health and welfare – a necessary and foundational part of making that difference.

The bottom line is that it takes a village of leaders and innovators to perpetuate this convergence of technologies. Be part of the solution!

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Please join us in thanking our panelists for FountainBlue’s December 7 When She Speaks event, on the topic of ‘The Convergence of Technologies,’ and our generous hosts at Flex. 

• Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue 
• Panelist Gayathri Badrinath, Digital Health Entrepreneur and former Head of Global Marketing Services, Siemens Healthineers
• Panelist Katherine Brown, Director of Manufacturing Engineering, Lam Research
• Panelist Karthi Gopalan, Product Line Director, Mobile Power BU, Maxim Integrated
• Panelist Sabitha Krishnamurthy, Director of Software Development, Enterprise Business Unit, Cisco
• Panelist Mahsa Nakhjiri, Sr. Director Connectivity Center of Excellence, Innovation Technology & Integration, Flex
• with opening remarks provided by Suruchi Sharma, VP of Corporate Strategy, Flex

See bios and details at https://www.tikkl.com/fountainblue/c/convergence

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The Future of Networking

FountainBlue’s December 7 VIP roundtable was on the topic of ‘The Future of Networking’. Thank you also to our gracious hosts at Vonzos Partners. Below are notes from the conversation. 

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives around the table, with executives representing different industries – from aerospace to manufacturing, from semiconductors to utilities, from healthcare to telecommunications. Yet they shared a common perspectives on the future of networking.

The foundational infrastructure has been set up which makes it easier for people across companies, industries and locations to connect with each other. From this foundation, we are all collectively building increasingly more impactful solutions for larger customer bases, while also providing more customized solutions for individual people. This leads to many inter-related factors including:

• huge volumes of data which just keep growing
• a broader range of applications to support a broader range of problems
• a re-purpose of technologies from one solution to another, from one market or industry into another
• the burdens and risks to the networks with the increasingly rapid evolution and adoption of hardware and software
• the empowerment of the consumers, who are applying immense pressure to companies and their networks

Below is cumulative advice for proactively managing networks:

• Budget time and resources to proactively integrate solutions across users and platforms. Solutions in the future will not be running on silos.
• Assume that there will be a huge and ongoing need to dynamically balance privacy, security and access.
• Analyze and triage individual devices and solutions which may impact others within the network. Isolate contaminants and manage the spread into the internal network.
• Proactively collect, store, manage, communicate the data and its implications to the network, users, customers. 

• Embrace a safety mindset, managing and minimizing disruption, while also being open to opportunities.

• Connect your silos of people and teams and help them help each other manage the network.

• Whether you’re representing yourself or your organization, remember that your data is important and valuable. Selling your personal data, especially your personal health data or even your social media data, may tell the buyer much more about yourself than you know…

This also leads to many opportunities as well:

• Data is everywhere and growing rapidly. There are tremendous opportunities for companies who can leverage and filter the data real-time for constructive benefits.
• Design solutions which manage and contain security breaches across complex and integrated systems to minimize impact.
• Optimize the capacity of networks so they can proactively manage upgrades (no run-to-failure decisions).
• Providing AI/ML/predictive analytics on IT and networks to quickly detect anomalies and take measured actions based on patterns
• Adopt solutions which may be able to optimize and report on its own health and do self-diagnosis.
• Consider integrating open source solutions into your networking hardware and software adoption plans.
• There are immense opportunities around IoT, IIot (Industrial IoT), 5G, Cloud/Fog/Edge computing, Video capture/manage/sharing, Autonomous driving.

The bottom line is that the future of networking involves people. 

• Factor in how a network strategy will impact people and cultures so plan your strategy for the audience you’re serving – your customers, your employees, your industry.
• Educate your people on how the network impacts them, and how their decisions may impact the network. 

Filled with Thanks

In a land at the heart of a grand tech dynasty, in an industry poised for additional astronomical growth, there was a company which offered a solution destined to succeed.

And in this company, there were Leaders with the vision to create a community of high-performing, high-integrity collaborators, who pushed their own personal abilities, and therefore the technology functionality, to help ensure access by the Multitude of others across the globe.

And working with these Leaders were high-performing Teams of developers, managers, specialists and engineers, dedicated to improving the technology and proactively serving their Customers. They were hard-working and driven, yet easy-to-please, humble yet exceptional, attentive yet independent, resourceful AND collaborative.

To celebrate this year’s Thanksgiving, the growing company barely fit into its cafeteria, in eager anticipation of their annual multi-course feast, complete with linen table service and fine China.

As a backdrop to the dinner filled with chatter and laughter, there were slides of thanks for each staff member, which brought additional smiles, laughter and the occasion misty-eyed sniffling and good-natured ribbing.

To culminate this grand affair, the Leaders stood as one, and each spoke sincerely of the gratitude they had for the people, the company, and the opportunity. And the microphones were then sent around to Others, who also voiced their thanks. The feeling of thanks permeated the room, radiating warmth and good cheer.

And the future will show that the People, the Teams, the Management will work together for many Thanks-Giving celebrations to come.