Rob Tiffany joins us to discuss innovations around digital twins and where the technology is making an impact.

Rob Tiffany of Digital Insights on Digital Twins

Rob is an industry analyst working around wireless communications, IoT, digital twins, etc. Digital twins are digital representations of a physical object. Digital twins arose with NASA when they used them as digital models of spacecraft. GE started using them for aircraft engines in the early 2000s. As the pace of innovation accelerates, things become more complicated. Rob likes to think of digital twins as “asset avatars.”

For example, if you have a 2018 Ford F-150, you build the digital twin to have the same properties as the car (oil, PSI in tires, engine, etc.). The digital twin holds all the elements that make up the object. Digital twins change the whole process of building products and improving them. Rob believes digital twin technology is in the early days because of low fidelity. The first person out of the gate usually doesn’t win with any innovation. Google was not the first search engine, for example.

Electric Vehicle and Train Innovations

One current issue affecting digital twins is the amount of data that an electric vehicle generates. Data is collected when the vehicle reacts to traffic, changing signs, the weather, etc. When people plug their cars in, a lot of data is jammed in and sent to the digital twins, stressing data servers.

While at Hitachi, Rob’s team had a platform called Lumada, which held their digital twins and analytics. In 2016 the UK government put out an RFP as they were looking to replace all the inter-city trains in the country. Hitachi had no footprint in Europe at the time but ran Lumada on Hitachi bullet trains. They won the deal. The digital twin technology was put into a real-life situation.

About Our Guest: Rob Tiffany

Rob Tiffany is Founder and Managing Director at Digital Insights. Rob served as Vice President and Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson, driving 5G connection management for IoT devices. As CTO and Global Product Manager at Hitachi, he received the Presidential “Product of the Year” award for designing the Lumada Industrial IoT platform, which landed in Gartner’s “Leaders” Magic Quadrant. Spending most of his career at Microsoft, Rob was Global Technology Lead for the Azure IoT cloud platform and co-authored its reference architecture. Before Microsoft, he co-founded NetPerceptor developing one of the industry’s earliest Mobile Device Management (MDM/EMM) platforms for smartphones.

A bestselling author and frequent keynote speaker, Rob serves on multiple boards. He is routinely ranked as one of the top IoT experts and influencers globally by Inc Magazine, Onalytica and others.

Scott Crowder of IBM joins us to discuss quantum computing and its potential to change the world of technology.

Quantum Computing and Its Impact

Scott leads the quantum computing efforts at IBM. Quantum computing is an entirely different information science than what is considered classical computing. Quantum scales exponentially, whereas classical scales linearly. Data with structure, especially machine learning, and simulating quantum mechanics can't be done on a classical computer. Because of advances in technology, energy efficiency has dramatically increased over the last 70 years but still isn't linear. With quantum computing, every time a cubit is added to a system, the space that can be explored is doubled. This means that computing power is immensely more significant and more efficient. As Scott put it, it's "sci-fi come to life."

Areas of focus

To win in the quantum space, several things need to be done. The technology needs developing, as there is a ton of innovation required. Quantum computing needs to be simplified, which is one of IBM's goals. They also want to make the technology available to as many people as possible. IBM believes they will be the first to market quantum computers as doing more than classical computers. 

IBM and Collaboration

IBM has one of the largest userbases of people exploring quantum computing. There are over twenty quantum computers available on the cloud today, with systems worldwide. They have a more open-access platform for exploration. They also have a platform with higher quality and capacity systems they provide to their partners for more profound research. They collaborate with over 175 industry, academic, and research institutions to identify ways to leverage the technology. IBM has adopted the attitude of "not doing everything on their own." Scott says if they understand the problem better, they will create better technologies.

About our Guest: Scott Crowder 

Scott crowder is the Vice president of IBM Quantum and the CTO of IBM Systems, Technical Strategy & Transformation. Scott has his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Alan Proithis of Capstone Partners joins us to discuss private 5G networks and the importance of innovation collaboration. 

5G Innovation

Allen and I have worked together at different companies since the mid-90s. He is currently focused on private 5G networks. There is an unprecedented amount of investment and interest in the mobile space. People want to apply 5G to some crazy areas. The consumer market around it has created some misconceptions about the technology. Allen believes consumers won't benefit from it in the short term. Enterprises, on the other hand, can potentially benefit significantly from it. While public networks are still needed, 5G brings in a new dynamic. You can tune virtual slices of a private network to do exactly what you want, where you want, all on-demand. This process can all be done securely, which is appealing to many. 

Innovation collaboration

Allen's firm, Capstone Partners, was part of a team that delivered the first private 5G network for the Department of Defense. Cisco, Federated Wireless, JMA Wireless, the Marine Corps customers, and various smaller partners played a vital role in the project. There was a high level of collaboration, and this project wouldn't have worked without it. Collaborating with the right set of partners is key to reaching end goals. Innovation without collaboration is doomed for failure. 

Defining the Problem

Within the practice of collaboration lies the critical task of defining the problem. Understanding the problem is a lot harder than most people think. Allen says understanding the problem requires getting your hands dirty. If you don't take the time to do this, you'll never understand the customer's problem deeply enough. As a result, you will not adequately solve their problem. No matter what the innovation is, it is vital to define the problem you are trying deeply 

About our Guest: Allen Proithis

Allen Proithis is the CEO of Capstone Partners, a strategic advisory firm for clients in the mobile, IoT, software, and technology industries. Before Capstone, Allen was the President of Sigfox, North America. He created a high-performance team that built an Internet of Things business with top enterprise companies and verticals while providing wireless coverage for over 70M people in the US.

Before Sigfox, he created a $155M IoT joint venture (Convida Wireless) with Sony, InterDigital, and Stephens Capital and served as Chairman. In 2014, Allen raised $15M to launch an Internet of Things spinout focused on accelerating value produced by the data generated by IoT. At InterDigital, Allen oversaw all market development activities, including commercializing IoT, Wi-Fi, shared spectrum, and video content management solutions. Allen has been on/recognized by: CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fierce Wireless, MWC, and CES.

Peter Lierni of Solutioneering joins us on the second episode of Season 18. The Solution Engineering Tool (SET) is a framework that takes an engineering-based approach to win competitive deals.

The Solution Engineering Tool

As a Navy officer, Peter lived on a ship, which he described as a system of systems. After leaving the Navy, he started consulting in the Pentagon, assessing complex weapons systems. Peter connected building a complex system and doing business development and capture and proposal planning. Peter began using different mental models he developed from his experiences to win deals. He was eventually encouraged to develop this into a framework, and the Solution Engineering Tool (SET) was born. SET is a tool of tools, holding sixty-one tools that companies of all sizes can use and for deals of all sizes and timeframes.

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Innovators often fail to think enough about their innovation's value critically. This critical thinking failure is where SET comes into play. SET starts with an issue and key factor analysis. The goal is to understand the problem, why it's a problem, and identify the critical problems and why they are problems. After that, it's a matter of showing the value your innovation offers.

The Engineering Behind the Framework

When SET is used, it stores a data lake of competitive intelligence. SET provides a digital and visual blueprint that federates all the thinking behind how you got to a win. Many companies can't repeat successes because they didn't document the process behind them. SET collects strategies behind wins to be built upon and repeated in the future. SET's root cause analysis helps identify areas of success and areas that need improvement. In the case of a loss, the compiled data can see where things went wrong. Peter says no matter what innovation tool you use, it's not the tool that makes you successful. It is how you use it. SET is meant to facilitate collaborative analysis to help you make decisions on strategies you apply, potential teams to partner with, who you should hire, and give reasons as to why your company should win a deal.

Welcome to season 18 of the Killer Innovations podcast! We are thrilled to kick off the 18th year of Killer Innovations. Today's show is dedicated to answering your questions about the podcast. 

Ask Me Anything Q&A

What was the original impetus for the podcast?

My mentor Bob Davis, who I attribute much of my success to, inspired me to pay it forward

What was your inspiration for the format and structure of the podcast?

I used to listen to a motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale's Insight Audio Magazine cassette tapes.

How did you produce the first podcast?

I recorded it in a Marriott bathroom, using a $5 microphone attached to my laptop.

How did the podcast get traction?

Adam Curry, an MTV VJ who had a podcast called Daily Source Code, promoted my show.

What would be some surprising "podcast history" that others would find interesting?

Odeo was a podcast directory that promoted my podcast on their show. Not too long after, the Apple podcast came out, killing Odeo. Odeo pivoted and eventually became Twitter.

What was the original audience for the podcast? – The original audience consisted of mostly tech people. 

Has the target audience for the podcast changed over time?

Yes, most early listeners were podcasters. Now people from all sorts of backgrounds are listening. 

What makes your show different from other podcasts?

Longevity (averaged 40-45 episodes a year for seventeen years) and staying consistent with the content.

How have you produced the show over such a long period?

This show is my creative outlet.

What are some of your favorite episodes?

Geoffrey Moore or Peter Guber.

What has been the biggest challenge with the podcast?

Dealing with personal issues that impact getting a show out and maintaining consistency

What is your advice to today's podcasters?

Don't chase the numbers. Focus on your content, be consistent, and collaborate with other podcasters who you like.

How can someone who listens to the podcast benefit from it?

The podcast is encouraging and holds timeless content with a long/deep archive of episodes - take advantage of it.

What would you say is your most significant achievement with the podcast?

Inspiring others to podcast, inspiring creatives to create, and inspiring innovators to invent 

Is there something you experienced that was unexpected about your podcast?

Fans were becoming friends – Woody, Seth (designer), and many others.

What was the most incredible experience with fans of the podcast?

The listeners of the show threw me a party in London.