The Rise of the Tech Ecosystem: How did we get here?

The Rise of the Tech Ecosystem: How did we get here?

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Nortel Networks early in my professional  career that was a very esteemed company   pushing the envelope with trying to develop  the internet infrastructure for the internet   as well as phones peak of the tech bubble in  2000 it was reported that they did 30 billion   in revenue they were worth $250 billion in the  year 2000 think about that $250 billion early   2000s also Dave do you remember that's  when Blackberry started to take off that   big clunky heavy laptop that you had to Lug  around you didn't have to take it everywhere   you could communicate with colleagues in and  out and that's where Blackberry came in change   the game you don't need that heavy laptop  everywhere and at the time the all how you   communicate email phone and text that's  it all those three and that phone did it [Music] [Applause] [Music] well you're  listening to welcome to what the tech   your gateway to business strategies and  tech secrets shaping today's workplace  Are ready for a blast from the past? for you all right tell me if you remember this sound [Music] oh yes a classic for anybody that's  over the age of 30 you know we were kind of   joking about this earlier when this sound came on  there was two things that could go wrong one of   the kids could jump on the telephone and ruin the  connection or one of our friends could call the   house even an incoming call would have disrupted  dial internet service at that time because it   wasn't guaranteed when you hear that connection  that those sounds that you were actually going   to get through right sometimes it would keep  repeating itself and it would repeat again and   it would repeat again and again and again until  eventually you got a connection into the quote   wwwwwww internet if you were lucky enough you know  I remember sometimes you'd go to log on I forget   what the visual was but you were waiting you were  like please connect please connect please connect   and if you were on like right after dinner when  there was a lot of people trying to use it you   wouldn't be able to log on it just wouldn't happen  just because people in the neighborhood were all   logging on yeah yes it would be so frustrating  cuz there was no guarantees you get we take it   for granted now right the thing that keeps you  off the internet now is you know the power goes   out or the service provider has something that  you know the servers go down and outage right and   you can't log on and or you know some it doesn't  happen as often on your cell phone you know your   service is down for whatever reason something  some bug or something at AWS goes down but we   take it for granted Dave that you could pretty  much be anywhere and be guaranteed to get online   on the www on the internets or interwebs it's  a whole different world back then and I think   that's what we want to talk about today the  world we're in today right and kind of peel   back onion a little bit on how did we get here  you know there's a lot of events that led up to   we didn't just parachute in and all of a sudden  you know we have ChatGPT and all the rest but   certain events set themselves up one by one and  we want to talk a little bit about that yeah the   the evolution was quick you know the evolution was  so quick you know think about 1980s to 1990s even   into early 2000s there were some brands that were  running the world back then they were running the   communication landscape and some of these brands  are no longer here you know one of them that we   were chatting about earlier was you know IBM IBM  was massive you know what do you remember about   IBM IBM was the shis right they were the gorilla  in every office they had had the main frames they   had the name they basically pioneered the personal  computer everything was in IBM I don't know if you   remember this Dave but back then you had an IBM  or you had a clone and that's when PC's started   coming out and those PCS eventually eventually  the whole clone thing was dropped but I was as   we were putting this together yeah it wasn't  anything other than an IBM was called a clone   and IBM dominated that space you know today  IBM doesn't make any more laptops or personal   computers Lenovo bought that business from them  right who would have known that IBM basically the   inventors of the main frame and the personal  computer would not be making computers today   at least what they used to make yeah and that  and that's just on the computer side you know   so we're we're in the voice communications world  and you know there used to be a hundred different   brands of telephones oh yeah there were a lot more  a lot a lot of a lot of phones you know one of the   big players in that that space was Bell Labs and  they're the ones that innovated that the phones   and all of those telecom inventions and that  spawned or spun out Lucent Technologies or do   we have anything on Lucent technology there we go  [Music] ideas ideas also known as Innovations uh   inventions and breakthroughs from B Labs get them  while they're hot Lucent Technologies we make the   things that make Communications work a crazy that  I'll tell you their trademarked logo is uh burned   into my brain I it's funny it's just a red circle  of sorts I think there's some history behind   that painted Circle yeah but that that was like  ingenious branding something so simple something   so simple but resona you know so well it did and  you know who would have thought so Bell Labs,   IBM, Innovation Innovation was expens it's always  been expensive uh for the most part you're You're   Building devices you need Engineers you need  research you need you know to push the envelope   and things were centralized in these big Behemoth  companies like Bell Labs like IBM who were known   for innovating new things new toys new gadgets new  new parts of the infrastructure and components but   things were going to change in inevitably things  were going to change but I don't think anybody   had an idea of how much we would change as we  were inching from those 80s those '90s from   Lucent and then the mid90s another company that  that really spawned a ton of innovation Nortel   Networks I remember Dave early in my professional  career next to Lucent Nell was probably an IBM   that was a very esteemed company pushing the  envelope with the with trying to develop the   internet infrastructure for the internet as well  as phones they really changed the game and put a   lot of pressure on Lucent when it came to phones  and phone innovations and phone system big time   and they had a ton of phones you know I remember  having physical compatibility guides back in early   2000 2001 so we're selling devices and people  would say I have a Nortel telephone they'd give you   the model number you'd flip to this particular  page within a compatibility guide to find what   devices were compatible and there were like two or  three pages of nor cell phones they I don't know   how many years they've been they were in business  we did a little bit of research in the peak of   the tech bubble in 2000 it was reported that they  did $30 billion in revenue $30 billion in revenue   blows my mind when I think about what they were  making exact I don't know if there's 30 billion   telephones you know in existence any longer not  like that anyway not desk no and I'm looking at   the notes that you put in there Dave they were  worth $250 billion in the year 2000 which ushered   in the next era that we're going to talk about in  a moment but think about that $250 billion dollar   that's what they were worth a giant enormous we  catch a glimpse of of if you're watching us in   the on the video said can we put a little sound  on that come grooving up rainy video low resolution look   at that highspeed internet access totally internet  cable access down public internet I remember that   in at the airports internet inside the multimedia  conference he got Tow Jam football Hotel internet   wireless internet for the phone for sell mobile  phones I know you you know me one thing I can   tell you is You' got come together right now it  all together with the true power of the internet   Nortel Networks how the world shares ideas how so  much has changed you know I remember working for   one of the manufacturers that supplied that  made actually products for them and they were   an account where we wanted to be in in terms of  selling selling with their reps so they could push   our products alongside their products and nobody  knew what was about to come and the hammer was   going to come down on Nortel the hammer was going  to come down on Lucent both of them you know Lucent   peaked according to the different sources they  picked around 99 and you know they also were   Mammoth they had around $40 billion in revenue  in 99 very close to Nortel's $30 billion when they   peaked in 2000 and the hammer did come down the  party ended the the bubble bursted on the dot in   the early 2000s and nobody would have we weren't  weren't expecting I remember I was in Florida at   the time and I was talking to a client and he said  to me have you heard the news I'm like what well   Nortel is closing their Latin America offices which  in South Florida and I knew a lot of people there   and that was like the beginning of the end for  Nell when I heard that and you know now we know   that that's the case but one of the things that  would that I want to drive about that is that   Innovation is something you can't bottle into a  box and control yourself back then proprietary   was the way big big innovation was driven by these  big telecom companies and it was all centralized   and the internet now allowed people and business  to be connected from very very very far places   and now all of a sudden ideas could flow from  multiple angles multiple parts of the world   regions that were never connected right and and  now ideas could be decentralized you could share   some ideas I mean it it was not Zoom back then  but it it allowed some of this stuff to start   it allowed the spark you know it allowed companies  like AOL to come in you know also along that that   that time frame I know if you remember Erikson  uh which later became Sony Ericsson but Ericsson also helped with some those Innovations in driving  some of the infrastructure behind the cell phones   uh and also behind the infrastructure for a lot of  those cell phone companies that then also allowed   I would say the next wave of innovation to come  in right if we were to to summarize a little bit   of that first wave it would be the was what  were we calling that Dave was it the dawn the   the the dawn of the internet age the dawn of the  internet age that's a very appropriate uh kind of   all encapsulating from for that first period  ' 80s through 2000s and now the next age or   the next story of that I would say is the wwww  the worldwide web I mean who uses the worldwide   web anymore I mean the youngsters probably don't  even know that that existed that that was a thing   you would refer to a website when you would say a  website you would say like if it were Amazon it's www.amazon.com right yeah just hearing you say  that is so funny my mother um my mother is a   couple of years ago I was telling her about some  things that we were doing on on the Global TecK   website and she said oh I'd love to see it I said  oh you should go online check it out she's like   where can I see it I said it's a global-teck.com and she said do I need to do I need to   also type www in front of it I'm like yeah you can  you should but you don't have to she's like well   things have definitely changed I don't have to do  that anymore she thought that was a huge timesaver   Rolando I know my 72 year old mother no longer has  to type www that is like automation to her right   it gets it got shorter you didn't have to type in  and even even I believe back then you did have to   type in the whole thing now you could just type  in the domain name of the company so that you   can get right into and that whole HTTP.. WWW nobody  talks about that anymore that's over with right   but this internet thing the www uh oh isn't that  like worldwide Wrestling Federation too wasn't   that um back was W I think you're trying to say  WWF but that was the World Wildlife Foundation   and also World Wrestling yeah different type of  nerd over here sorry but you know that internet   age and combined with the bubble bursting on the  do things started changing right information was   starting to decentralize it certainly didn't mean  the end of IBM but it started changing things and   we had a new emergence of new players because  PC's in the late 90s started to get cheaper you   had this new thing called the internet and so  now instead of Simply taking your P or laptops   that started coming online you could now leave  the office with a big clunky heavy laptop right   so that was an innovation and then take that and  if your company was ahead of the curve you'd have   some kind of internet I remember uh at the time I  was working for Philip Morris now known as Altria   we had all of all of the sales reps pretty much  had uh some type of internet connectivity that   was was was provided by or paid by by them and we  used ISDN which was an upgrade from regular dialup   so you can send information faster because you  know we had to you know plug in and the reports   would get uploaded to the mainframes and all  that business and it would take time so ISDN   was the way to go but the internet allowed this  information to the information we would see from the   field to be uploaded and back to the offices  in New York where managers would uh you know   analyze and do what they need to do with that  information but but my point is that you didn't   have to be in the office sitting at the company  desk at the company computer with the company   desk phone to do the work anymore you could send  and that was back in 1997 when I was doing that   laptop in-tow head out to the customer site uh go  see customer accounts and gather the information   and upload it at the end of the night or at the  end of the day uh back to uh the office and off   we were um and you know this allowed some other  companies to take off we're going back to the   internet piece Dell you know they they were when  I went to college every computer was a Dell sure   um AOL which became you know the largest merger  in history they actually their their offices the   headquarters is not about 10 minutes from where  I live over in Dullas and now those offices are   data center offices so they had a whole huge  complex and now that complex is pretty much   data centers and and I believe there's a one  of the big military contractors is over there   so AOL has got a teeny teeny little uh footprint  in there that that still remain Dave you remember   compact oh my goodness do I ever yeah so I come  from my my my stepmother was in the tech field   her entire career so she actually came up with  like I think she started with Honeywell but it   moved into digital and a compact purchase digital  and then I think HP eventually purchased compact   yes so many different brands I I actually have  the notes Here on that in 2002 Hewlett Packard now   known as HP completed the acquisition of compact  for approximately $25 billion and the merger was   a significant event in the tech industry creating  a technology company second in Revenue to IBM now   this was 2002 so the the uh the tech companies  of the day company IBM and Microsoft was emerging   as well but but think about that Compaq and HP  because things were about printing right where   could you print where could you work or or devices  that allow this you had your laptops and HP was   known for printing and most of the printing  happened at the office again that changed   when smaller printers came online and you could  print stuff at home right so that enabled that   home office is the early home office with your  laptop your printer your and your other devices   to to to proliferate now early 2000s also Dave do  you remember how that's when blackberries started   to take off yeah for sure that then allowed that  big clunky heavy laptop that you had to Lug around   you didn't have to take it everywhere you could  communicate with colleagues in and out and some   companies did allow communications externally so  that you could communicate outside the company and   that's where Blackberry came in changed the game  you don't need that heavy laptop everywhere and at   the time the all how you communicate email phone  and text that's it all those three and that phone   did it well and sounded good and we had a guest on  um who was a former president of Blackberry Mr   Sandeep if you want to hear that story go check  out that episode with Sandeep he unloads about   a bunch of stuff Blackberry and other things but  Dave Blackberry changed the game I loved my Blackberry.. I was  

jealous I the first time I saw a Blackberry I  think it's 2004 2005 I'm at a trade show down in   Atlanta we have a short break and I need to take  my laptop and just quickly check uh just quickly   check emails so I find a little corner I open  it up I dial in through the VPN I finally get   logged in I do all this work just so I I can look  at a couple of emails it took me the entire lunch   break I never grabbed lunch but I was able to look  at a couple of emails um but as I was doing that   there was someone kind of sitting not too far  from me he takes a he takes out this thing out   of his pocket hadn't really seen it before and  he's just just kind of doing this and then he   grabs lunch and now when we're back in the trade  show he says um he says hey you know you got to   look your company should invest in I'm like yeah  what is that and he's telling me all about it and   how much faster it is than the laptop he's like I  was able to get all my voice sorry all my emails   done in 5...10 minutes and I was back having lunch  and I couldn't believe how much time I could have   saved if I had something like that again I'm  doing email on this massive Dell laptop like   I said the VPN and dial in and you know to watch  somebody else have this tool that wasn't part of   my organization kind of tech stack if you will it  was like a game changer for them definitely you know   if you have technology is going to leave you behind  right uh there's always going to be changes and if   if you're able to be faster than your competitor  then you have an advantage and this guy definitely   had an advantage I like that um I don't know if  it's Mark Zuckerberg that made that phrase you   know um break run fast and break things you know  it has its advantage especially in Tech uh being   first movers and and first adopters because  technology is a race it is a race um and when   you're talking you know these larger companies  when you're talking about Investments and R&D   and roadmap a lot of them spend a lot of money now  uh innovating in a different way um just like what   we talking about the Innovation was you know in  the big uh telecom companies of the day Nortel and   Lucent whatever uh the innovation because it  was moving around it wasn't centralized all   in one place it was it was starting to emerge  it was starting to shift and you know we were   talking about Blackberry you I wanted to just  say this that the that BlackBerry stock Peak at   an all-time high of $147 in mid 2008 wow you know  why well I'm going to tell you why it was because   Blackberry had a competitor serious  competitor that they underestimated in 2007 called   Apple. Apple decided to change the game Steve Jobs  more importantly came out with the iPhone in 2007   so what that means is that it didn't take long  for Wall Street to say you know what hold up a   second Blackberry and look at here yes things  changed phones have changed you know we um the   way we communicate has changed from the phone and  I those cordless so if you're watching this on   on the video you get to see this little montage  that we've put together and I'll buy Steve Jobs   or buy apple and June of 2007 he releases or  apple releases the iPhone and I remember Dave   when it was released a lot of businesses and a  lot of the headlines and I think you know some   some you if you're a competitor you run inference  right you the fud you know cuz you want to take   the steam out of out of the headline and you say  well that's never going to work or businesses will   never adopt it because by the way in 2008 um when  you look at the number Blackberry had a millions   of subscribers I want to say it was in 2011 in  2011 they had 85 million subscribers worldwide so   although the stock peaked in 2008 Wall Street was  saying hey guys we got to pump the brakes here cuz   there's some Innovation coming and maybe you're  a little overvalued let's take some money off the   table and put a little put our bets somewhere else  otherwise they would have kept um you know that   stock price because the stock market's a little  bit forward-looking versus actual sales that   happen today so even though they they peaked out  at 85 million subscribers Steve Jobs if you can   recall Dave when the iPhone came out Blackberry  was the de facto device for every Enterprise it   was the way to communicate it was the way to do  business it was what was on everybody's hip and   because of the iPhone we got the terminology BYOD - Bring Your Own Device right and that was enabled   by a technology called um I want to say um U um a  Mobile Device Manager (MDM) so this were third party software that came online so that  you can manage mobile device like an iPhone   maintain security have the security policies you  need because that used to reside in Blackberry   and what they call the BES server B.E.S. Blackberry  Enterprise server and it had all the controls and   all the security and it manager would need but now  these mdms these mobile device managers could do   the same thing that was I would say in my book The  Beginning of the End for Blackberry because when   they caught on to doing apps it's just started the  train had already started leaving and they could   not catch up to to uh jobs did iPhones did iPhones  always have kind of a touchscreen to it or did   they ever have tactical kind of feel keyboard like  Blackberry um no no keyboard was always display   huh yeah I mean two devices completely different  trying to solve the same task at least the same   task at the time do you remember what sandep  told us he told us a story that Ericsson six   years before the iPhone they had a very similar  technology ready to go and Ericsson Sony Ericsson canned   it because of for business reasons but they  had a touch screen that was a huge improvement   over what was available at the time at the time  you needed a stylus and you really had to press   down on the screen yep to make that screen work  with the stylist well the Innovation that he had   mentioned to us was a Leap Forward was what we now  know more of a display kind of a you know it just   kind of mirrors and follows your your touch and  and whatnot but they canned it they poo pooed that   project but that's so interesting and fascinating  that the technology existed Apple changed the   game it became now smartphones and apps that world  started to take over in the mid 2000s um yeah mid   2000s 2011 2012 2015 and then chugging along the  way chugging just kind of innovating there were   some three big companies that would change what we  know today um the IT world were Microsoft, Google,   and Amazon and all three were working at different  angles but they would come up in a way that would   be very different than IBM very different than  Nell and they all today are are aiming for the   gold standard of companies and I would say I  would propose that apple is the gold standard   today when it comes to companies for this reason  and and also echoed by my one of our guests back   to SanDeep from former president of Blackberry  is the stickiness factor you can't be sticky today   if you only have a device today if you only sell  no matter what device it is it's very difficult   by itself Fitbit by itself is difficult for it to  be sticky and a lot of those companies that tried   to um create fitbits they've gone under uh mobile  companies cell phone companies buy themselves it's   difficult it's multiple uh HTC and palm along with  Blackberry a lot of them don't exist BlackBerry   still exists but as a totally different company  hardware alone. Nortel was the same story IBM gave up   on their laptop business. Motorola sold also their  smartphone business over to a Chinese company  

Lenovo took over the IBM PC's it is extremely  difficult yeah yeah we can name several more   Hardware companies but Apple changed the game they  decided to come out with the iPhone they decided   to come out with apps they would charge a fee or  Revenue commission depending on how you look at it   or they would take a cut of all revenue generated  with their apps they would also go on to put in   streaming services so they brought in Services  devices and created an ecosystem that is very   sticky they they' now have Apple pay so now it's  a complete ecosystem that you never have to leave   if you're an Apple customer man and I think what  what a strategy huh what a strategy it's like this   is what we're going to do it's the device will  create an experience but the you know the back   back end programming the software the way that  it operates is really what's going to it's it was   almost Sinister it's like we're going to keep them  addicted to our product we're gonna come out with a   new $1,200 phone every 18 months they're going to  be forced to buy it and our competitor isn't going   to be able to come in and grab them because they  don't operate within the same platform it's I've   only had Apple products so as my son but my wife  is Android there's nothing we can do to convince   her to come over to the side of things you know  and she's the same way she's like you know I I   like Android and these are the reasons and you  know maybe we get you guys Android phones and   my son and I look at each other were like no way  man we have too much invested in this I don't want   to start over and if it feels like it would be  starting over but they I mean fantastic business   strategy get them addicted keep giving them new  products things that are Innovative things that   are exciting and we'll have customers for life and  I think that's why you know the forward thinkers   in the stock market back in 2007 I know a lot of  people that were buying Apple stock back then they   were telling me that I should and I really wish  I was paying attention because uh some of these   folks are retiring early now that I know and  it's all because of Apple stock well also in   2007 I'm glad you brought that part up but if  we go back a little bit Google that's when they   released Android so Steve Jobs released iPhone and  shortly after that Google comes out and releases   Android they don't want to be left out of the  the smartphone game all right um but prior to   that you know Google also uh launched in 2000  Google ads diversifying their search business   um they acquired YouTube which is the second or  third largest search engine in the world um and   obviously 2007 they launched Android but like  you said they created a sticky platform like   your wife um doesn't one leave Android we know  the the Google ecosystem between the work the   Google workspace stuff the Android YouTube If  you have a Google phone it all works together   right it all easily seamless you know you can  move from one side of the platform to another   whether it's downloading videos watching it email  all the different productivity apps that come with   Google and the whole ecosystem right so now we've  got Apple being the gold standard I would say you   know Google is right in that mix right right in  the mix you know apple has a little bit higher   valuation they have some things that that that  Google doesn't have Google has a smartphone side   now with Google pixel uh and and and you know  apple has a more robust product lineup when it   comes to the actual devices themselves Google  responds back and they gohe and acquire Nest   which is a phenomenal product uh in the home  so Google made some serious advances But Here   Comes um you know players like Amazon who started  with the books uh they launched Prime they decide   I don't know if they're taking a Playbook from  one of the different companies exactly how but   you know Bezos moved away from just having books  sold on their website they opened up a Marketplace   in 94 Jeff Bezos founded Amazon and sold those books  online what a crazy idea nobody book online let's   sell one of the heaviest consumer goods there  are through the mail through the mail who knew   right who knew and then two and that those would  have been a great stock to buy early as well in   in 2000 he launched the marketplace in 2000 he  launched the marketplace and in 2005 launched   Prime which would forever change what we think  about an ecosystem as well and in 2015 Amazon   surpasses Walmart as the most valuable retailer in  the world they went on to buy Whole Foods in 2016   so if you're a Whole Foods customer now you're  part of the Prime experience as well and in 2017   AWS which is their Cloud division would become the  dominant player when it comes to cloud services   so now they've got this whole ecosystem and then  you throw Alexa into the mix as well as some other   Acquisitions with Healthcare and entertainment  with Prime video you've got a well oiled machine   when you come to when it comes to ecosystem  so today we've got Amazon ecosystem platform   you've you've got Google ecosystem slash platform  you've got Apple again ecosystem platform all of   them have very sticky and I guess you'd have to  throw Microsoft into that hat too they're not as   consumer right in the Enterprise space they are a  beast oh go you can't you can't remove well I can   say can't but who's going to remove Microsoft  from the Enterprise space right it is nearly   impossible they're so sticky with all of their  products in the Enterprise space that they are   the gorilla when it comes to Enterprise they are  the gorilla but you know what just like Amazon   being David and Walmart being Goliath at one point  Amazon became the new Goliath so if if Microsoft   is the Goliath you know the the crazy thing when  you are the when you are the reigning champ you   have a lot of targets on you right so everyone's  chasing that gold standard of sorts they see   someone successful they have the market share  and if you're competing against that at least   you know who your competition is but yeah I mean  Microsoft is massive we were kind of taking a trip back down memory lane earlier when we were  talking about Microsoft we were talking about   Skype oh uh yeah and how Skype you know Skype I  think I believe Skype was just like a consumer   free telephone thing that people were trying for  a while me take you further back what about the   Net 2 Phone I remember again the late '90s net  to phone so that cuz look today we take it for   granted we have mobile devices that essentially  you could put it to your ear and talk for 10   hours if you wanted to and it doesn't cost you a  dime to call from you know DC to California back   then you paid by the minute right did and it cost  a pretty penny to call somebody in California from   New York or even in the same state sometimes local  calls are more expensive depending on the time of   day you called [ __ ] I remember calling home  from college and if I called after 7:00 then my   calls were only 5 cents a minute or something like  that you know you had like you had peak hours and   you had other hours a weekend you know weekends  were a little less expensive than on Tuesday or   a Wednesday yes long distance foone bills I mean  I remember when I was living at home um before I   moved out in my very early 20s I just graduated  from college and my parents were like you know   what you're responsible for your own phone bill  kids by the way 30-year-olds that are still on   your parents cell phone plans you guys got it made  you got it made but my mother would sit me down   she'd have the a AT&T phone bill she'd slap it down  on the table she'd look at it and I was living in   Connecticut and I had friends in Massachusetts  and my stepmother would circle be like   that's a 860 area code there a 617 area code she'd  add it all up and I was paying I don't know $20 $30   $40 bucks a month to call my friends like yeah  we paid for long-distance charges so when you   mentioned net to phone and there was that other  one that magic jack Magic Jack they had little USB   stick you would plug into your computer I swear  it sounded almost too good to be true like I can   make telephone calls to my computer if you had a  computer because that was a long time ago but um   it you know in an age where people were spending  so much money this was like necessary Innovation   and you know those products net toone what do we  call it wallack um Magic Jack Magic Jack I mean   that's the beginning of you know voice over IP  you know telephony over Internet Protocol you know   huge espcially for international calls cuz I  was remember traveling and the roaming charges   on cell phones back in the day was astronomical  so for the traveling salesperson international   dialing you could do that on net to phone or or  Magic Jack or you you would be saving tons of   money the obviously the more you call the more you  save and the more people you had the more you save   right and so these were necessary uh competitors  in a in a space where the per minute charges added   up to a lot hey I can you know I can reduce that  for you by half and sometimes even by 80% by using   some of these internet providers and so it was  it was so but I was looking that up while you   were talking the acquisition of Skype was in  2011 when Microsoft acquired 2011 so that's so   13 years more or less from from from today yep  and um who would have thought that that would   lead to what we know now today as Microsoft team  right can you can you can you say can you think of   three other names that teams had prior to teams  link OCS I mean it was it Microsoft was already   tinkering with voice IP right uh but Skype gave  them a consumer product that was fully born and   ready to use versus a product that they' been you  know they're not a telephone company they weren't   Nortel they're not a Net 2 Phone they're not any of  those companies they are a software company that   basically put an operating system into a PC that's  where they're their bones their origin story came   from right they evolved to bring some of these  other things in house but that's not what their   expertise is and they just went out and bought  Skype and today teams is now the new what do   you call that the Phoenix that's emerged out of  Skype right and so that's what we're we're left   with today you know Dave the world is changing  and we don't live in the same world as 2011, 2015   and these players Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google  Now are all having to look over their shoulder   to some extent because of what's happening in the  AI world now ai has been around for years but it   wasn't Unleashed like it has been in the last year  or so with open Ai and what's happening right now   as we film this podcast we don't know what's going  to happen with OpenAI ChatGPT may be gone by next   week because apparently the CEO has left he's over  at Microsoft they gave him the title of CEO to run   an advanced laboratory division Advanced research  and from what public reports say a card blanch   to hire as many employees from open aai and bring  them over to this new division at Microsoft which   is crazy so essentially they can get the entire  thing without ever having to buy I mean they   invested in Open I but essentially all of that  knowhow brought over it have you heard I've never   heard of something like that before like we're  a new age where a company all of a sudden says   okay all those employees now become our employee  and there's no merger or acquisition that ever   happened hey what about the 80 people that didn't  yeah I forgot what the headlines were yesterday um   how do you do you recall how many total employees  were at I think it was 770 and 700 of the 770   signed onto the letter that basically supports Sam  mman so what about those other people I don't know   they're they're either they think that being  loyal to the board or whoever is left is the   way to go versus Sam I mean we don't 100% know all  of what led up to this there's reports about this   and that and the other some guy feel felt you know  that the company was going in the wrong direction   someone was passed over I mean there's a lot of  information but we do know what we can see which   is there's a possibility open may just fold I mean  the way it's going I don't think it'll I mean that   if it comes down to it Microsoft will just acquire  the rest and take the IP with them and you know   it'll be completely part of Microsoft or they  could sell it off and and who knows what's going   to happen but the cat is out of the bag when it  comes to working in today's age you know if we're   looking forward now from 2020s and Beyond right  around when Co you got open AI that came on just   recently you have these ecosystems and then you  have what I think to be the most one of the most   interesting pieces when it comes to business today  which is how the world of e-commerce entertainment   and the platforms are changing so if you look at  what happening right now with Tik Tok you look   at what's happening with meta uh you find that  the convergence of e-commerce and social media   are are going in a New Direction you know TikTok  is who would have thought that TikTok would try   to take on Amazon but they that's what they're  doing they've got TikTok shop uh they've got   fulfillment centers you know us you know being  in the e-commerce space ourselves you know we're   we're dabbling in that uh but they are a serious  contender and The Experience if we were to go back   let's say to what Steve Jobs did with the iPhone  he said the ex user experience is what matters   and Amazon did a fabulous job of that using a PC  Tik Tok is changing the way you experience online   shopping via video first instead of a product  page first I don't know which is going to win   Dave but I do know this that they are changing  the experience which is what Steve Jobs did back   in 2007 yeah he said apps are the way to go you  have an app that's become super powerful super   influential and they're saying we're going to  change the way people experience shopping you know   I mean if you think about it when you're on Amazon  you know Amazon just over the past couple of years   they're encouraging sellers to include more video  more demonstrations when I'm on an Amazon listing   and I'm kind of looking just even just through  some of our stuff that we have up there I'm   looking at product reviews by content creators  I'd never seen before you know so they they are   certainly incorporating video as part of this but  when you I've only I've only played with TikTok   shop a little bit but I think that is pretty  interesting as you're kind of swiping through   suddenly you see a product doing something really  cool solving a problem that you need solving and   then right from there push click add it to cart  you didn't seek out the demo it seek you and by   the algorithm it might have known that I needed  a way to log wood around in the winter time or   whatever it might have been so it's almost like  an algorithm is getting to know you so that it can   really serve up the product demonstration and get  you to buy right away it's really pulling on your   heartstrings if it can solve a problem so quickly  it's like I need that and you know I think we're   missing that for a little while in Commerce in  general the I need this and um I yes my question   is when does when does TikTok start to charge  a membership fee like Amazon Prime everyone I   know everyone I know subscribes to Amazon Prime  and all of those people were probably extremely   reluctant at the very beginning I have to pay to shop I  have to pay to spend money on Amazon why would I   do that well Jeff Bezos figured that out yeah well he  he made it sticky back to our guest Sandeep   he made it very sticky he gave a value proposition  that was was probably one of the most genius ways   to to basically get customers on the platform  get them to cuz you know I read somewhere   and I wish I could remember what study there's  a huge difference between you giving something   to somebody and you give it away for free and  then that person that same item whether they   pay a dollar or they pay $100 for it the moment  that person pays a dollar or a hundred there is   an investment on their part that says I'm part of  this in a way that I it wasn't when I it was free   or given to me so now even though the investment  of prime which you know in the grand scheme of   things it does bring them money but it creates  that investment in the person like I am part of   this and I'm committed to this and I'm kind of  married to this system right now in a way that's   different than you know the app store for uh for  the iPhone and so how does TikTok do it they've   got to come up with a way to give the consumer  something that they would not have had prior   to let's call it TikTok prime or whatever it's  going to be called right they've got to roll out   more they they've got a handful of of fulfillment  centers whether it's you know hey we're going to   ship this to you tomorrow and it's going to you  know you pay $25 bucks a year just like what Amazon   Walmart has tried to do that and it hasn't worked  out in the same way as it has for Amazon because   Prime Membership you get you get the Prime video  you get you know uh some some deals at Whole Foods   when you're shopping at Whole Foods as long as  you're a Prime member right and on and on and   on and on and on Tik Tock doesn't have that value  proposition for a paid subscription model unless   they're going to give you something let's just  say well we're going to let we're going to stream   I don't know music from artists and we're going  to release it here first because no Tik Tok now   their music and their trending sounds are way for  artists to release music that's changing the way   the music industry looks at releasing uh music  because now the audience is being exposed to   your sound your music on somebody else's videos  and that could be millions and billions of views   when you're talking about that so are things  changing you bet how are they going to shake   out I don't know but I know that if history serves  as a lesson the user experience is vital and if   you can get that down you can create an ecosystem  around that experience and wherever you go it all   comes back to being on the platform or part of the  ecosystem you've created the stickiness that are   guest former president of Blackberry used to say  that's stickiness Factor right I wouldn't bet on   Tiktok I wouldn't bet against TikTok right now they  they have a lot of Mojo although they have a lot   of headwinds with you know people complaining and  Congress coming now at the end you know what they   I think all this thing is going to get sorted out  there is no social media company yet that has been   blackballed out of the US there's just too much  money involved there's too many employees involved   for TikTok um there's a lot of competitive  interests between Meta and Tik Tok um and   I think you know articles have already come out  and said that that Facebook has been behind some   of the dirty tactics I didn't say that you can  look it up on the web and you'll find some of   those articles yourself right hey when uh when we  talk about Facebook and meta now I knew that they   were playing around for a little while with the  subscription service did they ever launch that   I I don't use Facebook I'm not aware I I you know  I'm going to plead the fifth on this Dave I don't   not I'm not aware I'm not as I don't want to say  I I know when I don't and in this case I'm not   aware of exactly their intentions but I know that  for meta they're bet big billions big billions on   the metaverse the jury still out on that I've seen  some new improvements there was a uh an interview   with Lex Friedman and Mark Zuckerberg on the  metaverse and it did look fascinating it did look   like an amazing new video experience that's how  I would I would say but that video experiences   still requires the big huge goggles again can  meta nail the user experience when it comes to   the metaverse if they can and they can excute on  that they may have something there is the timing   right for it I think so for this reason Dave the  remote work revolution is changing the face of   work it is changing the face of the future of work  I don't think anybody today can argue against what   the pandemic has done for remote work and every  study that's been coming out and I'm going to   give big props to a future guest that's coming  to come on so if you're watching this now you   may want to check out that interview with Nick  Bloom that we have uh I think you going to be   fascinated by what you learn there with Nick  Bloom who has been studying remote work for   the for for decades now and I don't think we're  going back Dave so the convergence of things like   remote work we've got Ai and we've got new players  coming onto the scene when it comes to Commerce as   well as Communications like companies like Zoom  that became extremely popular over the pandemic   era I think we are moving into that whole new  shift like we saw we talking about the 80s the   2000s now the 20s I'll call them the 20s moving  forward I think the combination of AI remote   work uh decentralization of of technology is going  to change how we view the business world and who   who's going to come out on top right right well  I can certainly see that some of these platforms   they can create stickiness by bringing value of  integrating within a current customers Tech stack   so if you can build automation with AI and bring  crms and your video and your voice Communications   and you know all these other bits if you have  a good platform that's able to tie it together   create a create an experience where your users  rely on you know the integration of all of   these things and you have a winning platform for  sure well and Zoom does have a an app Marketplace   again taking a little page out of out of apple on  that um they've got a call center product they've   got a phone product so now you can do your  video and continue engaging with customers and   colleagues on the zoom telephone side of things  and text messages uh they've got an AI companion   so I think they're trying to position themselves  in a way that I don't know if they would have even   imagined it prior to the pandemic where they're  in all these spaces competing against a gorilla   in this case Microsoft uh for on the Enterprise  side uh did you know Dave that Zoom has two   architectural platforms when it comes to their to  their uh technology they have The Zo Zoom Cloud   that we as as businesses and customers use and  they have a zoom government that is a slightly   different animal to conform and comply with some  of the government regulations when it comes to   security and privacy and the rest that I didn't  know up until recently but I say that because   companies that tend to adapt and Zoom seems like  right now they they're really shifting moving   into areas that seem like you know why why are  they there why you know why would you get into   a battle with Microsoft and try to get into the  Enterprise space I think the race is to see who   now who can create the best user experience for  workers workers that work remote as well as those   in the office and let those two different parts  of the organization communicate seamlessly with   each other and its customers so it's it reles  to businesses if you have an ecosystem that can   allow this beautiful dance and orchestration of  communications collaboration um um archiving of   documents and and things like that I think and you  mix in AI to enable that to happen you said that   something earlier the speed right the AI allows  us to do things that we couldn't do at a speed I   mean just this episode alone the information that  we've been able to harvest to get ready for this   episode in the old days Dave would have taken  weeks big going through articles going on the   internet reading them finding the information and  then disseminating the information Among Us coming   up with all of that lined up nice and neatly we  were able to do that in under two hours you know   so if you're watching us and you're wondering  how we were able to use the power of AI to   extract information from the 80s all the way up to  2020 in less than two hours so we could put this   podcast together for you which is amazing I would  have taken us weeks man yeah find all those news   clippings and whatnot you know something you said  is pretty interesting to me you were talking about   archives and AI so I'm I'm imagining I'm imagining  an organization today that's a adopting some of   these new technologies and then just say in the  course of three or 4 years they can use their own   internal AI to go back and analyze the archives  so it's not going out into the Internet it's just   what's happened internally analyze analyze the  past four years of conference calls that were   you know this particular meeting or whatever it  might be but the AI is going to be be able to   analyze your business's meetings that are archived  and then assist with strategy to be successful in   the future or point out obvious failures or missed  opportunities of the future of AI is you know   we we've talked about it internally and uh and on  some of our podcasts where it's AI is not going   to replace you it's not going to take your job the  people that know how to use AI better will be the   ones that you really need to fear type of thing  and analyzing archives within a business can lead   to interesting strategies uh for those businesses  sorry it was kind of an unthought tangent I just   went on but I'm just thinking you know everything  that we do internally is archived right yeah yeah   we use there's data everywhere we're we're drown  I've said this before we're drowning in data and   what do you do I've read somewhere that we most  companies only really tap into about 30% of the   all the data they have but imagine having the  ability to have something on autopilot that says   you know last year at this point you sold X and  you may want this year to prepare for this event   in this way and I think the pr the the future  or predictive modeling around AI when it comes   to inventory whether it comes to business when it  comes to language when it comes to combining all   these different data sets and then says it's  start giving you suggestions on actions that   you can take I think that's the next leap when we  can get to that point where we can get predictive   modeling into the hands of decision makers and  they're able to make decisions that are very good   based on the data that's saying okay this could  happen in the next two weeks four weeks month   based on these patterns based on this history  based on all these data sets I think it gets   even more interesting because it can make your  business more resilient you know Dave there's so   many businesses that fail in the first year only  one only I believe one between one depending on   where your sourcing is one and 5% of businesses  make it to 20 years and there's a lot of things   that happen in a business that have to go right  to stay in business that long but if you can feed   information that can help you stay in business  cash flow is up you may want to do this cash   flow is down you may want to do that uh too much  inventory do this not enough inventory do that if   you you know in the healthcare world there's AI  for a bunch of different things that are that are   looking at diagnosing um different diseases that  Radiologists can't see as well right so if you   have ai working together with the radiologist  you're able to spot things that the naked eye   cannot see or can't pick up on a pattern I think  we're definitely going into an age that where the   work we knew it the way from the 80s all the way  up to the 20s is going to be completely different   completely different from the 20s moving forward  with the emergence of platforms ecosystems in   AI very decentralized you know when when we say  that things change and nothing stays the same at   least 10 years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago 40  years ago we had we had a chance to breathe and   think about it and now literally overnight these  Technologies are changing the way that people work   oh no no doubt and in some ways for the better uh  and there there will be some displacement I don't   think there's any way around it there'll be some  displacement but just like with every technology   that interrupts and changes things there's  displacement there the the horse and buggy   guys that cleaned up the poop behind the horses  didn't love that the cars were coming around and   take care of their jobs uh the fact that um  you know internet made uh book depositories   a very different thing because now you could put  documents and storage electronically it's a whole   different thing right I I remember in the late  90s there used to be boxes and boxes and stuff   that went from our offices to storage somewhere  just because we had to hold on to documents um and   you know you know what if something happens you  know 6 years from now and you know some lawsuit   happens and well those were all in storage now  they're in the cloud you right so the evolution   of change does create disruption and it cuts in  both ways people people's jobs will be some at   stake but on the other side there's some other  jobs that didn't exist that will come out of of   this as a result like you said hey maybe you got  to be the AI expert in knowing how to maximize and   leverage this um and who knows who knows that the  world is very very different today and that's kind   of what we wanted to drive home today to let you  know that just like Dave said things don't stand   still and if you want to be a business that is  going to be around for the next 20 years in this   new age small changes can make a big difference  nothing stays the same there's nothing that's the   same from last year or even five months ago and  those small changes that you make today tomorrow   two months from now those will all help you adapt  moving forward I know that's been one of the keys   for our business is to keep making those small  changes because the times change you know Nortel is not in business anymore we used to sell a  lot to them IBM has changed who they are Dell   has changed who they are Apple has changed to are  Microsoft and so our business model has you know   slowly adapted over time because the industry is  changing and everybody in every industry is seeing   that happen to them right now so Dave did we miss  anything else did you want to jump in and say any   any other thing um regarding the uh what are we  calling this part yes the gold standard the rise   of the tech ecosystem you know my parting word my  parting words are for business owners specifically   that are out there if you haven't had a chance  to look at you know some of the platforms that   you're using come talk to us you're going to get  left behind by competitors that are adapting the   Technologies we also understand that within  the small to medium business you don't always   have access to the best tech specialist we want  to extend our hand and be that trusted advisor   for you so if you want to have conversations  about upping your game technology integration   communication integration you know please check us  out global-tech t.com I wasn't trying to uh be a   commercial at the very end but I am thinking about  just some of the devices that we had spoken about   here and kind of how people started migrating  over to different Technologies they were they   were doing it to save money initially and they  may have thought it was too good to be true but   now when you look back at it it's like oh thank  God I jumped on that train because if I hadn't I   would have been left behind so we want to help  bring some of these small to medium businesses   we want to help raise you with us um help improve  your game so that you're around another 20 years   and and longer I like that Dave the only thing  I would add there is that if we're going to toot   our horn a little bit let's just let's let's say  this as well for those businesses that haven't had   a tech spers maybe they have what happens in Tech  a lot whether it's software Hardware you get this   when a problem happens no it's this guy's fault  it's that guy's fault and the accountability isn't   there we uh because we offer solutions that are  service-based like uh like Microsoft teams and   voice and and all the rest as well as the devices  that work on those platforms our interest is   working with folks that want everything to work  in harmony and our interest is the customer not   this which happens a lot because you bought you  know your phones or hgardware devices over here   they don't care if you know your platform is  working well or not it doesn't matter to them   or it and we invite you to talk to us if you want  to explore new Solutions or even consolidate

2024-02-09 07:31

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