Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing how smart digital can enable predictive maintenance for margin improvement and data-driven business models to increase the exit multiple. In businesses where maintenance has a meaningful impact on margins, we can use artificial intelligence to predict when assets will fail in advance of any noticeable signs of a problem.  By using smart digital to prevent unplanned downtimes, we increase the company’s operational efficiency...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing how smart digital can algorithmically cross sell products for customer expansion and use AI to identify new markets to enter for market expansion. Smart digital improves existing customer expansion strategies and enables new ones for physical products, services and environments, that until now were only available to software companies.  Automatic consumable cross selling can be emulated in the industrial sector and any other...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing data-driven value creation for tech & software companies and data-driven product expansion with fintech for traditional companies. Product expansion driven by proprietary primary customer data excerpt: When architected correctly, smart products yield proprietary primary customer data that can be used to drive low-risk product expansion.  Like Tesla, your company can also offer insurance and other high-margin,...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing how to smart digital value creation can augment and improve these traditional value drivers. On boosting buy & build performance excerpt: Smart digital is a new lens from which to spot add-on companies and a new way to integrate their products with the platform.  Unlike consolidating IT systems, orchestrating multiple products to work together produces not only a more innovative solution, but a less expensive one too.  ...

Our guest Prabhu Soundarrajan is President Elect of the International Society of Automation where he is responsible for strategy to create a better world through automation. He has over 20 years experience as tech executive in Fortune 100 and VC/PE-backed companies with various roles including business transformation. In this episode Prabhu and Bruce discuss: The concept of the digital dress up. The different value drivers used. Profile of digital dress up candidate companies. Case study...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing how to improve pricing optimization and customer retention by gathering primary customer data with smart tech. On pricing optimization: Some companies use cost-plus pricing and others use competitive-based pricing, but the gold standard is value-based pricing.  Since price is exchanged for value, to get the price right we need to understand how much value the product produces… which is easier said than done.  Until recently,...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing the competitive advantage smart digital diligence provides the sponsor upfront in the deal cycle during the auction. At the heart of all post-acquisition value levers is understanding the company’s customers.  The higher fidelity you have on who the customer is and what the customer does, the closer you’ll hit the mark with all you value levers, including revenue growth, pricing optimization, multiple expansion, debt paydown...

Our guests are André Quina, sales director with Plat4mation, an experienced control and automation engineer and Greg McKenzie, a commercial lead with Plat4mation with 22 years of manufacturing operational experience in food, automotive, and plastics.  André, Greg and Bruce discuss: How to leverage manufacturing operators to improve efficiency and safety. How WAZE-like tagging works, why it’s important and its results. The different benefits of a connected worker platform versus a connected...

Our guest Michel Morvan is cofounder of Cosmo Tech, a scientist, academic, entrepreneur and AI expert.  Michel and Bruce discuss: Complexity defined by systems and systems of systems The importance of knowing how things work for simulation Why using deep neural networks is lazy, when they make sense to use and when they don’t Data-based AI vs knowledge-based AI The proper definition of the digital twin… for value creation Different types of digital twins The power of simulating simulations...

Our guest Taha Memon is the founder and CEO of Dunia and CloudiTwins. He has over 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur, speaker and as a business development consultant to startups in Pakistan and the US.  In this episode, Taha and Bruce discuss: The tech behind smart contracts. How to create a smart contract and if this means lawyers will soon be made obsolete. The role of platforms (middleware) to deploy smart contracts. The Golden Triangle: the valuable connection between smart...

Our guest Daniel Young is Senior Manager of Product Standards at Toshiba America and is part of Toshiba’s global Digital Innovation Team that is focused on accelerating the growth of Industrial IoT systems and developing best practices using industry standards.  In this episode, Daniel and Bruce discuss: The benefits of eliminating (subjective) human judgement. The unexpected but important HR benefits from improving defect inspection efficiency. Applicable use cases and industries for this...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing the first step in smart digital diligence that’s used as a quick triage step before getting company specific to determine if a company is a good fit for smart digital transformation.  Sector, business type, maturity level and market dynamics all play into this step.  Once the theory is known, the Smart Tech Value Creation Quiz on the homepage of digitaloperatingpartners.com can be used to give any company a smart grade.  In...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing how to unlock value and potentially disrupt industries with the five core data-driven business models within the Smart Business Model Continuum.  Data-driven business models are created by transforming legacy business models with smart tech such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence.  In this episode, Bruce discusses: The Product data-driven business model. The Product-Service data-driven business model. The...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing data-driven business model development and its fundamental importance in smart digital transformation.  Bruce will discuss how the business models on the Smart Business Model Continuum reduce monetization friction and produce a proprietary competitive advantage.  In this episode, Bruce discusses: Why business model innovation is as important or more important than product or service innovation. The difference between B2C and...

Solo episode with Bruce Sinclair, the host of the show, discussing the confusion around what the term digital transformation.  Bruce will dissect the term into its tech layers and relate each to the company stage where it creates the most value.  In this episode, Bruce discusses: The true meaning of digital transformation. The three tech layers of digital transformation and what they are. The biggest money-maker: smart digital transformation. The difference between smart digital...

Our guest Manny Bernabe is the founder and CEO of bigplasma ai – which specializes in AI for Industry 4.0 applications and connected products.  Manny has had roles ranging from data scientist at an AI unicorn start-up to investment analyst at a global financial services firm.  In this episode, Manny and Bruce discuss: Various AI and stats techniques. Different AI techniques to make predictions. Picking the right AI models and why simple is often more important than complex. The importance...

Our guest Bob Sharon is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Blue IoT. He is an entrepreneur with over 30 years experience in technology, sustainability and data centres, and is a subject matter expert in IoT and smart buildings.  In this episode, Bob and Bruce discuss: Tech required to reduce building (HVAC) energy consumption. Rational for using LoRaWAN and cellular for data transmission in infrastructure environments. Implications on carbon emissions and possible carbon credits....

Our guest David Westrom is responsible for global business development at MachineMetrics and has led business development organizations and driven strategy at three IIoT start-ups that experienced successful exits, including most recently ThingWorx, that was acquired by PTC. In this episode, Dave and Bruce discuss: Digitally transforming discreet manufacturing operations to start a continuous improvement program. Digital improvements for high volume/low mix versus low volume/high mix...

Our guest Scott Cunningham is a blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast who explores the ways these technologies are used and shares his thoughts with his audience across many platforms. In this episode, Scott and Bruce discuss: The different cryptocurrencies and how to live the “crypto life”. How consensus models are changing to enable more efficiency in blockchain. The shift from a proof of work to a proof of stake consensus model. Enterprise use cases for blockchain. What smart...

Our guest Vipul Parekh is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Digital and Technology Services where he advises clients about investing in new and emerging technologies such as Blockchain, IoT, Robotic Process Automation, and Machine Learning. In this episode, Vipul and Bruce discuss: Evaluating the risk profile of emerging technology by considering scaling and integration needs. Using data to drive technology, people and processes. Data ownership and accountability best practices....

Our guests Rolland Donin and Hendrik Nieweg partner on digital transformation projects.  Roland is the founder of IHRS-Training, a consultancy for agile methods and digital transformation, and Hendrik is VP of Solutions at the German IoT specialist, Device Insight, which helps companies with the development of complex IoT-based digital transformation projects. In this episode, Rolland, Hendrik and Bruce discuss: The definition of Industrie 4.0 vs IoT vs digital transformation. The...

Our guest Dr. Michael Roshak works as an Enterprise Architect for Bankers Healthcare Group - a fintech company that helped hospitals and doctors with financial services during the pandemic.  And as part of the Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab, Mike ran code-a-thons for Microsoft developers and from which recently wrote the book, Artificial Intelligence for IoT Cookbook. In this episode, Mike and Bruce discuss: Voice activation and privacy concerns. The air gap DMZ zone used in AI...

The difference between crypto and blockchain. The technical and business benefits associated with blockchain’s decentralized structure. The important difference between security and trust. The function of bitcoin miners. The differences between private and public blockchains. Why data stored in a blockchain has the power of immutability.

How wearables, beacons and geofencing work and how they have transformed safety at the Volpatt worksites. How Volpatt is “eating their own dogfood’ by using solutions by ShareinTech and how that forms a virtuous cycle. How the tech was adopted by their construction workforce and lessons learned. How an increase safety measures reduces the cost of labor by improving a firm’s EMR (Experience Modification Rating) which in turn reduces worker’s compensation premiums. Quantifying the value created...