Episode Summary
On this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott broadcasts live from DMSCA, and welcomes Kevin L. Jackson with SourceConnecte to the Supply Chain Now booth.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.
[00:00:29] All right. Good afternoon. Scott Luton here with you, Lavern Supply chain. Now, welcome back to the show. We are not broadcasting live from Atlanta, G-A. We’re here in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona, which you could see out to my left. The 73 degrees Hurley, a cloud in the sky. Gorgeous weather out here. And what brings us out here? Well, is the Dembski annual conference supplier development, supplier diversity, supplier success. It’s held every year. And if Dembski is new to you. Check it out. Diverse Manufacturing Supply chain Alliance DEUM SCA and its Newdow’s. It’s my first event out here, but it’s got you on your radar. You can learn more about the organization at DEUM SCA DOT U.S.. All right. Two quick programing notes before we bring in our featured guest here. Number one, simple. You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast from Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, you name it. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single thing. And then secondly, I think the sponsor allows us to be out here covering this awesome conference. And that’s Verusen. Verusen is powering A&D day A&D driven data harmonisation across the globe with a big focus on materials. You can learn more at Verusen dot com VTR U s e in dot com. All right. So as we start to wrap up our coverage here of the Dems conference, we’ve got our cleanup hitter, Kevin L. Jackson, founder and CEO, G.C. Global Net. Kevin, how you doing?
[00:02:00] I’m doing great. Thank you very much, Guy, for having me here. I know it’s the last event of the day.
[00:02:06] Like I said, you’re a cleanup hitter, right? But we had a chance to connect with Kevin Owen linked in social media prior to being here. And then, you know, I had a quick chance to kind of catch up after passing by each other three times. So I had a sneak peek of the cool things that he’s up to and some the special partnering that he’s doing with Dimka. And we’ll get to that in just a second. But for starters, Kevin, please, you know, tell our audience who is Kevin L. Jackson and and give us an anecdote or two about your upbringing.
[00:02:36] Oh, yeah, sure. Well, first of all, a death years ago, I was in the Navy. I was a carrier polymath, Lu Hawk, OSI Toussie’s and C Two A’s. I’m actually worked in the Navy Space Technology Program and worked with the shuttle. Actually, if you ever heard of the New Horizons spacecraft, the way I went to Pluto. Yeah, well, that was the first spacecraft that actually processed.
[00:03:04] Kevin Yeah, well above my pay grade. That isn’t the big stuff. And into new horizons I think as already.
[00:03:13] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Work past Pluto. The big picture of the heart. And you know, what’s really interesting about it is that we processed the payload, we packed it up, put it on the Atlas rocket, and we had to cross our fingers for 10 years because it took 10 years to get to Pluto and was like, we hope it works. We hope it works. And when it did, I there were some celebration. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but it was a great highlight, I think, of my life.
[00:03:42] Let me go back as fascinated. I’m a big space now, big space nerd.
[00:03:47] Not grew up in the 80s when the shuttle program was with Weilding and t.v.’s.
[00:03:52] We’d watch all the launches. And, you know, I miss that. And I think our kids miss us all for the what the private sector is doing. But I’m hoping that NASA will take a we’ll be afforded that front center opportunity again, inspire people. Yeah, but going back to your your naval experience. Yes. Knowledge, you fly aircraft.
[00:04:12] And I think if I recognize some of those aircraft, anti-submarine warfare, command and control.
[00:04:18] Okay. Yeah. Commander control and adapt to a lot of that crap. But your commander controls my real core. Okay.
[00:04:26] And also you’re telling me just before we went live, you also did some of the flagging, which was land aircraft.
[00:04:32] Is that right? I was landing signal officer. People call it paddles. And then at the end of the aircraft carrier. And why are the plane come down or not? You’re too low. You’re too high. Laughs You’re right.
[00:04:45] Wave, whatever. That’s got to be between fly in, which I can only imagine how challenging that is with a deck that’s constantly moving and pitching and rolling. But then to help other pilots that are. White knuckled coming in and kind of being their their God.
[00:05:04] Yes. It’s fascinating. You never. Well, what really white knuckle do when you’re an instructor and a student is landing for the first time. And I was sitting in in the cockpit. So you know what?
[00:05:18] It’s an experience. What? Well, last question. I promise to move on. I find this kind of stuff really intriguing. What career was it?
[00:05:25] Why was it several, you know, several IBNR, about 13 carriers. My last one was the Teddy Roosevelt. But my oldest carrier was the USS Midway, Seaman 43. I’m not like World War Two carriers. I’ve been on Coral Sea, the Enterprise called Vintage NIN. Really? Yeah, I’ve been a lot of different cars.
[00:05:47] Awesome. All right. So I guess we’re going to move on out of work anyway.
[00:05:54] All right. So we’ve kind of tackled a portion of this next question. I really want to get a sense for our audience, your professional journey. OK. Clearly, I can only imagine that all the experiences, leadership experiences and as well as Technical proficiencies that you picked up throughout your time and Navy, but kind of as you moved into the private sector or whatever came next in the military. Tell us about that car leading up to your current role.
[00:06:17] So actually, when I was working with a new horizon that was a chief technology officer with a Sentelle Corporation, and I started working with J.P. Morgan Chase, where I was a global vise president for I.T. projects. IBM and at IBM is kind of when things started gelling for me, I was the worldwide sales executive for mobile wireless and voice technology. And that was the time when the Internet started become a thing. And then IBM, I was focused on helping companies develop business models that leveraged e-commerce.
[00:06:57] Now, in in WebSphere, as if you didn’t have enough complexity, you decided to double down in the private sector.
[00:07:04] Yes. Yes. Incredible. So that when we were using service oriented architecture, wireless devices and, you know, global networks and all that came together to cloud computing. And I started working in cloud computing and security, cyber security, and that all linked to building and developing new business models. And after a while, working with the government and the intelligence community with cloud computing, I actually launched my own company as a consultant for digital transformation and cloud and security.
[00:07:44] Ok, and that is G.C. Global Net DGSE Global Net. OK. So it’s like, you know exactly where I’m going here. You’re foreshadowing my question. All right. So tell us about you’ve kind of already started to foreshadow, but tell us about what see Global Net does and then where you spend your time as its founder and CEO.
[00:08:02] So as I said, G.C. go, it is really focused on helping organizations leverage advance technologies to invent, create and deploy new transformative business models.
[00:08:17] And that’s pretty challenging, right, because it’s fun. It’s I’m thinking of the not just like me that can be intimidated with these.
[00:08:26] These are the latest and greatest and impactful technologies that can be challenging. Yeah. How to apply and apply in the right meaningful way. Absolutely.
[00:08:36] And it scares a lot of people. Technology scares people. So one of sort of my niche is that I can explain advanced technologies in a way that fits a business need and a business goal. So I don’t talk about the bits and bytes or, you know, the the technology itself, because in reality it’s immaterial. Nobody cares about the technology. What they care about is these are my business goals. How can I get to my business goals? So they tell me to gold. I go into a closet. I figure stuff out, you know, and then I come out and say, oh, this is a direction, you know, and I try to stay away from the technology itself. So I consult with a lot of global companies. But the other part about that is I act as a voice piece for a lot of companies over social media to talk about the technologies and how they can be leveraged to support and create new business models.
[00:09:46] And so so. Backlund just image what I heard there, which I think is really intriguing, is that it’s not about latching on to the latest and greatest technology as it rolls off to innovation line. It’s about hearing the business goals. And then going into your closet, aka kind of by having Ryder, which technologies are going to be beneficial in a very meaningful way to accomplish those business goals?
[00:10:09] Absolutely. And sometimes it’s new technology. Sometimes it’s old school. I mean, we’re in a paperless society. Right. Don’t you use a pen and a pencil? Yeah, because it’s the right tool for the job. The same thing with technology and new business models. It’s not always putting the brightest and shiniest object out there. Right. Sometimes it’s making old school.
[00:10:38] I gotcha. I thought I was in trouble by using my heart. What was was interesting as we were being assessed at the day. We had one of thought leaders here was asking us about what we were doing to help. There’s a 17 point United Nations sustainability. Sustainability. Absolutely right. Yeah. And she was asking how kind of how we were doing our part. Well, I am a hardcopy, devout Kronic person that has to have it. But we have, by and large, gone paperless with all of our run of shows, which can be pretty big documents. We can pay for different programs. So that’s all we use a lot of electronic notes and we Miura that with the thought that in our landfills still the number one and in terms of plurality and waste in our municipal landfills is office papers, paper, paper. So work to try. But but to your point. Yet at the point you’re making, it doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest technology of all times. The stuff that came out a few years back or maybe even a few further years back are the most apropos. Right. Yes, absolutely. OK. So what I am really looking forward to hearing about. And I think one of things you not first chatted about online will be linked in how I came across each other. Is this source connect project? Yeah. You’re elaborating with the dense Scott Ausland. Tell us more about that.
[00:11:59] So that is really exciting because it really focuses on the digital transformation of the Supply chain. I mean supply chain to been around since before the Stone Age.
[00:12:14] Right. There’s always a buyer and a seller. Right. And you always need to look at the products that are being sold. You need to have trust with your supplier. You have requirements that you have to meet in in your business. And as the years have moved forward, companies need to buy more and more products. They want to do things like meet sustainability goals. They want to meet diverse supply goals. And it becomes harder and harder to gather that information. We get awash with information. A man. And by. And in order to forty’s large companies to procure products, they have to do a lot of research to find out. Is this a trustworthy company? Is this really a diverse company or are they lying to you? So DMCA it really their mission is to help diverse companies become strategic partners with bought large commercial global firms. And what’s really important is that the smaller companies, sometimes at a small company, could be 5 million, 10 million a year. When you compare online perspective, we compare it to a 20 billion dollar global behemoth Ryder 100 billion Diago behemoth. So these companies may be providing unique products or unique services, but they need to be able to grow with these large companies as the market grows. So. The DMCA offers what’s called a corporate mentoring program, where the larger companies invite their strategic suppliers to learn how to be a better member of the supply chain. Putting in metrics, reevaluating your own processes, determining which supply chain you are a part of. Because these companies have thousands of supply chain, right? And you can’t spread yourself across, you know, all these different supply chains. You need to focus on what your core capability is. Can’t focus solving, can’t focus on everything. So Dembski helps these companies identify their core, improve their processes and become better strategic suppliers to these large companies. Now, in the model it Demps go with SCMP is that the large companies will invite the CFP.
[00:14:58] Is that part of the corporate mentoring program? That’s just part of Dimka. That’s just this is this is their secret sauce. Atcha. And this much I’m a rookie. This my first event and I love my acronym absorbing as many as possible. But the CFP, the corporate mentoring program, which is kind of the heart and soul of them. zemsky.
[00:15:18] Yes. Yeah. Okay. Right. So but as I said before, the large companies will invite their suppliers to become part of the corporate mentoring program or the SCMP. But what about the companies that are not providing supply the services to a large company, but they want to. Right. These companies may be just doing transactions or commercial transactions, but they want to sort of go up the ladder b become more important in the ecosystem.
[00:15:52] Well, that’s the purpose behind source connection. It provides a market place for these companies that are in the transactional stage or the commercial stage of their growth. It helps them get visibility in their market place, in their industry. It gives them the ability to prove their value through delivery in supply chain. It’s recorded. You get data about the ability of this company to deliver to their customers. So larger the company dilligence is helps with the due diligence. And something that was announced today is IBM Trust. Your supplier is establishing a relationship with Dimka, where Disko will become a verifier of diverse suppliers souls. Big news? Absolutely. So part of the supply chain is trust. So this enables the procurement officials and sourcing executives to get the information that’s needed to build trust across the supply chain. It will shorten the sale cycle, shorten the procurement cycle. And since this data about the supplier is digital, it can go directly in to meet everything up, speed everything up and go directly into the back end systems like, you know, a rebirth, isn’t he? So Source Connect helps these companies that are in a transaction phase. It can serve as a on ramp to the CSP, the corporate mentoring program, and help these companies grow better, faster.
[00:17:54] And you know, what can you do without trust in the modern day supply chain? Absolutely. Very little. It seems like the other thing it seems like to me that this is going to help amongst some of things you mentioned terms of impact and in and bottom line results is in Supply chain problem-solving, while SBI is, you know, while the needle is moving towards more proactive ness and proactivity for a makeup’s. Maude’s here. That’s a great thing, right? We’re doing that with predictive analytics. We’re doing that of a variety of different things, modeling and other things. It’s all about data. Yes. Yes. So.
[00:18:29] Networks like Trust Your Supplier provide data that you couldn’t make smart decisions on and source. Connect consumes that data, matches it with the appropriate supplier. Right, and provides a online B2B environment.
[00:18:50] Now, you know, everyone is used to like going to an online Web site and buying something from her Etsy or Amazon E-commerce Air kamara’s. Right. But believe it or not, businesses aren’t buying from businesses on Etsy. OK. Why? Because it’s a completely different model on an e-commerce site. The seller has all the power. They say these are the products I’m selling. This is the price. This is the type of payment I take. And you take it or leave it. Right. The seller has all the power in B2B. The buyer has the power. Right. The buyer says, OK, these are the products I want. This is how I want to pay can be a purchase order. Maybe I need to negotiate a contract. Maybe your product is exactly what I want, but I want to modify it. So the buyer, Dick, takes those terms. Everything is a negotiation. That’s why we haven’t seen e-commerce site and B2B as a one of our favorite co-hosts here at Supply chain.
[00:20:05] I like to say you don’t get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. Exactly.
[00:20:11] So forth. Connect is taking the e-commerce technology, digital technology to bring it in to the B to be world.
[00:20:23] Love it. It seems like it is. It has a potential one. Does it? Is it life now is actually love now? OK.
[00:20:31] One source. Connect with an e! Dot com.
[00:20:34] Ok, source. Connect. Uh s o u r SEUS. You connect that connect. Connect c o an e ctg e e on and catch. OK, that icon will include a link to that in Shandwick.
[00:20:47] This episode make it really easy for folks who is thinking of the answers. Question I want to ask it from the gospel truth here. Who’s eligible to participate?
[00:21:01] So the truth is anyone is eligible or if they want to become part of this ecosystem. OK. And primarily it’s the DMCA eco system. We are focusing on helping diverse OEM companies, companies that actually have things to sell and they want to be better prepared and to grow with these large multinational companies. So by coming and becoming part of the ecosystem, you get more visibility and more opportunities.
[00:21:38] Love it. OK. Source connect with an e-mail in dot com include the show notes. But what an exciting initiative. You know, as a first time Dembski conference attendees and participant know it. And then we saw every interview. Folks love that. The camaraderie, the kindred spirits that the special fellowship that’s here, especially with you. And it seems like an intentionally smaller conference where we had a hundred fifty folks. You could get access, you could get conversations and you could even get some action at lutely.
[00:22:11] One thing that really unique about Demps Goodness conference is that people get to know each other. You get to build a relationship. You get to trust each other. And from being together for two to three days, it leads into weeks, months and years of collaboration and business relationships and trusting relationships.
[00:22:35] Ok, so let’s move right along. Let’s kind of go. Go. Lamar brought here. OK. So when is that when you look at the global in the end supply chain universe. Right. Right. Right. So much is going on. Change by the minute. It seems like changes only in many good ways and some challenging ways. It’s only speeding up. What? What? One or two trends or developments or innovations, you name it. What? In that whole realm. Are you tracking more than others?
[00:23:04] Well, we’ve talked a lot about information and a need to build trust. Believe it or not, people may give you false information.
[00:23:13] Oh, gosh. That happens.
[00:23:17] Right. And if you’re trying to buy something, you’re risking your business or a new product line on on a supplier.
[00:23:26] You need that information that you’re. Using to be verified, to be correct. And it can’t be changed, so. The key technology to support the immutability order of information and data is blockchain and blockchain is revolutionizing supply chain because of its ability to collect, digitally, sign and provide information in an immutable fashion. So all marketplace this–what connect. Marketplace is a blockchain enabled platform for doing transactions. We are working with IBM t.y EFT or Trust Your Supplier, which is a blockchain enabled source of information about both buyers and suppliers. So when a procurement official comes to sort connect, they have protected immutable information about a product and a supplier that they can trust. It’s also digitally connected to multiple procurement, digital procurement systems. So it reduces the onboarding because the information is trustworthy. So blockchain is enabling that trust across supply chain.
[00:24:57] I love it. We’ve had blockchain is certainly been a top five theme and always interviews we’ve conducted here. But this has been probably one of the first conferences I’ve attended and we’ve done we’ve seen 10 events over the last year where the prevailing opinion or prevailing position is not.
[00:25:20] If blockchains going to change the world or if blockchains gonna have the impact, it’s it’s here. It’s happening. And a right. Yeah. It’s having a big impact already in a very real impact way. And and and that’s been an interesting learning and key takeaway. So it’s really cool to hear how Resource Connect is. You said blockchain ready, blockchain ready.
[00:25:42] Lot of smart contracts and we’re ready to to help all members grow and expand across the ever expanding marketplace.
[00:25:54] Okay. So I want to ask you one more question before we would make sure our listeners can know where to connect with your company. These initiatives and new as you think about all of the other conversations that were there were part of the Dembski conference here other than the source connect big announcement with with Big Blue. Yeah. What’s going to be as you and where you where do you live? I live just out of Washington, D.C.. Okay. So as you’re flying back tonight with Lisa to D.C., what’s going to be one of the key takeaways that’s going to be between your ears for Lowell?
[00:26:31] You know, I believe. Business has always been the case. Business is about relationships, OK, and relationships take effort, not everything goes your way the first time. Don’t give up. It takes tenacity, it takes focus and it takes purpose. And what I’ve seen and heard, not just here, but throughout my entire career, is that the successful business people. Focus on relationships and they have tenacity and purpose. So it’s just a reinforcement.
[00:27:16] You’re seeing it here. I’ve seen it Hurley conversations and in interactions. Yeah. Absolutely. Something tells me, Kevin L. Jackson, that you are full of tenacity, focus and purpose. I try. That’s. That’s my first impression here. I hate the kind of pull thing. You know, it kind of wound down the interview because there’s so many different places we can read. Yeah, we can. We can dove deep. But how can I want to make sure our listeners can can connect with your company and this initiative in the new. So starting with G.C. Global Net.
[00:27:51] Yes. So folks learn more than we are on G.C. Global Net dot com. That’s that’s pretty straightforward. And I’m one across multiple social media channels. But it gets the easiest would be LinkedIn. Kevin L. Jackson on LinkedIn or Twitter. Kevin Underscore. Jackson OK. On Twitter, OK.
[00:28:12] And how can what’s the easiest way with source connect? I guess source connect with an e Daniel McKinnon.
[00:28:19] What an e we source connect on LinkedIn. OK, ok.
[00:28:23] And what about if, you know, we’ve been really warning folks to explore and learn more about Dembski at D.M. SICAD Dot U.S.. Is there any any uh, that’s the best way to learn about them.
[00:28:36] Good at the diverse manufacturing supply alliance.
[00:28:42] Love it. OK. So much going on. Yeah, but they bring you back for a series of episodes. Well, thank you. I enjoyed it. I did, too.
[00:28:51] Kevin L. Jackson, founder and CEO, G.C. Global Net, also a big player in the Sauce Connect initiative along with the fine folks, IBM and Dembski. So learn more. Check out the euro, as we mentioned in the show notes and I look forward to reconnecting. Kevin. Thanks so much. All right. So to our listeners, two quick announcement for wrap up here. First off, hope you’ve enjoyed our programing and coverage of the Dembski conference. Stay tuned for more rightwards week as we release it over the next few weeks. Although they probably have 12 different interviews from the Morgan State University delegation that got Abyei’s attention to a variety thought. Leaders like Kevin here really enjoyed our time. Hopefully you enjoyed as much. You can learn more about the organization again at D-N. SICAD that U.S. and secondly, you know, check out what we’ve got coming up at splotched. Now we’ve got in-person and digital events with with global partners from E.M.T. Reuters events to the Automotive Industry Action Group mutex resiliant 360 and much, much more. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for on our Web site, you can also always hit up our CMO at Amand at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com once more. Thanks again to Kevin L. Jackson with G.C. Global Net. Big thanks to our sponsor Verusen v e r u s e n dot com who is battling the forces of good for data harmonisation throughout the world with a big emphasis on materials. Barazan dot com and onbehalf our entire team here Scott Luton.
[00:30:24] Wishing a wonderful week ahead and we will see you next time on Supply chain now. Thanks, everybody.
Would you rather watch the show in action?
Watch Scott as he welcomes Kevin L. Jackson to the Supply Chain Now booth at the DMSCA Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Featured Guests
Kevin L. Jackson is a globally recognized Thought Leader, Industry Influencer and Founder/Author of the award-winning “Cloud Musings” blog. He has also been recognized as a “Top 5G Influencer” (Onalytica 2019), a “Top 1000 Tech Blogger” (Rise Social Media 2019) and provides integrated social media services to AT&T, Broadcom, Ericsson, and other leading companies. Mr. Jackson’s commercial experience includes Vice President J.P. Morgan Chase, Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM and Engility Corporation Director Cloud Solutions. He has served on teams that have supported digital transformation projects for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US Intelligence Community. Kevin’s formal education includes a MS Computer Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School; MA National Security & Strategic Studies from Naval War College; and a BS Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Internationally recognizable firms that have sponsored articles authored by him include Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix, and IBM. Books include “Practical Cloud Security: A Cross-Industry View” (Taylor & Francis, 2016), and “Architecting Cloud Computing Solutions” (Packt, 2018). He also delivers online training through Tulane University, Germanna Community College, O’Reilly Media, LinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight. Mr. Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994, earning specialties in Space Systems Engineering, Carrier Onboard Delivery Logistics and carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Control. While active, he also served with the National Reconnaissance Office, Operational Support Office, providing tactical support to Navy and Marine Corps forces worldwide.
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