94% of Fortune 500 Execs Have Blockchain Project Plans — Do You?
Author: John Souza
What executive wouldn’t love a product that delivered all the blockchain promises: Increased back-office efficiency. Lower transaction costs. Greater transparency in asset exchanges. Minimized errors. Increased security. Add in smart contracts, increased transaction speeds, and greater productivity, and it’s no wonder that a blockchain-based economy is on the horizon. But are you and your company ready for it? If not, the time to think about how blockchain is going to impact your business is now.
As might be expected from its roots in the cryptocurrency market, blockchain’s early corporate adopters have been fintech and financial services firms, such as Bank of America, US Bank, J.P Morgan, and IBM. In fact, according to a recent survey by Synechron of 200 Fortune 500 financial service and technology executives revealed that 94 percent had plans to launch some level of blockchain-based initiative. “Most large banks now have departments specializing in cryptocurrencies, and some are considering building their own private blockchains,” writes The Guardian reporter Nicky Woolf in Medium.
And in 2018, blockchain’s allure will be felt far beyond the financial realm. Forward-thinking consumer technology firms are also starting to see the blockchain beacon. Overstock.com, AirBnB, and Samsung are three notable examples of consumer companies making headlines with their sizable investments in blockchain initiatives. And many more are sure to follow as more and more talk about blockchain in the C-suites turns from “fad” to “future.”
While blockchain has implications for every type of business, from financial to farming, many execs don’t yet understand the technology or how it could potentially disrupt their industry or business model. All they know is, “blockchain” is the buzzword of the day and they need to be paying attention.
John Engates, Chief Evangelist for Rackspace states: “If you say ‘blockchain’ to most people, they immediately think Bitcoin — and still have no idea what it is. And while blockchain is the foundation for cryptocurrencies (digital assets that act as mediums of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions), it’s actually a much broader way to structure, store and secure data.”
While it’s imperative for company leadership in all industries to have an eye on the blockchain, simply committing to invest money in the technology is not the solution. Instead follow the rule of Warren Buffett: “Never invest in a business you cannot understand,” the famed billionaire investor is quoted as saying.
Here’s just the tip of what you need to know BEFORE your company invests in blockchain:
- It won’t solve everything. While the promises of blockchain are many (“Feed the hungry! Free the enslaved! Heal the environment! Save the world!”), much of the larger-scale projects is prediction and vision about where the technology might go.
While the potential for blockchain to disrupt every market is real, it won’t turn a bad company into a good one, or a lousy product into a blockbuster, no more than putting up a website turned a lousy restaurant into a crowd-pleaser. “Blockchain is not a solution for all your problems. In fact, you need to associate it with other technologies to even make it work,” writes blockchain architect Sajida Zouarhi in Medium. - Know how it works. Blockchain may sound easy to understand. But you may want to get a deeper level of understanding about its capabilities and limitations and how it actually works before you bet your reputation on a project you barely understand. It’s still considered an “emerging” technology, which means far more people are talking about it than truly understand it. Take it upon yourself to get educated.
- Know what you want to accomplish. The smartest execs are those who have some inkling of how blockchain can make their current business efforts more profitable, less time-consuming, or more streamlined. Educate yourself on how others are using the platform, and then apply it to your own business. Knowing where blockchain excels and how its capabilities can help you and your business is critical to a successful project deployment.
- Know where you’re going to get the people. There are currently 14 openings for every blockchain engineer, and the demand for blockchain developers is expected to increase 16-fold over the next 7 years. That means you’re not going to just be able to “create” a blockchain group next week — particularly if you’ve got a tight budget. Consider alternative forms of acquiring the talent you’ll need — either cross-training existing employees, or hiring straight from training programs.
Chances are, the future of your company will need to merge with the future of blockchain. But before you jump the gun, educate yourself. The only thing worse than missing the blockchain boat completely is getting on the wrong one.
John Souza is founder and CEO of Kingsland University — School of Blockchain, the world’s first accredited blockchain training program. Souza is driving conversations around education policy for skill and capacity building in emerging economies at the World Economic Forum, OECD and at conferences and summits around the world. Find out more about Kingsland’s leading-edge education at KingslandUniversity.com
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