JPMorgan’s focus on blockchain is part of their digital transformation roadmap
A study into JPMorgan’s digital transformation initiatives has revealed that blockchain is a key technology for the bank’s roadmap, according to a press release published by ResearchAndMarkets.com (RM) October 3.
RM has analyzed JPMorgan’s enterprise-wide strategies to secure its “competitive edge” against rival banks, non-financial firms, and fintech startups. The bank has reportedly earmarked $10.8 billion for technology spending in 2018, $5 billion of which will go towards fintech investments.
The study covers JPMorgan’s digital transformation roadmap, with blockchain listed as the first in a range of bleeding-edge technologies that are being pursued by the bank — including big data, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.
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Working for a “Big Company” Can Be Fun, If . . .
Big companies don’t innovate fast enough.
Big companies tend to build a “kill-zone” around themselves. They destroy everything and everyone that gets too close.
There is no joy in working for a big company. More personal fulfilment can be found in a startup or other younger and smaller organization.
I come across these statements a lot in the media (old and new) recently. Many of my co-workers and students appear to agree.
Of course, there is something to these ideas. The pace and range of digital innovations as well as shorter innovation cycles make it much more difficult for bigger companies to survive. This sort of pressure is not going to deliver a stable and fulfilling work environment. And this trend seems set to continue in the future, making working for (and with) big companies even less attractive.
But there is a flip side and we shouldn’t dismiss corporate giants too quickly. Working for (as an employee) or with big companies (as a startup or research institution) can be exciting, rewarding, and inspiring. It may even be the best and only way to build a career or have an impact with your startup.
However, this will all depend on whether that big company is operating as an “intelligent platform.”
What is an “Intelligent Platform”?
When I use the term “Intelligent Platform”, people immediately assume that I am talking about companies that operate a “social” platform (Facebook, Instagram), an “exchange” platform (Amazon, Airbnb), a “content” platform (YouTube, Medium), a “software” platform (GE’s Predix, Microsoft’s GitHub), or even a “blockchain” platform (Ethereum, EOS).
This is not surprising. After all, the emergence of these new platforms and services has been one of the major economic developments of the last two decades.
But we should recognize that there is so much more to “platform companies” than facilitating transactions, exchanging information, or connecting people. There is a much more important lesson to be learned from the success of such companies.
What platform companies all have in common is that they empower and facilitate experimentation, collaboration, and co-creation amongst multiple groups of stakeholders.
These stakeholders include employees and investors, but also consumers, developers, content creators, other companies (both large and small), non-profits, educational institutions, governments, etc.
What makes an “intelligent platform” special is that it uses stakeholders’ input and feedback to improve the user experience and engagement with the “platform” and its products, services, and other solutions. This is the real lesson to be taken from the success of Amazon, Facebook, Netflix,etc.
Crucially, digital technologies are central to this approach. In this sense, all companies that wish to operate as intelligent platforms need to think and act “as if” they are a tech company.
As such, intelligent platforms are built around the idea of delivering constant innovation via an open and inclusive process of co-creation. By “organizing-for-innovation” in this way, such platforms are radically different from the clearly defined, static roles and fixed hierarchies of traditional organizations.
These are the distinctive features of “intelligent platforms”, and this is why, in an age of hyper-competitive global markets, every company needs to re-invent itself as an “intelligent platform.”
But more than that, everyone needs to ask themselves:
Is my (current or prospective) employer organized as an intelligent platform?
And why does this matter so much? Because only “intelligent platforms” can deliver the kind of environment conducive to a meaningful, fulfilling, and fun experience. Working for a big company can be fun, but only if it is organized as an intelligent platform.
So, how can we tell whether a company is organized in this way?
The 4 “Ingredients” of Intelligent Platforms
It should be noted that there is no “one-size-fits-all” model for such platforms.
Intelligent platforms can take multiple forms ranging from slightly “tweaked” versions of traditional (hierarchical and closed) companies through to the (flat and open) blockchain-based “decentralized autonomous organizations.” The “best” approach depends on the individualized circumstances of a particular business or organization.
The structure and organization of an intelligent platform does depend on four crucial “ingredients.” Every company has to analyze and use these ingredients to find the unique recipe for its “platform” to maximize creativity and opportunities for innovation.
And every employee needs to understand these ingredients in order to find an organization that works for them.
1 — Technology
It could be argued that intelligent platforms aren’t new. Some form of platforms has always been around. The exponential growth of technology, however, has significantly accelerated the emergence, possibilities, and opportunities of platforms.
For instance, Airbnb or Amazon rely...
A Comparison of Digital Transformations: Blocknet and Evernote
Blockchain technology. The Evernote app. Two completely different worlds, right? Well, there might be a whole lot more in common than you may think. Before the internet took an irreversible hold on the world, digital note-taking took place on simple programs like Notepad. Notes could be easily taken and saved onto your local—but isolated—machine. As the internet grew, the need to access this type of saved information across multiple devices soon became vital. Eventually, Notepad was usurped by the Evernote app, which utilized the power of “the cloud.” Evernote allowed notes to now become accessible across multiple devices and via peripheral services, including Quickbooks, Dropbox, Google Drive and many more.
As the internet opened the door to a new wave of cloud applications—just like Evernote—Blocknet is creating an internet of blockchains for a new generation of decentralized applications that can interconnect any blockchain to another. Blockchains today are at the cutting edge of technology, yet their isolation is similar to that of the original Notepad app. Specifically, there’s an obstacle that needs to be tackled: blockchains can only communicate with themselves and cannot communicate with any other blockchain. Data cannot be transferred between blockchains. This places enormous limitations on what blockchain technology (as a whole) has the potential to achieve. Blockchains need to evolve in the same way that Notepad lead to Evernote. Blockchains should be able to freely and effortlessly connect with any other blockchain.
The Internet of Blockchains
Blocknet has built an interoperability infrastructure that enables blockchains to connect with one another, creating an “Internet of Blockchains.” The Blocknet protocol gives blockchains the ability to communicate, opening the door for cross-chain applications. By allowing blockchains to integrate with each other, directly chain-to-chain, without being a middleman to the data itself, the Blocknet protocol gives any application the ability to utilize different blockchains. In addition, the Blocknet protocol offers a solution to the issue of...