The Relationship Between Blockchain Technology and Your Next Dinner Party

Many of us have attended a large dinner party or charity event. The process of getting to the event is usually rather simple, but the process of hosting one of these parties looks very different. Besides typical event logistics, the task to determine the invitee list is very critical. The invitee list often determines whether attendance and donation goals will be met.

Planning a Successful Dinner Party

In addition, there is the inherit pressure for the host to throw a fun and valuable party. What bells and whistles can be added to ensure the invitees with the greatest perceived value attend the event? Or in other words, how can the host get the Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the industry to attend, so that other great innovators and startups will want to join as well.

With large events, it is usually the guest list that pulls people in because it is a measure of the value of the event. Invitees will evaluate components like the social status of the host and their ability to attract others to the event.  The host can sometimes also establish enough community pressure for invitees, like having Elon and Jeff.

As you evaluate the nature of party planning, you will realize the inherent level of trust required, for both attendees and hosts.  For instance, a guest would not attend the next charity dinner if donation requests were projected to triple or if the headlining guests do not attend.  And as a host, would you invite someone that caused turmoil between guests or crashed the party? All involved parties have expectations of one another and the success of the event will ultimately be determined by whether or not these expectations are met and if all parties go home with gained benefit.

Creating a Valuable Blockchain

So, how does the dinner party relate to blockchain? The value of blockchain technologies lies in the secure, trusted exchange of data between different parties.  When viewed from the dinner party perspective, you will find the challenge with blockchain is not technology, but a social issue–the lack of trust. For example, the stakeholders of the supply chain must see the value to participate in the information exchange required for blockchain technologies, much like attending a party.

For blockchain to be successful, the stakeholders of the supply chain need to be willing to invest by sharing their information with others. Unfortunately, suppliers often fear exposure. In the past, suppliers have shared critical information to optimize the supply chain but procurement organizations leveraged the information against them by using key specifics, like supply chain insights and manufacturing data, to ultimately reduce their costs while suppliers received no value from the exchange. This created a lack of trust.

Managing a Promising Blockchain

But the CEOs from each organization, much like party hosts, have the ability to manage this trust.  The CEOs decide who to invite and ensure the right people are at the party. For example, if Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, invites Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing CEO, to a party with other industry leaders, the trust is likely established. Invitees can be certain attending will increase their value while also contributing their own personal value to the party.

By using blockchain to build a community and create a knowledge sharing platform, system thinking is established.  With blockchain technologies, issues can be identified and the entire value chain can collaborate to find a solution. This breaks down silos, while optimizing the value chain. Quality issues or delays can be identified in time to cohesively develop a mitigation plan.  Delays can be expensive and the costs are pushed down the supply chain, but if everyone collaborates, everyone benefits.  Meanwhile, the information shared is managed securely by each participant.

Blockchain is an enabling technology which requires a different approach based on the foundation of community.  With this new technology, the A&D industry has the opportunity to build trust amongst individuals while also maximizing the technologies already in place.

To learn and discuss more about the trust and collaboration required for blockchain technologies, get registered for SAPPHIRENOW 2018 and attend the following sessions:

• Boost Response Time and Efficiency with Collaborative Operations (Session ID: LE61869)
• Protect and Preserve with Blockchain Opportunities in the Defense Industry (Session ID: IN61193)
• Transform Your Supply Chain into a Chain of Trust with Efficient Logistics (Session ID: LE61838)

In the meantime, have some fun with our technical party favors here.