>> (soft music) >> Presenter: From around the globe. It's theCUBE with digital coverage of IBM Think 2021 brought to you by IBM. >> Welcome back everyone to the CUBE's coverage of IBM Think 2021. I'm your host, John furry with theCUBE. Our next guest Manish Chawla who's the industry general manager of energy, resources and manufacturing, a great guest to break down this next generation of infrastructure modern applications and changing the business in the super important areas he's regulated verticals. Manish, it's great to see you. Thank you for coming back on theCUBE. >> Thank you John. Good to meet you. >> You know, this is the area where I've been saying for years the cloud brings great scale horizontally scalable data, but at the end of the day, AI and automation really has to be specialized in the verticals. In this we're going to see the action the ecosystems for connecting. This is a big deal here I think this year, transformation is the innovation, innovation at scale. This seems to be the underlying theme that we've been reporting on. So I'd love to get your thoughts on how you see this Fourth Industrial Revolution as you say, coming about. Can you define for us what that means? And when you say that, what does it mean for customers? >> Yeah, sure, sure. So, you know, in sort of simple terms all the technologies that we see around us, whether it's AI we talk about AI, we talk about 5G, we talk about Edge Cloud Robotics. So the application of those to the physical world in some sense in the industrial world is what we define as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Essentially, it's the convergence between the humans, the physical aspect, like the machines and the cyber either digital aspects, bringing that together. So companies can unlock the value from the terabytes and petabytes of data that our connected world is now able to produce. >> How does the IOT world come in? We've been again, I did a panel I think two years ago called you know the industrial IOT Armageddon. And it was really kind of pointing. It was kind of provocative title, but the point was you know, the industrial connections are all devices now and they're connected to the network security super important. This industrial revolution includes this new edge. >> It's got to be smarter and intelligent. What's your take on that? >> Yeah, absolutely. It is about the edge. It's about devices. It's about delivering capturing the data from the umpteen devices. You know, we've recently heard about the chip shortage which gives you an idea that there is so much utilization of compute power everywhere in the world. And the world is becoming very software defined. So whether it's software defined machines software defined products, the washing machines that we use at home, the cars we use home, everything is gradually becoming, not gradually I'd say rapidly becoming intelligent. And so that edge or IOT is the foundation stone of everything we're talking about. >> Well, you mentioned software on a chip SOC that's a huge mega wave coming. That's going to bring so much more compute into smaller form factors which leads me to my next question, which kind of, I'm kind of answering for myself but I'm not a manufacturing company but why should they care about this trend from a business perspective besides the obvious new connection points? What's really in it for them? >> Yeah. So big topic right now is this topic of resilience, right? So that's one aspect. This, the pandemic has taught us that resilience is a core objective. The second objective, which is front and center of all CEOs or CEOs is out-performance. And so what we're seeing is out-performance are investing in technology for many goals, right? So it's either sustainability which is a big topic these days, and a huge priority. It's about efficiency. It's about productivity. It's also now more and more about delivering a much stronger customer experience, right? Making your products easier to use much easily consumable as well. So if you, when you pull it all together it's an end to end thinking about using data to drive those objectives of out-performance as well as resilience. >> What's the progress being made so far on the manufacturing industry on this front? I mean, is it moving faster or you mentioned accelerating but where is the progress bar right now? >> So I think as we came into 2020, I would have described it as we were starting to enter the chapter two where companies were moving from experimentation to really thinking of scaling this. And what we found is the pandemic really caused a big focus on these, as Winston Churchill has been attributed the quote "Never waste a good crisis." A lot of CEOs, a lot of executives and leadership really put their energy into accelerating digital transformation. I think we really, two thirds have been able to accelerate their digital transformation. So the good news is, you know companies don't have to be convinced about this anymore. They're really, their focus is on where should I start? Where should I focus? And what should I do next? Right, is really the focus. And they are investing in sort of two types of technologies is the way we see it. What I would call foundational technologies because there's a recognition that to apply the differentiating technologies like AI and capturing and taking value of the data you need a strong architectural foundation. So whether it's cybersecurity, it's what we call ITOT integration connecting the devices back to the mothership. And it's also applying cloud but cloud in this context is not about typically what we think as public cloud or a central spot. It's really bringing cloud-like technologies also to the edge or to the plant or to the device itself whether it's a mobile device or a physical device. And that foundation is that recognition that you've got to have the foundation that you can build your capabilities on top. Whether it's for customers or clients or colleagues. >> That's a great insight on the architecture. I think that's a successful playbook. It sounds so easy. I do agree with you. I think people have said this is a standard now hybrid cloud, the edge pretty clear visibility on the architecture of what to do or what needs to be done, how to do it, all other story. So I have to ask you, we hear of these barriers. There's always blockers. I think COVID's released some of those relieved some of those blockers because people have to force their way into the transformation but what are those barriers that are stopping the acceleration for customers to achieve the benefits that they need to see? >> Yeah. So I think one or one key barrier is a recognition that most of our plants or manufacturing facilities or supply chains really run in a brownfield manner. I, there's so many machines so many facilities that have been built over decades. So there's a proliferation of different ages of devices, machines, et cetera. So making sure that there is a focus on laying out a foundation, that's a key barrier. There is also a concern that, you know the companies have around cybersecurity. The more you connect the more you increase the attack surface. And we know that that hacks and so on are, are a dominant issue now whether it's for ransomware or for other malicious reasons. And so modernizing the foundation and making sure you're doing it in a secure way those are the key concerns that executives have. And then another key barrier I see is making sure that you have a key, key core objective and not making too many different varied experimentation beds. So keeping a focus on what's the core use case of benefit you're after and then what's the foundation to make sure that you're going after it. Like I said, whether it's quality or productivity or such like. >> So the keys to success, if I get this right is you have the right framework for this as you say, industry 4.0 you got to understand the collaborative dynamics and then have an ecosystem. >> Yeah. Can you unpack those three things? Because take me through that. You got to the framework, the collaboration and the ecosystem. What does that mean specifically? >> So the way I take the simplest way to think of it is the amount of work and effort that all companies have to put in, is so great in front of them. The opportunities are so great as well that nobody can hire all the smart people that are needed to achieve the goals. Everybody has their own specific I would say focus and capabilities they bring to bear. So the collaboration between manufacturers the collaboration between operational technology companies like the Siemens, ABB, Schlumberger, et cetera and IT technology companies like ourselves that three-part collaboration is sort of the heart of what I see as ecosystems coming together. The other dimensionality of ecosystems is also looking at it from a supply chain or a value chain perspective cause how something becomes more intelligent or smarter or more effective is also being able to work across the supply chain or value chain. So those are our key focus areas make sure we are collaborating across value chains and supply chains, as well as collaborating with manufacturers and OT, operational technology companies to be able to bring these digital capabilities with the right capabilities of operational technology companies into the manufacturers. >> If I asked you, how are you doing that? What specifically would you say? I mean, how are you collaborating? What's some examples give some examples of this enaction. >> Certainly. So we recently announced over the last say, nine months or so three strategic, very transformative partnerships. The first one I'll share with you is with Schlumberger. Schlumberger is the world's largest oil field services company. And now also the world's largest distill technology company for the oil and gas industry. So we've collaborated with them to bring hybrid cloud to the digital platform so they now can deploy their capabilities to any customer regardless of whether they want it in country or on a public cloud. Another example is we've established a data platform with Schlumberger for the oil and gas industry, to be able to bring again that data platform to any location around the world. The advantage of hybrid, the advantage of AI. With EVB, what we've done is we've taken our smart sync IT security connected with their products and capabilities for operational systems. And now are delivering an end to end solution that you can get cyber alerts or issues coming from manufacturing systems dry down to right up to an IT command center where you're seeing all the events and alerts so that they can be acted upon right away. So that's a great example of collaborating with IT from a security point of view. The third one is industrial IOT with Siemens and we've partnered with Siemens to deliver the MindSphere private cloud edition. Delivered on our red hat hybrid cloud. So this is an example where we are able to take our horizontal technologies, apply it with their verticals smarts and deep industry context put our services capabilities on top of it so they can deliver their innovations anywhere >> Manish is such an expert on this such a great leader on this area and I have to ask you you know, you've been in this mode of evangelizing and leading teams and building solutions around digital re platforming or whatever you want to call it, renovations. >> Manish: Right >> What's the big deal now, if you had to, I mean, it seems like it's all coming together with red hat under the covers, you get distributed networks with the Edge. It's all kind of coming together now for the verticals because you got the best of both worlds. Programmable scalable infrastructure with modern software applications on top. I mean, you've been even in the industry for many many waves, why is this wave so big and important? >> So I think there is no longer the big reason why it's important is I think there's no reason why companies have to be convinced now that the clarity is there that this needs to happen so that's one. The second is, I think there's a high degree of expectation among consumers, among employees and among customers as well, that everything that we touch will be intelligent. So these technologies really unlock the value unlock the value, and they can be deployed at scale that's really, I think what we're seeing as the focus now. And being able to deliver the innovation anywhere whether someone wants it at the Edge next to a machine that's operating, or be able to look at how a manufacturing facility or different product portfolio is doing in the boardroom. It's all available. And so that shop floor, the top floor connection is what everybody's aiming for but we also now call it Edge to enterprise. >> And everything works better, the employees are happy people are happy, stakeholders are happy. Manish great insight. Thank you for sharing here on theCUBE for Think 2021. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. >> Absolutely thanks John for having me. >> Okay. I'm John Furry host theCUBE for IBM Think 2021. Thanks for watching. (soft music)

>>from around the >>globe. It's the cube with digital >>coverage of IBM >>Think 2021 >>brought to you by IBM. Welcome back everyone to the cubes coverage of IBM Think 2021 I'm your host john ferry with the cube. Our next guest is Michelle well who's the industry General manager of Energy resources manufacturing. Great guest to break down this next generation of infrastructure, modern applications and changing the business and the super important areas is regulated verticals. Great to see you. Thank you for coming back on the queue. >>Thank you john good to meet you. >>You know this is the area where I've been saying for years the cloud brings great scale, horizontally scalable data but at the end of the day AI and automation really has to be specialized in in the verticals and this. We're going to see the action ecosystems for connecting. This is a big deal here think this year transformation is the innovation innovation at scale. It seems to be the underlying theme that we've been reporting on. So I'd love to get your thoughts on how you see this fourth industrial revolution as you say, coming about. Can you define for us what that means and when you say that, what does it mean for customers? >>Yeah, sure, sure. So you know, in in sort of simple terms, all the technologies that we see around us whether it's a I we talk about a I we talked about five G. We talk about edge cloud, robotics. So the application of those to the physical world in some sense, in the industrial world is what we define as uh as the fourth industrial revolution. Essentially it's the convergence between the humans, the physical aspect by the machines and the cyber at the digital aspects, bringing that together so companies can unlock the value from the terabytes and petabytes of data that's that are connected world is now able to produce, >>How does the IOT world come in? We've been again, I did a panel I think two years ago called you know the industrial IOT Armageddon. And it was really kind of point, it was kind of provocative title but the point was you know, the industrial connections are all devices now and they're connected to the network security. Super important, this industrial revolution includes this new edge, it's gotta be smarter and intelligent. What's your take on that? >>Absolutely, it is about the edge, it's about devices, it's about delivering capturing the data from the emptying devices. We've recently heard about the chip shortage which gives you an idea that there is so much utilization of compute power everywhere in the world and the world is becoming very software defined. So whether it's software defined machines, software defined products, the washing machines that he that we use at home, the cars we use at home, there everything is gradually becoming, not gradually, I'd say rapidly becoming intelligent and so that edge or IOT is the foundation stone also everything we're talking about. >>Well you mentioned software on a chip, S. O. C. Um, that's a huge mega wave coming. That's gonna bring so much more compute into smaller form factors. Which leads me to my next question, which kind of, I'm kind of answering for myself, but I'm not a manufacturing company, but why should they care about this trend from a business perspective? Besides the obvious new connection points? What's really in it for them? >>Yes, it's a big topic right now, is, is this topic of resilience? Right, So that's one aspect uh, this the pandemic has taught us that resilience is a core objective. The second objective which which is front and center of all CEOS, or CEOS, is out performance. And so what we're seeing is is out performance, are investing in technology for many goals, right? So it's either sustainability which is a big topic these days and huge priority. Uh it's about efficiency, it's about productivity, it's also now more and more about delivering a much stronger customer experience, right? Making your products easier to use much easily consumable as well. So, if you, when you pull it all together, it's it's an end to end thinking about using data to drive those objectives of out performance, as well as resilience. >>What's the progress being made so far in the manufacturing industry on this front? I mean, is it moving faster? Are you mentioned accelerating? But where is the progress bar? Right now? >>So, I think as we came into 2020, I would have described it as we were starting to enter the Chapter. Two companies were moving from experimentation to really thinking of scaling this and and what we found is the pandemic really caused a big focus on these. As Winston Churchill has been attributed the court never waste a good crisis. So a lot of ceos, a lot of executives and leadership really put their What their energy into accelerate industrial transformation. I think we relieve 2/3 southwell have been able to accelerate the industrial transformation. So the good news is, you know, companies don't have to be convinced about this anymore. They're really they're focuses on what's where should I start? Where should I focus on what should I do next? Right is really the focus and they're investing instead of two types of technologies is the way we see it, what I would call foundational technologies because there's a recognition that to apply the differentiating technologies like Ai and captured and taking value of the data, you need a strong architectural foundation. So whether it's it's cybersecurity, it's what we call it, the integration, connecting the devices back to to the mother ship and it's also applying cloud. But cloud in this context is not about typically what we think is public cloud or or or central spot. It's really bringing cloud like technology is also to the edge I. E. To the plant or to the device itself, whether it's a mobile device or a physical device. And that foundation is the recognition that you've got to have the foundation, that you can build your your capabilities on top, whether it's for customers or clients and colleagues >>as a great insight on the architecture, I think that's a successful playbook. Um It sounds so easy, I do agree with you. I think people have said this is a standard now, Hybrid cloud the edge, pretty clear visibility on the architecture of what to do or what needs to be done, how to do it almost story. So I have to ask you, we hear this barriers, there's always blockers. I think Covid released some of those, relieved some of those blockers because people have to force their way into into the transformation. But what are those barriers um that that are stopping the acceleration for customers to achieve the benefits that they need to see. >>Yes. So I think 11 key barrier is is a recognition that most of our plants or manufacturing facilities that supply chains really run run in a brownfield manner. I there's so many machines, so many facilities that have been built over decades. So there's a there's a proliferation of different ages of devices, machines, etcetera. So making sure that there is a focus on laying out the foundation. That's a key key barrier. Uh There is also a concern that uh you know, the companies have around cybersecurity, the more you connect, the more you increase the attack surface and we know that that acts and so on are the dominant issue. Now, whether it's for ransom, fair or for or for other malicious reasons, uh and so modernizing the foundation and making sure you're doing it in a secure way. Those are the key concerns that executives have. And then another key barrier I see is making sure that you have a key key core objective and not making sure making too many different varied experimentation bets. So keeping a focus on what's the call? Use case of benefit your after and then what's the foundation to make sure that you're going after it? Like I said, whether it's quality or productivity or such, like >>So the keys to success that I get this right is gonna have the right framework for this, as you say, industry 4.0, you got to understand the collaborative dynamics and then have an ecosystem. Yeah, can you unpack those three things? Because take me through that, you got to the framework, the collaboration and the ecosystem. What does that mean? Specifically? >>So uh the way, I think the simplest way to think of it as the amount of work and effort that all companies have been put in is so great in front of them, the opportunities are so great as well uh that nobody can hire all the smart people that are needed to achieve the goals. Everybody has their own specific I would say focus and capabilities they bring to bear. So the collaboration between manufacturers, the collaboration between operational technology companies like the Seaman's, A B B, Schlumberger's, etcetera. And and it technology companies like ourselves that three part collaboration is sort of the heart of what I see as ecosystems coming together. The other dimensionality of ecosystems is also looking at it from a supply chain or value chain perspective because how something becomes more intelligent or smarter or more effective is also being able to work across the supply chain or value chain. So those, those are our key focus areas, make sure we are collaborating across value chains and supply chains as well as collaborating with manufacturers and oT operational technology companies to be able to bring these digital capabilities with the right capabilities of operational technology companies into the manufacturers. >>If I asked you, how is you doing that? What specifically would you say? I mean, how are you collaborating? What's some examples, give some examples of of this in action? >>Certainly. So we recently announced uh over the last say nine months or so, three strategic very translated partnerships. The first one I'll share with you is uh is which number number two is the world's largest oil field services company and now also the world's largest distal technology company for the oil and gas industry. So we've collaborated with them to bring hybrid cloud to the digital platforms so they now can deploy the capabilities to any customer regardless of whether they want it in country or on a public cloud. Another example is we've we've established a data platform which number J for the oil and gas industry to be able to bring again that data platform to any location around the world. The advantage of hybrid, the advantage of A. I with the B. B. What we've done is we've taken our smarts in I. T. Security connected with their products and capabilities for operational systems and now are delivering an into institution that you can get cyber alerts or issues coming from from manufacturing systems right down to right up to an I. T. Command center where you're seeing all the events and alerts so that they can be acted upon right away. So that's a great example of collaborating with from a security point of view. The 3rd 1 is industrial iot with ceilings and we've partnered with Siemens to deliver their minds Fear Private cloud edition delivered on our red hat Hybrid cloud. So this is an example where we are able to take our horizontal technologies, apply it with their vertical smarts and deep industry cause of context put our services capabilities on top of it so they can deliver their innovations anymore. >>It is such an expert on this, such a great leader on this area. And I have to ask you, you know, you've been in this um mode of evangelizing and leading teams and building solutions around digital re platform or whatever you wanna call her innovation. Um what's the big deal now? If you had to? I mean, it seems like it's all coming together with red hat under the covers, get distributed networks with the edge, it's all kind of coming together now for the verticals because you get the best of both worlds programmable scalable infrastructure with modern software applications on top. I mean you've been even even in the industry for many, many waves, why is this wave so big and important? >>So I think there is no longer uh big reason why it's important. I think there's no no reason why companies have to be convinced now the clarity is there, that this needs to happen. So that's one. The second is I think there is a high degree of expectation among consumers, among employees and among among customers as well that everything that we touch will be intelligent. So these technologies really unlock the value, uh unlock the value and they can be deployed at scale. That's really, I think what we're seeing as the focus now and being able to deliver the innovation anywhere, whether someone wants it at the edge next to a machine that's operating or be able to look at how a manufacturing facility or different product portfolio is doing in the boardroom, it's all available and so that shop floor, the top floor connection is what everybody is aiming for. We also now called edge to enterprise >>And everything works better. The employees are happy, people are happy to, stakeholders are happy finish. Great insight. Thank you for sharing here on the Cube for think 2021. Thanks for coming on the Cube. >>Absolutely. Thanks for having me. >>Okay. I'm John Kerry hosted the queue for IBM think 2021. Thanks for watching. Yeah. Mm. Yeah.

>>Yeah, >>from The Cube Studios in Palo Alto and Boston. It's the Cube covering IBM. Think brought to you by IBM. >>Everybody welcome back to the Cube's coverage of the IBM think 2020 digital event experience. My name is Dave Volante. Manish Gupta is here. He's the global managing director for chemicals, petroleum and industrial products that IBM Manish. Thanks so much for coming on The Cube. How you doing out there in Saratoga, California? All good. >>I'm doing great. I'm doing great, given, considering everything. The role of all of this. >>I mean, right, it's tough times, but look it, We can still, you know, have a smile every now and then, right? I mean, you know, it's very nice for a lot of people in our hearts. Go out. Everybody there. So I I want to start off one of the areas that you're steeped in is the energy sector. You know, generally, people are very much concerned about oil. Price of oil drop below, you know, zero went negative. People have been paying people take oil and understand that was a technical, but still the prices of depressed >>I >>learned about credit risk and the like. But what's your take on what's going on in the energy sector right now? >>Yes. So I think the companies that, uh, that have taken on a lot of debt and don't have a stable operating conditions will naturally suffer through this in the oil industry. Clearly, until the prices come back with will be as demand picks up, that would be several months to more than that. As we can imagine, we'll see the The more stable companies, the more I'll say companies that have ah longer balance sheets survived for sure. In addition, you know, the the other aspect of it is of course, they're all double down on making sure your companies and your free services companies or double down on productivity conserving cash as well as considering how they accelerate. In my view, there transition are more more profitable areas of growth as demand comes back, >>is there? Is there a silver lining here? I mean, in normal times, you know, of the oil price drops and the like, a tax cut. Um, I know the government. The United States government, anyway, has been beefing up its strategic reserves that has a history of buying low Is there any good that you see coming out of this? So >>So I think the good that'll come out is is surely that the stronger companies will come through more successfully. The company that have taken less risk, the companies that have that have invested in more more stable operating platforms and and at the end of the day, I think, the companies that have taken a more future proof strategy for their business portfolio. So whether you take a B B, for example or a shell, they're actively working the words deporting the energy transition. I think that will be the You'll see an acceleration of companies starting the thinker off where they need to go in the future. You support the energy transition. I think the silver lining of the end of the day will be, Ah, that as is, sometimes you just said oil is very precious. Resource, therefore, should not be burned. And and so the question at hand is, you know, what do you do with with all the oil that's available? What do you build out of it? Whether it's petrochemicals, I think that transition to more future proof product portfolio on business model will be will be truly the silver lining. >>How about the broader industrial companies that you follow? I mean, they were sort of moving down a path of digital transformation. I o t obviously is the big theme within many industrial sectors. What are you seeing in the broader? >>So I think in the broader base clearly, you know, supply chains and the spread of barely, you know, demand demand dropping prior demand signals which were sometimes ignored for historical reporting. Ah, that that is now becoming more important. I your sense and response by then. So as you step back and look that that they need to maintain business continuity is, of course, the highest priority. But as they come out off this, we expect that we're thinking of this is as the future for industrial sector will be. What we would call is hybrid. I you know, supply chains will need to be local and global manufacturing will need to be both traditional. A swell is additive. I you know, you you produce more, more locally and in addition of products and services will need to be a combination of digital and and physical. And at the end of the day if you step back. I saw something recently that said, Ah, you know who's leading the digital transformation in your company Now the multiple choices were the CEO, the CDO CIO, or is it? And this option was circled over 19. If you think of it in simple terms, covered, 19 is creating the acceleration of digital transformation because the only valid response in in my mind as you look at these ah as these different hybrid models is a consideration of technology being being a fulcrum off, getting a future proof of black mom. >>So it would seem to me that the financial framework are going to change. The The notion of how you made money for the last 10 years is not going to be the way you make money going forward. Yeah, there's there's likely to be some share shifts. In other words, those that figure out how to be profitable with this sort of new model perhaps could gain share efficiently. And and maybe you're going to see some share shifts in the industrial zone. What are your thoughts on that? >>Yes. So companies that are in what we would call essential of vertical industries will definitely be the ones that they continue to grow. You take a simple example, or for spectral chemicals companies, companies that make make plastics as well as chemical, they're going to a variety of other applications. Plastics. Interestingly enough, it's now a resurgence, and the reason it's resurgent is it's really it's a boarding, you know, hygiene, packaging, medical packaging, etcetera, etcetera. We'll see industries that shift that way if we step back and look at a broader and broader ah study that was done actually about 10 years ago by Harvard. With that, the companies that survive a recession, I think it said about 9% of the company's actually flourish coming out of a recession, about 75% take three years to recover and on the remainder was. I think if you do the math about 17 18% Ah, do not survive. But to do such a recession now, the ones that drive through >>I >>had a dual focus on both the customer experience and customer engagement and shifting to areas of higher value by thinking of what they should be doing and how they should be doing doing those things and Secondly, they also focused a lot on on operational improvements. And whether that's obliging, that's manufacturing. It's whether it's outsourcing non core functions. Automating that's a problem that you're focused on customer on operations is the hallmark of a successful outcome. Was what the study studied determined putting that that that your focus is what will be the the prime hallmark as we come through this >>interesting it Now, of course, biology sort of got us into this problem in technology. Deal with some of these issues on Help us get out of this problem. And what specifically is IBM doing? >>Yes, So we've We've identified seven areas off focus as we think of off coming out of this crisis, and we have referred to those 78 years of off focus as being our emerge. Stronger areas of focus the ones that I think are relevant, are including new ways of working. Ah, cyber resilience. Thinking of extreme motivation, automation. An intelligent work flows thinking off, making sure that we are eating our clients with having more in a more system that are available on demand, helping them create platforms and applications that can work regardless of the location At the end of the day, we step back for a brief three areas of focus that we see will be new. It new ways of working and supporting work. They're working or remote working. Ah, extreme automation. When industrial companies come back to work safe, distancing, he's going to be the norm as well as allowing for but the fact that you want to be you want to be prepared for the next crisis. Therefore, extreme automation, whether that implementing robots and factories or or implementing solutions that guide you in the worker safety or workers being close together as well as supporting customer engagement or the customer experience is being done. Putting that extreme automation layer through so that so that the reliance and the ability to cooperate with out the workforce becomes more important. I think it's really the acceleration that we expect. We'll be able to support our clients with, uh, as as they come out of there soon, as they as they had after the next normal. >>You see software robots as being a part of that sort of automation friends, you know, r p A and the like >>for sure that that's an important part, especially in the back office functions that will be software robots and, I think, layered on top of that when you buy AI. Then you have AI augmenting a lot of professionals, whether it's chat bots in customer call centers or technical service centers or or it far greater increasing in automation processes that could be automated. But then the AI would would support for the rest that can't be simply automated but need intelligence support as well. >>So if I go back to your CEO of a Harvard study, last thing I want to be I'm on the board just feels, is in your 17%. I either want to be in the 90% if I'm well positioned right now, and maybe you have an opportunity to do so. But if not, I'm in that fat middle. And I really wanna be ableto come out of this stronger, even if it may might take a couple of years. So my question is, it seems like companies, they're gonna have to, at least in the near term, potentially sacrifice profitability in order to gain that business continuance, business resiliency that you talked about. Can they can They have their cake and eat it, too. In other words, can they maybe take a near term hit on profitability? But they ultimately become more successful and more profitable? Maybe using data >>the data would be one thing. I think the other part of this will will using data, for example, to predict demand forecast where where the puck is going and the use of data on on a monthly basis is going to be inadequate. Clearly right. Getting more more capability for real time demand sensing to create platforms that allow us to allow companies to understand where needs are emerging so that they can pivot there. Ah, their product portfolio accordingly, Collaborating with customers in in a far more I'll call it CO create crowd source way Ah would create more resilient customer relationship that come out in the future as well. And at the end, I think they'll be also an element around asset like strategies, which requires partnering with IBM suppliers etcetera, which then allow data to be the foundation where you can essentially say I'm using this much of this capability our forces, I'm investing in insignificant of capital a place. >>So when I talk to executives. I'm hearing the consistent themes We very much are concerned about the health and well of our of our employees getting remote home infrastructure going once we ensure that they're healthy, we want to make sure that they're productive getting staying close to customers for sure. Making Short Foster are in line because there's so much uncertainty. But not a lot of time right now is being spent on sort of the long term strategic aspect of the organization that maybe will come back slowly. So what advice are you giving the organizations right now in this situation? >>Yeah. So I think the biggest focus would be, as I think, Winston Churchill said, this never based a good crisis. Eso So considering considering that as being the backdrop Ah, these are the times when, when recognizing what would be the sources of value, like I said before making sure the dual focus is kept in mind, apart from of course, ah, employee health and safety and engagement. Ah, then then, in addition to that, keeping in mind that the localization off supply chains will need to be a big topic keeping your ah, as they say, powder dry for but the opportunity of buyer and march. I would also be an element start considering how you re configure your supply chain. And at the end of the day, another important element would be making sure that you are Ah, you. As you come out of this, don't lose sight off sustainable development. No as well as you go back to the things off the fact that since digital will be an important fulcrum come out the other end apart from the other elements we talked about that you start prioritized those digital transformation programs that focus on both operations and supply chain as well as customer engagement. And that becomes a key focus and no longer just driven by, Let's say, the straight business case, but also persisting and ending. The resilience will come out and deal with people prices as well. >>So many of those things that you just mentioned might have been culturally challenging for a lot of organizations prior to over it. But in a way, organization's going to get covert Mulligan or the CEO. You know, the boards of directors might have felt like okay, we had to make some changes, but we got to be careful now with Covic being such a disruptor. Uh huh. Organizations been really drive forward and set up for the next decade. Bring us home. What do your final thought? >>Yeah, I think boards and see years have Do you have to really think of this in stages and and start to Of course, the initially the start of this crisis was not not planned, but recognizing that this recovery will appear in stages, so we think of it is respond, which is where most companies are the next day being ah you know, being being recover, which is getting started back up or dealing with demand and so on. And the third stage being green went I think boards and see years need to start putting perhaps three work streams in place around these three different time horizons. And keep that they're planning in place so that they can effectively work to recovery while they have a separate stream. That's focusing on the reinvent, but they're more resilient and more prepared, and they are able to take and take advantage of both the opportunities as well as of getting more resilient company for the future, >>great insight and an awesome advice. Thanks so much for coming on The Cube. Really appreciate your time. >>Appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity. >>You're very welcome. And thank you for watching everybody. We're seeing the pattern emerged where? We're not just gonna go back the last decade. We're really gonna have toe prepare for the next decade. Business resiliency and business continuance and flexibility. It's a whole new world, folks. This is the Cube covering IBM. Think 2020 the digital event. We'll be right back right after this short break. >>Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.