>> Narrator: From theCUBE's studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with thought leaders all around the world, this is a CUBE Conversation. >> Hi and welcome to a special CUBE Conversation, I'm Stu Miniman and happy to welcome back to the program, Michelle Peluso. She is the Senior Vice President of Digital Sales as well as the Chief Marketing Officer for IBM. Michelle, thanks so much for joining us. >> Hey Stu, great to see you again. Boy we had fun at Think, thank you so much for your help. >> Yeah, well Michelle, I'm really excited to, you know, get a little bit of the inside what happened from your end. Got to talk to you, you know, at the show, instead of 20,000 people, you know, dealing with San Francisco and Moscone and everything there. You had, if I read right, 100,000 people at least registered for the digital event, you know, bring us inside a little bit the control center, what was it like being part of that event, your team, of course, all distributed, and you know, anything surprise you during that event, >> Well it was nerve wracking. (laughing) Look, what an exciting thing, and kudos to the team for so much innovation. I mean, we had in 60 days to build a platform. Of course, using IBM technology, lots of media, the IBM Cloud, integrate some third parties, build a reporting suite. We make all of the content because in this world, of course, there are different things front and center on our clients minds, and not only that, but we had to film it all in remote locations in peoples homes, and make it all work, and so the team did an extraordinary job, and on the really positive side, you mentioned we had over 100,000 clients and business partners register, but it was still even more than three times any audience we've ever had come to our physical events at Think. So it was really extraordinary, and now of course, we're following up. We have a treasure trove of information about what clients are interested in, and what our business partners are interested in. We have a great opportunity to leverage the on demand content to continue the conversation. >> It's great. It's really interesting to time shift things instead of okay I'm going to dedicate however many days to do the event. Now, I love that mix of you can watch it live, you can watch it on demand, you can follow up. You know, how are you any trends that you're seeing as to where people are going, or how you're making sure that there are people to support and engage, not just say, you know, hey, here's a lot of content, you know, go watch our breakouts, go watch the cube stuff. >> Yeah, yeah. Well this is a huge thing, right? So both in terms of what we actually had to say, we really took our time to say, we interviewed clients, we look at search, you know, what's happening, what are our clients searching for, and PS data. So our big seven conversations, things like supply chain resiliency, things like engaging customers virtually, things like virtual work and return to work. We knew that those were really pertinent conversations, and now we have, you know, a couple things happening. One, all of our sellers are reaching out to people. Their clients, their business partners to talk about what they liked, what they didn't like, where they had to go deep in that conversation to progress, that conversation. For those that maybe registered and didn't attend, we're sending them on demand sessions based on what they said they were interested in, so they can consume at their own pace, and for many, we know that there are real opportunities that have emerged. So real business opportunity if they want IBM's help with, and there, of course, we're accelerating the conversations with those clients. >> Yeah, Michelle, your team actually sent over a few questions that some of the audience gave, and one of them talked about that there is, you know, no shortage of data out there. But what they put in the question is often there's not enough people that can curate or help you sort through. So you know, I think with the digital experience, right? How are you helping people curate the information? How are you making sure that people get from, you know, the data down that path towards you know, knowledge and you know, turn data into results eventually. >> Sure, well you have to ask good questions, you know? There's got to be great data standards, and governance, and you have to ask good questions, and that's really the simple thing. And you know, for us, we can ask some very simple questions. What are the signals we have on some clients that tend to think that they're interested in going deeper? You know, the clients where, you know, we had maybe 20, 30, 40 attendees. We had some clients attend over 1,000 sessions, and you know, really, maybe they're majoring on AI, or maybe they majored on cloud, and so how do we pair up our our sellers, our client execs with those clients to talk about taking that conversation to the next phase, right? To the next opportunity. Maybe doing demos, maybe doing a virtual garage, et cetera. Secondly, we had a lot of clients actually sign up for things like virtual garages, throughout Think there were these calls to action, and so we had many clients say, "Hey, I want to start "a virtual garage. I'll take advantage of that to our "free consulting." So for them, we know that we've got to go down a very specific path very quickly. And then there are other clients where the data said you know, there's a late, maybe a little bit of interest, but we have to nurture that they're not ready for the next step. So I think it always starts with just asking great questions. We're a very data driven organization in IBM marketing. We're really passionate about what we can learn. And, you know, beyond, of course, the data and things like Think we're passionate about things like Net Promoter Score. We get a million data points every year from our clients about how they're feeling about IBM. So all this enriches our ability to make sense of this world for our clients. >> Yeah, so Michelle, what one of the things I found really interesting is we've had online events for quite a long time now. You know, we've worked with IBM on that hybrid model, in physical and online events before, but there's a real thirst for you know, what are best practices now? What can you learn? So, you know, when your peers are reaching out for you, and saying, "Hey, Michelle, you did this." Other than not trying to do it all in from you know, from start to finish in six weeks, what other tips would you give, or lessons learned that you have? >> Well, I think, first of all, the platform makes a huge decision, right? We really have to have a flawless technical experience. And so we were very lucky to have Watson Media and hosting on the IBM Cloud. But we integrated some really good third party tooling before you know, analytics, real time analytics, and things like chat, et cetera. Secondly, I think you really have to think about how to make this engaging for the audience. It can't feel like a streaming event. And so for us that meant things like chat of course, then things like moderated live expert sessions mean things like going off platforms, Reddit and hosting sessions on Reddit, things like one on one client executive briefing room. So the second part is really about engaging the audience, and making sure it doesn't just feel like streaming third, shorter is better. You know, people's attention spans are small and no one can sit for five or six hours in front of a computer and consume. So we really cut down and tightened up our key messages. That I think was critical. I think the mix of live and on demand was really powerful and something to think about, but the last thing I would say is that how you progress and follow up on that interest, we all know how to do it in the event. You know, you sit down with your client, and you just watch today in sessions, you have a beer, you're probably watching some 80's band play, and you're talking about what you like, what you think what's exciting to you. What are your challenges? In a digital world that's harder for our client reps and our sellers, and so really thinking of the onset, and how do we make sure we create the space for those conversations after the event is critical. >> Great. Well, Michelle, so where do you and the IBM team take all those learnings? You know, engagement absolutely critical as you talked? What What should we expect to be seeing from IBM through the rest of 2020 when it comes to digital apps? >> I think we'll do things really differently from here on out. I mean, I think that, you know, of course we'll go back to live physical experiences at some point when it's safe for all of us. It is in certain parts of the world already, but we have a series of Think summits coming up all around the world, that idea that you can really engage bigger audiences, we can give them time to make the most of this. They don't have to spend money flying somewhere to really go deep. That's exciting to me. I think we've learned so much. So stay tuned for the Think regional summits happening all around the world, and and I hope we continue to innovate and bring the best of physical and digital into a new brand of experiences and events. >> Yeah, it's really fascinating stuff, Michelle, right? Not only do you get to reach a global audience, but you have the opportunity to personalize things a little bit more. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you so much for joining us. Definitely... >> It's always great to see you. >> Hope to see more and more on the summit's going forward. >> Terrific, always great to see you, and always thank you for your partnership. >> All right. Thank you for watching. I'm Stu Miniman, and as always, thank you for watching theCUBE. (calming music)

>> Announcer: From theCUBE studios in Palo Alto and Boston, it's theCUBE covering IBM Think, brought to you by IBM. >> Hey, welcome back everybody to theCUBE's continuing coverage of IBM Think 2020, I'm Jeff Frick. We're in our studios in Palo Alto, and this year, IBM Think is digital, so unfortunately we're not all together at Moscone or the Stands or one of your favorite convention sites. We're bringing to you this all from people's homes, and we're excited to have our very next guest. She is Maria Winans, the CMO of North America for IBM. Maria, great to see you. >> Yeah, great to see you, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely, so let's jump into it. IBM Think 2020, the digital experience. You know, we've been going to so many IBM events for so many years, and you used to have them, you would inherit them when you brought in new companies, so there was many, many IBM events, there's a long history of IBM events. It's a really important part of your mix, but then suddenly, in mid-March, you wake up one day, and are told, "Guess what? "You can't do IBM Think in a physical event anymore." So give us a little background on what IBM thinks of events, and how important they are what you use them for, and then a little of the behind the scenes, what happened in mid-March when suddenly this thing had to go digital? >> Yeah, thank you for having me here again. theCUBE has been an integral part of many of our events, from our conferences way back when. So let me start by saying that events are at the core of our marketing strategy for driving value, for driving probe. I mean, they really are about helping us build the brand, events help us foster and nurture relationships for you and existing clients, they help us really establish that leadership. They help shape business and society, and it's a great opportunity for us to showcase our best of features, our new announcements, our product, our functionality through amazing demonstrations and labs, and more importantly, it's a great opportunity for our sellers to progress conversations and to close business. And we do all kinds of variety of events, from breakfasts to what we called roadshows, on the road, impression events, and our premier flagship event, which is Think 2020, it's the one time of year where IBM comes together, and it's a great opportunity to really showcase one idea. And that's what the Think 2020 is about. >> That's awesome. So when you guys, again, woke up mid-March, we got to change this thing, good for IBM to actually hold the date. Most of the people that we work with, which are numerous, either flat out canceled the date, postponed it to some future date where maybe things are a little bit more back to normal, or went with the digital, but even with the digital, they postponed. So as you think about what digital means, what a digital event kind of affords you, I think there's way too much conversation about what digital isn't, vis-a-vis the physical, it just isn't, it's not the same as being together. And yet on the other hand, there's a whole lot of new things you can do on digital, that you just can't do with a physical conference, so how did you guys search those things out, define what a digital event is, and then really get in a position to deliver on that promise? >> Yeah, so let me talk about that in a couple of forms. First of all, we know that our attendees perceive value our event if this really heavily depended on the in-person interactions. So as you think about that, we've had to step back and say, how do we reimagine how we deliver this meaningful, one-to-one engagement that our clients know that in a value, to really now through a digital environment, and really reimagine that whole interaction, while still maintaining that very personalized, best in class experience that our clients value, and that's what really excites me about Think 2020. First of all, we are, so let me just highlight a couple of things of why I think, and I personally am excited about Think 2020. First of all, we have broadened our reach. We are hosting over 50,000 attendees. That's clients, partners, IBMers, influencers, and we reaping a much broader set of roles and influencers who may have not had the ability to travel before to attend an in-person event. Second, complimentary. This will be our first event that of this size, that is free. So we have many more new accounts joining us to learn about IBM for the first time. And this really opens up the doors to new business and opportunities for us. Very targeted agenda. So what we've done is we've taken an event that was going to span over five days to now two days, and we went from over 2,000 sessions that we were going to run to really now, think about how do we feature 200 sessions that are very focused, that are very targeted and very much on point in messaging of really dealing with what our clients are experiencing today with the recent world crisis. Another very exciting thing is lots in media platform. We are leveraging our very own media and AI platform that can host over a million users at once, and really increases the opportunity for engagement. So very interactive experience, you know our labs are sold out. We are completely sold out of our labs, some of our sessions are wait listed, and we're also running the opportunity to do one-on-one meetings for these two days. So while we're not in person, we have a tremendous opportunity to really offer a very interactive experience by introducing live chat throughout the sessions, and really engaging clients with each other and with their sellers during the event. And then for those that cannot attend, or cannot attend all the sessions throughout the day, we are going to have what basically we're calling content on demand. The content will live on, it will live on in different platforms, and we will be delivering the content to our clients, making it accessible at any time whenever it's convenient for them. So super excited about what the teams have done to really step back and reimagine this whole experience maintaining the interactivity, the personal engagement, and really the value add that our clients look for. >> Right, you touched on so many good themes there, and I just want to unpack them a little bit more. The first one that you talked about right off the bat was democratization. And as you said, there are many people that just can't get up and go to a conference, whether it's just bad timing for the week, they've got to run their own business, they just can't get away. So for people to be able to attend digitally, as you said, opens up an entire new pallet of participation for people that maybe couldn't come before. Another thing I think that's lost is this kind of separation of content creation, content delivery, and content consumption which is consistent with how we consume a lot of things today in our media, and very few people sit down, even for big television events, it's like the Super Bowl has really appointment television, we're creating this content now, right, it's going to be going up in the middle of IBM Think, and people might watch it on May 5th, or May 6th, they might watch it on May 10th, they might watch it May 10th 2025. So I think it's a really different way to think about it, and I'm sure as a marketer, at some point you're going to feel a little bit more freedom rather than try to force fit all the product groups and all the announcements and all the sessions, all this stuff that's got to line up for these, well it was three days in Vegas or San Francisco, now can kind of be broken up, and if it makes more sense for some information to get out earlier, it can go out earlier, it can go out later, but you know, a conference is defined by the bounds of that physical location for three days and how much can you guys get in there, where now suddenly, you don't have those binds anymore, and it really opens up a much broader opportunity for you to communicate your messages, keynote messages, product information, training in a very, very different and in some ways, I would bet liberating way. >> Yeah, I think this, what's happening here is an opportunity to really rethink in so many ways how we do marketing and what we talk about when we say digital engagement. You know, we did a recent CMO survey, which we call our C-Suite Survey, and we interviewed over 2000 CMOs, and one of the big conclusions that came out of it was that digital engagement is the future, and the way that really, what it really lands on is the fact that really digital engagement is the fair trade off of information and the exchange of value. So when you really think about that, for us, as marketers, digital engagement and value exchange comes in many forms. How we show up on our own platform, like we're doing here with Watson Media, how we show up during an event, whether it's Webinars or third parties. Even more importantly, the way that our sellers are going to engage virtually. Think about virtual sullying and Webex meetings which is really how they're having to communicate with clients today, and then how we engage socially, and that's really through all the social channels in the work that we do with the influencers. So we're going to learn a lot, we are learning a lot, we're going to test, we're going to iterate, but this whole new normal has given us an opportunity as marketers to really connect the digital and the physical in new ways. And in that, we have to really consider all the multiple facets and elements when we're thinking about digital marketing, and that to me is a tremendous opportunity because digital engagement, there are many elements, and it's going to be super important for all the marketers to really kind of step back and think about, what are those multiple elements that are going to make us, as we think about, how do we stay essential? How do we stay essential with our clients? And that is providing information when they need it, how they want to consume it, and then how do we stay relevant? I think also, when you think about digital engagement, is you got to show flexibility. The ability to pivot strategically and quickly, which is really what we've done with Think. We were ready to move forward on a physical event, amazing event the teams have been working on, and with everything going on, we wanted to maintain May 5th and 6th, we had made a commitment to our clients, and we had to pivot very quickly and be flexible of how do we reimagine Think from physical to now digital. In a digital world, user first experience is a must. It has to be compelling. It has to be an incredible user experience, and the entire experience has to be digitally connected. You know, content, as you said before, content needs to be delivered in unique ways, and where the clients are, not where you want the clients to come, so how does the content find the clients? The relationships. How do we continue to incorporate the human connection? The human connection and build those relationships with the clients, and interacting with them in meaningful ways. And I think one of the things that we've really, over the last couple of years in IBM is grounded in leverage really our data and analytics to better understand behaviors and determine what is that best digital investment, that best touch point at that best time. Very targeted. >> Frick: If it. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. >> No go ahead. >> I was going to say, it's just, is it a hook or crook or circumstance, but just kind of an ironic, right, that when you guys were forced to make this pivot, and I think it's a nice statement to IBM that you were able to successfully make this pivot, again, one of the interesting things about COVID is nobody saw it coming, nobody really had time to prep, nobody put in plans, there was no slow transition, it was this light switch moment. But at the same moment in time, you just got a brand new CEO who is extremely social, and Arvind announced his kind of welcome to the world and his leadership changes and some promotions and stuff via a LinkedIn post, which I found really fascinating that he's leveraging the social medium in a way that wasn't necessarily done before at IBM in the leadership suite, and then the fact that you guys are making this quick switch, you took the challenge to keep that date the same, but reinvent Think, again, is a testament to kind of a shift in IBM's culture and ability to move quickly in the face of this new challenge which nobody really saw coming to the degree and speed in which we've had to react, so it's a very, it's a very nice statement on your guys ability to execute. >> Yeah, and it's exciting, I mean I think, when I think about marketing and I've been in marketing most of my career at IBM, it's an opportunity for us to really kind of lean in and put our creative juices to work, really team together and embrace, embrace the opportunity to kind of think differently, and I think when we look at how marketing will progress, and the leadership that we can provide in this digital era, we're going to see a lot more opportunity to get much more personalized, we're going to see ChatBot being used very strategically, as we're seeing them today. We're going to look at opportunities to infuse AI in the experience to augment it, to personalize it, dynamic content delivery. We're experimenting with many platforms to really do that more effectively and recommendation engines and really continue to automate the marketing process and marketing experience all the way through to make it as compelling and as personalized as we can. So a huge opportunity for every marketer in the world, and a huge opportunity that we've embraced in IBM. >> It's just, wow, just the forcing function, just automation, we've been talking about that for a long time, taking away boring tasks so people can focus on higher level activities. But it all kinds of come back to something I want to kind of close on, and that's leadership. And Michelle Peluso had a post a couple of days ago talking about leadership. You responded to it, and we've been reaching out to a lot of the leaders in our community to get their take on, from a leadership perspective, 'cause I think the cream really rises to the top in challenging times, and this is, again, cast upon us, no preparation, ready, set, go. And it is really a call to leadership, it's leading your own people, it's really putting a voice of confidence out to your customer base, as well as just your broader community, so that's partners and all of the constituents that play. So I wonder, we've been in it for a number of weeks now, as you kind of think back on adjusting your own leadership style, as down as well as the leadership within the IBM senior team, great example, being able to pull this Think together and completely flip it on its head, if you will. Wonder if you can share what are you trying to do different, what are some best practices, who are some of the folks you're looking to to give you kind of some tips and tricks to lead in basically from your home office? >> I think challenging times like this, and I've always said it, it is with the opportunity for every leader to step up and rise to the top. Leaders are made during challenging times, leaders become during these, turning challenges into opportunities. So for me, you know as I think about my own leadership style, number one, is you put the people first. Especially during these times, act with compassion and empathy. Focus on the team's help, focus on wellness, focus on making sure that you keep everybody motivated. Lead with energy. And this is back to Michelle's article in LinkedIn, she talked about team matters an awful lot now, and connecting people and making sure that everybody's well being, it's their mind, their wellness, their activity, and they're staying connected. I think the second is productivity, is we have to keep the business going, we have to make sure that the work from home environment is safe and productive and everybody's work environment differently. Everybody has their own challenges and opportunities, and we have to acknowledge that. So productivity is important, but everybody is in their own, and you've got to be aware as a leader of those circumstances. You can't expect everything to be the same for everyone, and you've got to be ready for interruptions. You got to be ready for those kids in the background and dogs barking and certain routines that have to be adjusted to. And I think the third is around staying connected. We have various tools, and we're very fortunate in IBM, and especially in marketing, that we've really embraced the new as far as the way that we communicate using Slack, looking at how do we leverage up our tools to inform our actions in marketing, and staying connected is more important than ever. And we're doing, we're touching teammates more often, I know that I am doing one-on-one calls with my team more often than I would have done otherwise. And then being agile. Whether it's the tools, the process, the culture, for us, embracing agile has been at the core of our marketing transformation, and it's more important than ever that we stay agile, that we continue to work in feedback, in learning, in testing, and in the ways that we know best. And it's an amazing opportunity to try new things. There is no bad idea, be open to innovation, try fast, learn, ready to pivot, you know, and really what's happening in the world has given us an opportunity to really step out of our normal and some amazing ideas are coming forward and at a very fast pace, and we have to be agile and we have to be authentic to our environment. And I'll close with one thing. One of the things that we did as IBMers is we all specifically as leaders, from Arvind to Michelle to every leader at IBM, we've made a pledge. A work from home pledge, that we will support each other, and we are each given examples of the things that we are taking forward to support each other as we're living through this new normal and digital engagement. So, an incredible opportunity for every IBMer and really a prideful moment to stay strong as an IBMer, to stay strong as an individual and a leader. >> Well very good, well it shows that you've been able to accomplish this feat in pull off this really big event in the same time window that you had allocated, and completely flipped it on its mind, so it's a great testament to you, as well as the leadership team and everybody executing up and down the line. So Maria, great to catch up, thanks for your time, and really a pleasure. >> Thank you, thank you. >> All right, she's Maria, I'm Jeff, it's theCUBE's continuing coverage of IBM Think 2020, the digital experience. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time. (inspirational digital music)

>> Live from San Francisco it's theCUBE. Covering IBM Think 2019, brought to you by IBM. (electronic beat music) >> Welcome back to theCUBE. We are live at IBM Think 2019 in soggy San Francisco. I'm Lisa Martin, with Dave Vellante. Dave, I hope you brought a big umbrella today. >> Well luckily the Marriott lent me one, so-- >> I got one from my hotel, too. And what a perfect day to day have the hybrid, multi-cloud open upon us, shower San Francisco with rain, and talk about weather with an IBM expert. Mark Gildersleeve, welcome to the Cube. You are Vice President, Head of Business Solutions, and Watson Media, The Weather Company. >> Thank you for having me. >> Our pleasure, so, we think IBM, this is the second annual IBM Think. There's about what, 30,000 people here, 2,000 plus business and technical sessions. There is a lot, a broad spectrum, no pun intended, of topics to cover, but excited to talk with you today about what IBM is doing in the agriculture industry. Let's talk about it from the growers perspective first, and we'll cover some other, other outlets. But, what are some of the challenges that growers are facing in 2019? >> So, first of all, if you think about it, this is a really sporty industry for growers to be in. They've got to worry about things that they can't have any control over: the weather, pest and disease, government regulation, trade, commodity pricing, there's a lot that they can't control. To make matters worse, they have very slim margins, okay, and they had to learn all these various aspects of technology to try to become better. And so, they're almost drowning in data, trying to figure out what do I do about it to get more yield, to get more profitability, to get better quality? There's a lot of challenges that they're wrestling with today. (people chattering) >> Well this is a huge problem, because the, the amount of farmable land isn't growing. It's essentially flat. >> It's flat. >> Maybe it's even shrinking. >> It's flat. >> They're talking with a multi-decade, 20, 30-year time frame. Population growth, we're talking about another two, two and a half billion people over the next three decades. So, something's got to give. What does the data say? >> So you're exactly correct, the estimates of population growth are 2.3 billion between now and 2050. That's 30% population growth. With zero incremental air-able lands, so, huge yeah. So we have to get yields, at least 30% higher. Okay, so if you think about that problem we're not going to get that yield increase status quo. We're not going to get that yield increase without having a much more data and an AI driven approach to agriculture, and that's exactly what we're doing. Our solution right now has 14 different AI and analytic capabilities inserted into it. Just to try to help growers, for one, make sense of their data and make better decisions to try and get their yield up, their profit up, their quality up. >> And is there enough in your estimation markers, is there enough head room actually to accommodate that population growth, given the constraints? >> Absolutely, taking a simple example of being a corn grower in the U.S. The average corn grower gets 175 bushels per acre, but the 70th percentile gets like 250, okay? So, if we got in, in the example of corn, every person that's at the 50th percentile, up to the 70th percentile, which is extremely doable. You can, you are, by definition, increasing the yield 30% in that case. So, it's doable, and we can see examples of growers doing it today. But what you have to understand is that 70% of the differences in performance between growers are just their farming practices. So, we have to get a handle on what farming practices drive better yield. We have to get those people at 50% to 70%. The people at 30% up to 50. We just have to get them about 20 points better in the benchmarking, and we will actually solve this problem from a U.S. perspective, then we have to do different things for other parts of the world. >> Now there's a multi-variable problem here as well though, because you got consumer patterns changing, people want, you know, more sustainable. You go into the grocery store now, you see all grass-fed, or free-range, and, so that takes up more land. Do consumer, how do consumer preferences, and the shifting consumer preferences factor in? >> It's the biggest change I think that's happened in this industry in the last 20 years. If you look at 20 years ago, 30 years ago, the tech chains were being driven kind of more from the ag-input side, and that's kind of the people that are selling to the growers. Now, we have the food companies hearing from consumers that they want sustainable, they want better quality, they want more nutrition, they want to understand how to have less chemicals going into their food. Okay, now we have the buyers of the growers, pushing on those growers to say you need to give me a better product. This change of consumers, and this ripple through the food eco-system is the big change. And the food companies are at the center of this revolution. And it's actually really interesting, and I think it actually will knit together this whole ag-eco-system, so that you now have to worry about the ag input people, the growers, the food companies, and the retailers, the bankers and the insurers, all kind of understanding, and coming together to figure out how to get better product to the consumers, and also, by the way, increase the yield so they can solve the food production problem. >> So, where do you start? Are you talking, what's the lowest hanging fruit? Is it going to the large-scale growers that have more resources, potentially resources that understand technology enough to start at that source? What about the smaller scale farmer growers? >> So, I think that, we have IBM clients that are interested in solving every aspect of the kind of size of foreign problem. So, I met with one organization from Africa today. In Africa, it's all a small farmer problem, right? And, and the vast bulk of growers in the world are small farmers, okay? But when we're looking at kind of solving the problem overall, we want to start with the food companies, and the people in finance. Because, right now, food companies, when they're trying to deal with their growers, they're trying to manage these growers with spreadsheets. Even though these are very sophisticated companies, very sophisticated. We need to help those food companies better understand what's going on the field. What chemicals that are going onto the land? When was the crop planted? When is it going to be harvested? When can I expect it in my storage facility? And they really want to understand, what are the farmers doing that are giving them the best quality crop? And how can they learn from the data, to get best practices for all the rest of their growers? If we start with the food companies, and have them work with their growers and the agronomists, that's going to be the best way to introduce change into this sector, I believe. >> And they're kind of the the pivot point between the consumer, they understand the consumer demand, they can feed that back to the farmers. Of course, they're ultimate goal is to make a profit. But look at it, if you give the people what they want, there's going to be a way to make money here. It's just, it's not going to be the same way that they've made money for the past 50 years. >> Exact, exactly right. But you know, take an example, in my house, we buy organic milk, okay? We're paying a premium for organic milk. We're willing to pay a premium. >> Happy to do so, yup. >> Happy to do it. We feel like it tastes better. We feel good about also the quality of it. So, I think in many cases, food companies are willing to pay a premium to growers to deliver a very specific crop to them. And so, this issue of food companies having more growers under contract, and working with those growers to deliver a better product, is of high interest to virtually every food company, every beer company that we've talked to. Every retailer that's worrying about the supermarket shelves. They're all worried about trying to get better product to the shelf, 'cause that's what the consumers are asking for. There is money, in this system, if you get the quality up. So that's really what we're focusing on with the food companies. >> People happy to pay for that and this eco-system is actually quite interesting. You talk a bit about, you talked about the banks. They're, even health care is part of the eco-system. >> It's the other constituent. >> They've said that people start making better food choices. It could ripple through to health effects. So, maybe you're paying more, as a consumer, for an individual product, but you could be living longer, having better health, maybe having lower health care costs. >> One analogy that I think you might find interesting, is that, just as all of us have an electronic medical record, that has all the images that would have been taken of our body, like an MRI, or our health history, our hospitalizations, what surgeries we've had. We're now, as IBM, bringing the electronic field record, which is an exact analogy to the electronic medical record, but it's about the field. What's been grown there? What have been the yields? What are the chemicals? When was the crop planted? What kind of tillage practices are being used? And we're trying to, essentially build that database of the electronic field record as the cornerstone for all the analytics for the AI that we're building, and running against, to help figure out benchmarks for all the corn growers in U.S.A., or the potato growers in the Netherlands. And beyond the benchmarks, best practices, so that we can say, what are the people that are 70th percentile doing, that the people that are 30th percentile aren't doing? We can bring all those people up. It's very cool. >> So we're talking about IBM, the computer company, right? So, what's the big picture of IBM's role? Obviously, there's a data angle. But what's the IBM story here? The holistic story. >> So, first pillar is data. Every piece of data coming off of a combine or a sprayer, so the equipment data, the machine data. All the environmental data, remotely-sensed data, soil-sensed data, stuff that's going on to the field, as well as the farm practices. So, there's a whole data story that, who better than IBM to handle massive amounts of data? Secondly, AI and analytics, right? So, we've got 13 or 14 different analytics and AI products embedded in our decision platform. All intending to give that grower a better first guess, a better recommendation of, here's what the data tells us about your field. It's still up to the grower and the agronomist to make the final call, but we can give them a much better guess than they have just based on their own personal fields experience. Then lastly, it's decisions that we can help that grower make. So, an example would be: we can help a banker understand exactly what crop is being grown on a piece of land without having the banker have to send somebody out and look at it. So, they can understand compliance-wise, Was a loan that I wrote being used in the purpose that was intended? But there are many enterprise examples of that. So it's data, AI, decisions. And that's then connected across the eco-system. It's a great IBM story 'cause we've been in business, we've been serving the USDA for 91 years. We've been in agriculture a long time. Lots of people in IBM don't know it, but we've been at this a long time. >> And if we look at the growers for a second, this is really kind of where it all starts, right? I understand this triangulation, and the constituents that are involved from the food companies, to the retailers, to the bankers. But, if we look at the growers, what are some of the benefits? Do you have a favorite success story where, whether it's a large-scale grower or something smaller, where their, maybe their loan terms are better? Or they have lower costs? Or they're actually making a better impact on the environment? What's your favorite grower impact story? >> There are lots actually, but let's pick a few. The first is, we have a lot of aspects of crop protection, where we can use satellite imagery to figure out where a crop is under stress. Where, what part of the field is under stress. Help them go out and scout that field. Take a picture with their smart phone and have Watson tell you what the disease is that's infecting that crop. And, essentially, be able to take faster action. When you're faster with crop protection, you are saving a lot of your crop. You get better yield, that's money in the bank. So crop protection is one. A second example is, with best practices, showing some of these growers what the 70th percentile growers are doing, that the 50th percentile guys are not doing. You can say, here are the four things that these 70th percentile guys are doing. You should try those four things. Or you might want to try two of them this year, two of them next year. But best practice is a huge impact. The last impact is, we help people with yield. So, we can now say okay, this is the projected yield that you're going to have at the end of the season. Here's what you can sell at the middle of the season. Here's what you're going to be able to sell at the end of the season. And we help them with market timing. Trading profitability can be easily 20, 30 bucks of incremental profit per acre. So, there's kind of a financial angle, there's a best practices angle, and there's a protecting your field angle, as the three examples I give you. >> Well, and that's huge from the standpoint of the debt loads that farmers face around the world. Over a trillion dollars in debt, in just, you know, a few countries. What does the future hold from that standpoint? What are the implications of that debt load? Obviously there's an imperative to improve yields and improve profitability, but your thoughts? >> So, first of all, you're correct that debt is a really enormous issue. So, for example, there's an article in the Wall Street Journal last week. Bankruptcies are at the highest level in the U.S. since the crash of 2008. So, this debt load, and the debt service is a really large problem. Here's how I'd like to try to focus it. Many growers have been taught to worry about better yield. When we should have been focusing more on better profit per acre. There are two ways you can get out that profit per acre. One is, you can do things with new chance fertilization, seed type, plant date, that can drive your yield better. But the other aspect is, there are parts of your land that are going to be lower productivity potential. Your smartest move is to put less inputs on those portions of the land and double down on the inputs on the highest productivity areas of the land. Because most farmers don't understand that there's 25% of their land, where they're actually losing money, and they'd be better to actually not be planting. But instead the idea is, plant at a lower population rate, put less input costs in, and then you can even make that area of less productive land profitable. If we improve the profitability of these growers, they can afford the debt service, and that's kind of the way to do it. The other aspect is that, everybody that's doing contract growing for a given food company is getting a premium on their crop. Oftentimes, 10%, or even 15% premium. That 10%, or 15%, solves the problem of the debt service for almost every grower, in the U.S. that's doing zero crops. >> That focus on profitability versus pure yield per acre. That's potentially involves a a different crop? And a shifting strategy? >> Usually it's a different farming practice. So, it's applying variable rate technology. It's essentially understanding how to treat each aspect of your field differently so that you're not treating it homogeneously. But you're actually saying, I'm going to do this practice, and with this level of input costs down over here, in this section of the land. And do a different practice over here. Because, every piece of land has low productivity areas, high productivity areas, and areas that are either high or low, depending on the weather. Understanding how the land varies is a huge data insight that we give growers with our data insights using AI. >> And that can drop right to the bottom line, obviously. >> It's all bottom line, baby. >> Last question before we have to wrap, this is, I feel like we're scratching just the surface here, of such an interesting topic of, and the massive global implications of IBM and agriculture can have on all of us. Where can people go on the IBM website for example, to learn more about this? >> You can go to the, well, so at the Think, there are a number of sections actually that we have right now. Talks that we're giving later on Friday morning. All related to the Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture. And there's material at the Think exhibit stuff that you can go to. We're also exhibiting in the Watson Media and Weather section downstairs. We'd ask everybody to come there. >> Excellent, well Mark, thanks so much for joining Dave and me on the program today, really interesting conversation. >> Great story. >> Thank you for having me. >> Our pleasure. We want to thank you for watching the Cube, I'm Lisa Martin, with Dave Vellante. Live, from IBM Think 2019. Stick around, we'll be right back shortly with our next guest. (electronic music beat)