NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT THE WORLD
By Marc Kramer
Dr. Scott Snyder, a serial entrepreneur, is president of Decision Strategies International and the author of “The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution.” Dr. Snyder is an international technology expert that provides strategic advice for both the private sector and the government. His new book talks about the changes we are going to see because of the increased speed and bandwidth of telecommunications that will impact every facet of our lives and how business leaders can use it to take advantage of new opportunities. The following is an interview with Dr. Snyder, whose book is a most and quick read for strategic thinkers, leaders and investors.
Why did you write the book?
Snyder: “I have always had a deep interest in communications. At Penn I developed a course on 4th generation wireless several years ago. At that time, 4G was just a glimmer of hope. Now 4G is emerging all around us and I thought it would be good to make people more aware of it.
“That course brought together executives across domains from finance to healthcare to retail. The objective was to stimulate what was possible and to think about new applications. The course was a combination of what 4G could be and an internal venture course about using 4G applications to get a competitive edge.
“The other thing I see as a strategy consultant, we work with many large firms where they get blindsided by new technology. I wanted to make sure business leaders were aware of 4G as a new technology and and how it would effect their company and how they could take advantage of it.
Who is this book for?
Snyder: “One of the reasons I did it with Wharton Publishing was to go to a broader audience. I wanted a book that was accessible for a business executive or a working professional. It’s a crossover book. It has enough meat to appeal to a tech person and is not so intimidating to a non-tech person.”
What major changes do you see for telecommunications in the next 10 years?
Snyder: “Clearly, everyone talks about the Internet of things. This is going to be true in spades. The number of connected things is going to dwarf the number of people by a factor of a thousand. Consumer to consumer communications may get the most attention, but it will be machine to machine communications that will have the greatest impact. This will be driven by more capable networks, open standards, and micro-processors embedded in everything.”
What industries are going to be most effected?
Snyder: “They are all ripe for change. Publishing is going to be greatly effected as we have seen with the advent of the Kindle. The one’s I get most excited about are energy, health care and transportation due to the size of the problems that wireless can address.
“They are three massive problems screaming for better solutions and this platform provides an opportunity to rethink the problem sets in those industries like remote health care and energy management. It gets back to things to monitor and making decisions we could never make before because we didn’t have the information. There will be sensors that work cheaply that will open up a whole new set of applications..”
Why does it take the US longer to adapt telecommunication innovations such as using the phone to watch television and carry personal information?
Snyder: “My main theory is that the innovations are usually founded here, but the Japanese and others are good at standardization. The reasons the Japanese have 160 million e-wallets is because they chose a standard. We chose two different mobile technologies and the rest of the world chose one. They chose GSM and they standardized. We haven’t learned our lesson as fast about selecting standards.”
What current companies do you see as the winners?
Snyder: “You have to break up the value chain. It depends on the future we end up in. As I talk about in the book, the big linch pin for me is security and privacy. If people openly embrace these newer networks and I will be connected to many more networks than today. It will be less about the pipes and how will you improve the quality of life for consumers and business.
“The one’s that can create smarter devices! The network providers can’t make money on a flat data plansso they have to figure out how to go upstream. There are now viruses hitting mobile phones. If big companies abuse their power then people will lose trust. People really trust the networks and are willing to have their health care information or retail profile available to wireless applications, as long as these services provide benefit for consumers.
“Companies that look at wireless as an innovation platform will take advantage of great opportunities, so if a company like Aetna wants to get customers out of clinics and hospitals, it could collaborate on wireless solutions with medical device products and get them to come together. To make this work, you have to have the customer in the loop.. An example is a consumer-driven I-Phone App to scan and fax a check. Big applications for banking!”
What new businesses do you think will be launched?
Snyder: “A great question! There are a couple in the book I talk about. One is pervasive retail. Because of the intelligence of the handsets and if 4G is out there concierge services will take off. You will be told about your preferences (health care, retail, other)and you will find out where the ideal products and best deals are. It will happen proactively instead of you looking it up. There will be virtual tour guides.
“If I am touring Philadelphia it may start telling me about historic sites in my language. It knows where I am standing and what I am looking at. Some people call it augmented reality. The other piece that is going to be big is people as sensors. We see a little today with traffic sensing such as the Tom-Tom or Garmin devices.
“We can learn about what traffic is like from gathering all of the GPS users. There is an application that will tell mall and store owners where people go through tracking their cell phones. NASA has come up with a chemical sensor to pick up bio agents and air quality via cellphones.”
How much more of a productivity gain can the US wring out from 4G?
Snyder: “It can be enormous. It’s one of our great opportunities to spring board back. We bet the farm on life sciences and other countries have learned from us and have disrupted us. We are still very strong in wireless.
“Our military is one of the lead users of wireless. We are well positioned as a country. Two things have to happen and for this to occur. We have to embrace standardization. We have to engage industries that don’t talk to each other like insurance guys don’t talk to transportation and wireless operators. It could create some fantastic innovations globally. We won’t solve any of the big problems without wireless.”
How will cyber security be effected and will this level the playing field with terrorists?
Snyder: “That’s a real challenge for the military. The commercial technology is changing so quickly. It’s creates an opportunity to source ideas from all over the world, but I can’t protect him. Everyone has the same capability.
“An example is the military software defined radio that can su0port a large number of different wireless channels, but soon someone will come up with a lot cheaper commercial solution that does 80% of this. We have had an edge for so long, but now we don’t have that edge because we have to outsmart the bad guys.”