 Welcome to another Digital Supply Chain Institute Insights episode where we are hosting Alexander Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Streamline Media Group, and where we would like to deep dive into a very, very interesting and sexy topic of metaverse and video games, but not only about it as an entertainment, but basically as using it for enterprise as a tool. So this is maybe something which is very unique and interesting and also having in Digital Supply Chain Institute a metaverse and video games design and development company is a very interesting thing. So in that sense, Alex, thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me, Marco. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and the rest of the DICA leadership and membership. Alex, let's deep dive immediately into the topic. So having in mind, you know, your video games and the metaverse design and development company, where do you see metaverse role in supply chain? Yeah, I think that it comes in three very distinctive areas. I think the first one is basically helping to take all of the metadata that actually exists between the partnerships and the different stakeholders and helping them visualize that and really understand where things are at any given point in time. The second thing I think it helps in is in change management and basically connecting generations together, helping them understand how and why the business was built and then bring in the fast thinking innovations of the younger generation. In this case, the baby boomers are retiring. Gen Z is coming online, being able to help connect them together and understand all the various aspects of the business is also a piece of it. And the last thing is in the form of digital twins and the opportunity to basically help physically based companies enter the digital world and create new value. In terms of creation of those digital twins and the ability to interface with new markets and new demographics they haven't before seen. Having in mind that you share the things in between the generations, I think it's a very interesting thing which we are seeing now, you know, with the lack of talent on one side and on the other side, not only lack of talent skills for the next level of supply chain transformation. How do you see that methods can, you know, link talent, which is the talent from let's call it supply chain 1.0 to supply chain 2.0. Yeah, so I think really where this came in into play really and we're seeing in real life is what happened when the pandemic reached fever fever pitch. We saw a breakdown of supply chain we saw a breakdown because information wasn't readily available, and people had to really start thinking about things in a meta layer and that ability to effectively use your imagination to understand where things were really an a four dimensional space was very difficult and effectively what we know as video game developers and really as people who grew up with games is that gaming teaches you how to take a bunch of different data points that don't seem related and help you interrelate them correlate them and help you start to perceive what can happen next by understanding that information but also understanding really what the rules of the game were in this case the rules of life so to speak. So ultimately what we're seeing here is that multiplayer gaming in the metaverse help teach people not only how to analyze that data correlate that data, but how to operate within actual long distances without actually ever seeing each other. So in this case of how to form a team rapidly deploy expertise understand information and then make the best decision possible with the information they have. We expect that life will continue to be volatile. We think that the volatility will continue and will only increase which means people's ability to actually adapt to a fast changing world and really to work cohesively as a team will become the new standard and ultimately multiplayer gaming metaverse visualization, all of this is going to come together to help make that happen. So all you shared Alex is very, very interesting and you know, collaborating with you as digital supply chain Institute. I know that you have been engaged in very interesting trials in a sense of the change management right because the elements you mentioned they can be part of the change management and they can link as well the context in between the generations. So your view from the experience you have there is can metaverse and video games, lay the role in the new way of change management and basically bring the change closer to those who need to implement it and then leave it. Absolutely. So I mean it's a simple thing that you know if if you really think about it we learn through play. And the reality is that multiplayer gaming and effectively change management. What you're trying to do is basically take locked in notions of behavior and change them through simulation change them through repetitive. Let's say playthroughs so that people understand and build new knowledge and new muscle in ever changing circumstances now multiplayer gaming allows you to do that because generally it happens within a certain timeframe two minutes five minutes, 10 minutes, scenarios change but players stay the same. Ultimately what you're doing is just practicing and really practice makes perfect so ultimately we're visualizing that and working with the very stakeholders to help make that change management, not only stick but understandable because I mean let's face it we've all been in the boring meeting where a consultant comes in brings out a PowerPoint and we're like wow I don't want to listen, I turn off, but if you change that and put something that's fully interactive, fully immersive in their hands, you start to see people smile, they start to talk, they start to get into it and that is the exact thing that happens where you look at children, they start to talk, they start to chatter, they start to figure things out. Ultimately that gameplay and play brings through the ability to learn and that's exactly where we want people to be especially in today's world where everything's fighting for their attention. So in the end gaming really reinforces these behaviors that we want them to have to build that muscle to be able to be adaptable in this new world we find ourselves in. What you shared definitely brings Metaverse and video games towards much more than entertainment, it brings as a cohesive connecting tool for people to co-own the transformation or the new part of the processes which are created especially in traditional segments like supply chainies so we'll definitely follow that together and see the results of these kind of integration because this is something which is very very practical. And having this in mind, what you would advise companies interested in starting the journey in Metaverse and video game in the traditional industries like supply chainies as part of the enterprise. So I think the first thing to do is get an understanding of your core demographic and who it is you're trying to reach out to, and it's not just the external demographics also your internal demographic. How many millennials exers Gen Z's are you planning to bring on board, and how many of your boomers are retiring. I'm sure you're going to find out a lot of your boomers are starting to sunset, leaving this gaping hole of talent and know how that you need to address quite quickly but then you have to address that demographic of your boomer up sorry of your millennials your Z's and your exers and give them something to do that basically captures our mind and their attention so ultimately what I look at is this is that once you know who those people are, you look towards establishing a kind of a reverse mentorship where you can have the retirees come in help out with the people that are still there help transfer that knowledge through simple things like playing together and using these multiplayer games to help them games like Switch or even games like Fortnite. At the same time, I would also be looking at this from a marketing activation perspective. In the end of the day, we know that we're going to still have to capture the attention of perspective partners. So what we do is we build programs that effectively are enshrined with our KPIs of what we're trying to do from a marketing perspective and build out an activation. Let's call it a quarter activation or a 12 month activation that allows us to start bringing people into our version of what we believe our metaverse needs to be. Now, of course, not every company knows how to do this. So you got to go out and find people who are willing to help you make this happen. But beginning that process of just thinking about it is going to start pushing you in that step forward and I would just say like this Marco. Everyone just needs to remember 1994 and think about from 1994 until 2022 the rapid amount of change we saw with the penetration of the internet and the reality is in 94 it was very difficult to imagine a world in which we'd get into strangers cars thinking it's a taxi. We would do remote health, or that we would basically get, you know find true love and get married because of things like Tinder, but we can argue about the tender, but you get what I mean. In the end of the day, all we need to do is see what has happened and realize it's happening again, just at a rapid clip, so we can't afford to ignore it we need to jump in and move fast. So, understanding in, you know, moving things fast as you mentioned and trying to see a common thread, you know, a red thread through all the things we have covered so far. There are definitely two things which are resonating with me. One thing is related to what you have said at the end now you know look at to 94 to 2022 you know how the things changed for the customer right and and that's the notion of the new customer but one more is emerging, and it's emerging as a new employee and that employee doesn't mean that it's only Millennial Gen Z or Gen Y right. It means that you know for the employees who are you know before these generations, they can also acquire you know the knowledge or related skills in order to advance forward together. In that sense, I would like to pick your brains because I think for the audience it will be very important to hear it from a fast growing industry as yours. We can see more and more companies realizing that college degree isn't necessarily the best indicator of you know, hiring an employee right your industry where you are has been one of the first to recognize that and as well to show the value of it if I can put it that way. It's just a trend, it's a reality in that sense so the question is like do you do you see more companies, you know, doing away with college degree requirements going away from it in a bit, and for potential employees and then what advice do you have for CEOs, similar actions of course we do understand that it's not same in all the industries, but how do you see the trend of you know, moving away from a bit general knowledge towards skill is affecting your industry and you see it in the future. I think that's a really, really good point. I think that most knowledge and most industries are vocational. We decorate them by putting degrees around us and yes I do believe education and college and university. It is good for you. However, in the case of the games industry in the case of high technology. The pace of change is so quick that it's very difficult to codify that and arrange that in an educational format that remains relevant change in my industries every three to six months. All right, a book about that. Good luck. So I think what ends up happening here is that most CEOs and basically most companies understand that it's a fight for the most talented workers and finding that talent no matter where they are in the world, no matter how talented they are or not. That's the key of winning. So as we start moving forward in this new future and really this new world where you're looking for this basically those high, those high learners, people that pick things up quickly and can disperse that within the organization. There are still industries that will require degrees like you know obviously a medical practitioner I would want them to have some form of a degree but even then doctors are using games to train themselves and brain surgery so we can question how long that education needs to be. I think that ultimately in the end where this world is going to go to is that we will have people that have learned the vocation and then go back to school later in their life. It's like what the MBA used to be. You'd go to college, then you go to work, then you'd go get an MBA, you wouldn't just go get an MBA out of getting your general education. So what I think will happen here is that our vocational workers are highly skilled workers will come in, they'll work for a couple years and then we'll be like you know what, let's go finish your training. Let's go do targeted programs at universities that cater towards professionals who don't need to learn things that they've already learned on the job already know just out of the natural talent, but let's finish the frameworks. Let's create that final polish that's going to take them to the next step and it's going to unleash their capability. That is where I think I see the role of the university really going to. That is the finalization of years of knowledge acquisition and practice, rather than let me prepare you, and then hope you remember this in 30 years, because you won't. I mean the reality is you just won't. So ultimately in the end of the day will make that paper worth something more because it's applied through work, and then you get that after the fact. That's ultimately how I see this going. I really like Alex what you shared in unlocking the personal, let's say genius in a way. And what I what I took from it is in a way that, you know, we should not be afraid of video games and metaverse and we should not see it just as a distraction. It's not up to the business leader to decide to utilize it in the business manner to create the business value which is not entertainment but basically more engagement more learning and even retraining. And if I may conclude with that with the notion which I got now you know thinking forward to what you have said, it's not that we should fight our kids to play less video games but we need to sit with them. And then see how we can together apply it towards more learning or transformation. That's well said and I mean I think in the end you you've hit it on to something that if we encourage our children to keep trying, you unlock their capability to not give up. And if in the end of the day we agree that the world is changing so rapidly that challenge is just the nature of life, then we need kids that stand up and keep coming back, even when it looks impossible. Because ultimately in the end, so much will look impossible in the coming years that we need resilient people, and that starts with learning how to play, learning how to lose and learning how to come back again to win ultimately in the end. That's really what we're teaching our children. So let's stay with the notion that you know we'll together make things possible. Retrain train and you know create a new reality which will benefit also Alex thank you very much for your time. I would like to thank everybody for joining us for this digital supply chain Institute insights, and we'll come back with more interesting topics and we'll stay focused on as well exploring things in video games and metaverse industries.