During day 1 of EMC World, Michael Dell said something that really stuck with me (if you haven’t watched the keynotes – watch them here).
In essence, what he pointed out was that while the technology itself is fascinating, and the solutions and outcomes that we can create are huge – what ultimately the goal is to be leading the way at the intersection of human progress and technology.
The mega-opportunity is to be the “essential infrastructure company for the next industrial revolution”.
Sometimes that gets lost.
I wrote about the idea of “what is our impact, WHY do we do what we do” back here (inspired by @MattZwol) – and if you don’t want to follow the link, a breakout is below:
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Stop for a second and think about what it would mean if RIGHT NOW, all the VMAXes around the world “fell over”:
- Trains/Automobiles/Planes wouldn’t run (VMAX underlies the most critical transportation systems around the globe)
- You couldn’t use your bank machine (VMAX underlies the most critical retail banking systems).
- Your credit card would stop working (VMAX underlies the most critical credit card)
- Trading would stop (VMAX underlies the critical banking systems around the world that clear all sorts of inter-bank and equity-trading systems).
- Your cell phone would stop being able to (VMAX underlies the most critical call detail record systems at the majority of the telcos around the world).
- The majority of hospitals using Epic, Cerner – or almost any critical healthcare system anywhere in the world would stop working.
- Governments would continue to debate (that doesn’t require anything but hot air), but they wouldn’t be able to take any taxes (yeah!) .. or to provide any services that use tax revenues (boo!)
… In other words, it would be the FREAKING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. Think “where did I leave my crossbow, generator and canned goods” kind of bad.
People use EMC VMAX for the things that matter the most – the things that hold up society.
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In that post, I was talking about VMAX, but the same goes for Vblock (supporting critical hospitals, banks, transportation and more), VxRack, VxRail, Isilon/ECS back services we all use every day, the security and protection technologies and products. Of course Dell powers a huge portion of the clients and compute platforms on which the world rests – and is a “democratizing force” for IT and humanity.
There’s a big idea of “why”/”purpose” in here. The purpose is to something bigger – and to me I look at that through the lens of “human progress”.
Sidebar: It’s why the news of discovery of 1284 new planets being discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission is worth it’s weight in gold to me (and IMO great use of tax payer dollars) - and the briefing news here is fascinating (9 new planets in the goldilocks zone). These are the things that lift the spirit, the soul – and make us dream big (and that’s when humanity is at our best).
Sustainability matters. Diversity matters. Discovery matters. Innovation matters. Progress matters. Lifting up society and caring for each other matters.
These are all things that move humanity, society as a whole forward. Yes, building a killer product matters. Yes, winning a deal matters. Yes, delighting a customer matters. But there are things that matter MORE (and those things are part of the story, not the story itself).
I don’t think that’s a hippy-dippy “lefty” way to see things. We’re talking about winning – just on a different scale. We can can also disagree without being disagreeable about some of the “how to best to do this” (with plan/purpose and strong leadership, or through market forces and fierce individualism) – but everyone wants to make the world a better place.
With that preamble (I really believe it!) our EMC 2015 Sustainability report is out (called “Connections” because it’s about all the connections between EMC and the world around us). The online e-book form is a great way to access it. Lots of great achievements – including a 46% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels, Solar projects, community outreach, fighting Zika, the Whenology Project and much more.
Click on the link below – whether you’re an EMCer, a partner, a customer, a competitors, heck “citizen of Earth” :-)
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