Introduction to Leg 7. From Auckland to Itajaí. Trends in Competitive Advantage.
Good afternoon to all of you. I missed you very much all this week. But I am glad and ready to hit the ocean with all of you soon!!!
The leg 7 from Auckland to Itajai is a fierce leg. At the previous VOR 2014-2015, it was during this leg where the Chinese team Dongfeng broke its mast near Cape Horn. And in the VOR 2011-2012, Team Abu Dhabi was forced to return to Auckland with a hull damage. With such precedents, we will have a tremendous sailing experience. Lots of expectations!!! There will be big waves and there will be huge breeze. And icebergs. Don´t you think it is a difficult one? We will see. It is my first time doing it, and I am really emotional about it. I have read this leg is the most waited one by the sailors. Why? The ocean is the ocean, but this path has the possibility to set us higher or send us back and never finish it. The higher wind velocities (sometimes 40 knots) and the big waves have put teams out of the itinerary. Incredible… According to the VOR website: “This is a tough leg, probably the toughest. It’s what the race is all about and whoever wins overall, the first boat around Cape Horn and the first across the line in Brazil will write their own place in race history”.
Leg 7 will give us 7,600 NM of ocean adventures, it is the longest leg of this year. We wish the best to the sailors, and amazing strength and wisdom to all of us. We all must reach safely the next port, Itajaí. Itajai is a port near Florianopolis capital of the State of Saint Catarina, in Brazil.
As far as our strategic goals for this leg 7, we will continue doing what we can. I am not used to sailing with big waves, but we will have to adjust our expectations and live the experience. At the time of this publication, it is almost 17:00 pm (CST-San Salvador time) and to my understanding, Auckland is 19 hours ahead. All of us will leave New Zealand on Sunday 18th at 14:00 hours New Zealand time.
I have prepared the outline of topics for Leg 7. Refresh it here please:
In addition, we will be delivering outstanding and relevant “state of the art” knowledge about competitive advantage.
As an introduction of our coming Leg 7, let me share with you that the Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution was released publicly by mid-year 2013. This “era term” was released in Germany.
Industry 4.0 is a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in all the industries of the humanity, which means, that Industry 4.0 is more than the application of new emerging technologies to manufacturing. Moreover, the Industry 4.0 is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Since the term Industry involves all the industries of the world (which are 1057 for The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), better we slow down the adoption of this new era by understanding where we are (in reality) and where are we going with all these “smart” plans.
For example, the Industry 4.0 fundamentals assume that the Cyber-Physical Systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Blockchain Innovations, Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and Cognitive Computing (in between other digital technologies) are going to be implemented with success in each and all of the industries in our planet. The World Economic Forum dedicated its 2016 Annual Meeting in Davos to the theme “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution” too.
Looking at the Future. Source: Dreamstime.
Whenever we hear the word “SMART”, this is also related to Industry 4.0. The most developed economies and most cutting-edge sources of emerging technologies have been testing several prototypes of “smartness”. We have been testing the waters of the “Smart Era” for several years. And without knowing, we have been using many of these emerging technologies, simply because we hold a smartphone in our pockets.
A little girl and her dog looking out the window. Source: Fotolia.
Let´s prepare to do some gybing!!!!… We will start our Leg 7 with the first topic: “A whole change for the World, Industry 4.0”. As of next Sunday, we will cover what is the meaning of Industry 4.0, how did we get here, challenges, advantages, and disadvantages, and the future impact in our societies and beautiful businesses. Finally, I will try to envision as much as I can, how Industry 4.0 will make us crazy if we don´t do things right and slowly. Whatever the time that will take us to deploy Industry 4.0, it is better to do it correctly than faster, otherwise, we will end up destroying ourselves, as it happened at the past Volvo Ocean Races, with the teams Dongfeng and Abu Dhabi out of the competition.
At the end of the day, our aim is to understand if we are ready for Industry 4.0? And all of us, from our own perspective and discipline, have to analyze if going faster, without not knowing where we are going is the best strategy for the humanity.
Thank you, this is all for today. See you on Sunday!
Little Girl hugging her teddy bear. Source: Wallpaper UP.
15:00 pm – San Salvador
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 