September 26, 2013, Churchill Club, Santa Clara, CA—Geoffrey Moore acted as the master of ceremonies and occasional interviewer for the awardees at this event. Following some light entertainment, the Churchill Club awarded small bowler hats to various people.
The Game Changer award is given for indispensable technology and business innovation to Tesla Motors. The spirit of the award is: "You changed how things are done or viewed and there's no going back". Steve Jurvetson from Draper Fisher Jurvetson interviewed Diarmuid O’Connell from Tesla.
How did you start this technology?
O'Connell noted that the government raised the issue of oil independence, and they noticed a change in the industry from their California base, that LiIon batteries were a game changer technology. They started from an area that has great industry dynamism and developed a sports car to change the automotive industry.
Your purpose, and driver initiatives?
O'Connell observed that the starting point was the mission to change the industry. This mission is a passionate thing in a startup, especially since automotive has very high barriers to entry. On top of the basic hurdles, they were on a mission to introduce an electric sports car to the market. Some of the drivers were the oil issues, climate change, green technologies, etc.
Game changing is not easy, especially when things in the infrastructure have to stay the same?
O'Connell agreed that it takes lots of work against the incumbents to make industry-level changes. Their big break came from the '08 economic drop that was led by the auto industry. Still, the road is challenging.
Why do new entry and history makers like Google and Tesla not exist in other industries?
O'Connell responded that you have to have a passion to move, and the technology vectors are towards move software, and mechanical functions are being replaced by electronics. The mechanical components are enabling the rolling computer. The changes in user interfaces opens more areas to the imagination and allows more connections to other technologies.
Car manufacturers like high safety ratings, but most have been just luck and some good engineering?
O'Connell noted that the existing companies have their backs to the wall. To go forward, you need to have the will to find solutions with no compromise plus a logical perspective to define the necessary factors for success. The leadership has to have the drive to hit the marks. The auto industry incumbency in the US consists of mostly large enterprises that make all decisions, with significant input into the regulations. There is a trigger effect when facing change.
Are we at a tipping point with a change to electric car resistance?
O'Connell said the super charger initiatives are surprising because US car buyers have access to any car function in an electric car. A reasonable daily driver will always have sufficient charge to get home. The super chargers are for those who plan to take the cross-country road trip and are worried about giving up some of their freedom.
Future of electrics?
O'Connell considered that the future is exciting. Lower priced electric cars are being introduced and other auto manufacturers are working with Tesla to incorporate some of the electric technologies into their own vehicles. New capabilities in the cars continues the changes from the horseless carriage to the rolling computer.
The Legendary Leader award for inspirational leadership and contributions to others' innovation and success goes to Peter Diamandis from XPRIZE and Singularity University. The spirit of the award is "Couldn't have done it without you".
Dr. Diamandis could not participate in an interview at the event due to personal issues.
Paul Saffo from Discern Analytics talked with Bob Richards about Diamandis.
Richards noted that Diamandis wanted to make the future happen while a student at MIT. His vision of the future was not a random walk of history, but a chance to choose your own future and implement it. Some results are the XPrize foundation which is crating prizes for private space exploration and the Singularity University which bring people together and give them a passion to make a future of abundance and opportunity.
A video of Diamandis continued with the notion that people always have to pursue their dreams, see the world as full of possibilities, and work to make those ideals happen. Some influences were the science fiction writers Heinlein and Roddenberry, who knocked down barriers to the concept that big and bold are similar to impossible. SF helps address physical limits and moves to solve problems and not complain. Another influential person was my father, who moved from a Greek island to become a MD in the US. Diamandis acknowledged that he is a kid at heart, and still going after his dreams. No dream is too big and no challenge is to hard to overcome.
The award for Magical Team, for collaborative breakthroughs resulting in an irresistible product went to the NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Team. The spirit of the award is "You guys nailed it". Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute talked with David Blake from NASA Ames, and Jim Erickson from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In introductory comments, Sir Alan Collins observed that the US can be depended upon to do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities. Nevertheless, they take the world by storm. This team embodies the spirit and process of teamwork.
About inventing success?
Erickson noted that the project required scientists and engineering as well as the accountants had to get it right every day.
Blake credited teamwork and good science. The core team was about 150 people and varied up to 455 scientists. Thousands of others built the parts. The whole project took 6 years to complete.
Shostak noted that this type of coordination and cooperation is easy in a small group, but large groups get disorganized?
Blake responded that scientists like to look at shiny things. For this mission, they had to work on Mars time, so the downloaded data had to be analyzed within 12 hours for presentation to the other groups to develop new commands for the rover.
Shostak did the scientists get jet lag from the difference in Mars and Earth times and lengths of days for over 3 months?
Erickson responded that this group represented the largest scientific sleep study ever. As a big lab experiment, the sleep researchers had 400 plus scientists defining their next project. The big effort was to figure out how to coordinate and work towards a common goal. Most maneuvers and tracking used the software which was good enough to handle most challenges. Once the rover got to its destination, is started to instrument the site.
Getting to Mars is not easy, nor cheap. Were there any unexpected showstoppers?
Blake answered that the error ellipse for the Mars lander was about 100 kM in a 20 km by 60 km landing spot. The lander hit its target within 2 km. A lot of JPL engineers doing excellent work was the reason for the success. The JPL is a national treasure.
The rover was sent to climb a hill, why?
Blake noted that the rover could only see a short history in normal sediment, but the mountain had 5km of rock visible, representing about 1B years of history. We need to learn about the geology to relate changes to our planet. Any rocks over 3B years old represent less than 1 percent of the surface. Mars has similar geology but no tectonic plates, so the changes are still intact.
If one of the goals was to detect life, why no biological experiments?
Erickson replied that earlier landers tried to identify life but the results were ambiguous. Now the idea is to use incremental stepping stones. First investigate an area to see if appropriate conditions existed, then check areas for other clues. The next lander will then look for biological signs. This process is a better path to get to the right answer.
How far can the rover move in a day?
Erickson commented that the rover started going in the "wrong" direction from the original plans, but found some interesting constructs in that place. The rover can cover 80-100 m per day, and has 8 km to go to the original target. The rover has a planned 2-year lifetime, but is likely to operate for a decade.
The Global Benefactor for irrepressible vision and positive impact on society went to Marc Benioff from Salesforce. The spirit of the award is "Thanks for thinking big".
Geoffrey Moore interviewed Benioff.
How big a project is driving organizational change?
Benioff commented that Salesforce is a $B company with over 10 thousand people. Change and growth in a big company take big changes.
How are you handling the move to mobile?
Benioff suggested that industry is a continuum. All technology is for reducing costs and making things easier to use. Inspiration requires big thinking. Most people overestimate things in a 1-year period and underestimate things over a decade. Entrepreneurs are the ones who see the real future.
Organizational changes, new platforms, mobile?
Benioff answered that when they started, they were not thinking big enough. They did make it happen and created an industry. Now Dreamforce, is an industry-wide conference.
Non-stop world?
Benioff noted that you cannot tack on beliefs. As a benefactor, I had an integrated approach from day one. Lesions from life come in the first third as learning, the middle as creating, and the last third as giving back through teaching and mentoring. All of these facets happen all of the time and are a continual part of life. At an Oracle event in '97, Colin Powell talked about the assets in the corporations. The money, people, time, and technology need to be used to help others and give back to the community.
An issue in deploying technology is that employees do not realize that they are not part of the community. Companies need to integrate giving into the company culture and customs. The employees and investors all want to be involved. A company can create and reinvest 1 percent of its time, profit, and equity into the community. To date, the company has contributed 10's of millions of dollars, but none to NGOs and non-profit organizations.
We are trying to harness the power of giving back and having fun. We have a commitment to give back money, personnel, organizational structures, and parts of our ecosystem.
In the past decade, we have seen more altruism?
Benioff agreed that we now have more inspirational figures, like Bill Gates, who is a model of giving back. People can have joy and happiness in giving back.
What have you learned and how do you integrate new people?
Benioff stated that on day 1, basic introductory functions and paperwork take about 3 hours. Then the new hires spend the rest of the day seeing and doing self-less service. Unfortunately, some business schools like USC don't sue giving as a part of the curriculum. New technology takes new business models.
Everything is coming together; innovation, collaboration, giving. Scale requires out-of-the–box thinking and a spirit of abundance. My inspiration is the innate capability of people to give. The practice of sharing is universal. Life is not a dress rehearsal.