[gentle piano music] - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein, and welcome to Side By Side.

My guest today leads a company that helps shoppers and patients to more easily connect with retailers and healthcare providers.

We're talking data analytics and technology with Inmar Intelligence Chairman and CEO, Mr. David Mounts.

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[upbeat rock music] [uplifting music] - David, welcome to Side By Side.

I'm excited to have you here.

You've done some amazing things in your life, currently you're the chairman, CEO of Inmar Intelligence.

What does Inmar do?

- Inmar Intelligence is a data platform company, and we take advantage of the era that we live in.

Unlimited computing power, unlimited storage, the ability to add applications in the cloud and to make it easy for healthcare systems and retailers to be differentiated and relevant with their shoppers and patients.

- Mm-hmm, how do I feel it in my life?

- Well, you probably are utilizing the platform every day and may not even be aware of it.

- Are you charging me for that?

- No, we don't charge you, - Okay.

[Nido chuckles] - but the people that you do business with, the retailers, where you decide to buy your groceries, the pharmacy that you engage with, the health provider that you're seeing, the clinic that you're visiting, are all connected to our platform.

Almost over 16,000 of those organizations today are connected to the Inmar Intelligence data platform.

- And what does the platform actually do for them?

- Well, it is providing three types of technology, marketing technologies, financial technologies and supply chain technologies.

And what the platform does is gets the data into a single location where we can unify the data flow, and then from that data, be smart, also using AI and machine learning, to automate and to unify the workflows that need to be done to service you, and then, ultimately, we unify the money flows and complete the commerce transactions that are needed to make it all seamless.

- So complicated for me to understand, [David laughs] but I'm glad that there are people like you who lead companies like that, that make the world go 'round.

And David, what's amazing is you were in the pizza business, you were the vice president of supply chain at Domino's Pizza, and then you were the chief financial officer of Domino's Pizza, from pizza and dough to technology and intelligence.

- [David] Yes.

- There's hope for all of us, David!

[David laughs] - Well, I have always enjoyed learning.

And before I was in pizza, I was at UPS for 23 years.

I was the CFO of the UPS supply chain, and I worked half of those 23 years overseas expanding the international network, so I was still delivering cardboard boxes when I got to Domino's Pizza, they just had pizzas in 'em instead of other things in them, so there was ability to translate the experiences from UPS to Domino's, and now I've been able to take those two together, as you know, Domino's is one of the world's great e-commerce companies, and we're essentially bringing digital transformation to an entire set of industry players in healthcare and in retail to improve everyone's lives.

- Yeah.

I spoke with the recently retired CFO of Domino's, who's a friend of mine, Michael, and a friend of yours, - [David] Sure.

- And he said, you know, "We're not really in the pizza business, "we're in the technology business."

And sometimes we have to stop and think, really, how all of that works.

Technology drives everything.

Steve Wozniak is a friend and the co-founder, of course, of Apple Computer, and I've asked him this question, I'll ask you this question.

Might technology someday take over our lives in a way that dominates even the way we think?

- I don't think so.

I think that technology, when applied correctly, can free us up to higher purposes.

We are beginning to see, and we live in an era today, where digital transformation, especially with the recent impacts of COVID, are driving the need for faster innovation.

This has happened many times in history, when you have a crisis of some sort, and right after that, we all adapt.

We began to.

Those that adapt most quickly usually benefit the most.

And we're seeing that happen right now in that a lot of people took a step back and realized they were underinvested in digital technologies.

They were not able to react quick enough.

Humans plus machines, AI and machine learning enhanced management of supply chains would have prevented some of the disruptions we saw during the pandemic of just basic things not being available.

That should never happen, it's completely preventable.

- It's completely preventable?

- It's completely preventable.

I think in lots of ways the tools that are needed to prevent it exist, but what we need is a mindset change.

The mindset is where we have the humans plus these technology tools working together, asking the questions.

This may be the most important thing.

What are the questions that matter most and how should we be laser focusing the application of the technology to make sure we're getting the outcomes that we want?

- David, you know, there's so much talk out there among all of us mortals that technology has overcome our lives, that the companies like Facebook et al know so much about us, that our privacy is being invaded, that this could be used for the good, it could be used for the not so good.

Where do you stand on all that?

- You know, I'm a believer that anything can be used for good or bad.

Any type of technology that we've ever utilized in the last hundred years, that could be said.

But first of all, I believe in our spirit to want to do good, and that there's more good in us than there is not.

And I believe that there are things that we have learned in the last 15 years about social media that require change, change needs to happen.

I believe that each one of us that have, just like we had a bill of rights when we formed this nation, should have a data bill of rights.

We should be in control of our own data, that we should be able to have it used in ways that are relevant for us, and that we should be able to direct that in ways that allow our lives to be enriched, we can pursue liberty and happiness and love our lives and that it's making our lives better.

Just like air conditioning made our lives better in the southern parts of the country, because it's pretty hot in the summer, right?

So I think we need to think about it in that way, and I think the way to think about it is to have these kinds of discussions around individual rights with regards to data use.

I also think that for children, we should be very cautious.

We should really, less connectivity when we're in those critical formation and development years is better than more.

- I mean, I worry when I see college students, for example, all sitting in a restaurant and all looking at their little iPhones.

The social interaction suffers, the maturation process is diluted, and so on.

You went to Wharton for your business degrees, and in fact, you became the chairman of the Wharton School alumni board, and now you're on the graduate school's alumni board.

What were your degrees in, were you an MBA at Wharton?

- I was an MBA at Wharton.

You know, most of my undergraduate focus was in finance, and I was a CFO, so I spent a lot more time on strategy and marketing.

I wanted to enhance those skills.

- That's unusual, is it not, that a financial, the finance major would spend so much time on marketing?

- [David] Yeah.

- And I mean, this is music to my ears.

[David chuckles] If you can get those pieces of the puzzle in one person, you've got a winner.

Clearly, Inmar has a winner in you.

- Well, I hope so.

I have a tremendous team.

In fact, I have the best team I've ever worked with in my life, and I've worked with tremendous teams at UPS and Domino's, and Inmar Intelligence leadership team is extraordinary today.

I think that when you think about value delivery, you know, and you think about the history of how we've evolved businesses, so much of the engineering modeling, the marketing modeling and the financial modeling has been siloed.

Some of the engineering modeling would be exogenous to the economic models within the marketing or finance functions, and you begin to think about today, with the access to data we have, the ability to connect and integrate and orchestrate systems together, there's no reason for these things to be unconnected anymore.

In fact, I think that the best-run companies are thinking about orchestrating those together, and that when the engineer is testing new models and hypothesis, he should have some visibility as to what the economic impact of those could be.

- It's a holistic approach.

- They should be integrated, there should be.

Ultimately, these are all potential equations that can maybe not be perfectly linked, but can certainly give us insights into what we might do in one part of an organization and how it might affect others.

We certainly better know how that's gonna affect the customer, right?

So, and the mark of my-- - You know, it was Jack Welsh, of course, in his glory days at General Electric, who said, "We must have a boundaryless company," we must break down the boundaries between marketing and finance and strategic planning and all the rest, and, you know, instead of just making eggs, let's make an omelet, and then you'll see that the power lies in that.

- I love Jack, I love what he had to say, and in fact, today, that is what Inmar Intelligence is doing with these MarTech, supply tech and FinTech platforms, unifying, we're actually, we are coming to the clients and saying, "You have silos here that need to be removed."

- [Nido] Yes.

- And it's helpful.

- So you write for Forbes, you write some pieces for Forbes.

What's the last one that you wrote?

- I've been writing a lot about digital transformation, and in particular, I've been addressing the mindset, you know?

I think it's really important that people understand that the technology and the tools are evolving at such a rapid pace that we really don't have a tools problem anymore.

We live in the time of unlimited computing power, unlimited data storage, AI and machine learning, algorithm support to make decisions.

These are amazing times that we live in today, but we have 87% of the companies out there today that are not realizing the value of their investments in digital transformation.

- And because of the human investment?

- Because of the fact that they do not have the right mindset for digital transformation.

- What does that mean, David?

I mean, you know, Carol Dweck, the professor at Stanford, wrote a book called Mindset, you know, growth mindset, fixed mindset, but I find it profoundly interesting, what you just said, that we have unlimited technology, knowledge and access, but it's humans who create the limitations they're in, is that what you're saying?

- It's absolutely the case, and I think often in the digital transformation journey, we do not make that the true north.

We tend to think it's a siloed function of the technology team within the business to get that work done.

Instead of bringing everyone together to say, "We're transforming as an organization, and our true north "is that we're gonna be more relevant to our shopper, "we're gonna be more relevant to our patient, "and we're gonna apply every technology and tool, "every aspect of how we allocate "our own resources and human time "to that endeavor and orchestrating that," and I think you have to, first of all, think about what it is you want to do, you have to measure that, okay, you have to get the workflow right, and the workflow is a combination of the humans and the machines, and then you need to orchestrate and integrate so that things are working together seamlessly, so whether the shopper is online engaging with you, or coming into your store, that experience should be seamless for them.

It should not be one experience when they're in person and a different one when they're digitally engaged online, it should be seamless, and we should know them in that way.

- And what is the issue here?

Is the issue fear, ego, ignorance, relational capital?

- I think it's a combination of skill, okay, a good change model, that the CEOs are not implementing the right type of change models, okay?

Think about the kinds of change that I've seen you drive in your own life.

I mean, you've been a tremendous transformational leader in the things that you've done.

If you don't align everyone around the need for change, if you don't align everybody around how we're going to change, if you don't put the skills in place, people will get just frustrated, 'cause they won't know how to change, if you don't put the incentives in place for people to change, they won't change fast enough.

They'll change-- - They must see what's in it for them.

- They have to see what's in it, and so I think often, when I talk to leaders, very, very powerful and strong, good CEOs in healthcare and in everyday retail, when we are one-to-one like this and they can be a little bit vulnerable, they can say, "I don't really know how to manage "my technology transformation."

You know, it's, "I'm learning how to do it.

"I love my technology leaders," they often think about them as the ones to drive it, "but I don't know really how to evaluate "whether they're doing a good job.

"I'm not an engineer "and I don't understand some of the computer science."

And I often tell them that you're thinking about it in a way that is too narrow.

You really need to think about it as a transformational objective and think about the tools, and I begin to run them through the processes around developing a competent data strategy, thinking about how to apply the technologies.

What we're really, really good at is we create beautiful technology, we monitor the ecosystem of technologies evolving, but we apply them to get outcomes, 'cause we're very focused on the end outcome.

- Outcomes consistent with the goal, - [David] It's consistent with the goal-- - mission and vision of the organization.

- Exactly, just like you would do with what you're doing in the things that you're managing.

- So David, why are you a pilot?

[David laughs] - I love aviation.

I told you, I spent my first 23 years with UPS, and I said, "I will go anywhere."

I worked in almost 50 countries, I lived in six countries.

I was brown blooded through and through.

And I opened markets like Vietnam at the normalization of relations.

I brought the first brown tail airplane into Manila, the Spirit of Manila.

I used to jump seat on the UPS airplanes, you know, through Anchorage, over to Seoul and to Hong Kong, and I lived in Asia, I lived in Europe and of course in the United States.

- But what point in your life did you say, "I wanna fly an airplane myself?"

- [David] It was then.

- Really?

As an adult?

- Yeah, yeah.

When I was a young, you know, UPS executive opening these countries all around the world, that's what I wanted to do, I wanted to learn to fly the airplanes, but honestly, I was working so hard, I just didn't have the time to take to do it.

About 10 years ago, my son got his Eagle Scout.

I have four children, three sons and a daughter, and they're all precocious and extraordinary, and I love them dearly.

And that's an amazing accomplishment, as you know, to get your Eagle Scout.

- Absolutely.

- And I said, "Pick anything you wanna do, father-son, anything, "and we'll go do it."

And he said, "Dad, let's get our pilot licenses together."

- [Nido] Wow.

- So at that point I knew I couldn't procrastinate it anymore, so I learned to fly, I love to fly.

I fly and I love the aviation industry in general, quite involved today in trying to advance technologies within the country for urban air mobility, things like flight management systems for drones and vertical takeoff and landing vehicles and short takeoff and landing vehicles.

- In all of your vocational endeavors and all of your leadership positions, you really have two mega objectives, purposes, responsibilities.

One is to create capacity in others, the other one is to allocate resources appropriately.

You talk a lot about the talent gap.

What do you mean by that, and why is it important and what do we do about it?

- Yeah.

Talent is ultimately the fuel for ideas, for innovation, for growth, for prosperity.

After parenthood, there is no more important endeavor than teaching and education.

It is the single most important thing that a person can do.

I have always been involved in education institutions, as long as I can remember I've always served in some capacity in education institutions.

I serve now on the myFuture North Carolina endeavor, which is setting attainment goals for the state and trying to innovate and share what it's doing across the country in ways that are helpful.

We have a supply and demand issue in that we do not have an adequate amount of talent for the technology industry.

- So define "talent" for me, you mean skilled individuals who could appropriately do certain things.

- Yes, we don't have, and what we've not done a good enough job is synchronizing what we are teaching with the skills needed for the jobs that are existing and evolving, especially in the areas of technology.

We have millions and millions of open, high paying technology jobs across the country.

- So how do we change that, David?

How do we make that-- - I think we have to really get focused on innovating, and we have to do three things.

Number one, business and education have got to come together and collaborate more to solve this problem.

And the educators need to understand the demand, both today and in the future, and the types of skills that are needed, and they need to have visibility to that pipeline.

- Do, in your view, do institutions of higher education acknowledge what you just said?

Understand it and apply it?

- I think in North Carolina, they absolutely do.

We've been talking about this for a number of years and people that realize that we need to do something.

Across the country, there's work to do.

In the next step, we have to think about, just like we would any other supply and demand issue, right?

These are these beautiful individuals that are going through our education systems.

How do we get them excited and engaged and wanting to pursue these areas of career, for them to understand the opportunities that exist for them, and how do we more rapidly move them through to shore up the gap and then make sure what we're producing going forward meets the ongoing demand and it's matched in a way that is synchronized?

- Let me just inject this thought, is it too late by the time we get to college?

Should that be done in elementary school, junior high and senior high so that there is an awareness about the value of technology and therefore my role in it?

- It's too late to start only in college, but I do think that it is completely appropriate to look at impacting every aspect of pre-K through workforce training to try to shore up the current gap, 'cause it's big, okay?

There's no reason why we can't be doing, let's take the educational institutions, which are really learning platforms.

Why is a learning platform not connected to my work platform?

- It is where I work.

[David laughs] - It is where you work, right.

But why isn't every business in the world able to connect to the type of academy content that makes it easy for people while they're working to continue to learn and to be continually re-skilled?

So I think that there is an opportunity for learning platforms and education platforms.

Frankly, it could change the model, create real opportunity for education institutions to become more connected into the work platforms.

We're currently going through a complete redesign of our work platform.

It will be completely phygital, this is physical and digital, it will be optimized, every team member will have a digital AI assistant.

I would love for every team member to have an educational tutor that's helping them understand the latest and most important marketing metrics, or the evolution of algorithms, right?

There's no reason why those things couldn't be in there.

- Well, you have a believer in me, because the reality of it is that a college education without an application to life skills is incomplete at best.

What was the third one?

You mentioned one, two?

- So I would also go into the high school and the middle school programs.

I think we need to have more of an intervention there.

- [Nido] Yes.

- Okay?

There are some really good models that have been developed in Southern California at USC, and then also within North Carolina, that come in and augment the public systems with enhanced tutoring commitment from the student, commitment from the family, and they've resulted in more than 98% college graduation.

Not matriculation, this is taking students that are behind, maybe many years, in middle school or in high school, completely catching them up, having them succeed at high levels, high standards, and then graduating with high rates.

- [Nido] That's wonderful.

- This is the kind of thing I think, so, and I also think we've gotta get more flexibility within the education systems, as they look at these, "How do we make things more modular?"

You know, I never ever wanna stop being a liberal arts learner.

- [Nido] Yes.

- I love it, okay?

But maybe the sequence could be more flexible.

Maybe we could allow someone who wants to be a data scientist or a business analytics person or a software engineer, perhaps in the first couple of years we could front-load those heavily needed skills-- - A curriculum re-engineering, if you will.

- Re-engineering, yeah, so that those could be more available, and then we would allow them to say, "Hey, complete your liberal arts "over the next five years," right?

"And in fact, don't ever stop, keep learning."

- Very interesting, very interesting.

David, we could talk to you for hours.

Listen, you have done amazing things in your life as a business leader, certainly you understand technology and finance.

You've been a leader in education institutions.

The one thing I admire a lot about you is that you've taken your success and you've turned it into significance.

You've shared of your resources both time and money and talent to make it happen.

I thank you for being with us today, and I wish you good things always, my friend.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Qubein, it's my pleasure.

- [Announcer] Funding for Side By Side with Nido Qubein is made possible by... - [Narrator] Here's to those that rise and shine.

To friendly faces doing more than their part, and to those who still enjoy the little things.

You make it feel like home.

Ashley HomeStore.

This is home.

- [Narrator] The Budd Group is a company of everyday leaders making a difference by providing facility solutions through customized janitorial landscape and maintenance services.

[piano chord playing] - [Narrator] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 30 0 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

[upbeat rock music]