It was so exciting to receive a box (on February 9th, 2017) from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
I was elected for
developing and commercializing innovative solutions to optimize supply chain systems.
Perfect!
If you want to see a very early presentation I made on SmartOps EIO (to GSK in London): here it is!
Thank you, Academy for Logistics at GSK for making this video.
The Lobby of GSK House in London was astonishing!
During this visit I decided to stay in Notting Hill, because of the movie.
There was a decent (but not great) Indian restaurant there. Like the movie.
GSK was our first customer at SmartOps. Still remember in vivid detail this entire sales cycle.
There was a very nice induction ceremony (in Washington DC, at the National Academy of Sciences, NAS, Building) with a black-tie reception and dinner the night before on October 7th.
NAE was formed in 1963, under President John F. Kennedy.
It was exactly 100 years after NAS was formed, in 1863, under President Abraham Lincoln.
Among the first inducted into NAE are William Hewlett (1965) and David Packard (1971).
This was only the second time I wore my tuxedo — Ermenogildo Zegna.
The first time was in March 2013 when we sold SmartOps to SAP.
How was this commercialization done?
How did we get hundreds of companies from all over the world to use our software?
That is: How did we scale our sales process and sales force?
Partnered with a behemoth (SAP)!
Indeed, this is the essence of the Darden Case (now re-sold by HBS).
It was written by Ron Wilcox, who invited me to present in his MBA class when the case first came out.
After the class, I spent a few hours at Monticello, admiring Thomas Jefferson’s handiwork.
The NAE induction ceremony was open to the public, and so the kids and Gunjan were there, along with Tinglong Dai (my PhD student, now at Johns Hopkins) who drove down from Baltimore.
For the details of the academic development and how I brought EIO to market, you can read my article from 2013.
