On Aug.25th (UTC+8), We had a fascinating conversation with Mr. Dinis Guarda, who is an Author, Academic, Influencer, Serial Entrepreneur And Leader in 4IR, AI, Fintech, digital transformation and Blockchain, talking about his 20+ years work experience as successful serial entrepreneur on multiple industries and deep insights on the development of emerging technologies.
Jokia: How would you describe yourself in three words?
Dinis: Vision- Dream – Make
Jokia: Can you please share more about your educational and professional background? And we’d love to hear what brought you to blockchain.
Dinis: I studied in Portugal, then in the UK and have a background that started in Languages Literature Film Music New Media Technology FinTech and Strategy. When the FinTech Revolution started I was part of a bank and helped creating one of the first global social trading platforms.
After that I understood that digital would change all the structures of society and started immersion on tech, digital transformation and when Bitcoin emerged, I saw it as a way to replace money and found Blockchain in 2013 and started studying it deeply. From theory to practice and writing about it with people like Don Tapscott and also did a course in Oxford and started my first ICO and smart contracts.
More details about me and my studies and wiki bio here https://www.openbusinesscouncil.org/wiki/dinis-guarda/
Jokia: When I first read your bio, I risk being overwhelmed by the amount of different projects you has successfully conducted and industries you focused. Author, academic, influencer, serial entrepreneur and leader in 4IR, AI, Fintech, digital transformation and Blockchain. So, my third question is basically about a paranoiac feature of your career: How does you combines so many interests and manage to be successful in all those areas?
Dinis: I combine the multiple things with my passion for learning and understanding things. I love to learn and create new things, project and tech. So best way is to have multiple hats that allows you to keep moving and learning.
I have a model on Leonardo da Vinci and people like the Medici that were not only biggest bankers in the world at their time but also innovative people and creators and writers. The best magic is to have passion to understand listen and keep learning and believe in things and special in people! You have to be a believer!
Jokia: Some of the figures in your resume are particularly prominent especially the start-ups you founded. Could you share 1-2 typical cases on how to be a successful serial entrepreneur?
Dinis: The more important to be a startup serial entrepreneur is as follow:
1. Focus and passion on solving a big problem - create a vision - first your inception and second sell the idea and vision;
2. Be obsessive about it and try to learn as much as possible about it and become a top 1, 10, 50, 100 global experts about it;
3. Start a service or product to solve that problem and keep innovating and creating an audience for it as critical business model;
4. Persistence and resilience! Never give up! Adapt and change but keep persistence.
Jokia: As an author, you have published the book 4IR: AI, Blockchain, FinTech, IoT, Reinventing a Nation in 2019, among others. How will the Fourth Industrial Revolution affect business from your point of view?
Dinis: These infographics explain my view on how the 4IR and Society 5.0 are the fundamentals of our times:
The Fourth Industrial Revolution also known as 4IR is here to stay. There is no turning back. Because of its ubiquitous reach, 4IR technologies raise all kinds of concerns, and nations have to adapt and change.These infographics explain the challenges we are going through,which are also my reflection and research on the 4IR challenges and adaptation.
We now live in a period of technology data-driven 4.0 industrial revolution - 4IR - a world which is more interconnected and affected by technological innovation than ever before in history.This profound interconnection is also the result of the way in which billions of people behave and connect globally, through the use of mobile devices, smart devices and sensors, all of which have unprecedented processing capacity and power. There are more than 3.5 billion mobile devices all over the world.At the moment when two or more people are talking, the mere presence of a digital device, normally a computer or a mobile phone on the table between them or in their peripheral vision, shifts their attention and changes both what they talk about and their degree of connectedness.
This is something that happens in any country and that surpasses all kinds of physical frontiers.Our opportunities are in surging the changes and focusing on creating products and services to help us navigate these challenges.
Jokia: From your experiences working with the banking sector, which are the biggest hurdles traditional banks have to take when digitizing their business?
Dinis: Banking is a big industry and there are a lot of challenges and operations. The main challenge is leadership and change management. Tech is about tools if people don’t change nothing will happen and the banks that will not become digital super savvy will be replaced by new ones that solve problems or people faster. Special in digital solutions and digital money and rewards data driven social media areas.
Jokia: Today, business innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) seem to go hand-in-hand to improve many areas of a business. From your perspective, how Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Business?
Dinis: AI is the critical element of tech and strategy for our times. These infographics of mine explain some of my ideas in this subject.
Special AI and Blockchain:
This one looks holistically to the AI challenges and solutions.
Also you can look at this slide presentation I did https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/dinisguarda/the-next-tsunami-ai-blockchain-iot-and-our-swarm-evolutionary-singularity. In which I explore the main directions of AI blockchain IOT and singularity.
Jokia: From your perspective, what’s unique and game-changing about Blockchain technology? How prepared is Ztudium to play a leading role in the information age?
Dinis: These are my insights about blockchain tech:
About Ztudium we created IP software that explore these ways special with our solution iDNA and Blocksdna.
https://youtu.be/P3ru8dFF3vs this video presents our biggest product on blockchain and AI. Also our platforms www.citiesabc.com www.openbusinesscouncil.org www.fashionabc.org
Jokia: What are the biggest challenges of the $3 trillion industry of fashion facing with the 4IR - Fourth Industrial revolution? What can fashionabc do to solve the challenges?
Dinis: About the Fashion Industry there are a lot of challenges special to make sure the industry gets more sustainable and digital. The fashion and textile industry combined is around 6 to 10 trillion USD if we add cosmetics and life style even more and the industry is challenged by sustainability social impact and supply chain. With blockchain and AI driven solutions we can tackle supply chain and provenance while solving the industry challenges around inequalities and multiple rhythms. These infographics reflect that:
Sustainability should be more important with Covid and will accelerate new solutions.
Jokia: As a global recognized speaker and keynote author, you have been speaking and keynoting to governments, major Universities, top conferences and global businesses and corporations, so what’s your benchmark to select the top-tier conferences?
Dinis: The main criteria is people and second quality of events.
The people involved first for me as it is all about people first and second the quality of events. Independent of small or big quality is critical.
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