There are many different paths to achieving success. For some, it may be through hard work and determination, while others may find success through innovation with creativity, data, and automation.

No matter what your path is, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends and technologies to stay ahead of the competition. In this podcast recap blog post, we will discuss how innovation derived from creativity, data, and automation can lead to success.

Recently caught up with Alex on the Tech Backstage Podcast

The Tech Backstage Podcast is a live streamed video podcast that goes behind the scenes with today’s leaders of industry to learn what technologies are solving business problems, and how Design Thinking applied to the future of technology is impacting the world.

Tech Backstage interviewed Alex Garcia Gonzalez to learn more about his journey from adopting a dog, to building one of the biggest B2B pet care companies in Mexico.

We learned how Alex found it difficult to catch hold of better foods and treats for dogs, and how he began to dig into the pet care industries in Mexico. Alex was astonished to find that only a few industries offered innovation compared to the pet markets in the U.S.

The aim to improve and better the lives of pets lead Alex and his co-founders to launch a business to provide foods that were better for them. They started by selling brands of better foods and treats for pets through eCommerce platforms and tech tools. 

The co-founders always looked forward to making a lovely and enjoyable customer journey for pet lovers and improving their pets’ quality of life.

The success of Alex’s company, Pet Markt Co, was a combination of creativity, data, and automation. Let’s look at the value of all three.

Creativity

To innovate, you must be creative. It’s that simple. Too often, people try to come up with new solutions by looking at things in a different way, when really, all they’re doing is rearranging the same information. 

“To truly innovate, you need to look at problems from a fresh perspective and come up with creative solutions.”

To come up with new ideas and solve problems, you need to be creative. Many people think that creativity is a skill that you are born with, but this isn’t true. Anyone can learn to be creative if they put in the effort.

The first step to becoming more creative is to keep an open mind. Be receptive to new and different ideas, and don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s important to be flexible and adaptable in your thinking.

Five Steps to Becoming More Creative

Step One: Be Willing to Take Risks

The first step to becoming more creative is to be willing to take risks. This means being okay with making mistakes and not being afraid to try new things.

Step Two: Be Open to New Ideas

The second step is to be open to new ideas. This means being willing to listen to others and consider different perspectives. It also means being open to change and trying new things.

Step Three: Be Persistent

The third step is to be persistent. This means not giving up when things become difficult and continuing to strive towards your goals.

Step Four: Be Patient

The fourth step is to be patient. This means giving yourself time to experiment and not getting frustrated if things don’t work out immediately. Sit in the question long enough to let the answers emerge.

Step Five: Believe in Yourself

The fifth and final step is to believe in yourself. This means having confidence in your abilities and knowing that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Data

Data is the lifeblood of any business. It’s what drives decision-making and helps companies improve their products and services. In the world of b2b tech, data is even more important. That’s because it can be used to create innovative products that solve real-world problems for customers. 

According to a study conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, over 60% of executives say that data-driven decision-making is “critical” or “very important” to their success. However, only 24% of companies surveyed said they were very effective at turning data into insights. Clearly, there is room for improvement!

“By analyzing customer data and using it to drive product design and development, companies can create products that are in high demand and tailored specifically to their customers’ needs.”

A recent study by Forbes Insights found that data-driven innovation is the key to success for B2B tech companies. According to the report, 60% of respondents said that data was “critical” or “very important” to their innovation process. This should come as no surprise, given the amount of data that is available today. 

The challenge for businesses is finding ways to make use of all this data to drive innovation.

By leveraging big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), coupled with strong creative thinking, businesses can gain powerful insights that help them improve operations, identify new market opportunities, and create better customer experiences.

We learned in the Tech Backstage podcast how Alex uses Google Data Studio, for example. Alex put all their ERP data into the Amazon warehouse, and from there, they pull out data using the google data studio.

First, they have their commercial forecast in terms of sales and strategies. Then, they compare themselves with how they do operations according to the plans in a day or week to check if their status matches with what they had forecasted. 

With it, they can predict units and money since they are essential dimensions in sales. They can also pull their financial data and compare their forecasted EBITDA with their real-time EBITDA monthly. They can also have all the primary sales data in the google data studio that integrates the sales happening on Amazon.

We also learned how they make sure to pursue marketing and advertising efforts to move the sellout to their retail partners. Secondly, using the Data Studio, they make more predictive analyses. 

These tools and data help to forecast the trends to check what will happen if they move at this rate, if they require more stock, or if they need to inform their supplier ahead of time if it is required to make more products so that it will be easier to ship when the consumers order them. Thirdly, marketers also need tools for automating campaigns on Facebook and other platforms. 

Alex states that feeding the tools with the correct data is required to make them better and more efficient. Therefore, the data studio has been a faster, more innovative means of productivity.

Automation

Automation is a huge part of tech and is ingrained in almost all modern companies’ development platforms. It is because it improves accuracy and safety, reduces waste and human error, and increases productivity and ease of scalability. 

For instance, let us check how Pet Markt Co. integrated the automation process from the initial stage and how it developed into a full-fledged system on its own:

● Partner with third-party logistics: The company operated by partnering with third-party logistics in Mexico. The third-party provided ready systems to operate the company’s inventory and pick orders.

● Build your own systems: Next, the company built their own warehouse to identify what orders had been ordered by customers and how fast they were delivered. The visibility and integration were successfully set up with their ERP. All the orders, deliveries, and other data went through the ERP into the google cloud database depending on the level of integration.

They were quickly notified to the slack channels about the orders if the orders were shipped, packed, or had been delivered. It did not require any reporting about the happenings in the industry.

● B2B Automation: The company also has automation in terms of marketing. For instance, when customers order products, they make sure it is validated after the account is successfully created in the e-commerce platform and mapped to HubSpot which inputs the information into their ERP.

Automation process can positively impact a business while also coming packed with various complexity, but the business will surely soar with such successful business strategies.

Pet Markt Co. is an inspiration for how it was initially founded and how it developed its business system with the help of tech tool. It challenges other companies by making better market products and helps pet parents provide their furry companions with a quality life with better foods and treats.

Conclusion

To innovate at a higher level, you need creativity and data. Many people think that creativity and data are two separate things, but the truth is that they go hand in hand. To solve problems and come up with new ideas, you need to be creative.

To determine whether those ideas are good ones, you need data. After you’ve unlocked innovation, having automation in place will help you scale it in a sustainable way.

The key to innovation is combining creativity and data to come up with the best possible solutions, and finally using automation to streamline operations at scale.

Check out the full interview below.

When you have a vision of a mission in mind, you can explore a range of possibilities to achieve it. You can dive deep into a sea of subjects even if it is a long journey ahead. Jason Lozo exemplifies such an innate interest in exploration.

Recently caught up with Jason on the Tech Backstage Podcast

The Tech Backstage Podcast is a live streamed video podcast that goes behind the scenes with today’s leaders of industry to learn what technologies are solving business problems, and how Design Thinking applied to the future of technology is impacting the world.

Tech Backstage interviewed Jason Lozo to learn more about his journey from being an astronomer to an optomechanical engineer at Microsoft HoloLens.

We learned that Lozo’s eternal itch to do something better in life ran through his veins.

He gravitated into astronomy after completing high school, graduating from the University of Washington, and completing an M.S in Mechanical Engineering, then accepting a Research position at the University.

Currently, Jason is a Senior Photomechanical Engineer at Microsoft in Seattle, WA.

Optomechanical Engineering

An optomechanical engineer designs and develops optomechanical devices and systems. They also create and develop components like optical mounts and optical mirrors.

Engineers combine optical and mechanical engineering while designing these systems or devices. They research, analyze, and test systems or machines and supervise research.

Optomechanical engineers deal with glass, and many more optics are involved at the core. These engineers consider how to design things right for manufacturing and what materials should be used. They also take designs from optical engineers.

For example, optical engineers use ethereal lens design and pack them to protect and convert them into reality. In simple terms, these engineers take the optical theory into use to convert them into physical and practical objects.

The work they do also involves high-level modeling to create these optics. They invest much time in calculating objects’ design, like what happens if the lens is moved by 15 microns in a direction or if the lens’ curvature is a bit wrong.

They also calculate what might happen if you apply force to the housing, and if the lens is deflected in one direction, will it make a difference in the optical performance.

These are the kinds of simulation that goes into the making these devices, so they require high-level design and prototype modeling, involve a lot of simulation and front-end work that goes into building useful devices.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is an interactive simulated experience of real-world environments. A computer-generated perceptual information enhances the objects that reside in the real world.

In the future, augmented reality devices will potentially notify you where the devices should go on your face. In the future AR devices can be your smartphone, but on the face. There will be a possibility of getting directions immediately, as an example.

Recently, Google tested an application where people can translate languages instantaneously. For instance, when you read a sign or somebody speaks in a language you do not understand, the device can automatically translate it into a language that is understandable.

Furthermore, the industry aims to create a socially acceptable pair of glasses with an augmented reality device. Companies like Facebook partnered with Ray Ban, where they built cameras in the glasses to help document the activities of daily life. It has also been predicted that people will see a huge application boom since engineers are driving towards it. It is already seen in games, for example.

The Role of Optomechanical Engineering and Augmented Reality

As an optomechanical engineer, Jason Lozo has described the actual mechanics of the devices he creates. First, there is a tiny projector in the arm of the glasses that projects light into the glass plate that relays the light directly into your eyes.

It is like having a film projector on the glass surface. It’s kind of like software magic. Next, Lozo creates holograms and locks them to the physical world through cameras. It is like a sci-fi object you can walk around with and touch or move.

Privacy Laws and Security

There is a role of social acceptability that has not been determined yet and cannot be defined at this moment, as it relates to privacy laws and augmented reality. In the upcoming generation of devices, there will be more manufacturers to define privacy policies.

For instance, the iPhone is believed to be more secure than an Android. Similarly, there will be privacy and security laws and workable policies, and varying policies will come up based on the companies.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are new technologies with which people have been creating video games for decades. Augmented reality devices, in the future will need to be developed in an ethical way that does not violate people’s privacy.

Conclusion

Augmented reality merges digital components into people’s perception of reality. It also raises the question of ethics since augmented reality works from confidential information.

Working on how a policy that is socially acceptable is essential. Any inventions or technology should be applied to an object ethically that does not infringe on people’s privacy.

Over time, we might see more devices that enhance how we interact with reality bringing astronomy level curiosity to the masses.

Check out the full interview by clicking below.