Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59881
that will make people secure, but they only work if people use them. data, games, videos, broadcast TV, ring tones, ringbacks— you name it—five years after they were first touted, these are really starting to take off. Outside of that, we think the notions of RFID tags and electronic product codes really do have the ability to transform the supply chains of the world. You're talking about radio frequency ID tags, which store information on microchips that can be used to identify both people and products. How do you expect these to radically change commerce? With RFID, products can be tagged as they pass through the supply chain, out of the manufacturing plant, through the warehouse, to the truck, and eventually onto the shelf. We know where they are. We know whether that product is real or counterfeit. If that product is a pharmaceutical, we know whether it has expired or been recalled. We know if it's been stolen. When you look at all the inventory that sits in distribu- tion, all of the out-of-stock situations when customers can't find a product on the shelves, all of the theft in the distri- bution channel and at the point of sale, and add that up for all manufacturers for all industries across all retail distribu- tion centers, you're talking about between $600 billion to a trillion dollars per year of economic loss. If we can shut down a lot of that leakage, there will be dramatic econom- ic benefits to bread-and-butter industries. That will get translated into lower prices for consumers, better earnings for retailers and packaged good companies, and a reinvest- ment of some of those savings into new products. Trust me, RFID will go through its hype curve. Wal- Mart has told its 100 top suppliers they better be on board by January 2005. Everybody's going to be late. In the early years, benefits won't be seen all the way out to the shelf, just in case-and-pallet at the warehouse. So there's going to be some disillusionment in the early days. But I believe this development will be one of the most significant changes our economy will see for several decades. As for your own future, what would you like to accomplish over the rest of your career, with VeriSign or elsewhere? I'm absolutely confident this will be the last job I have. I love what we're doing. I think the things we're working on will have an incredible impact on the world over the next five to ten to 20 years. The people we've surrounded our- selves with all have that same kind of energy and passion and commitment to do great things. So I can't think of a place I'd rather be, nor can I think of anybody I'd trade places with in the technology industry. You know, CEOs often will say that going from zero to $100 million is the hardest thing. A few years later, if they're still in play, they'll say that going from $100 million to a billion is the hardest thing. I actually think each new step demands a new level of discipline, a new level of com- mitment, and a new level of strategic thinking. So as we take VeriSign from $1 billion to $2 billion, as we take it from $2 billion to $5 billion, I'm excited about the fact that I don't know how to do that job yet. And I'm very confident that I'll learn along the way. I'll take a few mis- steps here and there, but I'll be able to continue driving forward on this journey. What advice would you give to today's business school graduates? I think it is a really interesting time for them. What are the opportunities? Many of them used to go into investment banking and management consulting. My personal opin- ion is that that's more like being a spectator at the Olympics. All these incredible changes are coming, many of them driven by technology and by telecommunications. They need to get on the field. I'm hopeful that the next generation of business school graduates is really focused on getting into the workforce and helping build some- thing great that leaves a legacy, rather than watching from the sidelines. ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 23