Taryn Sullivan

My kids (5 ½ and 4 ½) have always been drawn to toy kitchens, but I always thought if I got them one, it would quickly lose its novelty and just sit collecting dust. I felt that way with most imagination play structures, but then the kids started getting them as presents. First the puppet show, which is adorable and they used a lot. It made me realize that these structures are a wonderful space for letting little ones create their own little universe of possibilities.

Then the kids saw a farmer's market at a thrift store and put a presentation together to convince their Dad they were responsible enough to take care of it. Then we needed a sandwich shop to go with it, then a tomato/lemonade stand, and the list goes on.

Our play room has become the thing we swore it wouldn't - filled with all kinds of structures and toys that get used every once in a while. We tried rotating, and even tried to convince the kids to give some away. But it was tough because at the end of the day, I do love seeing how creative and joyful they are playing in these spaces.

So, when a friend of mine told me about her product idea - a modular play structure that you could turn into anything, I was intrigued. My kids literally can't play with all of the structures available to them at the same time anyways, so why not something that could transform into whatever their hearts desire on any given day... with the added bonus of teaching kids how to design and build (which can be done quick in just a couple minutes, or go on for hours if your kids want to explore, experiment, and adjust).

My kids just opened WunderNook for Christmas and in less than 2 weeks it has already been a kitchen, a fort, a lemonade stand, and a "monkey sanctuary". They are excited to turn it into a rocket ship, school bus, and the list goes on...

There are tons of configurations in the WunderNook project manual, but the morning after Christmas my 4 ½ year old son came running out his room and wanted to build a fort - and I was inspired to see his creativity expressed as he turned the handles, feet and magnet pieces that come with it, into "solar panels", "laser guns" and "deflector shields".

Coming from a background in manufacturing and supply chain, I want to mention that I'm incredibly impressed with the quality of WunderNook. It's made in the USA with sustainable materials, and it shows. The connectors are so clever and easy to use, and the natural look leaves it perfect for open-ended play and exploration. I can tell it will last, and be one of those toys I save for my grandkids to play with someday. So, while it's not cheap, it's worth it - add up all the money you spent on everything else and it's a steal.

Today I saw this word re-sil-ience in a new way. I was exploring ways to spend a little time on my mindset in honor of Mental Health Day, and on a site someone had sent me I saw the word resilience broken out in a way I never had, and it struck me -- “re” - “silence” -- I know, I know, I’m missing the extra “i” in there, but just go with it for a moment. 

So much can be said about the power of silence, but I immediately thought about the words quietness, stillness, peace. I spent the next hour or so digging into how resilience and silence were connected. (at least for me)

The prefix “re” means again, backward, anew. This led my thought to see resilience for a moment as silence, as a thing to go back to, something that is part of our origin and nature. The word anew also stood out, and it means in “a new or different form”. So, re-silence, would be a new or different form of silence — because of course we have grown into a new, stronger form as we become more resilient. 

I recalled the word stillness and quiet used often in the Scriptures, and among hundreds of references, this one stood out...

Mark 4:39 “…he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” - KJV Bible

To me, the sea is a symbol for our consciousness, and the wind that ruffles the waves are worldly opinions, disturbing interruptions, and other agitators. Notice here Christ Jesus didn’t address the wind, he addressed the sea - “he said unto the sea, Peace, be still”. The Hebrew word still is ‘amad, one meaning of which is to (be) present (self). 

When consciousness is directed to be still, present -- “silent”, the agitators cease and we overcome. This is a great example of resilience - calming the storm through stilling our own thoughts no matter what is going on around us. This overcoming makes us even more resilient. 

So a wonderful thing to remember when the waves are turbulent, is that you have dominion of your consciousness, and you can regain your sense of stillness in thought, which will make you more resilient.

Something that I’ve noticed since even just a few moments after Mary was born was how alongside the joy and love I felt for this new little one, was a bombardment of fearful thoughts about all of the bad things that could happen to her. I get that it’s probably an instinctive safety that helps us new moms stay alert and protect our children. However, I found the thoughts that came to be so over the top and obviously flawed that it gave me pause. I wondered why the joy of motherhood would come with such a barrage of evil. Fear that I would drop her, or she would somehow just randomly stop breathing, that someone would come kidnap her out of her crib at night, and the list goes on and on. At least some of the moms out there know what I’m talking about. It seems simple — most people would say that of course the more you love something or someone, the more you might fear of it being taken away or somehow being harmed… so “it’s natural”.

However, this was just about the opposite of everything I had ever learned about love from the Bible. “Perfect love casteth out fear”, and “God is Love” — so how could the perfect love I felt for my daughter do the opposite of cast it out — and even seem to cause it? And how could God, Love, be the source or impetus for such fear. Of course there is a healthy, normal sense of practical attention and discernment we should have as parents — make sure the kids aren't running with scissors, or crawling near the top of the stairs, or playing with glass items. But, where’s the line and how do we know? There’s so much access to information about all the crazy things that can “happen to your kid”, that there’s pretty much an excuse for sheltering your kid from just about anything. Many dedicated parents that are well educated and excel at life in general, apply this same kind of diligence to ensuring their kids are never near anything that might, in some way, be potentially harmful. I’m actually not that worried about the kids on the surface — they’ll be fine. Yeah, maybe a little spoiled or sheltered, which will lead to other things possibly, but who I’m really thinking about here is the mom.

How we think about our children is so important. Our thoughts do so much to shape their little identities — even simply because it frames how we interact with them, and we are their biggest example of how to act and think. I’ve come to realize that as soon as a concern has that panicked fearful feeling attached to it, it is not a right sense of concern. It is an overly instinctual fear that if not recognized and controlled, will cause me to react in a way that isn’t consistent with how I really think. 

This is a helpful identifier, but then I have to handle the fear. Most of the time the fears are so ridiculous that it’s easy to correct, sometimes even laugh, and then move along with what I was doing. However, sometimes, the suggestion keeps popping up in my head over and over until I really dig into my thinking and refute the fear. Even if the concern is valid, (i.e.. being mindful of my 10 month old as he pulls himself up on the coffee table so he doesn’t smack his face), I will use this as an opportunity to claim his safety, innocence, and protection in my thought. Each of these little or big concerns that come to my thought have now become another opportunity for me to lift my children up in my thinking — meaning, seeing all their good, and acknowledging all the good around them and the power of good to protect and maintain their identity. It helps to deny the fearful thought, and reverse it with a strong statement about their safety in love. (And of course I do this as I sit next to him at the coffee table)

I write about it a lot more clearly and with MUCH more self-awareness now that it’s a little farther in the past. Funny how time does that for us. I’ve made a big effort the last decade or so to embrace the faults and failures in my past rather than trying to wash them out of memory or look back with rose colored glasses. The goal for me is to learn and grow, and I can’t do that unless I’m honest with myself, seek perspectives outside of my own, and be willing to admit I didn’t know what I was doing (even if I thought I did at the time).

In 2008, I was getting really fed up with my work in global sourcing and supply chains because of one big issue that touched every part of what I did every day -- compliance. The reason it made me crazy was simple - I saw that despite all the efforts and intentions to make things better (socially, operationally, ethically, profitably, etc), it didn’t. It actually made everything worse - more inefficiencies, more obscurities, more lies, distrust, friction, confusion and frustration on all sides of the table (or assembly line).

I was young, and I was definitely naive, but not in the way I think most young people are... I was naive because I thought that companies operating in the supply chain really wanted to know what was going on, and wanted to find ways to drive efficiency and increase profit.  So, I went out and raised money to try and build a business that would do that! It was hard, and it took us a while to uncover some areas we could improve in a systematic, scalable way, but we did find one little area to start. 

Stepping back, what I realize that I really enjoyed about building a business (in the way I did) was finding and solving problems. And for some reason, I was drawn to really, “really hard problems that most people wouldn’t wish on their worst enemies” (that is a quote from an advisor, lol). I was super motivated by these kinds of problems - ones that almost seem impossible. So, here I was trekking around from factory to factory in the hinterlands of China, working on production lines and digging into their books to try and find a way to get factory data in a scalable way and use that data to improve their business... and then the rest of the supply chain. 

Looking back, the craziest thing is not that I actually found some ways to do it -- the craziest thing about it all is that I couldn’t get investors in the U.S. to understand what that could become... how it could revolutionize the way things are made.

1. Unfollow every organization, publication, and company.

2. Unfollow everyone you know in person & are friends with on Facebook, bc you probably just started following them based on a recommendation from Twitter back when you started.

3. Ask the three smartest people you know for the top 5 people they follow. (of if you have a super awesome nerdy interesting husband like me, just ask him, hehe)

I did all three of these things last night after laying on the basement floor complaining to my husband that I don’t have the energy to find interesting things to read these days. He said it’s all about systems... and Twitter can be a great tool if you use it correctly. 

I recently joined a robotics company, and I’m loving it! Come to find out, I got started with robots earlier than I thought.

My Grandfather, who we lovingly called “GranDon” brought us a toy called “Robot Machine” to put together on a visit. I’m on the left, and my older twin brothers are on the right. Thanks Dad for finding this picture!

This was pretty funny to find given what I am doing now, but as I’ve learned, robotics was not a passing interest or just a fun activity for GranDon. He was inspired by robots in movies to invest in robotic technology, and even started a company called Hodges Robotics. I remember him sharing the story of whet inspired him to start a robot company – he said that when Star Wars came out, he saw the way that people emotionally connected with R2D2, and just had to find a way to build something like that. His adventures and learnings are chronicled in his book Risk (or no risk, I can’t really tell from the cover). 

He was definitely a thinker with ideas before his time, and the company went through a lot of struggles, but it’s final claim to fame was that it was used to clean up 3 mile island. The robot they built was called F.R.E.D., which technically is an acronym for something, buuuuuut… my Dad’s name is Fred… although he refuses to accept that the robot was named after him.

I was in a discussion a few months back with the buyer from one of the distributors we sell our Dexter robots to, and he mentioned that his father was involved in the 3 mile island clean up. So, of course, I had to tell him about GranDon. Thought it would be neat to get him a copy of the book to give his father, who is in his early 90s. I found Risk on Amazon, and it came in the mail the other day. The coolest part was what I found inside! Not only was it a signed copy (to my Great Great Aunt), but there were a few pieces of paper inserted in the book cover. One is an article from the newspaper about robotics that mentions Hodges Robotics, and another one is a list of quotes that GranDon had gathered from influential or respected people that had read (at least some of) his book, Risk: 40 Golden Rules for investing in risk ventures. 

This morning I received an email from my dad with a picture of a card he found in an old box as he was going through a storage unit. The card was from my Grammy, his mother. It was written to me when I was probably only 5 or 6, and had a really sweet message.

I remember so clearly the joy, purity and love Grammy always expressed. Some might think that that anyone with the kind of family, opportunity and wealth might have such an outlook, and this “ease in life” is what allowed her to have such a positive, glowing nature. However, I think it was just the opposite. While she was fortunate to have a wonderful family and grow up with reliable spiritual tools to help her solve any problem she encountered, it was the use of those tools with an expectant and cheerful outlook that I now think resulted in the abundance of supply, health, and even grandkids in her life.

It's not just a positive outlook, or the "looking for the best" in circumstances, but rather a deeper understanding of Life and what really constitutes true substance — true meaning in our experience here on this earth.

Grammy was always cheerfully learning and listening with everything she did. There was never a time I can remember when she wasn't open and receptive to the good that was around her, and often being the source of it herself!

In this human experience we can be led to believe that fame, wealth and respect from others is validation and confirmation that what we are doing matters. But we are warned so many times about these exact things in the Bible. Over and over again we are told not to put our faith, trust and love in things here on earth, but on heavenly things -- which I translate to be qualities of character, honesty, diligence, discipline, and pursuit of increased understanding of Truth.  

So, what we pursue everyday should be increased understanding of Life. When we really do this in every interaction, the less we are consumed with hate, fear, anxiety and frustration. I've learned that approaching every situation as an opportunity to learn something and overcome some unwanted quality in myself, not only leads to a lot of growth, but also makes life a lot more joyful.

I admit that I don't always do that, and there are times when I've been paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. Like when I was working so hard at EEx, I definitely became fearful that all the hard work I did (and pushed so many others to do) might just have been a waste. I didn't gain peace until I pulled back from my very specific circumstance and tried to have a little more long term perspective about why I was doing this in the first place. When I realized that we are all here to grow and learn, it took the unneeded pressure and self-condemnation for "failing" away. When I read the stories of startup founders that have suffered from deep depression or even suicide from the pressure, it makes me wish they had someone to help them gain that perspective. I think more people need to talk about that. It can be challenging to strike the balance between really respecting and working hard to do right by your investors, team and customers, without being burdened by the other pressures that might take away your perspective.

We seem to have limited time here on earth, so when we think about what it's really for, it can help us live every moment a little more genuinely.

If I can approach every new circumstance as a new opportunity to learn and grow, I don't think I can lose.

Another card my Dad sent me this morning reminds me that some of Grammy’s confidence to just be who she was, might have rubbed off on me a little bit. It was a birthday card from me to my Dad.

I wrote, "you are the best dad in the world em I am the best kid in the world.”

I'm going to strive to feel that way about myself everyday from here on out.

The very first Boeing 747-400 airplane took its final flight the other day. It's traveled over 60 million miles, which is quite amazing when you realize it is the equivalent to 25 trips to the moon and back!

This was especially interesting to me because when I was little, I wanted to grow up to be a pilot (just like my Dad) and I am currently reading about the entrepreneurial feats of the Wright Brothers in David McCullough's new book. (I'm also excited because I am going to see him speak next week at Daystar Library in Oklahoma City).

When I was little, my Dad flew the C-5 in the U.S. Air Force which is about the same size as the 747. I remember his stories about what could fit in that airplane, and it always amazed me -- something like 15 tanks, and like 20,000 lbs of lettuce. When he tucked me in at night I would ask him to repeat the checklist for takeoff. I always thought it was so cool how he knew all about how airplanes worked, and was fascinated to learn about how they communicated with each air traffic control tower as they flew from zone to zone in the sky. Back then there was already some automation, but not nearly as much as there is now.

Dad, Fred Schaberg (top) and together with my Mom, Cheryl Schaberg (bottom)

I loved flying myself as well. We got to travel a bit to see family in Michigan for holidays and I remember always being amazed that this giant metal tube was soaring through the air.

I admired my Dad (and still do) for being able to fly one of those puppies, and so I think it felt accessible, while still exciting and challenging. To me, flying and not being tied to the ground felt like almost the pure definition of freedom. It made me feel like literally anything was possible, even things that seemed ridiculous and unnatural. Now, as I read the story of the Wright Brothers, I am learning that it was something similar that excited them as well. Most people thought they were wackos trying to do something impossible. They didn't let that phase them.

So, probably about age 6 or so, when people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I responded "be a pilot like my dad". 

So, the bedtime stories continued... the best stories were the ones he called "Taryn the pilot". He would make up a story about a Captain named Taryn who would take a journey somewhere. He described all the details about how she would prepare the plane, and what she was flying over on the way to her destination. There was often some kind of mid-flight event that she had to deal with, all of which were beautifully handled without panic or fear. They weren't anything too major, but helped me learn how he handles things at his job and always made me feel pretty secure with the fact that he left every few days to take a bunch of people across the world... in the sky!

I remember a few times I got a bit scared and would run up to him on his way out the door and say "Don't go Daddy, I have a bad feeling something bad will happen." He would assure me that he was always very alert and would never fly if he had any doubts about conditions of the weather or condition of the plane. I think of that as I now read about how the Wright Brothers took their own safety so seriously. The day before a test flight they would severely limit the interaction they had with others, and would double and triple check the work of others to ensure they knew exactly what was going on.

My Dad has also been an instructor pilot for just about his whole career. This is a totally undervalued skill, even by him, I think. It means he is really, really good at explaining things to people. He is great at letting people learn enough through experience on their own but also directing them or even taking over if need be.

I laugh thinking about this because an example of my undervaluing his teaching abilities showed through few years back when I took my husband skiing for the first time. I assured my husband that my uncle, who was an avid skier, would help him learn. When we got out on the slopes my uncle said "well, I have never really taught the pure basics..." And my husband just looked at me like "great, now I am up on a mountain and don't know what to do." Thankfully I remembered a lot about what I was taught and so I shared that with him. He did great and picked it up in a few hours.

That evening we called my Dad to tell him the funny story. He stopped me and said "who else was with you when you learned to ski?" "You!" I answered. We both laughed because I just then realized that it was actually my dad that taught me how to ski -- but he never made a big deal about it, so I had always assumed it was my uncle.

My husband laughed at how funny that was. He always says that I seem to pick stuff up pretty quickly and am naturally coordinated. Now it makes me wonder if having an instructor pilot as a father helped me develop skills better than most might -- and not just the skills that he taught me like riding a bike, swimming and skiing (and tons more) but also others -- because I'm sure it taught me how to learn and be perceptive of things that most people might miss, enabling me to pick stuff up a little faster.

Wow, so that last part sounded totally arrogant, but was really meant to give the credit to my Dad. My Mom is/was awesome (and around a lot more) at helping me learn new things as well, but probably more with school-type knowledge.

He did all kinds of missions during his 11 years in the Air Force, and then when I was about 12 years old, he moved on to fly for Northwest Airlines (which was acquired by Delta) and we moved to Michigan. That was a time when he started flying a lot more (it seemed to me), and in a more unpredictable manner -- because when you move to a new company you start off at the bottom of the totem pole and are on reserve a lot. Reserve is not fun -- it means that at a moments notice you have to jump in the car and head to your next trip. My poor Dad had to leave everything from birthday parties to movies, so it made planning anything with him almost impossible. However, amid all that he still found a way to coach some of our sports teams and be there for a lot of big and little moments.

As I watched my Mom and Dad worked to figure out how to run a household and have a big family with one parent out for days at a time, the reality of my career goal of being a pilot set in. I still wanted to learn to fly, but thought that I really wanted to spend more time with my family than the lifestyle a military officer or commercial pilot would offer. ...so, I decided to study Chinese! (Haha, which has taken me abroad and away from my husband more than my Dad was ever gone - sweet irony.)

I found my own sense of adventure traveling to China, and have tried a few "impossible" things myself, none of them succeeding anywhere close to the Wright Brothers just yet.

So, as I finish reading the Wright Brothers, I'll enjoy thinking about how the work they did laid the foundation for what was later accomplished by this recently retired 747, how it made it possible for my Dad to have an inspiring career as a pilot, and enabled me to start a business in China -- all over a century after they were working in their bicycle shop to come up with the first airplane design.

About a week ago I launched my first Kickstarter. I toyed with the idea a lot when we were raising money for EEx, but I never knew how to make backer rewards make sense for consumers, when our users were Chinese factories. The company I am with now, Dexter Industries, is the perfect kind of company to utilize the Kickstarter platform, and they have done it very well ever since they started. This was their fourth one, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

What I was most surprised with was just how exciting it is to watch the backers come pouring in. It's a really satisfying confirmation of your idea, so I highly recommend it for anyone with a consumer product or service.

I kind of wish there was a version of Kickstarter for business products and services. It would have been really interesting for EEx because we had so many companies that wanted to support what we were doing because what we were building would have helped them in a major way, but just not directly in the short term. We never could find the right model to engage these companies monetarily that could helped us in a tangible way.

Anyways, back to this one -- its called GoBox, the first robot subscription service. If you have kids, you might be familiar with the many monthly project subscription services like KiwiCrate. Every month you get a new project in the mail. I was talking to my sister in law about it a few years ago and she said her boys eagerly anticipated the arrival of their new project every month. So, when I joined Dexter back in March I floated the idea with John. He thought it was interesting, but didn't have any experience with subscriptions. We decided to test the idea on kickstarter to see if parents would pay $30/month for a full year to get a full robot kit and a monthly project to do with their children.

It took us a lot longer to get this going than anticipated, and a bigger initial financial investment than we initially planned. The main reasons were because we wanted to test it before we put it out there so we were confident that if people backed us, they would be getting a system of projects that really engaged and helped their children learn how to program.

First we had to find a curriculum developer, and my sister-in-law came to mind because she works as a technology teacher for an elementary school. She not only has a computer science background, but also has three kids and has the daily challenge of finding ways to keep them as well as her many classes in school engaged in learning about technology. She also happens to be a fantastic writer, so she was our first choice. Luckily she was available and able to help us get started.

Then we realized that these projects needed to be in the format of something more than a word document or webpage. We all have experienced the value of "LEGO-type” instructions with big pictures. We enlisted the help of the very talented illustrator, Drake, to be the lead designer of the physical project instructions. I have worked with him before (master artist behind the "energy monster" for EEx), and he's published a children's book as well! He's come up with some awesome art that makes me do the happy seal clap.

So, our Dexter engineering team worked closely with them to start developing a few of the lessons. There is sample code involved, so they are developing all of that, as well as drivers for the sensors that we are using in the monthly projects.

Once we had a few lessons done, we decided to test them out! Luckily, (or strategically, however you want to think of it) my office is in a local makerspace -- Nova Labs. We were able to put on a series of workshops where we invited parent/child teams to come try out GoBox! In the first workshop they built and tested the GoPiGo, which is the Raspberry Pi robot that comes with GoBox. 

There were people of all skill levels -- from professional software engineers that wanted to do something cool with their kids on the weekend -- to parents that were totally new to technology and were intimidated at first. I was relieved when everyone was able to do it. However, we did learn more deeply about the importance of good video instructions. So, we've added that to the scope of work. Many people like to read, but there's a big group of people that like watching and listening to videos better. This was an important lesson.

The second session was really fun because it was a neat lesson with a light sensor, and taught concepts of biomimicry. We had the children choose an animal and then decorate the GoPiGo robot to look like that animal. Then they attached a light sensor and learned how to program the robot to react to light in the same way that animal would! By the end of the workshop we had bats, moths, cheetahs, and lots of other cool animals. We had boxes for them to use to cover their animal and change light levels. It was a blast for everyone.

The other neat lesson I learned from these workshops was the effectiveness of the strategy that Bridget used to write these lessons. First there is a little "instruction", and then an activity or something interactive to do or sketch out or think about and write down. Then there would be a little more instruction, and another mini interactive project. This really helped to break up the instructions and made the participants feel like they were making a lot of progress and break up the pure learning portions so they came in doses. Pretty cool to see this in effect. Any teacher that is reading this is probably laughing that this is even "insight" on my part because it is probably super obvious -- but you have to remember I studied Chinese... which was pretty much just about grunt work and repetition. Haha. Let's just say I am glad I didn't write these lessons. :)

After a few workshops under our belt, and seeing the effectiveness of the project based learning, we started to put together the bones of the Kickstarter, including most importantly the video!

I'm grateful we thought ahead and got some great video footage of the workshops so we had a lot of fun ways to show what we were trying to do, rather than to try to convince people that we know what we are doing.

As we were developing the video script and putting together the backer rewards we came up with the idea of changing the name of the monthly "lessons" to "missions". We tested that with some children and they got much more excited about the idea of doing a mission with their robot, then doing a lesson. So, we went back and changed as much as we could to insert the concept of missions, including what these actual projects consisted of and liked like.

Working back and forth on the video footage, animations and backer rewards was a ton of work, but also gave us a lot of time to really think about all aspects of the kickstarter.

Alongside all of this we were developing the second version of the GoPiGo, working with our manufacturing partner to confirm lead times, pricing and all the logistic details to actually delivering on our promise.

I felt very strongly that we needed to deliver the first GoBox mission (the GoPiGo2 robot kit) in time for the holidays. This was stressful because it means we had to place the order as soon as we hit our goal, and now I am in China to work with our factories to make sure it's all running smoothly!

I’m proud to say we hit our goal in the first few days and now we are excited to see how far we can go! We just announced our stretch goals, one of which came as I was preparing for my trip -- and wondering if people would find it interesting how these robots get made. I mean, these are all folks that are interested in learning, so figure this might be a cool way to learn even more.

Another neat thing that surfaced was interest from my 11-year old niece to do a project with the GoPiGo that I thought would be a great example of what kids can learn through the GoBox subscription. She visited me from Tampa a few weeks ago and we built the GoPiGo together. She took to it more than I anticipated, and was even up working on it all by herself one morning before the sun was up. 

She wanted to use the GoPiGo to try and stop her little brother and sister from coming in her room and stealing her stuff. We ended up with a neat project that we turned into a movie, called “Stop the Mini Intruders”. Check out the trailer here -- the full (4 min) length comes out on Friday!

Also, my awesome husband and I made this totally dorky song, that we’ll consider including in the mission videos for GoBox.

Before I get into the critical part of my rant, I first want to make sure that it is really clear that I applaud Intel for making a commitment to be “conflict free” by 2016. For those of you who don’t know what that means, read more here. But, basically it means that they will ensure that the elements and materials used in their products will not come from questionable sources that partake in or fund human rights abuses. This specifically targets minerals such as tin, tantalum, and gold, which primarily comes from regions in the DRC, where there are some organizations that use child labor, slave labor and other terrible means to run their business. Think blood diamonds, but for electronics components.

I think it is awesome that companies understand how important this is, and are setting goals to ensure they are not supporting these corrupt organizations with their business. It’s doubly impressive they are setting these goals because it is not easy. These companies are many tiers deep in their supply chain — meaning its a guy that buys from another guy that is buying from yet another guy (and then do that seven layers deep). So, even mapping out where all the materials are coming from at any given time is incredibly complicated given the global, disparate nature of supply chains — not to mention that it is constantly changing. 

Now time for the rant. The second part of the announcement I saw talked about the “solution” companies like Intel are using. None of these supply chain software companies are really solving the problem here. They all do the same thing —  doesn’t anyone else see that? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. 

These systems are nothing new — basically just online reporting platforms of some kind. So, yeah, it gets us away from managing it all on spreadsheets (which is what I was doing when I was a Sourcing Manager), but it still doesn’t solve the real problem. Sure, spreadsheets and email communication are frustrating because they lead to lots of bad data. And yes, collecting and analyzing data in this way is also really inefficient. But the elephant in the room is the fact that none of the data is any good. 

Many companies have purchased enterprise software solutions that send out an email with a link that the supplier clicks on to fill out their data. That data is formatted and stored for that one company, which is only one of the suppliers' many customers. Many trade groups have tried to discourage that, because it leads to a lot of duplication for the suppliers - wasting time and money for everyone. These groups are creating standards that all companies can use, which moves us in the right direction, but doesn’t solve all of the problems.

So along come silicon valley software companies promising to solve all the traceability, transparency and data problems for supply chains. But they are all the same — a web-based platform where suppliers fill out a profile and let all their customers see it. These systems solve the duplication, scale and data management problem, sure, but they simply can’t deliver real traceability or transparency because they don’t understand how to get real data. 

What are the problems?

The reason this problem is so freaking hard is because any solution has to solve ALL of these problems:

data quality

scale

duplication

data management

analysis 

value (how do we even use this data? reporting, decision making, goal setting, surface problems, take action, etc.)

Solving only a few of these problems doesn’t work. So, if you can make a scalable web service for suppliers that is full of bad data, it is useless. (little secret: it already exists, and in fact, was created decades ago... it is called Alibaba.com) Consulting companies and auditors love the fact that these software tools are full of bad data, and use it as great proof for their in-person data collection services. But we all know that those just don't work at scale, and that is why technology seems like the way forward. (Read more about the Chinese word for “audit” and how that’s not necessarily as reliable as we all might expect either.)

Why all the bad data?

Let’s dig into the reasons we are getting bad data a little bit.

1. Capability:

 First, your users have to be able to give you the data. Have you ever sent out a survey where some of the responses were just nonsense? This is probably a good indication that the user didn’t understand the question and/or didn’t even know where to find the information you were asking for. 

Some companies try filling this gap by sending their own people on site to collect data from the suppliers, and usually spend some time trying to train the suppliers while they are there. 

2. Capacity:

Do you have any idea why you don’t get a 100% response rate on your surveys? Factories are busy places, and finding, preparing and inputting data takes time. And, like we mentioned, suppliers have lots of customers with many different requirements. How do we make it less time consuming and costly for suppliers to give us the data we need? Or, how do we make this process worth it for the supplier (see the Value section below).

3. Motivation:

Have you ever thought about why/if your suppliers even care about giving you this data?

I was at a conference a few months ago and was running a small group discussion on supply chain sustainability data. We had folks from Wal-mart, Levi’s, Kohls and others in the room. I started with a round of intros and asked everyone to tell us their name, title & company, their annual salary, and how many kids they have.

I started “Hi, I’m Taryn the CEO of EEx, and I make a million dollars a year, and I don’t have any kids, just two cats. OK, you’re next", I said to the woman next to me. People started shifting in their seats and eyes were darting around the room showing everyone’s discomfort with the idea of sharing that information with the group. It was a great way to get people to think about reliability of data. Why would they just voluntarily tell everyone their salary? 

The woman next to me laughed nervously and said “OK, Taryn, I think we get your point.” 

Another woman joked and said “Who will get access to this information, our kids?” insinuating that she didn’t want her kids to know how much money she made, because they might expect more from her. The group laughed, but I tried to bring us back to the lesson about supply chain data — "just because you ask someone to share information with you doesn’t mean that they will." Also, even if people do share, as I happily did — how do you know if it is accurate? Would I only give accurate information if I was worried the group would collectively audit me? How would things change if the person asking for your salary information was helping you set up a family financial plan because you were planning to buy a house and start a family. You expect to get real value from the financial planner, so I bet the data provided to them is a lot more accurate because it is in your interest for it to be accurate. 

A strategy that expects suppliers to give data that is not actively in their own interest to provide, and that they get no direct value from providing is a bad way to get good data. Mandates & threats of audits will just add another layer of inefficiency, opaqueness and frustration for everyone involved.

4. Value:

If we want lots of really good data, we have to go beyond the basic motivations and fears, and realize that people’s willingness to provide accurate data skyrockets when they get direct value as a result of the data they share -- especially if people get more value from providing more data. 

Now do you see why I’m so impressed that these companies are setting such aggressive goals — when they are faced with overcoming all of these barriers and finding or building solutions that solve all of these issues?

Imagine for a minute a web-based tool that is designed to help suppliers improve their own business, and in the meantime compiles the type of data required by their customers. 

That’s what we’re building at EEx. We solve data quality problems in a scalable way by understanding and aligning the motivations between buyers and suppliers.

Rather than trying to collect every piece of supply chain data in a way that solves every problem but the one that matters the most (data quality), we started by focusing on compiling just one piece of real data (electricity), but doing it in a way that actually works well at scale. This works because we build tools to solve problems for the person who is actually using it first. Here's what that means to the users...

Getting started only takes a few minutes, and is as easy as signing up for a new gmail account.

Free trials with low cost make it affordable for even the smallest of the 6 million factories in China.

No prior expertise required, so there's no training or integration.

Actionable recommendations show factories how much money they can save and step-by-step instructions on how to solve the problem.

Additional information is built-in so they can learn more about the issue or problem when they need to (when they actually have it).

It takes subject matter expertise from hundreds of professionals with practical experience solving real problems and building it into the tool so the analytics are contextualized depending on individual circumstances. 

Our first app, EEx Charge, is a great example, and is being used by hundreds of factories throughout China to understand, manage and lower their monthly electricity cost. Rather than listing features, I like to talk about how Charge helps these companies, as follows:

only pay for the power they use

use as little energy as possible

fix maintenance problems

continuous tracking of electricity data

In the process of helping factories improve their own business, our app compiles data that their customers (retailers and brands) have been asking for through emails, surveys and audits. This is a more reliable way because it provides value to everyone involved.

We still have a long way to go, but I'm hard pressed to find other companies out there that are creating real value for suppliers with these solutions.

Compliance based strategies for managing global supply chains are inherently confrontational. This leads to fear and distrust which results in poor data and a missed opportunity for creating real improvement.