Page 36 - Forbes Magazine-September 30, 2018

early 2000s.The World Wide Web was should constantly be trying things and
rendering reference books obsolete. Did have an appetite for failing. If every single
people even need libraries? thing we do is working, we’re not trying
“We said, ‘Let’s kind of explode the hard enough.”
whole concept of what a library is,’” said Deere has a long history of disrupting
Leslie Burger, who was library director itself. The company is celebrating the
during the reboot. The library rebuilt itself 100th anniversary of making its plows

“
ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD CREATE ENVIRONMENTS THAT
REWARD ‘SUCCESSFUL FAILURE,’ WHERE
NEW IDEAS ARE EXPLORED AND DEVELOPED, INCLUDING
REDEFINING ‘ROI’ IN INNOVATION TERMS.
„

FIONA GRANDI, National Leader for Strategic Investments, KPMG LLP

as a community space and “lifelong obsolete by adopting internal combustion
learning partner” for families. A fl oor was engines. “Today, that means sensors and
turned into a coworking space, where software and data,” Stone said.
freelancers can reserve conference rooms Every one of Deere’s large agricultural
and use offi ce equipment, with gigabit machines leaves the factory today with a
“My group is supposed to push
internet access. There’s a café, a used- 4G LTE modem to connect to other
boundaries. We’re supposed to identify
books store and multiple daily events, machines, the cloud and mobile devices.
and invest in leading-edge technologies,”
from fi lms to classes. Vehicles have in-cab touch-screen
Stone said. “But the value is still con-
“I think it’s about paying attention to displays and GPS-based auto-steering
nected to the machine that turns the soil,
your customers,” Burger said. “That’s as systems. Farmers can access data about
plants the seed, cares for that crop as it
true for a library as it is for a technology their crops and equipment at MyJohn-
grows, and harvests that crop and turns it
company or a retailer. How to position your Deere.com, and the company has built a
into income for the farmer.”
organization to be an integral part of the digital application platform with 90
Then it’s about attacking yourself as
lives of the people you want to serve.” software partners.
others would. “Look at the landscape for
Sometimes you need to dive into a “We’ve got computer-vision systems
startups that are encroaching into your
digital remake, not just dip a toe. “A toe now, internally developed, on basically all
space. Think about how you might create
in the water allows you to test and pivot of our large ag equipment,” Stone said.
a partnership or move to acquire them.
and iterate, but you may not have time “It’s on tractors, on our sprayers, on our
Smart organizations launch incubated
for that,” said Fiona Grandi, national harvesters. These vision systems have
teams and/or services that could cannibal-
leader for strategic investments at KPMG deep neural nets underneath them. That is
ize their own status quo business,” said
LLP. “Organizations should create defi nitely the future of our equipment. I
Steve Hill, global head of innovation for
environ ments that reward ‘successful think machine learning is going to be as
KPMG LLP. “These startup efforts may
failure,’ where new ideas are explored and core to John Deere as the diesel engine.”
in fact shine a light on a lifeboat for
developed, including redefi ning “ROI” in
the future.”
innovation terms.” Don Steinberg contributed to this story.
Across the country in Princeton, New
Brett Bonfi eld, executive director at the
Jersey, leaders of the public library saw
Princeton Public Library, agrees: “You
users’ needs shifting dramatically in the
KPMGVoice: For more insights on unlocking the potential of your people, visit Forbes.com/TheGreatRewrite
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 FORBES | 91