Why Executives Need Blockchain Literacy - Alison McCauley, Author of Unblocked

The Blockchain and Us: Conversations about the brave new world of blockchains, cryptoassets, and the

Alison McCauley speaks about writing her book "Unblocked: How Blockchains Will Change Your Business", about the importance of blockchain literacy for executives, why blockchain communities need organizations on their side, how organizations can get started with blockchain technology, how to take blockchain ideas into the pilot stage with possible use cases, why companies will soon have competition from their own customers, how collaboration replaces the zero-sum game of many business models, how a token-infused sharing economy could create more value in the future, and the need for decentralization. Alison also speaks about conducting research for the book, her approach to writing and structuring the book, surprises and learnings when writing the book, risks of blockchains going to the dark side, why attention harvesting should stop, and much more. Alison has a two-decades long strategy consulting career, where she advised technology-first startups and Fortune-500 companies, including PNC, Adobe, Oracle, IBM, First Data, and Verizon. She has been working with early stage teams in data science and analytics, machine learning, IoT, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence before turning her focus to the blockchain and cryptoasset space. Alison has a masters in sociology and organizational behavior from Stanford University, and she is the author of the book "Unblocked: How Blockchain Technology Will Change the Future", available in January 2019. Alison McCauley: http://www.alisonmccauley.io, https://www.linkedin.com/in/unblocked/ Alison's book "Unblocked: How Blockchains Will Change Your Business" (out in january 2019): http://www.unblockedfuture.com Also discussed in this episode: Alex "Sandy" Pentland et al.: "The new deal on data", http://civics.com/NewDealOnData/ Tim Wu's book "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires", https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8201080-the-master-switch The Blockchain and Us newsletter To stay up to date about what blockchain pioneers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all around the world think about the future of this space, sign up for the newsletter on http://www.theblockchainandus.com.