Driving innovation with Bridgestone Americas

Clinton Bonner: I got this great visual of, maybe you and your team with some cool Bridgestone T-shirts that just say "tire nerds."

(Laughter) 

Clinton: And if they don't exist yet, let's manifest them into the universe, because that'd be a lot of fun. Man, that's a... In fact, I'd probably buy that shirt, because why not? 

(CATALYST INTRO MUSIC) 

Clinton: Welcome to Catalyst, the Launch by NTT Data podcast. Catalyst is an ongoing discussion for digital leaders dissatisfied with the status quo, and yet optimistic about what's possible through smart technology and great people. Today I'm sitting down with two gentlemen from Bridgestone. And yes, while I'm sure you recognize their brand as a leader in tires and tire tech, wait until you hear about the journey from this tire manufacturer into digital disrupter, data platform provider and leading global innovator, which they've kind of always done. You want a compelling business transformation story? You've got one coming up on this episode of Catalyst. So what's better than one guest? Well, it's two guests, of course. Let's introduce Cam Ahler, the Vice President of IT, Customer and Commerce West Retail at Bridgestone. And, with Cam today is Dan Luttrell, Bridgestone's Executive Director of Enterprise Digital Services. Gentlemen, welcome to Catalyst. Hope you're both doing great. Cam, how are you doing first, man? 

Cam Ahler: Good. How are you doing, Clinton? 

Clinton: Doing really well. We were talking a little football, talking a little Blazers basketball. We got a nice PNW connection. Dan, I understand that you hail from Alaska. What... Alaska's big, so what part are you from, man? 

Dan Luttrell: Mostly Anchorage, but I grew up also in Valdez. Graduated high school in Fairbanks, so kind of all over the great state of Alaska, which, as you mentioned, is very large. 

Clinton: (Laughs) It's deceptively big, right? 

Dan: Yeah, indeed. 

Clinton: It's like, we certainly got a deal from those Russians back in the day on that thing, man. 

(Laughter) 

Clinton: And then you guys both are located down in Nashville now. Is that where you guys reside?  

Cam: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. 

Clinton: Cool stuff. Alright. So, you know, hey. Mentioned in the preamble there that you're both with Bridgestone. Again, Bridgestone, of course known for, synonymous with tires. What is so innovative about tires as we're hitting in 2024?  

Cam: Yeah. Tires are the only thing that actually touch the road on any sort of vehicle, right? So, as it stands today, it's incredibly important for safety, control, comfort, braking speeds, fuel efficiency, ride quality, right? It's pretty critical. You know, helps you to brake when the weather's bad like it is and it's raining. But, you know, as we go to more innovative solutions where you have electric vehicles coming in that are heavier in chassis and need better fuel efficiency or braking, you need to have, whether we're supporting our motorsports or other areas, there's a lot of opportunity in that space, where we can do more than just help the vehicle control the situation, but inform the fleets and utilities and the rest of the world around us to help make a better infrastructure at the same time. 

Dan: I was just going to say, it may not be obvious or apparent, especially to the layman, but there is a lot of, for us tire nerds, innovation within the physical products themselves. 

Cam: Yeah. 

Dan: Whether it's, you know, non-pneumatic, new modular manufacturing techniques and approaches, integration of sustainable materials, or even changing, you know, pattern and compound and construction to help better support electric vehicles as those become more prevalent. There is a tremendous amount of under-the-hood innovation within the physical products themselves. But, you know, we're obviously on a journey as well, to evolve from the world's largest tire and rubber manufacturer into a sustainable solutions company. And so that's where a lot of the more readily apparent or visible innovation is happening. 

Clinton: Thank you, Dan. Thanks for also saying, like, yeah, but there is physical, there is innovation right in the product that touches the road that, Cam, you were saying too. And then on top of that, or in addition, to spur the next generation of what Bridgestone aspires to be, there is this 3.0 pivot into products and solutions. Can you guys give the audience an understanding of, philosophically, what does that look like? And then we can start talking about, how does that come out into different products and projects that you and the team are working on? 

Cam: Let me stage, maybe an addition, Clinton. 

Clinton: Yeah. 

Cam: But as an enterprise, Bridgestone does way more than just tires, right? 

Clinton: Yeah. 

Cam: You know, a small sports side. You know, a lot of people that are golfers know that we make one of the best golf balls in the business as well as, you know, clubs and other things in industry. We also provide tires. But we have, you know, fleet management companies. We have a bank that supports, CFNA, that helps with giving credit opportunities for service. We have Firestone Complete Auto Care in the US, and many retail brands globally that provide, you know, best-in-class vehicle and maintenance services, both for the consumer and the B2C model, as well as our B2B businesses for fleets. So, there's a lot of, both from a product through service, that we provide out to a whole slew of customers globally. 

Dan: Yeah. Agreed. And I think, you know, part of the innovation that's happening as we evolve into a sustainable solutions company is integration of those things into compelling new value propositions for our customers. On top of shifting from, as we talked about a bit, our legacy and physical products, into digital products that are increasingly, you know, software-oriented, you know, telematics-based data. I know we'll get into all that in a bit, but, you know, that's really where a lot of the exciting evolution is happening as we enable and support our customers for mobility more broadly. So that's part of the direction we're headed. 

Clinton: One of my colleagues at NTT Data, he'll sometimes ask, when we're talking about a client or a prospect, and we're just kind of discussing, what are they doing? He'll ask me, and be like, hey, are they, are we talking like, lowercase digital transformation, like lowercase d, or uppercase? And I think what he means by that is, are they simply digitizing existing experiences, or are they looking at and thinking through business model reinvention, business model invention, through new digital opportunities that just wouldn't be there without that opportunity? That, I think, is interesting too. When we chatted last time, you guys took us through a bit of the history of doing some things early in digitization, and then where you're at now. Can you take me through that? 

Dan: Absolutely. Yeah. So it was about a decade ago, we started a very focused effort and initiative to increase digital maturity and coordination across the enterprise. At that time, you know, corporate buzzwords like digital transformation, digital disruption were very prevalent. So, we kind of underwent this journey under those terms, but in retrospect, it was really more about setting the foundation for digital enablement. So, at that point in time, there's a lot of what I would consider, as you mentioned, lowercase-d digital transformation going on, we were digitizing existing aspects of customer experiences, or bolstering and strengthening our presence, whether it's on the web or through digital marketing techniques. But now I think we recognize where we are with Bridgestone 3.0, and the transformation we mentioned earlier. And we're really at that really exciting inflection point of where the business itself is being transformed. So, all the work we've been doing for the past decade served us well in lowercase-d digital transformation, but has really set the stage for a solid foundation and launchpad for the true capital-D digital transformation of our business with these emerging mobility solutions and other aspects. Will serve as an accelerator as well, to build on, since we have many of those capabilities readily available. 

Cam: Yeah. I mean, we had, 8 to 10 years ago, there was this general assumption that cloud was just a place to move our infrastructure. And so there was a lot of business that was risk-averse of, why should we get out of something that we already have, you know, strong competence in our brick and mortar? You know, we had an executive, you know, around that same time frame that also said, I can go buy a donut online from my donut shop down the street, but I can't buy a tire. Let's go figure that out. Go do it. And so, while that seemed, I guess, probably big and a little more structural at the time, that really was more the small-d digitalization of just, at the time, we were just enabling your ability to schedule an appointment and to look for tires. Obviously now we've completely... Not only are doing that and continuing to reinforce that around a customer experience, but we're also changing the way that more of that big-D digital really creates new value and services above and beyond anything of just purchasing a tire and getting your car serviced. 

Clinton: And it makes complete sense, right? Like, you kind of start with what you know and go, okay, yes, we could digitize that. And you go do it. And then of course, user experience, really dive in and just make it simpler, add more value along the way. And that could be a huge lift, so that someone who's surfing for a donut can also go surf for their tire. 

(Laughter) 

Clinton: And just make it simple. Because it can be very intimidating. Look, I'm a car owner, you know, I'm 46 years old, so I've owned and operated cars, but I don't know much about tires. So, what does the average person do? You bring it to a place and then they tell you stuff, and you're like, I don't know much about this. Versus, I'm sure when you went through that digitization, just, how do you inform, how do you guide someone, that, I'd say the average bear doesn't know that much about tires. Right? And what do they want? They want safety, a good price, and they want it, kind of, to be simple. It's something I think the average person doesn't want to think about too, too much. You want good performance, gas mileage, et cetera, et cetera. But you want it to be safe. And be a good value. So I could really see how you could help that customer along in that lowercase d, which is cool. And it's great that you guys did that so long ago now. And as we pull it forward, Dan, you mentioned mobility. And I also know that, you know, data. That data's a huge play for Bridgestone. Can you walk us through what it feels like as a, you know, that becoming a marketplace for data and mobility? What does that mean for Bridgestone? 

Dan: Yeah, absolutely. And particularly in the B2B space, there's an increased focus on things like predictive data models, telematics, gathering large amounts of data, other non-tire physical products like telematics devices. Sensors that are integrated increasingly into our products. Also, you know, software products as well. And I talked a bit about the integrations. And so, we've put a lot of focus into the concept of APIs as products themselves. That's been a big shift for the organization. What we've done is build these APIs as products to help enable our customers and partners in this broader mobility ecosystem. But part of the magic is that those are the exact same APIs we're using ourselves internally, with our own internal development teams or agency partners. So that leads to a lot of consistency and kind of recursive quality of those APIs and products over time, as all those various entities and parties are consuming them. And we've also undertaken, sort of applying the shift that you mentioned earlier around customer experience, and applied that in the context of data, which doesn't necessarily seem very intuitive, but we've created experiences like the Bridgestone Developer Garage, which is a self-service way for consumers of those API products to have a much more seamless way to learn about, access and leverage those assets. 

Clinton: Very cool to hear that, Dan. And one of the things I think is fascinating for me is, I love the idea that, look, the external APIs are the internal APIs. And you mentioned, like, well, what does that lead to? Well, consistency. Right? And scale. And when you could lean into a technology infrastructure like that, and then go create value on top of it over and over again, you really start to dollar cost average your attempts out to market, because you're hitting a thing you've already invested in. And you're sharpening over time. So, just kind of kudos there. I think that's something I know our SVP of engineering, Nate Spillson, would be hand clapping and standing up, for sure, to hear that. And then the Bridgestone Developer Garage. I understand what that probably means. I'm like, okay, I think I understand what that means. What kind of experiences are being created that you could talk about? I always think, APIs, and when you bring others in, you get this net new creation. Sometimes surprising, sometimes it's the obvious stuff. But it's usually like, wow, there's this stuff being done on top of it that is just adding value. So, what have your guys' experience been within that garage? 

Dan: Absolutely. Well, a key part of it, as I mentioned, is just improving the customer experience as you look at the customers and consumers of these APIs. Previous, you know, prior to us having this developer garage in place, which is a digital experience and resource that people can go to to, as I said, learn about, access, play with, even test out the API products before they commit to consuming them. It was very arduous to try to build out those integrations with us, because you'd have to try to find the right person within the right part of the organization, who could then work to either build point-to-point integration with you, or get you connected to and able to consume those APIs. So with this experience, we're really putting the consumer of those APIs first and making it much easier for them, and removing a lot of friction from that onboarding process. So that's been, you know, one of the biggest improvements. We've got a lot of positive feedback on what that's opened up. And I think what you're asking is, new opportunities for external entities and parties to integrate into those data sets. So, things like, even as seemingly mundane as industry data aggregators, being able to consume our product information from the same product API we're using to power our own websites and digital experiences, again, has led to a lot of consistency as that data changes and evolves over time. We also have been able to enable new kind of fulfillment and logistics and supply chain and distribution models of some of our largest customers, who may have different ways of, you know, we've got our legacy EDI processes for large orders and such, but in order to be able to serve and satisfy more nimble, agile use cases for online or one-off orders, them having access to things like our inventory API is certainly something that helps enable that, and source products from alternate parts of the supply chain that they may not be integrated in on kind of their normal big bulk weekly order basis. So, that's another example where these APIs are helping to, I think, promote agility out there. And... There's lots more examples I could go through if you're interested. But, you know, those are just a couple that come to mind. 

Cam: I'd say, just look at it from a customer end-user perspective, right? I think, Clinton, as you mentioned before, whether or not you're a fleet or any one of us trying to get a vehicle serviced, we want to make sure that when we go, we want to find the right service provider that can provide the service that we need for the vehicle. We want to make sure when that happens, it's done where the product is readily available. So I'm not scheduling my appointment three weeks from now for somebody to figure out if I can get you a tire, a part, a technician in time. You want to make sure that you've got, you know, transparent and accurate pricing, so you're not, you know, showing up and getting a completely different price. It's that level of trust that I think a lot of times, you know, I'll use my own family, doesn't necessarily want to show up to a mechanic unless it's the one that they know and trust. 

Clinton: Mhm. 

Cam: And so, we're trying to bridge this trust and experience to make that a seamless interaction. So to do that, you know, if I walk that up the value chain, for a customer to be able to have trust and speed and access, the providers of the service need to have an ability to know what's real inventory that they can have access to? What are the accurate locations and hours of operations of those retail services? What type of products fit the type of vehicle, to make sure that you are optimizing performance and staying within compliance? You know, and then what's the transparent pricing? Not something that just shows the topline number and then you get a different number later, but how can we get to really what is net and transparent pricing, so I can think about what that looks like out the door? We are in a very legacy industry where there's a lot of, you know, old technologies and processes. And so, bringing all of those things to the forefront in a way that's easily accessible and interconnected with dealers and service providers and fleets directly, helps to make sure that that can actually be provided, right? I guess maybe the one other area I'll use it from a different context is on a B2C, let's think of a fleet. So, I'm driving a long haul truck, and I'm going across the country, and all of a sudden I get a blowout or the truck just stops. I need to make sure that I can, one, I need to get that product wherever it needs to go. So uptime is absolutely critical. I need to get back on the road. Two, safety. I need to make sure, wherever I'm at, is something that is going to be in a place that I can be taken care of in a quick and efficient manner. And three, I also need to make sure that it's done in a way that is at a lean and efficient cost, so that doesn't cause these huge inflation costs on, you know, transportation. And so, you know, if I'm sitting there in that truck, and I have a catastrophic issue, I need that to trigger an event that lets me know where the nearest service provider is. Or even better, have the service provider let me know almost immediately, I can be out to take care of you in ten minutes, right? We all deal with that with AAA on a personal level, but that could take hours, or... (Laughs) Sometimes it feels like days. We need to be much faster. And that's where I think a lot of the data that we provide really helps to tie all of those elements together. 

Clinton: Love, love, love the value that you guys are really thinking through. All the way through. And the fact that it's API-based, that's capital-D transformation all the way through. That stuff's really cool. I did want to ask, when you were getting on the transformation and the product mindset journey that you're clearly now on, very often I find it that... Inspiration can come from either, let's say, you know, a competitor, like right in your space, but often it's actually outside your space. You know, a near adjacency or something completely out of field, where you go, wow, that's cool. Like, what they're doing, it's not our type of customer, that's not what we do. But the way they're doing that is really, really interesting. When Bridgestone was going through this, was there some inspiration out there that was outside the world of automotive? Or, you know, or tires in general? 

Cam: One example I'd use, I think, is kind of, I'll say service, transportation and hospitality as a whole. You know, we're more than a manufacturer or somebody that's going to fix something that's broken in a static space. So, you know, there's a lot of people that come from bookings for hotel space, or booking your flights, right? Through airlines, the travel industry. There's a lot of that, for us to have solutions for your journey, right? These mobile offerings. That needs to make sure that we're providing that. It's almost more like, like your transportation services area. I think that would be one key area. And then retail experiences, right? For a B2C person, you don't want to go into a dirty facility. So we want to look at these, like, experiential changes. You know, what does Starbucks do? And what does these other retailers that really blow your mind and have changed the way that we expect to get a product, that have services around that product that make that feel a premium? I think those are other areas that we continuously look to and expand when we look at external talent. 

Dan: Yeah. I think our industry is a little on the old-school side of things. And so I think just looking, as Cam said, not just at, you know, best in class experiences within our vertical, but outside of it. Recognizing the rapid and drastic shift in both customer and consumer preferences for digital channels and digital-based experiences. You know, what are ways that we can take some of those best in class practices, or the expectations that are ultimately being set outside of our vertical, and apply them internally so that those experiences are familiar, they are providing a lot of value, and people appreciate them as a result and differentiating ourselves that way. 

Clinton: How about like new concepts? You know, you guys have done quite a bit, and when I say you guys, Bridgestone has done quite a bit, from going from that lowercase digital transformation into what you're, what you're now doing and what you're after. How does Bridgestone as a team canvas, look at and then decide upon what might be tackled next? Again, from that product kind of mindset, is there? I'm assuming there's a way, but I always think it's interesting to understand, well, how do y'all do it? 

Dan: I mean, I think a big part of it, you know, and when you're manufacturing physical products, you can come up with a fixed set for certain speculated purposes. And that's a relatively finite kind of product and experience set for our customers. I think the beauty of some of these more solution-based, digital-based, software-based products and experiences, is that we're able to really enable customers and take a customer-first mindset and approach, and provide customized, customer-centric experiences based on the information that they've entrusted us with about them, and what we know about their relationship with Bridgestone. So, we've been able to, I think, take a lot more input and feedback from our customers, and then, in a more agile way, deliver and show them value based on that input than we would have in the past. So, it's a, I think a unique door that's opened up in this new phase of our company, is being able to take those inputs directly from the customer in a new way than we've been able to in the past. Or a more... Certainly a more agile and reactive way. 

Cam: You know, we've got a couple of key areas. You know, I think if you go upstream into our value chain, the way that that information helps us to build the right fit for purpose tire, you know, we're really pushing on modularity to both help with efficiency of building the product as well as the sustainability of those products. And that gives us a chance to tune things the right way, to make sure that we're meeting the customer for the types of experiences or vehicles that they need to be able to drive on. You know, downstream, as we get into these B2B, there's this concept of fleet care that we are providing, that really does provide that ecosystem. So, you know, as a fleet, how do I make sure I'm getting my... Maximizing uptime and value to a fleet of large proportions? And that could be through better awareness of where the truck is going and how the truck's performing, to the emergency roadside service, to getting the products that I need, to the services available. And that feedback loop to make the product better, again. You can take that and apply that in a mining environment. You know, where we can help to take that same data that we do today and help them, coupled with the other components on, you know, a giant truck that's sitting in those mining locations, to then inform the OE. Is there a way that they can smooth out roads to be able to help with more weight that can carry the truck? Or to be able to know all the way up to that moment before failure of any particular component. So really, they're smoothing the infrastructure around them that helps to make a better vehicle and a better efficient organization as they move forward.  

Clinton: Love the examples, guys. They really do help, and they open the aperture, I think, for folks to think about that value. That value creation is like, it's not just currently legitimate, but it's expansive. Because it's on top of a tech platform where other users could come in and say, oh, I'd love to query it for this, right? Whatever that is. Right? And because it's data and because it's queryable, you could then build, you know, get net new solutions developed on top of that too. And like you said, Dan, you're listening. You're out there being like, well what do they want? And which is really cool. Because, while Bridgestone has the focus, and while you play in a large scope of industries, you know, you might not necessarily be a mining expert company. But, they'll tell you. They'll tell you what's going on. And you could be an expert with like, okay, we know what's happening with that vehicle. Because the thing that's touching the ground, that you need, is that physical product, like you mentioned at the top. 

Cam: Hundred percent. 

Clinton: I love that through line, guys. It's really, really, I think a powerful one. Another piece that I like to chat about folks with, when there is this transformation, and becoming a data platform, becoming an API-driven company that others can create value on is that, I feel like your customer base changes significantly. And who consumes it, who you need to partner with, who you want to get in front of and sell to. Of course you still have your dealerships, and you're selling physical tires to dealers who are going on cars and trucks. Great. But there's this whole expansive other area of net new people that you have to be interfacing with, and really convince them, like, hey, be with us. We're going to provide all this extra value. Who are those new buyers, and what has that been like for Bridgestone as you went through that transformation we've been talking about? 

Cam: I'd say some are existing buyers that we have. You're just adding adjacent services and products. So, you know, I use an example. Another product that we didn't talk about is our Firestone Air Ride Springs. It has one of the largest market shares of air springs, which predominantly, in the past, have been used for heavier vehicles like trucks. But now with electric vehicles are mandatory to be able to run. So, you drive a Tesla, you're riding on Firestone. We can add these additional products and services around something like that to be able to expand the capabilities. So there's a lot better penetration. You know, you take an OE that is making those vehicles, and now take that outside of the physical asset to a digital asset. You know, how can... Normally you have your TPMS thing that pings off when you need to go get some rapid deflation of a tire, but how can we help to give better information to the onboard vehicle telematics? So that it also creates that personalized experience back? And that's where partnerships with us and, you know, like an AWS and a Microsoft, that also provides these same services embedded into vehicles, that really kind of takes, again, an existing customer for a specific product and builds more of an ecosystem around that. You know, but on top of that, we provide, you know, additional ways that you can extend to other customer types that maybe we haven't been thinking about today, like utilities or cities and municipalities, where we can help them on the sustainability journey, because we've got better insights into what's happening around, you know, the road conditions or traffic patterns or other things like that. So, you know, while we're still in lots of those conversations, the cool part is being a global organization, you get chances in these pockets to really, like, pick up where there's different opportunities, and then share, learn and scale from those across the enterprise. 

Dan: To build on that, I think the nature of some of those relationships has shifted as well. Whereas, you know, a decade ago we would have been consumers of Microsoft and Amazon Web Service products. But now we're in, the nature of that relationship has shifted as we've transformed into a solutions company, towards more co-development, you know, and co-investment in things. That was just a different dynamic to the relationship we had in the past where we're purely a customer. And so I think a lot of players in the industry recognize the need for more integrated solutions and platforms and interconnectivity amongst this whole mobility ecosystem. And so, you know, as Cam said, we're working with a lot of those groups, whether it's, you know, the manufacturers of the vehicles themselves, to those other environments in which they operate that are going to require a lot more interconnectivity in the future. So it's become, I think, much more collaborative in that sense as well. 

Clinton: Yeah, love it guys. And Cam, I think, is a bit of a mind reader, because my next question was going to ask about what might be next. What are some areas that might be next? And Cam, you started talking about it, being like, hey, look, there's lots of smart city initiatives out there. And as cities are doing what they're doing with embedding, and making sure the infrastructure is now IoT ready and consumable, you already started hinting, like, hey, we could find ways to go partner with those that really want to look at sustainability and just services as they  really create what are smart cities. So Dan, for you, Cam already gave a good answer there, are there some other areas that you're fired up about and you think, yeah, there's opportunity here? 

Dan: Yeah. I mean, I think there's just, we haven't touched on much around... We talked about it a little bit, but fleet management, you know, we've had a couple of exciting acquisitions over the recent years with companies like Azuga and Webfleet. And I think the impact that they can have aligned with our corporate mission of serving society with superior quality is improvements we can make in sustainability through optimizing all sorts of aspects of these large fleets, which are moving around the environments where we operate, and having an impact on them and optimizing, you know, things like routes or looking at, you know, idle times in certain areas and concentrated aspects of that that could be addressed. And so, I think there's just a lot of opportunity when we start tapping into things with our own planet. And then, you know, I'm a nerd. So we're obviously also working on lunar tires, which is kind of cool. So it's not only about what's happening here on Earth, but that one personally gets me fired up. I think that's really cool with, um, some new innovative uses of materials there that's really exciting. So, I'll end on that one. 

Cam: I was going to add another one. You kind of mentioned it. When we go into more things like sustainability, our mantra, you know, is and has been, "serving society with superior quality." And, you know, when we think about how to take these products, we have partners like LanzaTech that are helping us with actual consumption of turning, you know, components of the tire into actual fuel or, you know, being able to recycle those directly into a new tire or other products in the future. You know, we're working on, you know, alternative sourcing for products in rubber like guayule. And so, taking data for both of those elements and making sure that we can look at how to get something that yields in different conditions to help support farmers that are shifting in Arizona from traditional ways that are drying up to something that is more sustainable as a possible profit crop for them as well. These are different ways that our data helps to influence those, to still make sure that our product and company can continue to grow and thrive for the next hundred years, but also help with, kind of, the ecosystem of people and partners around us to also help take advantage of that and make a more sustainable society for everyone else. 

Dan: Yeah. And I think part of our corporate commitments, we have a EA commitment I'd encourage everybody to go out and check out. But one of the aspects of that is emotion. And so, another area that I'm excited about, which you asked about, Clinton, is sustainable motorsports. So that is an area that we're going to be putting increased focus on in the future. And that's really exciting for a number of reasons. You know, A, showing that, you know, sustainability, you know, people kind of think, oh, you know, it's not exciting or somehow it's going to degrade performance. But being able to show that that's not the case at all. So as Cam said, whether it's integration of new materials into those products in a passion-filled, emotion-filled motorsports environment, and then seeing how those things trickle down into the everyday products that our customers and consumers use, you know, that's going to be really exciting as well. So, I'm excited to see how we get involved in some of those platforms and then apply that into our products moving forward. 

Clinton: So guys, this has been a fun conversation, and I think you've done an awesome job of laying out what it means when you're in that capital-D digital transformation mode. And it is very, very different. But you guys are there. You're there, you're executing on it, and it sounds like continuously executing on it. So, you know, we're proud partners with you guys as well. So really appreciate you both coming on. So, for the audience, we've been chatting with Cam Ahler, the Vice President of IT Customer and Commerce West Retail at Bridgestone, and Dan Luttrell, Bridgestone's Executive Director of Enterprise Digital Services. Guys, we appreciate you both sharing this 3.0 story with us. Really exciting times. 

Dan: Thank you. 

Cam: Yeah, thank you for having us. Clinton. This was great. 

Clinton: You got it, Cam. You got it, Dan. Thank you. And the folks enjoying the Catalyst conversations, please share the podcast with fellow colleagues and friends. And remember, in this studio we believe in shipping software over slideware, that fast will follow smooth, and aiming to create digital experiences that move millions is a very worthy pursuit. Join us next time as the pursuit continues on Catalyst, the Launch by NTT Data podcast. 

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