It’s all Interconnected with Rika Nakazawa, Group Vice President, Connected Industry & Sustainability for Americas at NTT

Over The Edge

This episode of Over the Edge was recorded live at Edge Computing World in October 2022. It features an interview between Matt Trifiro and Rika Nakazawa, Group Vice President, Connected Industry & Sustainability for Americas at NTT. Rika is a global applied innovation and sustainability senior leader advancing business where digital transformation drives the greatest value.

As a senior leader in the New Ventures & Innovations group, she’s building NTT's Connected Industry team, advancing how part of Edge as a Service delivers business transformation outcomes. Rika is a frequent conference speaker and chair, with more than 15 years of business development, partnership management, innovation, design-thinking, and strategy deployment experience. She was featured on the CRN "Women Power 70" List and is on the advisory board for VR/AR, AI / Machine Learning, and IoT startups, and advancing initiatives for women in technology and leadership. Rika received her Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from UCLA in 1997.

In this episode, Rika tells her story of becoming a leader in tech and how she arrived at NTT, she defines the role that connected industry plays within sustainability, and provides her thoughts on the future of edge computing including private 5G, blockchain, and the metaverse. Rika also provides advice for aspiring women in tech.

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Key Quotes:

“It's not just edge in isolation, it's about the ability for you to transmit data and relevant data at the edge and to be able to enable that processing to happen in real time. And, not just from one source, but multiple sources, and to be able to synchronize that.”

“We have to think that sustainability fundamentally is about considering the causal links of the butterfly that flaps its swings on one side of the earth, creating a tidal wave on the other side. And, so there's a lot of good intentions that's happening within sustainability in the way that things are gonna be managed. But unless we use edge and collectively create a network of edge intelligence to demonstrate the impact that one action and initiative is gonna have for a group of stakeholders and where that happens downstream or upstream, then we're going to be in a worse place.”

“Diversity, equity, inclusion will in some ways take care of itself. If we can help organizations really anchor around culture, I think culture is in a crisis. And, so I think that the way that organizations thrive is through culture and the way that you can align a purpose. Purpose driven business is a big topic as well, and I think that technology can really help us really create that point of light around key areas of purpose, what people want to rally around.”

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Show Timestamps:

(04:30) Becoming a woman in tech

(09:45) Arriving at NTT

(11:45) Connected industry and sustainability

(15:00) Overview of NTT

(22:45) Important objectives for digital transformation

(30:45) Sustainability as a service

(45:15) Exciting future technology

(55:45) Advice for aspiring women in tech

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Sponsor:

Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting DellTechnologies.com/SimplifyYourEdge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Links:

Connect with Matt on Linkedin

Connect with Rika on LinkedIn

www.CaspianStudios.com