ISME April 2018

Technology
The new found unmovable
faith that some brands
received made them
believe that they are beyond
questioning and they can sell
whatever they please in the
brand name without anyone
ever raising a question. This
resulted in the middlemen
and also some entrepreneurs
to change the quality of
products to save money.
For example, we are all
aware of the Tesco scandal
where the company sold
horse meat in place of beef
burgers. Interestingly this
was not detected even when
there were food standard
agencies and European
Directives, certificates and
unannounced inspectors
on factory visit. Tesco lost
an amount of £ 300 million
because of the scandal. This
is but one example of how
trusted brands sometimes
fail to keep up with the faith
that they are bestowed with.
Blockchain
Technology to
Replace Branding
Credibility
This brings us to the stage
where people because of
fraudulent experiences with
a brand had been seeking
to have something more
than documents to assure
its authenticity. Consumers
have been losing their faith
on brand names because
of experiences where their
faith had been toyed with to
save the company a couple
of dollars.
The Blockchain Technology
seems to be the answer
that consumers and
entrepreneurs all over are
looking at. A company
is not always to blame.
Sometimes, it is also the
middle man who intentionally
or unintentionally ends up
compromising on a brand
quality. So for consumers
and entrepreneurs alike there
has been an urgent need to
replace brand credibility with
something more concrete
and reliable.
Branding is made of a
supply chain that has many
agencies in between. A little
carelessness in any of the
agency that make up the
whole can lead to a damage
of reputation that might take
years to rebuild. It is an
industry wide problem that
is not limited to a company
alone. The Tesco issue is
one of a kind where some
investigators decided to
do a DNA test on the meat.
But it is not possible to do
the same for all products.
This is where Blockchain
Technology can help. The
Blockchain Technology
creates a digital record that
is connected to a product
that is going through the
agencies.
For example, the digital
record of the product is tied
to the real world product.
This digital record as it uses
cryptography, it is inviolable.
The Blockchain Technology
can be used like businesses
use packing notes that
accompanies a consignment
of goods. This would help
businesses to prevent supply
chain frauds from happening.
The Blockchain records, unlike
the written or digital records
cannot be changed without it
showing up as being changed.
The cryptographic strength
of the record would flag any
change in record as a hacking
attempt.
For example suppose there is
a consignment of olive oil to be
coming from Italy. If someone
tries to switch the lorry with a
lorry carrying some different
quality oil from Greece, it would
show up a different route on the
system which would naturally
be flagged on the system.
The smart contract of the
consignment would want the
lorry to be coming from Italy
and a fault in the origin would
automatically alert the smart
contract before completing.
The Blockchain Technology
promises a lot when it comes
to authenticating a brand
value and keeping the trust of
consumers alive. This can also
help entrepreneurs from any
surprise loss of brand value
caused by an agency in the
supply chain. The Blockchain
Technology as a replacement
for branding trust has become
a very important topic in the
business world. It is a point
of discussion that would soon
become a streamline process
in the business world. Branding
would soon be replaced by the
security that the Blockchain
Technology would provide to
business.
SPI thinktank
initiative
Intelligent SME | April 2018
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