AUTHORS | Jonathan Reichental PhD

Welcome to the business podcast where we interview professionals across all industries. Hey, it's Simon. Welcome back. Today we have Dr. John Reichental, a technology and business leader whose career has spanned across private, public and academic sectors. Dr. Jonathan Reichental, it's great to have you here with us today. How are you?

Great, thanks. Good to be here with you.

Fantastic. Kick us off, tell us a little bit about yourself in your own words and share something most people might not know about you.

Sure. Thanks for the question. It's often a tough question for me actually because I am so interested in many things. I often don't know what to focus on when I'm sharing my interests and what I've done. I'll kind of, if I can, I'll give you the sort of high level journey. You know, the first thing that people ought to know and many don't is that I'm an immigrant. I was born and raised in Ireland and in my early 20s I came to the U.S. you're thinking, why did you come to the U.S. well, the answer is I came for adventure. I came to experience the United States. And so I didn't know how long I was going to stay. I didn't know what I was really going to do in the long term. But I've stuck around now almost 26 years and if you ask me do I like it, I'd say I don't know yet. Of course, I'm only tongue in cheek when I say that I've had a great time. I've had a great experience here. I did get educated in Ireland and I came to the US after working for a little while back in Ireland, came to the US got a job here. My interest and focus for a lot of my career has been in the technology arena, but very much in the broad technology arena and worked mainly here for a long time for a large consulting firm. And I had a number of technology roles. The last role I had at the business was the head of innovation, the head of technology innovation. And that was the first time that I felt that you could get paid for your hobby because that was such a great, a great job. Stayed there for a while, got a lot of experience. The consulting firm was really amazing for learning about American business, how to communicate here, how to network. And of course they also invested heavily in me and all the staff in terms of all sorts of training and skills development. So it was just the most amazing long term apprenticeship as I like to call it. And I had an opportunity then to come out to the west coast of the United States, having spent most of the time up to that point in Florida, to become the head of technology for O'Reilly Media, working with Tim O'Reilly here in Northeast San Francisco. If you're a technologist, you might own an O'Reilly book. Almost everyone does. And that was a great, interesting experience. Totally different in every way from working for a global, multi billion dollar consulting firm. This was definitely a multimillion dollar firm, but it was very intimate, very small and very focused. And then the weirdest thing happened. I got asked if I'd be interested in working for a city, and I took that call from a headhunter and I decided that I would listen to the proposal. I would be open minded. That was a good decision. That's something I always recommend to people. Even if your inclination is to say, this is not for me or I'm not that interested, just listen. You never know. You never know where it will take you. And then I was intrigued. What does it mean to be a technology leader in a city? And a city in Silicon Valley, no less? I was asked to be the CIO and CTO for the city of Palo Alto, often called the birthplace of Silicon Valley. And so I, anyway, after a little bit of arm twisting, I decided to try it. The city manager said to me, you know, if you take a risk on us, we'll, we'll take a risk on you. And I think that was a good bargain. That was a good thing to enter into. And it worked. It really worked well, to my surprise, actually, and to a lot of people who know me, because I'm not that bureaucratic, I do like to take risks, move fast things, as they say here in Silicon Valley. And so I worked there and for seven years. And my plan was to be there for three. Maybe, you know, when you, when you take a new job the first year, nothing really happens. You kind of, you're establishing yourself, you're making connections, you're learning the business. The second year you're starting to do some really interesting projects. And then in the third year you're delivering. So I think three years is a good time to be the minimum for any job that's meaningful to you. So I got to the three year mark and I was like, there's more to do here. And then four years and five years, and before I knew it, I was there seven years. But this is not the interest, the most interesting of all of this. What was fascinating to me was I had broad interests in technology, particularly emerging technologies, things that had yet to prove themselves. And I've been doing that already for a long time. But what happened by working in a city was I got to peek behind the curtain, so to speak, to see how cities work. And some of it was incredible, some of it was sobering, as you can imagine, right? And. But I fell in love with cities. I just fell in love with the notion of cities and how they operate and where they're headed and the importance of cities to humanity. Now in the 21st century, I recognized that humanity's destiny was in cities. As we became a majority urban planet, and as the century would progress, more and more verses would live out our lives in an urban context. And as we look at the big challenges of the 21st century and beyond, whether it's energy, transportation, economic opportunity, whatever it is that you think about, when you think about the needs and wants and challenges of humanity, they are more and more entirely focused in cities. And the big One, the big 800 pound gorilla course, is the climate emergency. And cities are going to play the dominant role there too, both in mitigating and managing climate change. But also, if we don't play our cards right, if we make some bad decisions, cities will play a major role in having the average temperatures of the earth spiral to an unmanageable level. And then we're. And then we're pretty much in big trouble. So after being there for a while and staying seven amazing years, it was time for my next adventure. And I looked at a lot of things. I'd been getting very interested in academia, was already working for some universities as an adjunct professor. And then I decided, you know what, where I'm at in my life and both my age and also the location, I said I should probably try a startup. I should do that. Here I am in the land of startups. So I started my own company and I've been running it now about three years. I'm into my fourth year. It's going very well, notwithstanding a global pandemic, of course. And it continues to grow. And I'm really focused now on education, on consulting around technologies and investing in social impact businesses. Anyway, that's the brief cliff notes on my life so far.

Well, thank you for that. That's very insightful. And it in many ways answers the forthcoming question around how you got your career start and how that has progressed up until what you do now. But maybe you can give some color around what you would characterize as some of those turning points throughout your career. What were some of those realizations you had? I already talked about one where you said it Might be the right time to start a business. Are there any others that come to mind? Yeah.

Your life is the culmination of your decisions. Some of them are small and some are huge. And I think it's actually really hard for us to distinguish between them because at the point of where you're making the decision, you don't know what the eventuality will be. You know, so there's decisions I've made that I thought were, you know, they were measured, but they turned out to change the entire course of my life. And I think one of them would have been as a technologist, as a technology leader. I accepted a job in a city to be the head of tech for how a city works. And the responsibility was to make sure that the systems worked every day and people got good customer service. And we upgraded and we innovated. Well, I got all that. What I didn't realize was I would fall in love with cities and it would change the course of my life, resulting in me writing some books on this topic and carving out a sort of a thought leadership position across the world. And today I advise governments and educate leaders on the topic of urbanization. So I could never have anticipated that about 13 years ago when I. Or 12 years ago when I was considering getting that city job. I also think that, you know, some of the, some of the choices I made, like emigrating, you know, I don't know if I would do that today. You know, I did that when I was in my 20s, full of, I guess, naivety in so many ways. And I didn't know what I didn't know basically. And I did it and I'm glad I did it. And it changed my world entirely. You know, when you move to a different country. And I had to start completely from zero at the, you know, the ripe age of 24, 25 years old. And so if I was faced with now another immigration or emigration opportunity, let's say, I probably wouldn't do it because I'm not as naive and I would fear so many things. So I don't know what you want to take from that or what the listeners should, should sort of take from that. But you know, sometimes making a decision with a little less information can be helpful. But as I say that out loud, I also want to be clear that you should make fully informed decisions. So it depends what it is, it depends on the context. You know, be careful, make the decision that's. That's right for you. I think another one, maybe this, my, my third and last would be, I Was. I was. I was driving from Tampa Bay to Orlando in Florida, and I was with a colleague, and she had just wrapped up her undergraduate degree, and I was asking her about it, and she said it was great because the firm, we both worked for, the same company, had paid for her degree. And I said, really? The company will pay for going to university? She said, yeah, it's quite generous. And I said, do you have an obligation? Do you have to stay for another three or five years as a consequence? And if you don't, you have to pay it back? I mean, what are the obligations? Said, nothing, nothing. Just you apply and assuming it's aligned with your career at the business, then they're inclined to reimburse your tuition. So I thought to myself, this would be cool. Go to an American university, get another degree. Why not? It's almost like getting a benefit that's untaxed. And unlike other things in your life, no one can take education away from you. So it's something that is yours for all the days that you live. So I ended up signing up for this and going back to school. That's my second degree. And I got another undergraduate degree, and I finished that, and I was like, well, I'm on a roll now. I'm going to do more. So then I applied for a graduate degree, and they said, yeah, we'll. We'll reimburse that. So I. I then got a master's of science, and I came to the end of that and I said, well, man, I might as well continue. So I found a PhD program and I said to the business, would you reimburse that? And they said, yes, we will. And I went all the way to the terminal degree and got a doctorate in information systems. And that was a good thing to do. I really got some rewards from that. It's still paying dividends even. Was it 16 years later, something like that, since I got it, yeah, about 16 years, yeah. I can't believe it. And so the choice to, you know, take advantage of the organization, and obviously they got benefits from it, too, by the new skills and, you know, education I was bringing to my job and the organization. But by just saying, let's just do this, let's get this done, and really being persistent myself in sitting down every weekend and just doing my assignments and my studies and getting it done relatively quickly, it did take a while. It's not a trivial exercise. But doing that, getting right to the terminal degree, the reward for that was just remarkable. Personally, I mean, the satisfaction you get from any level by the way, whether it's an Undergraduate, Master's or PhD, they will have different levels of importance in your life. I'm still an advocate for that, by the way. I know there's a lot of debate around the value of university education. I'm a big supporter and of course, I'm a professor, so I'm a little biased, I guess you could say. So I think that the choice to continue my education really, you know, take advantage of where I was in my life that moment, to push it, push myself, I think was absolutely critical. And, you know, as I said, it's something that has benefited me every single day since and continues to.

You know, one of the first points you made, which stuck out, was the idea of falling in love with cities. And you talked about how you having that experience had ended up writing about it. So maybe you can talk about that origin of you delving into writing and what that looked like as you began, because you have written several books.

Yeah, I. I knew that I had a book in me about cities as I was going through my work at the city of Palo Alto. I didn't want to start writing it while I was in the job because I didn't want it to be a distraction and I wanted to sort of be in a place where I could look back at the experience. So I knew I was going to write something about cities and the future cities. It's sort of like it just, you know, sometimes when wherever the idea comes from, we don't know and it just shows up in your brain and, you know, it's something you have to think deeply about and, and it's going to, you know, bug you until you scratch that itch, you know, So I had it in my mind. Now what's lovely is sometimes you get lucky. You know, I always say, you know, to my friends who are starting businesses, you know, there's sort of like three big qualities to starting a business. One is that you have to have a great idea, right? You have to have an idea that solves a problem that people care about. So you have to have a great idea. Number two, you have to have a great team, whether it's the co founders or more so those, you have to have those. But the third one is you got to have a bit of luck. You can control the first two, can't control the third one quite as much, right? I mean, you have to be in the right place at the right time. There's so many things that can, that can determine that you can try to get the universe to Be on your side by doing specific things, you know, being very thoughtful and strategic in the decisions you make around your life and your family and your career. So anyway, I say there's always. There's that look that. Don't, don't ignore the look. But. And so I leave the city and I'm focusing really much, really a lot on my new business. And I get an email from Wiley, the big publisher, like, this is cool, and they would like to talk to me about a couple of ideas they have, including a book about cities. I'm like, that's coincidental. That's wonderful. Look, as I, as I just explained. So, yeah, I was like, okay, let's. Let's talk about it. So we, we spoke about a new idea. They had a new brand, or they called it an imprint that was going to be where this book would live. And I, you know, I told them I was enthusiastic and I, they said, well, let's. Let's spin up a proposal. And so I, that's the first step always in writing a book. You have to write the proposal. What's the book going to be about? Who will care? How would you approach the topic? You know, that type of thing? And so I did that. I sent it to them, and then it went quiet, Went quiet for about three months. And I thought, oh, goodness. I was. I was, like, pumped up. I thought I was gonna. This was. This was it. I was gonna write a book with Wiley. And I wrote to the person who had reached out to me, the acquisitions editor, and she said, don't worry, Jonathan, we haven't forgotten about you. We're talking about some different ideas. And anyway, like, about three or four weeks later, she did get back. She said, how would you feel about writing a book about the future? Cities for the Dummies series, the four Dummies. And of course, everybody knows For Dummies. It turns out the dummy series is the largest reference book series ever created in the world. They've sold over 250 million books. There are thousands of these books on different topics. It's a great brand, it's a strong brand. And I thought, well, I love a great platform. It's like, it's like getting a leg up already, even without writing the book. You know, once it's already in this dummy series, you have a benefit. So I thought about it, said, well, let's do it, let's do it. And. And so I put aside time for a few months and to just take 10 years of my life and dump it down on paper. Just Write everything that I'd ever thought about and everything I'd ever experienced in cities around the world and where they were headed and all the technologies that would impact the future cities, all the different best practices I saw. And I ended up writing about 400 pages on this. And it's the same book I would have written. Whatever the imprint was. It didn't matter that it was dummies. I didn't particularly write it as a dummies book. I wrote it as the book I would write for anybody. And it came out in July of 2020, just after Covid hit. So that wasn't great. And I did have a book tour arranged, and we had to cancel that, of course. But despite all that, the book has gone on to be a bestseller. And it is often the reference book for city leaders and vendors and anyone interested in smart cities and digital cities, in green cities, Basically urbanization in all its forms. And I use it as a textbook in some of my classes. Lots of other schools do. I often sell and sign books at conferences today, even virtual ones, I'll offer my books. So, gotta say, very, very pleased and humbled by the success that this book has had, and more than that, the positive impact it's had on those that have that are a stakeholder in the future of our cities. And that's been incredibly gratifying to be part of that.

What has been some of the feedback you received from your readership when it comes to the knowledge that was imparted in the book, where some of the actions they might have taken as a result?

Yeah, yeah. Well, authors know this, but readers will reach out to you often. They'll reach out to you on the two extremes, if they love something or if they hate something. You often don't hear from the average reader. You hear from the people who have a strong feeling one way or the other. And I have to say, largely, it's been wonderful to get so much positive feedback. One story that has come up over and over that has been a real surprise is, you know, I wrote this book for grownups, for, you know, professionals. And I'll occasionally get people who will write to me. And because it's happened so often, it's more of a pattern than something that's rare. They will say they. They bought the book and they started it and they like it, but they. They haven't been able to read it for a few months because their kids have it, the kids are reading it, and that's been just like, really, that's fantastic. And such a surprise. Because I do have these stories in the book around things like aqueducts and the origin aqueducts and solar energy and self driving cars and the Internet of things and the world where before cars where there were just horses and, and how horses were managed in cities. And so kids love this stuff. I, you know, I never thought about that as I was writing it. So that, that's, that's a big one. I think the other feedback I get and this story is very, very recent. I was invited to Saudi Arabia just a few weeks ago and I, I went over and I spent some time in Riyadh. And yeah, they've got, they're super focused on building, you know, almost rebuilding Riyadh to be ready for the next few decades of the 21st century and beyond. I went to Al Medinah as well, which is the second holiest city for Muslims around the world. And they have their smart Medina strategy, which is about, which is really the core of my book. And I met all sorts of people in Saudi who are working on their cities. And Saudi Ratna is building eight new cities. And I met several people who, they were getting older knowledge from my book. You know, I sat down with this leadership team from a certain region of the country and they were first of all, and I find it so humbling is that they were so happy to meet me, the author of the book that they used as their sort of guide for strategy. They're building their strategy for their city and giving them guidance around building policies and strategy and you know, every other aspect of that, that journey. So that, that, that was just so nice to, to see that. I, I also had another very warm experience back in, in about a year or so ago and a gentleman from, from Kabul in Afghanistan wrote to me and he was working in the, you know, in the public works department in the city of Kabul and he said he had my book and he said, I thank you very much for, thank you, Matt, for writing this book. It's been very helpful. And I said, I said, I said I, I would get such a kick if you would send a photograph of me. Excuse me? If you would send a photograph of you with the book in Kabul. I said, just. And you know, I did this with lots of people. I asked them to send me pictures of themselves with my book in cities all over the world. And I have, I'm not kidding, I have hundreds of pictures of people in, you know, every major city in the world with my book. And there's a picture I got, he sent it to me. There's a picture. And he, and I didn't realize it was the ebook version of the book Smart Cities for Dummies. And he, There's a picture of him, you know, just outside a mosque in Kabul with my book on his, on his Kindle. And it's just such a, it's such a wonderful thing, you know, to be able to touch people's lives and their careers in all places, all sorts of places in the world. So that's been good. I think the bottom line is this is not a theoretical or academic book. This is how to. This is how do you build a better city? You know, it's a guidebook. There's, there's no, no two things about it. I, I wrote the book for people to actually take action and build better cities. And that, that drove me and so to get feedback from city managers and public works directors and chief information officers, you know, all over the world that the book is helping them. That's, that's what it's about.

You know, your response actually brings a lot of ideas to mind and it seems that since this is all recent experience, it's quite exciting.

Yeah.

I'm curious if that and other insights you've gleaned have inspired you to look into other areas of primary research or reflection when it comes to writing a new work. And, you know, what comes to mind when I ask that?

Well, what has happened since I wrote, you know, Smart Cities for Dummies is I've subsequently wrote some more books. You know, I wrote a couple of books for kids about cities, no less. Exploring Smart Cities Activity book for kids. And I wrote the Exploring Cities Bedtime Rhymes because I think, you know, I think children love their. All aspects of cities and they have questions and are curious and I want them to be inspired by the possibilities. I get now quite a lot of requests to write books. It's, it's, you know, very nice and I love that. And some of them, of course, most of them, it doesn't make sense or you don't have the capacity, but if the planets are aligned, and I think it's an interesting topic where I can bring real value and I have some expertise, I'll pursue it. So right now I don't necessarily have to think about my next book because this year I'll have two new books coming out, one on cryptocurrencies and the other book is going to be on data governance. So I think my dance card relative to writing is full. So in terms of your question, I'm not thinking about the next book and If I had infinite time, I would. There's a hundred books I would write of things that I'm fascinated by, and I think other people would be fascinated by. But I have to be practical about the amount of time that we all have. And I think people are very interested in how the world works. I think there's a lot to be written about that.

And.

People also like a unique point of view. So I think I have a lot to say on those topics, really, as they relate to technologies in particular, A portfolio is kind of bit narrow in terms of domains, but technology itself is massive, as you know. So now that I got two major book projects underway at the same time, one comes out in the summer, one comes out closer to the winter. And of 2022, I. I sort of said, you know, I'm able to kind of relax my mind in that regard and not. And not worry too much about my next one. So, you know, beyond those, as we get into 2023 or 2024, and it's hard to even look that far ahead, I have plenty of ideas that are driven by topics that are important to society and the world. And I know people are interested in and want to learn more about. You know, the book business is evolving as well. I think we need to recognize that, you know, Americans, specifically Americans, buy a lot of books, but they don't read a lot of books. I know that's counterintuitive. And, you know, I want people to read a book that I write, and that's important. Plus, you know, there's so many different modalities now, from audiobooks to video, that there are other things to explore. But a book doesn't have to be the only channel by which you educate and inform and inspire people. So I'm open to all that, and I dabble in different channels as well as I'm trying to educate and inspire people.

And that's great to hear. When it comes to your business, which you started over the last number of years and have described as increasing in success, what have been some of the impacts? And maybe you can refresh my memory around what it is that your business offers. What's the value proposition?

Yeah, the company's called Human Future, and it probably is no surprise because, you know, I stopped working years and years ago. I kind of just do stuff I feel is important and I want to do it, and the fact that I get paid or generate income from it is great. But this is more of a mission for me, and Human Future is about anything I can do to create a Better future for humanity. I'm very focused on moving the needle forward on a whole range of topics in terms of improving quality of life, which ultimately is what it's all about. So, you know, the area that I think I'm able to with, you know, my partners really affect is how people can acquire the knowledge to make better decisions and to have more skills, to be more empowered, to have more wins. So a lot of my work is related. I say education, but it's broad. You know, it's everything from workshops to, you know, conference work to writing to consulting. So it's helping individuals and organizations understand the existing trends and where they're headed and their impacts on their lives and their businesses very much again in a technology realm. And then I use my own insights to invest and create a portfolio of social impact businesses that are going to and are making a difference. So as long as the work I'm doing is furthering the cause of improving the quality of life for the most amount of people, that's my mission. That's what human future does. Because we may screw up as humanity, we may change the climate and exhaust the resources and damage the environment and the course of that could be the end of humans. But the Earth will survive. The Earth's going to blossom and be here for quite a long time to come. And so it's about a human future. And a human future means that we have to have an Earth that can sustain us and future generations. It's going to have clean air and clean water and cities that function and opportunities for people. So, yeah, super focused on all realms of inspiring, educating, informing, empowering. We do that through all the modalities, workshops, training, writing, virtual events, keynotes at events around the world, and traditional management consulting. And then the investing part.

Well, Dr. Reichental, it's been a pleasure connecting with you so far. But if we switch gears a bit and I asked you this question, if you had the chance to go back to any point in history, at any point in time and meet with someone who first comes to mind.

Yeah, it's a tough, tough question because there's so many ways to think about it. You know, you might say, or I might think would be nice to have met my great grandfather, maybe, you know, just be interesting to know how he lived and what kind of person he was. And then in terms of, you know, great leaders, it's, there's, there's, there's many, you know, I'm going to give a, an answer that may surprise, but it's honest and it's True to who I am, I would like to meet Barack Obama, actually. And I don't want people to sort of turn off and say that's where Jonathan's political leanings are. Actually take that off the table. I want to meet the man. I want to meet the human being, Barack Obama. I think he is and continues to be a remarkable human being as a man, as a person. And so I think we could have a great conversation. I think he would give me or improve or even elevate my own sense of optimism. And I would like to understand from him how he thinks about things and how he's made decisions. And he's also quite a remarkable student of history and political history in particular. And so I'd love to kind of get his take on where we've come from and where we're going. I actually thought at one point that I would meet him. I had a chance. I was invited to the White House. I was recognized for some work that my team and I did a few years ago. And the plan was that he would come and visit us. We were called, I think, champions of change. And unfortunately, that day he got, as happens, at the White House, there was something else going on in the world that needed his attention. So we were demoted in terms of being his priority. So I was looking forward to meeting him. I often think that, you know, one day I'll probably have an occasion to say hi, to shake his hand, perhaps. So that's, you know, I think that's the most, the most truthful and current answer I can give to that.

Well, thank you so much for that. And again, it's been a pleasure. And until next time, maybe you can share a parting thought.

You know, we are entering in a very unusual period of time and unusual part of history. You know, everyone says they live in remarkable times, and you can make a case for that. But really, as someone like myself who has, who also studies history, we live in a really remarkable time right now. It's hard when you're in it, to really appreciate it. Sometimes you have to be beyond it to look back at something. But I'm telling you right now, and I think probably a lot of your listeners recognize that we are in a really remarkable time. And I think about how can you thrive in this world? Like, how can you have a better outcome for yourself and your family and your friends, and what should your organization do? And, and the parting thought I have is this is not a time for small decisions and no risk taking. We are now in a period where you have to make the big decisions. You got to be bold and you got to take some risks. And so I think that's a characteristic. I would like to leave. I'm going to add one more thing which will be my final thought, I think, for today, which is everybody gets to make their choices when they wake up in the morning. You know, who, what am I going to do today? Who am I going to be today? These are choices, right? You can choose to be someone who is angry, someone who bears a grudge, someone who's jealous or envious. There's a whole set of things that you kind of choose. You don't realize that you're choosing it, but you're putting yourself in the situation by which it feels more like a choice. And I always say, and I think to myself, this is a rule I applied to myself, if I'm going to choose something, I'm going to choose kindness. Why not choose kindness? When you wake up every day, try to be kind to everyone. Imagine if everyone's kind, the kind of world we would have. That's my thought. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks for attending the business podcast and stay tuned for more episodes.