I know many companies are making technology purchases these days in reaction to regulations or mandates. Not just in transportation and logistics (T&L), either. I’m seeing this happen in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries too. But because compliance is the driver for these purchases, I worry that many business leaders aren’t taking the time to consider the bigger picture opportunities that technology offers them.

For many decades, there were business problems that machine vision technology (and engineers) just couldn’t solve for manufacturers, warehouse operators, 3PLs, retailers, and even healthcare providers. Now, we’re seeing at least two solutions proposed for every problem. In some cases, we’ve swung from having no options to having too many options when it comes to using machine vision as a solution facilitator.

Tony Palcheck has been identifying consumer and commercial business trends and investing in technologies that either drive or benefit from those trends for over 20 years. He remembers the days when GPS and Wi-Fi were ideas on a PowerPoint slide – and watching them become mainstream technologies across industries that help improve our everyday lives. And he’s proud to have been at the forefront of many smart, innovative technology ideas ever since as a corporate venture capitalist.