Rak-Joon, or Rak as everyone calls him, joined Torqata about a year ago after nearly a decade with IBM. His experience in supply chain and blockchain, along with his leadership experience at one of the most innovative companies, helped Torqata pilot their blockchain network with major industry partners, a first-of-a-kind for the industry. The tire industry has a data problem: old antiquated systems built through point-to-point integration make it difficult for partners to collaborate and trust each other’s data. Rak laid out a vision to build a “single platform of trusted industry data” to help address this problem. He convinced partners across the tire ecosystem to work with Torqata to test how blockchain can help achieve this vision. Today, after nearly a year of collaboration, we are starting to apply the lessons learned from these efforts to Torqata’s business. Not only does Torqata benefit from Rak’s knowledge and experience, but also his ability to communicate complex concepts effectively. Explaining blockchain to an industry whose members appreciate varied levels of digitization is not an easy task, but Rak was able to facilitate conversations with many partners that ultimately lead the effort to success.
According to Rak, “I was very fortunate to have good role models in my life. One was my uncle, who immigrated to the US and worked his way up from owning a convenience store to now running his own enterprise. He inspired me to work hard, be humble yet fearless. Another one is my mentor Mr. JP Jo, who is one of the top financial services consultants in Asia. He taught me the soft skills in business: managing complex teams and operating under uncertainty. The principles they installed in me helped me focus on not only the big goals but also on the little things to make sure everything was organized and operating. Being trustworthy and reliable for the team became my calling and that has been my biggest attribute that drove me throughout my career.” Armed with these qualities, Rak has been taking the company to new heights.
The tire industry is ripe for disruption: the supply chain has not evolved for decades, and the industry data is so fragmented and poor in quality it is difficult for any company to make good business decisions. These inefficiencies cost the industry 1.5B USD across tire distribution and 5B USD if you include aftermarket services.
“Torqata is a data analytics company that develops software solutions to help tire manufacturers, distributors and retailers increase ROI, maximize profits and customer value by better understanding market demand and supply."
Torqata seeks to address these inefficiencies by providing industry partners with high-quality insights for better decision-making. “We operate a data platform that aggregates tire distribution data across the supply chain, and we plug this data into artificial intelligence, machine learning, and optimization algorithms to provide the best business recommendations to our partners,” explains Rak. “We help Retailers choose the best product mixes to stock their shelves, choose the best dealer programs to maximize their profits, and help them understand their local competition by sharing how their pricing strategies differ from other stores in their area.”
Torqata prides itself on having some of the brightest technical teams in the industry, comprised of PhDs in physics or neuroscience and consultants who worked on some of the most exciting projects in the industry. “Our approach is unique because we leverage aggregate market data. We spend a lot of time collecting, cleaning, and aggregating data from our partners to build a single view of the market,” says Rak. “This is a key differentiator for us since many companies in the industry do not have this breadth and quality of data to work with, let alone the high quality of applications we offer for their convenience. The insights we generate are much more effective and useful compared to in-house data collection since the latter is limited to what one organization has access to. Blockchain has proven to be a great value-add to us; our partners can share data with trusted partners to build better upstream/downstream visibility without worrying if the data will fall into the wrong hands. Moreover, smart contracts help us automate transactions so we can move more tires across the network without burdening our workforce.”
Torqata’s biggest achievement to date is that they helped nearly a thousand tire retailers across the US make better decisions to enhance their business performance. Their analytics solutions help retailers understand their local market, supply the market with what’s in demand, and maximize their profits, and they will continue to grow to address the needs of the customers.
Posted in CLF | Most Inspiring Leaders Magazine of 2021, Rak-Joon Choi, VP Blockchain & Supply Chain Digitization of Torqata Data and Analytics Profile