5 must reads for your weekend

This week in must reads we’re sharing some of the stats, insights and bold ideas which have risen to the top following the return of #InnovationRealized, an immersive event which unlocks creative collaboration and unexpected ideas.

1. Ask questions

Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman and CEO, is excited about the opportunity of the metaverse, but “new technologies come with new complexities and new challenges” he writes. The Metaverse – or metaverses – will certainly be no different. While connecting with leaders pushing the boundaries at Innovation Realized this week, he had these questions:

• We have a world where we interact and buy digital assets with cryptocurrency and we trade NFT’s..but how do you pay tax????
• Should you accept cryptocurrency as payment? If so, how should you hold it????
• When everything is digital – and downloadable – how can you protect your IP?
• If your workforce is coming to the office in a metaverse, how do you protect them?
• Governments are also thinking seriously about regulation.?How this will make the Metaverse safer??How will it impact the commercial opportunities??How can it help establish the rules of the game?

Building a Better Metaverse

2. Think big

“Something I heard recently struck a chord: ‘In times of disruption and change, it’s a sin to think small.’ The context was personal yet it struck me that the sentiment applies just as aptly to business,” Gil Forer, EY Global Markets Digital and Business Disruption leader writes in his latest blog. “‘To boldly go’?is one of the great tropes of science fiction and it’s that enterprising spirit that is needed most now. Forget incremental improvements. What’s possible in this new climate? Instead of managing your company, how can you create an ecosystem? Instead of operating in the physical world only, how can your business span physical and digital worlds?” Where do we sign up?

Be bold, embrace uncertainty and keep delivering

3. Move faster together?

Are you one of the 31% that includes a external business partnerships in your strategy? Or are you one of the 69% going it alone? IBM (part of the EY ecosystem) is investing US$1 billion in its hybrid cloud ecosystem so that its partners can play a much bigger role in fulfilling the needs of their clients. Nationwide Insurance collaborated with the EY organization to launch a platform that helps enable customers to get an auto policy issued within minutes in a purely digital experience. Microsoft Xbox and EY teams worked together to help transform the Xbox royalty processing system from 45 days to 4 minutes. Still need convincing??

The CEO Imperative: How mastering ecosystems transforms performance?

4. Learn from the past

“What lessons can we learn from the recent past, and how do we avoid making similar mistakes in the metaverse?” Nicola Morini Bianzino, EY Global Chief Technology Officer asks. Tech addiction, exercise and mental health, polarization and disconnection and misinformation and critical thinking are all areas to consider. But it’s not all a downer, there is some good news Nicola writes, “the metaverse doesn’t just pose behavioral challenges for companies — it also creates unprecedented opportunities to improve behavioral and health outcomes.”

How will the metaverse change our behavior as it reshapes experiences?

5. Stay alert

“Disruption can come from anywhere, at any time.” Prianka Srinivasan, EY Global Markets Associate Director, Technology Insights, Research Institute, says you need to use your peripheral vision. How will brain-machine interfaces upskill your workforce or create new experiences for your customers? If you’re a data and computation-intensive company are you thinking about quantum computing? What will your business use or create policies for transportation drones? And when space is no longer the final frontier, how will your company take advantage of the unique opportunities on offer?

Four transformational technologies to have on your radar

If you do one thing:

Be bold. Move forward. Ask questions. You will find answers.

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