The Metaverse – What is it?
Big Tech leaders such as Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella have all gone large with their respective metaverse visions.
“A new platform and new application type like how the web was originally viewed in the early 90’s, with the metaverse enabling us to embed computing into the real world and embed the real world into computing. Bringing real presence into any digital space.”
Source: Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella envisions a future where the digital world seamlessly integrates people, places, and things across both consumer and enterprise domains. He illustrates this vision by reimagining how individuals navigate and interact within physical environments, such as retail stores, factories, or hybrid workspace. In this digital realm, users will have the capability to perform advanced analytics, gain real-time insights, conduct simulations, and automate routine tasks.
Nadella describes the Metaverse as a transformative platform and application, akin to the early days of the internet in the 1990s. This new frontier will allow us to infuse computing into the real world and vice versa, creating a sense of true presence in any digital space.
The Metaverse – Why now?
For years, many technology commentators have talked about the creation of a digital representation of the world. No change there then! But the main difference is that we now have the tools available to merge the digital and the physical worlds and participate. In the metaverse we will be able to bring our humanity with us – we will be able to choose how we want to engage and experience the world, and who we want to interact with.
While the metaverse is a still-evolving concept, currently it can be accessed via a smartphone or computer but often includes virtual reality headsets to create more immersive experiences or augmented reality that can insert virtual objects into the real world. With the help of VR, AR headsets, digital avatars and connected devices, people can do almost anything they can dream of, be it to socialize with faraway friends, shop in a virtual space day or night, attend world-renowned universities, virtually present to and workshop with international co-workers and clients, and – the possibilities are limitless.
With the above said … based on our extensive experience testing various virtual platforms and environments, it’s important to emphasize that VR and AR are not the only way to derive significant value from the Metaverse. Much like how video gamers successfully engage with massive multiplayer online games using desktop computers, the business community can also effectively interact with the Metaverse through similar means.
The Metaverse – What Enterprise Problems can it help solve?
Strategic Change Digital Twin for Defence & Industry
Decision-makers largely operate in a 2D environment where physical and digital artifacts are disconnected, time-consuming or not readily available, which slows down and adds risk to decision making.
There has been a seismic shift for efficient and effective frictionless remote working tools, which has been accelerated by the COVID pandemic. Moreover, there is an increasing workforce expectation of digital first engagements, while maintaining and enhancing organization collaboration, creativity, and cohesion.
In the Defense sector, this evolution is crucial. The modern NATO warfighter, whether in the battlespace or at headquarters, still relies heavily on outdated, siloed, and labor-intensive communication and collaboration tools. This is inadequate for any forward-thinking military force.
In the business world, research by the Project Management Institute (PMI) indicates that organizations lose an average of $149 million for every $1 billion invested in strategic change initiatives due to poor performance. A more thorough analysis uncovers a substantial disconnect between strategy and execution, frequently stemming from an absence of clear, measurable outcomes that are directly tied to both effort and investment. This gap hinders leaders from making necessary adjustments to ensure alignment and maximize the return on investment (ROI).
Accenture1 reports that the metaverse represents the next generation of the internet, poised to drive a transformative wave of digital change that will revolutionize how we live and work. The metaverse’s rapid growth offers hybrid environments where organizations can interact in real-time, without the need for physical co-location.
According to Accenture1, 71% of executives believe the metaverse will positively impact their organizations, with 42% anticipating it will be breakthrough or transformational. JP Morgan2 projects that the metaverse will permeate every sector, with a market opportunity exceeding $1 trillion in annual revenues.
The convergence of various cutting-edge technologies, including unified communications, 3D design, digital twins, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, predictive analytics, simulation software, and blockchain, now empowers us to blend the ‘Physical World’ with ‘Virtual Experiences.’ This fusion allows for a seamless transition between real and virtual realms, enhancing purposeful interactions.
In the realm of strategy execution, advanced technologies hold the promise of creating an Enterprise Digital Twin. This digital twin is set to integrate comprehensive content with collaborative techniques3, enabling teams to tackle complex, multisource challenges within a specially designed hybrid environment. It will offer an immersive platform for unified decision-making, seamlessly linking strategic objectives with frontline realities to deliver joined-up and measurable value.
Furthermore, the digital twin will offer clear visibility and measurement of the alignment between strategy formulation and execution. This ensures coordinated activities with transparent outcomes, optimizing both effort and investment returns.
Source: 1 Accenture Technology Vision 2022, Published March 16, 2022. 2 JP Morgan, Opportunities in the Metaverse, Published January 18, 2022. 3 Integration of NeXT STATE strategic change expert know-how.
Re-imagining Work
With the shift to remote working from the pandemic, keeping employees engaged has become a top challenge for many companies. The flat 2-D environment of a video call; accommodating people who don’t like appearing on camera; and the fact that many remote experiences are too far removed from real life are some of the reasons why companies are turning to Metaverse platforms.
“The feeling of presence is the defining quality of the metaverse.”
The metaverse promises to bring new levels of social connection, mobility, and collaboration to a world of virtual work. Zuckerberg explains that “the feeling of presence” is the “defining quality” of the metaverse. It is a place in which we, exist as 3D avatars, through the powers of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), can move about freely, interact with others, experience real-life scenarios but in a virtual world that can be quite parallel to our own, actual world. We will not engage in this metaverse in a basic 2D capacity, but in a way that gives the feeling of actually being there.
Understanding the new normal after the Pandemic is crucial. As leaders make decisions around policies and procedures for their company, they should ask “How does this impact customer connection, creative collaboration, and the employee experience?”
As companies increasingly seek to reconnect with customers face-to-face, the enduring impact of the pandemic has introduced two critical dimensions to travel and entertainment budgets and policy considerations. The first dimension is safety. Beyond evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a business trip, companies bear a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of their employees during travel. The second dimension involves travel restrictions. Numerous countries now mandate a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination for entry, with some also enforcing quarantine measures. Compounding these challenges is the ever-evolving nature of these regulations. To navigate this new landscape effectively, companies must engage in thorough scenario planning.
When employees work together in an office, collaboration happens in ways that simply can’t take place on a video call. Employees certainly recognize the value of face-to-face interactions. In one study, 75 percent of workers cited collaboration as having suffered the most while working at home. To address collaboration, companies will need to facilitate personal contact, both to boost creative collaboration and improve the employee experience. It is nearly impossible to establish or maintain culture in a remote environment, companies’ ability to replicate the water-cooler experience that we are all so familiar with will be a critical priority.
Even before the pandemic hit, companies were increasing their focus and attention on the employee experience. Employees want to feel connected and part of a wider community, they want simplified processes, easier access to information, and the right tools and environment to do their job. Creating a supportive, empowering employee experience is key to keeping talent on board, attracting new talent, and maintaining company culture. Employees who have been working from home have experienced an unprecedented level of autonomy – and by and large, they’ve delivered. The most exhaustive study of remote work, conducted by Stanford University involving roughly 20,000 employees over nine months, showed a productivity increase of 13 percent. Numerous, more recent studies report even higher increases.
Scenario Planning
Currently, decision-makers largely operate in a 2D environment where physical and digital decision-making artifacts are disconnected or not readily available. This disconnection and gap in information slow down and add risk to decision making thus reducing the ability to visualize, model and scenario plan alternative strategies.
“The metaverse is ideally positioned to help solve highly complex and mission-critical operational improvement challenges.”
With the convergence of unified communications, 3D designs, digital twin, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, simulation software and blockchain technology, the metaverse is ideally positioned to help solve highly complex and mission-critical operational improvement challenges.
The ability to model, predict and prepare for the future in the midst of a chaotic world has never been more important or challenging. Shell pioneered scenario planning in 1965. The head of economics and planning developed a methodology that the company still uses effectively to this day. The Futures Program, as it was called, was born from the intuition that understanding the future better could help the company in setting and executing more effective strategies.
“Scenarios are a powerful tool in the strategic change armory, they enable companies to steer a course between the false certainty of a single forecast and the confused paralysis that often strikes in troubled times.”
They are particularly useful in developing strategies to navigate the kinds of extreme events we have seen in the world recently. World disruptors such as climate change, market fluctuations, global pandemics and regional conflict, as well as the increasing pace of low-level constant shifts in business models, customer demographics, and employee expectations have caught many companies off-guard.
Scenarios are a powerful tool in the strategic change armory, they enable companies to steer a course between the false certainty of a single forecast and the confused paralysis that often strikes in troubled times. Following the financial crisis of 2008, it was common to say that everything was so unpredictable that planning was meaningless.
Nonetheless, a telecommunications company used scenario planning to reduce the uncertainty to a manageable set of plausible scenarios. The starting point for reducing uncertainty was looking for ways to get beyond the fact that the company had no idea what GDP growth would be over the next few years. That was true, but when planners started looking carefully at different products and services in the portfolio, they realized that offerings at different stages of the life cycle had different levels of dependency on the macroeconomic environment.
Despite the obvious value of scenario planning, this capability has been out of the reach of many companies. But with the metaverse promise of new levels of social connection and collaboration in a hybrid world where people and teams can switch seamlessly between the real and virtual domains, and with purpose, this capability is now accessible to the masses.
Advanced hi-res graphics from next-generation game engines are making it easier to knit the complex list of technologies together. It is just a matter of time before intuitive and immersive platforms are developed with scenario planning in mind – generating a digital twin experience that is designed to expand thinking, uncover possible futures, and provide a stimulating knowledge-rich environment that both encourages and enables people and teams to challenge conventional wisdom – while avoiding groupthink.
Digital Transformation
Putting human interests at the core of transformation is an increasingly differentiating characteristic for enterprises today. In the metaverse, this will take on an entirely new meaning as people and teams interact and collaborate within a virtual immersive landscape. Metaverse success will hinge on how well we adapt the virtual environment and associated digital tools to augment, enhance and amplify workforce performance – both individually and collectively.
“Metaverse success will hinge on how well we adapt the virtual environment and associated digital tools to augment, enhance and amplify workforce performance – both individually and collectively.”
Work environments will take on a whole new meaning in the metaverse. There will be no limit to the environments we can create. There will be no barriers between environments as we will be able to easily shift between them. The ability to seamlessly switch between the virtual and real domain will have a profound impact on workforce conditions, satisfaction, and performance.
“The metaverse provides a game-changing alternative approach for people and teams to collaboratively imagine, design, plan, engage with, communicate, and implement change.”
One of the biggest barriers to digital transformation, as reported in a survey by the Harvard Business Review, is a business’s inability to experiment quickly, with 53% of senior executives surveyed maintaining that this was a key barrier to the success of their projects.
Other human-oriented barriers that surfaced in the survey included: an inability to work across silos, inadequate collaboration between IT and the business, risk-averse culture, lack of change management capabilities, and a lack of corporate vision.
To illustrate with a use case story… following a decade of straight sales decline from 1996-2005, the Levi Strauss brand was just beginning to find its feet again with the consumer when the 2008 recession hit and new jeans were the last thing on anybody’s mind.
After a tough decade, one of the world’s most famous brands pressed the reset button to reinvent itself. By returning to its pioneering roots and pitching a new definition of what it means to work. Levi’s new strategy incorporated CSR initiatives, an overhaul of the women’s range, and a focus on digital communication as the most effective way of creating meaningful campaigns and consumer engagement.
A full-frontal assault on everything from product lines to social media strategy tied together with a reworking of the brand’s pioneering spirit for a contemporary audience. In the Go Forth campaign, Levi’s funded community initiatives in a struggling Pennsylvania town, Braddock. Imagery for the campaign featured Braddock residents, and a series of urban workshops encouraged participants to spend time learning practical skills like printing. Meanwhile, content initiatives conducted in partnership with Facebook supported Curve ID – a total reinvention of the way in which women’s jeans are shaped and sold.
When you frame the above Levi’s story, it doesn’t take a vivid imagination to envisage how the metaverse could augment, enhance and amplify this reinvention.
Examples of how the metaverse can be exploited to achieve successful transformation include: providing an immersive environment to share ideas, collaborate, iterate, and build consensus to accelerate decision-making in support of the change; broadcasting/communicating the change across territories and teams in an experiential and immersive way; modeling the future state and collaboratively honing it prior to implementation, and immersing internal and external stakeholders in the future state to gain buy-in.
“The metaverse provides a myriad of possibilities; from modeling ESG factors to support the transition towards a more circular economy; to implementing and testing innovations in the virtual space without risks…”
Like a ‘digital twin’ the metaverse provides the opportunity to ‘prototype and test’ transformation in a digital representation of the real world before implementation. The metaverse provides a myriad of possibilities; from modeling ESG factors to support the transition towards a more circular economy; to implementing and testing innovations in the virtual space without risks; to evaluating the bigger picture to understand what is missing; to modeling the supply chain to analyze and boost performance with surgical precision; to modeling customer behavior to predict and enhance the customer experience, etc.
The ability to model a real world representation of transformation will make it easier to articulate the vision, build consensus around the vision; translate the vision into meaningful delivery, and generate clear outcomes to provide direction so that you can successfully navigate the change… all of which reduce risk and increase the chances of achieving the aspired future success.
What is your Strategy?
In the current growing and diversifying metaverse, many possible futures lie ahead. The considered opinion is that it will take a decade for the metaverse to fully evolve, mature and stabilize. Add to this the emergence of an overwhelming number of new competing metaverse platforms to choose from, navigating this minefield of choice and making the right investment decision can be daunting.
While it is still embryonic, it is clear that the metaverse has the potential to radically transform the digital and global economy, in much the same way as the introduction of the internet did back in the 1990s. While many questions remain about the metaverse and how it will evolve, companies can’t afford to wait for it to fully mature before starting to experiment and invest in it. In a similar way to when the internet took off, those that invest early will reap the biggest rewards. Yes, like all forms of innovative and disruptive technologies there may be some turbulence along the development path, but ultimately the learning and the muscle memory of actively being involved in the process will win out.
Despite all the hoopla and hype, it is important to understand that the metaverse is not a new concept. Today we already have massive multiplayer online games that are essentially entire virtual worlds, we already have digital concerts, video calls with people from all over the world, online avatars, and commerce platforms. So, we can already evidence the value that can be gained when companies have clarity of purpose and leverage this in a focused, practical, and pragmatic way.
Companies of all sizes are entering the metaverse in different ways, including household names like Nike, Verizon, PWC and others. Business leaders and boardrooms around the world are now asking themselves, “What is my metaverse strategy? What am I supposed to be doing in the metaverse?”
Armed with specialist experience helping organizations reimagine the future, my team and I started our metaverse journey in 2019, just prior to the pandemic. When we started our journey, the initial learning was about wrapping our heads around this new technology to formulate a view on whether the metaverse was just a gimmick that would come and go, or a new embryonic transformational technology like the internet.
We quickly recognized that the Metaverse is not just akin to the internet; we believe it has the potential to ultimately surpass it.
After gaining a deeper understanding of the practical potential of the Metaverse’s future, we began prototyping a solution by putting our design thinking through the UK’s Defense and Science Accelerator (DASA) innovation scouting process.
DASA is the UK Ministry of Defense’s innovation incubator focused on finding and funding UK innovators. They also offer access to networks of expertise and provide technical support. The DASA innovation scout process served as a rigorous evaluation method to test the viability of the Metaverse strategic change concept I developed with my team.
When the Metaverse concept completed the DASA evaluation process, we were left with two fundamental takeaways: (1) we had successfully managed to translate our know-how and IP into a practical and (conceptually) working Metaverse-based solution that enabled people and teams to explore, test, visualize, model and plan for the future at a strategic, operational and tactical level across stakeholder ecosystems regardless of location; and (2) the concept succeeded in gaining material market interest and sponsorship from industry.
Strategic Change 2.0: Leveraging the Metaverse
As an alternative to the 2D desktop Teams and Zoom experience, our team had already prototyped a remote digital collaboration solution. The digital solution comprised a bespoke cloud content management system that allowed you to easily create, manage, modify, and share content, and provided a highly immersive digital workshop studio environment designed to mimic many of the experiences that face-to-face interaction provide.
The best way to describe the digital workshop experience generated is to illustrate how the BBC News (or equivalent news broadcasters) deploy and coordinate audio visual technology (see below image) …
… the news starts with camera one focused on the news anchor, the news anchor surrounded by touch screens walks to a touch screen presentation, the camera view switches to camera two to gain a side angle view of the touch screen and anchor together (in the same shot), the anchor touches the touch screen, and the camera view switches to the touch screen presentation only. This sequence of events and coordination of the technology is how our remote digital workshops are orchestrated.
Developing a hybrid collaboration capability allowed us to operate during the height of the Pandemic and the associated innovation journey allowed my team and I to understand how to seamlessly knit the complex list of technologies together (i.e., unified communications, 3D designs, digital twin, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, simulation software and blockchain technology). The learns from this journey also paved the way to taking our first steps in merging the ‘Physical World’ with ‘Virtual Experiences’ and in a way that enabled us to seamlessly switch between the real and virtual domains with purpose.
The Metaverse – Our Vision
Switching Seamlessly Between the Real & Virtual Domains
The convergence of numerous technologies including unified communications, 3D designs, digital twins, artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality, predictive analytics, simulation software and blockchain technology now allows us to merge the ‘Physical World’ with ‘Virtual Experiences’ and in a way that enables you to seamlessly switch between the real and virtual domains with purpose.
Based on our experience in this field, particularly the significant advancements in the defense sectors of the US and UK, the next logical step in the evolution of the Metaverse is to develop a comprehensive, off-the-shelf strategic change solution. This solution would seamlessly integrate collaborative processes, tools, and immersive content, enabling individuals and teams to work together effectively on complex, multi-source challenges within a purpose-designed hybrid digital environment that merges virtual and real-world elements. This immersive platform would create a frictionless, unified virtual space for stakeholders to collaboratively develop and stress-test strategic, tactical, and operational plans across various formats. Additionally, it would facilitate the efficient diagnosis and distribution of insights, ensuring a highly effective and cost-efficient approach to problem-solving.
This innovative solution will empower individuals and teams to collaboratively address intricate challenges by seamlessly blending the virtual and physical realms in a purpose-designed hybrid environment.
Based on our development efforts, I am confident that this solution will be available soon. This capability is poised to revolutionize how organizations manage strategic change, enhance engagement and connectivity, and optimize and integrate strategic initiatives, all while significantly cutting costs.
At NeXT STATE, we are developing a metaverse Digital Twin and Virtual War Room solution. The purpose and utility of the Digital Twin and Virtual War Room are to create the optimal cognitive (thinking and planning) space that catalyzes collective genius to explicitly connect strategic intent to frontline innovation, value, and advantage – and in a way that is joined-up, visible and measured.
Digital Collaboration & Visualization In Action (Slide Show)
At NeXT STATE, our extensive experience in strategic change equips us with a deep understanding of human behavior, enabling us to create effective strategies, tools, approaches and experiences that inspire, unite, and empower employees during delivery transitions. Successful strategy execution is rooted in a profound comprehension of the human condition. When you have a clear understanding of the nature, purpose, and utility of your objectives, selecting, configuring, and implementing the appropriate technology to enhance and elevate performance becomes straightforward, provided the necessary technological capabilities are available (which in this case, they are).
Our remote collaboration capabilities, including innovative workshop design, a cloud-based content management system, and a digital workshop studio environment, will be seamlessly integrated into the virtual platform. This distinctive feature will enable individuals and teams to effortlessly transition between physical and virtual spaces, whether through desktop access or virtual reality, all with a clear purpose. This capability can be easily integrated with a virtual solution, allowing the participants to switch seamlessly between the real and virtual domains.
A Ready-Made Metaverse Solution, Providing Practical Value Immediately
Our vision for an Enterprise Digital Twin and Virtual War Room will be designed specifically to enhance an organization’s capacity to collaboratively create, learn and implement. The immersive virtual space will be tailored to promote and nurture new and expansive patterns of thinking, provide a go-to location for knowledge transfer and management, catalyze and harness collective aspiration, and provide a space that provides a stunning real-time and immersive experience that enables people and teams to collaboratively imagine and build the future together.
Source: Excerpt from Transformative, Author Ian Ure.
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