TECHNOLOGY has the power to disrupt, shifting yesterday’s market almost overnight, to become tomorrow’s opportunity – or tomorrow’s threat.
Businesses that thrive are those that plan ahead for emerging technologies, adopting the very best digital solutions at the right time.
Little wonder that 51% of business leaders in the UK, according to our latest CEO Survey, are now making significant changes in how they use technology to assess and deliver on their business objectives.
There have been periods of intensive change in history before, of course. But unlike other periods of significant upheaval – the agricultural or industrial revolutions – the digital revolution has no boundaries or borders.
To assist businesses navigate this disruption, PwC has developed a virtual reality experience for its clients, allowing them to explore and better understand the range of potential future disruptions that could impact their organisation.
More than 100 people have already been guided through the experience as part of the pilot phase, including our clients in banking, transport, local government and the public sector.
Participants use virtual reality to travel across a future city environment, hoping to spot 20 potential disruptions around them rating their credibility and impact. The disruptions include emerging technologies such as megadrones, robotics and synthetic biology, as well as non-technology megatrends such as social and climate change.
VR is a unique medium to tell the story of disruption, allowing businesses to experience the potential impact at first hand and bring their challenges to life in a much more immersive way.
As a result. It enables far more meaningful conversations about the risks faced by each organisation.
Businesses must take their obligations to turn new technologies to strategic advantage seriously, particularly if they are to respond to competitive challenges and convert technology into strategic advantage. The challenge is to map out the potential disruptions an organisation could face, separate out the reality from the hype, and then look at strategies to transform risk into opportunity.
The value of this will be to bring the future into the present and will allow businesses a first-hand glimpse of how exponential technologies will start to transform their businesses.
If you can employ digital strategies to do that effectively, you will be among the winners of the age of digital disruption.
To find out more about PwC’s Virtual Reality tools, contact Sudheer Parwana, PwC Head of Technology in Milton Keynes. sudheer.parwana@pwc.com
Ruby Parmar is Senior Office Partner for PwC in Milton Keynes
