Getting real
“Get real!” is what you say to someone when they get so carried away with an idea that they forget the practicalities.
You might think that the business world, with its hard-nosed executives, practical managers, and demanding shareholders, is already as real as it gets. However, in many ways it’s just as susceptible to hype as any other group. Take the Metaverse, for example – it may well be transformational eventually, but right now, there’s the very practical issue that most people don’t want to spend large amounts of time isolated from the real world. Artificial Intelligence (AI), too, while it has massive potential, has some practical issues around data security, privacy, and accuracy that should not be underestimated.
Which brings us to our lead article for this Second Semester 2023 edition of Prism. For businesses, one of the most obvious applications of AI is knowledge management. But relying on third-party open-access tools such as ChatGPT has some big drawbacks for a company handling confidential and sensitive data. Based on some in-house pilots, we demonstrate the potential and value of in-house customized AI bots. Could this be the real future of AI for business?
And on the Metaverse, too, while the initial hype wave has well and truly passed, we strongly suggest businesses don’t write it off just yet. In our second piece, we look at how the Industrial Metaverse, through developing further from existing digital twin technology, can offer practical benefits to companies without the need for fully virtual environments.
Digital twins, however, are not much use without connectivity to the real world. Connectivity is an essential aspect of any digitalization strategy, but is often treated by companies as mainly a tactical or technical issue. But as scale and complexity increase, this approach is becoming increasingly inadequate. Our third article explores how to take a more strategic approach to the connectivity challenge.
Next, we turn to the energy transition and the huge challenges of achieving stable baseload power from renewable energy sources. Although many countries dismissed nuclear power following Chernobyl and Fukushima, today there’s growing interest around the world in small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) as a potential contributor to the future energy mix. If we are really going to “get real” about achieving full energy transition, could SMRs be part of the solution? We explore the pros and cons.
Digital infrastructure is as fundamental in the 21st century as railways, roads, and bridges were in the 19th and 20th centuries, and our next two articles focus on this. First, we share some fascinating results from recent work comparing how well national governments around the world have performed in digitalizing their economies. And second, we zero in on the challenge of providing public digital platforms and solutions that are accessible to all for basic services such as payments, health, and identity. Recently, India has achieved impressive results with its Digital Public Goods platform, empowering countries and reducing dependence on the global tech giants. We explain how it was done and what it means for both government and business.
A recent phenomenon fueled by digitalization is the rise of digital-first “challenger brands,” start-ups that are threatening big established consumer brands by building significant scale in a matter of months rather than decades. In our next article, we look at how they do this and what lessons can be learned for others.
And finally, we bring you an updated perspective on the growing momentum behind hydrogen as countries continue to struggle with the energy transition. There are great opportunities, but still many challenges – what does it mean for end users and players in the energy value chain? To provide his unique perspective on this, we are delighted to bring you an exclusive interview with Pascal De Buck, the Chief Executive Officer of Fluxys, one of the leading energy infrastructure companies in Europe, which is focusing strongly on facilitating and accelerating the energy transition through hydrogen as well as renewables.
We hope you enjoy this semester’s packed issue, and as always, we look forward to hearing your feedback!
Rick Eagar
Chief Editor, Prism
Arthur D. Little
DATE
“Get real!” is what you say to someone when they get so carried away with an idea that they forget the practicalities.
You might think that the business world, with its hard-nosed executives, practical managers, and demanding shareholders, is already as real as it gets. However, in many ways it’s just as susceptible to hype as any other group. Take the Metaverse, for example – it may well be transformational eventually, but right now, there’s the very practical issue that most people don’t want to spend large amounts of time isolated from the real world. Artificial Intelligence (AI), too, while it has massive potential, has some practical issues around data security, privacy, and accuracy that should not be underestimated.
Which brings us to our lead article for this Second Semester 2023 edition of Prism. For businesses, one of the most obvious applications of AI is knowledge management. But relying on third-party open-access tools such as ChatGPT has some big drawbacks for a company handling confidential and sensitive data. Based on some in-house pilots, we demonstrate the potential and value of in-house customized AI bots. Could this be the real future of AI for business?
And on the Metaverse, too, while the initial hype wave has well and truly passed, we strongly suggest businesses don’t write it off just yet. In our second piece, we look at how the Industrial Metaverse, through developing further from existing digital twin technology, can offer practical benefits to companies without the need for fully virtual environments.
Digital twins, however, are not much use without connectivity to the real world. Connectivity is an essential aspect of any digitalization strategy, but is often treated by companies as mainly a tactical or technical issue. But as scale and complexity increase, this approach is becoming increasingly inadequate. Our third article explores how to take a more strategic approach to the connectivity challenge.
Next, we turn to the energy transition and the huge challenges of achieving stable baseload power from renewable energy sources. Although many countries dismissed nuclear power following Chernobyl and Fukushima, today there’s growing interest around the world in small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) as a potential contributor to the future energy mix. If we are really going to “get real” about achieving full energy transition, could SMRs be part of the solution? We explore the pros and cons.
Digital infrastructure is as fundamental in the 21st century as railways, roads, and bridges were in the 19th and 20th centuries, and our next two articles focus on this. First, we share some fascinating results from recent work comparing how well national governments around the world have performed in digitalizing their economies. And second, we zero in on the challenge of providing public digital platforms and solutions that are accessible to all for basic services such as payments, health, and identity. Recently, India has achieved impressive results with its Digital Public Goods platform, empowering countries and reducing dependence on the global tech giants. We explain how it was done and what it means for both government and business.
A recent phenomenon fueled by digitalization is the rise of digital-first “challenger brands,” start-ups that are threatening big established consumer brands by building significant scale in a matter of months rather than decades. In our next article, we look at how they do this and what lessons can be learned for others.
And finally, we bring you an updated perspective on the growing momentum behind hydrogen as countries continue to struggle with the energy transition. There are great opportunities, but still many challenges – what does it mean for end users and players in the energy value chain? To provide his unique perspective on this, we are delighted to bring you an exclusive interview with Pascal De Buck, the Chief Executive Officer of Fluxys, one of the leading energy infrastructure companies in Europe, which is focusing strongly on facilitating and accelerating the energy transition through hydrogen as well as renewables.
We hope you enjoy this semester’s packed issue, and as always, we look forward to hearing your feedback!
Rick Eagar
Chief Editor, Prism
Arthur D. Little
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Taking control of AI
For decades, organizations have struggled to connect employees with the internal knowledge and insights they need to make better, more informed, and timelier decisions. Finding the right information, at the right time, among the increasing volumes of structured and unstructured corporate data, and delivering it in the right format is business-critical. However, it is often like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Simulating strategy
Is the Metaverse dead? With the same rapidity that it was hyped up only a couple of years ago, today it has fallen from grace. So far, most people have failed to get excited about the idea of spending large amounts of time withdrawn from the real world wearing clunky goggles. Now, it’s all about artificial intelligence.
Rethinking product connectivity
In a data-driven world, product manufacturers have a stark choice – either digitize to become more flexible and customer-centric or be sidelined by nimbler competitors. They need to embrace the transformative opportunities that data and the Internet of Things bring to add value to their offerings and change their business models. All businesses understand the vital importance of collecting, analyzing, and acting on data to enable: New business models, such as offering as-a-service or outcome-based pricing, and entering the Industrial Metaverse
Small modular reactors
Small modular reactor (SMR) technology has been attractive on paper, but difficult to realize in practice. Despite high investments into SMR development, no SMRs are yet in commercial operation. However, as the world struggles with the immense challenges of transitioning away from fossil fuels, a resurgence of interest has appeared across the globe.
How to build and scale a multi-billion-dollar digital-first challenger brand
Building a brand used to be a time- and resource-intensive process. The need to invest and align marketing, distribution, manufacturing, and sales outlets meant it was purely the domain of large players with deep pockets and lengthy experience. These high barriers to entry limited brand creation to existing FMCG players that had manufacturing facilities, relationships with retailers, distribution channels, and large marketing budgets.
Charting the course
At a country level, digitalization is seen as a driver of economic growth and skilled jobs creation. While the term “digital economy” is not new, recent developments mean policy makers must now rethink their digitalization agendas. Firstly, digitalization has become a critical factor in maintaining economic competitiveness, as it permeates all economic sectors, disrupting traditional production and exchanges and creating new growth opportunities. Digitalization is no longer optional – those that don’t adopt it risk falling behind.
Democratizing Tech
Digitizing government services and processes is crucial to delivering greater efficiency and increased economic competitiveness, bridging equality gaps, and meeting the changing needs of citizens. Yet many government solutions failed the stress test of the pandemic, wasting scarce resources and adding to suffering.
Hydrogen
While much of the focus on achieving net zero has been on green electricity, momentum is growing behind hydrogen within the energy transition, with the IEA predicting a four-fold increase in demand between now and 2040.
“Speeding up the energy transition is key: We have put our foot on the accelerator”
Pascal De Buck (°1966) is the driving force behind Fluxys and its 1,300 employees. He joined the company in 1995, came on board the management team in 2008, and has been CEO and Managing Director since 2015. Pascal studied Law, Industrial Policy, and Financial Management, and also graduated in the IESE Business School’s Global CEO Program.