Business Chief - March 2023

BUSINESS CHIEF

March 2023 | businesschief.com

Women running the world’s biggest companies

How Chanel CEO Leena Nair became a diversity trailblazer

Matrixx Software CEO Glo Gordon on scaling a startup

Overwhelmed by uncertainty? Turn a crisis into a catalyst

Why gamification is a great tool for employee engagement

What the SEC climate disclosure rule means for your business

Ways to Work With us

We produce Digital Content for Digital People across 20+ Global Brands, reaching over 15M Executives

Digital Magazines

Websites

Newsletters

Industry Data & Demand Generation

Webinars: Creation & Promotion

White Papers & Research Reports

Lists: Top 10s & Top 100s

Events: Virtual & In-Person

Work with us

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SCOTT BIRCH

EDITORS

KATE BIRCH

TOM CHAPMAN

MANAGING EDITOR

NEIL PERRY

CHEIF DESIGN OFFICER

MATT JOHNSON

HEAD OF DESIGN

ANDY WOOLLACOTT

LEAD DESIGNER

HECTOR PENROSE

FEATURE DESIGNERS

MIMI GUNN

SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL

The Business Chief Team

HECTOR PENROSE

SAM HUBBARD

JUSTIN SMITH

REBEKAH BIRLESON

ADVERT DESIGNERS

JORDAN WOOD

DANILO CARDOSO

CALLUM HOOD

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE

SENIOR VIDEOGRAPHER

HUDSON MELDRUM

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

MARTA EUGENIO

ERNEST DE NEVE

THOMAS EASTERFORD

DREW HARDMAN

JOSEPH HANA

SALLY MOUSTA

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN

DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ

PRODUCTION MANAGERS

JANE ARNETA

MARIA GONZALEZ

CHARLIE KING

YEVHENIIA SUBBOTINA

PROJECT DIRECTORS

THOMAS LIVERMORE

MICHAEL BANYARD

JAKE

KRIS PALMER

MIKE SADR

RYAN HALL

TOM VENTURO

STUART IRVING

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

JAMES BERRY

MARKETING MANAGER

KATHRYN WEBB

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

JAMES WHITE

JASON WESTGATE

MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CEO

GLEN WHITE

Embrace change

Change. It’s something to be embraced, and a fact of life since the COVID-19 pandemic forced us all to reassess and readjust.

After more than 100 issues under various iterations, Business Chief is evolving – once again reinventing itself for the needs of a very different corporate world.

From June, we have exciting plans and a relaunch, coming back bigger and better with six regional editions and a global issue. The content will also be realigned to reflect the changing role of the CEO.

However, quality is a constant, and not to be compromised. The content team is being expanded and will continue to deliver exclusive interviews with global executives who are making meaningful moves and disrupting the commercial world.

We can’t wait to get started.

SCOTT BIRCH Chief Content Officer BizClik

scott.birch@bizclikmedia.com

After more than 100 issues under various iterations, Business Chief is evolving –once again reinventing itself for the needs of a very different corporate world

CONTENTS

UP FRONT

12 BIG PICTURE The high-IQ HQ

14 IN BRIEF Everyone’s talking about ChatGPT

16 TRAILBLAZER Leena Nair

20 FIVE MINS WITH Glo Gordon

FEATURES

The high-IQ HQ

United Arab Emirates

The high-IQ HQ

Building the Present, Creating the Future with Bee'ah

HQ

This may look at first glance like some alien aircraft but while it certainly is out of this world, the reality is this is the future of the office.

Commissioned by sustainability champions BEEAH Group, this stunning new headquarters in the desert sands of the United Arab Emirates takes your breath away.

Unmistakably from Zaha Hadid Associates, this building is not only beautiful and designed to reflect the curvaceous desert dunes, it is super smart, with AI at its core.

Welcome to the future of work.

14 March 2023

BY THE NUMBERS

PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey

CEOs’ top three challenges to profitability over the next 10 years

AI and ML trends for 2023

With 2023 likely to be a huge year for AI, experts from AI platform provider Dataiku deliver their enterprise AI and ML trends for the year ahead

15 UAE sustainability leaders driving change in the region

With Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week playing out recently and UAE-hosted COP28 on the horizon, we select 15 UAE leaders driving sustainable change in MENA

PwC’s Norma Taki on driving female leadership and diversity

READ MORE READ MORE READ MORE

“Nothing could be more important, in the long run, than innovation and experimentation”

Professor Nathan Furr Associate Professor of Strategy INSEAD

“Training in the future will be both mobile and personalised – these are inherently linked to AI and gamification technologies”

David Semach Partner and EMEA Head of Artificial Intelligence & Automation Infosys Consulting

“Senior leadership will need to continually consider how its climaterelated risks position a company across both the short and long term”

Wes Bricker US Trust Solutions Co-Leader

Everyone’s talking about ChatGPT

OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT has everyone talking. The AI-powered conversation tool, which enables dialogue-based conversations and can craft coherent essays, attracted 1 million users in the five days after launch.

It’s the first in a long list of AI-driven apps, examples of a technology dubbed ‘generative AI’ that could transform human productivity and the future of work.

During Davos 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the “golden age of AI was under way” and it would redefine the world of work as we know it. Microsoft, which has invested US$1bn in OpenAI, is opening up access to new AI tools like ChatGPT.

Nadella said technologies like ChatGPT act “as a co-pilot, helping people to do more with less”. He pointed to two recent use cases of GPT technology: a Silicon Valley expert coder who improved productivity by 80%; and an Indian farmer who used a GPT interface to access an opaque government program, despite only speaking a local dialect.

 ACCESS TO EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Following several years of global instability, people are gaining greater access to emerging technologies — AI, web3, and tokenisation — which is advancing the next generation of creativity, community and data privacy, Accenture Life Trends 2023 finds.

 CEOS RETAIN TALENT

While the CEO outlook for 2023 is the most pessimistic on global economic growth in the past 12 years, 60% are not planning to reduce the size of their workforce in the next 12 months, or reduce renumeration (80%), PwC’s global CEO Survey finds.

 CYBER STORM COMING

A cyber storm is brewing, experts at Davos 2023 warned. "This storm is brewing, and it's really hard to anticipate just how bad that will be, Sadie Creese, a Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Oxford said.

 CHINA’S ECONOMY

While China’s GDP expanded 3% in 2022, it was one of its weakest annual performances in decades thanks to zero-COVID policy and slowing overseas demand. Shanghai’s economy saw negative growth for first time since 1978.

WAY UP WAY DOWN

MAR 23

Leena Nair

From Unilever people pioneer to CEO of Chanel

Leena Nair is a woman of many firsts. As well as being the first female, first Asian and youngest ever CHRO at Unilever, she was the first female in nearly all roles she held at the consumer goods giant over three decades – including the first female manager to opt for a factory stint, the first to work a night shift, and the first woman in Unilever’s Management Committee in 90 years.

But the Indian-born British national isn't done pioneering. After three decades with Unilever, five as CHRO, 53-year-old Leena was tapped, in January 2022, by Chanel for the French luxury group’s top job, a move that secured her two further firsts – the first luxury brand CEO of Indian origin and the first from an HR background.

While considered an outsider in the field of luxury fashion, Leena’s appointment as Global CEO of the storied French fashion house was seen as a master stroke by Chanel to drive diversity in an industry that has been criticised for its distinct lack thereof.

“Nair has built a global reputation for progressive and human-centred leadership, delivering significant business impact,” Chanel said in its statement announcing her hire.

It’s certainly true that Leena took centre stage in the building of Unilever into a purpose-led, future-fit organisation, one that has become the employer of choice in more than 50 countries worldwide.

As Unilever CEO Alan Jope put it upon announcing her departure from Unilever: “Leena has been a pioneer throughout her career at Unilever, but no more so than in her role as CHRO, where she has been a driving force on our equity, diversity and inclusion agenda, on the transformation of our leadership development, and on our preparedness for the future of work.”

As the first female, first Asian and youngest-ever CHRO of Unilever, Leena Nair is now translating her passion for people to luxury fashion house Chanel

Credit: Chanel

“My experiences have made me incredibly conscious of wanting the workplace to work for everyone and knowing that means catering to individual circumstances”

33%

The percentage by which Leena improved productivity levels at Unilever within two years of embedding performance culture as a way of life for the firm

Credit: Chanel

Leena Nair – achievements as CHRO of Unilever

You would think that having overall responsibility as CHRO for the company’s 150,000-strong human capital across 190 countries would have been achievement enough, but Leena’s strong leadership, HR expertise, and passion for people was instrumental in helping to drive the continued growth of both Unilever’s profits (US$50.7bn) and its purpose.

Unilever is one of the world’s most socially conscious companies, scoring a best-in-class rating on S&P Global Rating’s ESG Evaluation in 2019, and crowned industry leader in personal products with continued scores of 90+ in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since 2016.

It is also one of the world’s most diverse, and it has been Leena’s leadership, driving the diversity and inclusion agenda for the company’s workforce, that created such an industry-leading culture.

Under her tenure, as CHRO, Unilever achieved a 50/50 gender balance across global leadership with Leena leading  a pioneering agenda with bold new social commitments, including recent pledges to pay the living wage across its entire supply chain by 2030, and equip 10 million young people with essential skills by 2030.

She created numerous projects, many of which were pioneering the future of global work. She spearheaded the Unilever ‘discover your purpose’ workshops, catering to 6,000 employees to date; pioneered the four-day week pilot programme currently being explored in New Zealand; instigated the U-Work program, which joins the flexibility of contact work with the security and benefits of an in-house role; and initiated U-Renew, a paid learning sabbatical programme to help workers upskill, currently under test.

Throughout her career at Unilever, Leena innovated in the delivery of culture-rich programmes, having previously initiated as Unilever’s VP of HR for South Asia the Career by Choice programme, to help women who’d fallen off the career ladder to re-join the workforce.

“I am so inspired by what Chanel stands for. It is a company that believes in the freedom of creation, in cultivating human potential and in acting to have a positive impact in the world”

5 Minutes With...

Glo Gordon CEO of MATRIXX Software, the global leader in 5G monetisation for telecommunications, on her evolving leadership style

Glo Gordon is a recognised leader with deep experience and expertise in technology management and sales. She has served on MATRIXX’s Board of Directors since 2018 and was most recently the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) for industrial AI and IoT company Uptake. Prior to Uptake, Gordon was Global Sales Leader for Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions and Services. Before that, she served as CRO at Jasper, the IoT service platform acquired by Cisco for US$1.4 billion. She has also held senior leadership roles at SAP and PeopleSoft.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I’d describe my leadership style as constantly learning and open with accountability. I’m a relatively new CEO, in the role now for three years and leading with clarity on our collective and individual goals has been consistently reinforced as critical to our success. We have three priorities at MATRIXX and these are our ultimate guides for all decisions and measurements of success (Northstar, Raving Fans, Culture).

I also try to bring curiosity to my leadership style. If I don’t know something or don't understand something, then I want to learn. I want to know what employees have to say –that’s why we use data from employee surveys as a factor when we’re refining departments or practices. I firmly believe that a truly successful CEO needs to drill down into the details as much as they have to look at the big picture.

What is the biggest challenge you face as a female CEO in the tech industry?

Being asked this question – my hope for our industry is that this will no longer be a legitimate question.

Do you feel the role of the CEO has changed post pandemic?

Absolutely! I took over as CEO in January 2020, right before the pandemic truly kicked off. Especially after COVID, people have really come to value clear and consistent communication from leadership as well as flexibility and understanding for how hectic life can be, and that all starts with the CEO.

As we have learned to do more in a remote environment, the balance employees and candidates strive for must now be a strong consideration for employer value. This has become a factor in loyalty and employee retention. Happy employees drive a positive culture, and our customers can also feel that. We truly care about our employees’ work/ life balance and regularly monitor leading indicators to ensure we see the necessary measurements of success for the business.

With your knowledge of AI, what question would you ask ChatGPT?

It would be fun to have AI assist with personal tasks, such as having it build the ultimate vacation getaway or offer the best advice for overcoming jet lag. READ THE FULL STORY

Building on nature and sustainable tourism in Saudi Arabia

There is a new focal point for luxury tourism emerging in the Middle East. While the UAE’s glittering cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been transformed beyond recognition in the past 25 years, Saudi Arabia is now tapping into this lucrative audience via property developer Red Sea Global.

As the name suggests, these developments hug the stunning Red Sea coast that the Kingdom is blessed with, while the recent rebrand from Red Sea Development Company to Red Sea Global is a sign of its long-term intentions.

For now, the focus is on two signature projects – projects that are already well on the way to completion, not just a fantasy sitting on some architect’s drawing board. No less than three hotels – including St Regis, Ritz-Carlton and Six Senses no less – will be welcoming their first guests this year, serviced by a new, dedicated airport. Another 13 hotels will be opening in 2024.

The terrain being developed by Red Sea Global – and indeed the other megaprojects backed by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) – is the ultimate blank canvas, which carries as many challenges as it does benefits. Not least, the need to not only preserve but actually enhance the natural habitat.

The CEO overseeing this once-in-alifetime opportunity is John Pagano, who will need to draw on every ounce of his near 40-year international career to make this dream a realty reality. He shares his vision, and that of Red Sea Global, exclusively with Business Chief.

Q | In your own words, how would you describe Red Sea Global?

A | Red Sea Global is a world leader in responsible property development and regenerative tourism. We are creating two of the most spectacular luxury tourism destinations on the planet, The Red Sea

Luxury property developer Red Sea Global is transforming a corner of Saudi Arabia into an incredible, sustainable tourism destination.

We speak to the CEO John Pagano about making ambitious dreams come true

and Amaala, and we’re putting the natural world and our local communities at the core of everything we do. We’re setting new standards for sustainability, and we welcome others in our industry to join us in proving that tourism can be a force for global good.

Q | Can you explain the rationale for the rebrand from Red Sea Development Company to Red Sea Global?

A | We rebranded last year as Red Sea Global to reflect our transformation from a developer of a single destination to one with projects up and down Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast and the abilities and aspiration to one day expand abroad. Our brand expresses our confidence that we can draw on the lessons we’ve learned about regenerative tourism to contribute to

Nujuma, A RitzCarlton Reserve

John Pagano CEO, Red Sea Global

“This will be a pivotal year for our company. We’ll be opening our first three hotels and our dedicated airport, transforming The Red Sea from a project to a destination”

our industry on a broader, global scale. For example, we recently formed a partnership with The Ocean Race, one of the biggest events in international sailing, to promote ocean health as well as a lasting sporting legacy in Saudi Arabia. We see ourselves as a company of visionaries and innovators that aims to do better for people and planet.

Q | Saudi Arabia aims to have a sustainable tourism industry, including your projects. Can you outline some of the key initiatives making the development sustainable?

A | From Day One, our objective has been to set new standards for the tourism industry by not just conserving the environment but enhancing it. At The Red Sea destination, we’re developing just 22 of more than 90 islands.

We’re preserving the remaining 75% of those islands, nine of which we’ve designated as special conservation zones. Overall, less than 1% of the area will be developed.

Our resorts will generate zero waste to landfill and ban all single-use plastics once operational. We’re also capping our annual number of visitors at both The Red Sea and Amaala to protect their precious ecosystems.

We’re led by science, and one of our first steps at The Red Sea destination was to thoroughly assess a pristine lagoon at the heart of the project site, using marine spatial planning. We drew up a list of actions to help ease pressure on the lagoon’s environment, from cleaning beaches to rebuilding fish stocks. A peer-reviewed scientific journal in Switzerland even published our study.

In a separate effort, we surveyed the wildlife and habitats of 200 kilometers of coastline; no property developer has done a bigger environment survey. This survey serves as a baseline for us to track progress toward our goal of achieving a 30% net conservation benefit by 2040.

Aerial View of Coral Bloom Concept

We’re also farming corals and planting and restoring mangrove trees, one of nature’s best defenses against global warming. We use treated wastewater from our constructed wetlands sewage treatment plant – the biggest of its kind in the Middle East – to irrigate our landscape nursery, also the largest in the region.

To reduce our carbon footprint, we’re installing the world’s largest microgrid supplied exclusively by renewable energy. Our solar farms have surpassed 85% completion, and we’re building the world’s biggest battery storage facility. Our water desalination plants and our other utilities and infrastructure, as well as our land vehicles and boats, will be powered entirely by electricity generated from renewable energy.

Q | How are you protecting the environment?

A | To expand on the above, Red Sea Global will own and operate Saudi Arabia’s first-ever fleet of carbon-neutral electric buses, as part of our e-mobility and zero-carbon strategy. We’ve also partnered with a company called ZeroAvia to develop seaplanes powered by hydrogen fuel cells. And we’re investing in a battery storage facility that will, at 1,200MWh, be the largest of its kind, enabling The Red Sea destination to be powered by 100% renewable energy day and night. Both The Red Sea and Amaala are planned to run exclusively on renewables. Other initiatives include our installation of innovative floating nurseries for corals. These offshore nurseries have achieved a 90% success rate, and our findings may contribute to protecting coral reefs in other

Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea

parts of the world. We’re also planting and restoring millions of mangroves. Independent research suggests that tree for tree, mangrove forests can sequester up to four times more carbon than other land-based forests. They’re also hotbeds of biodiversity. Our landscape nursery, the largest in the Middle East, is already home to more than two million plants and trees that will beautify our destinations while creating new terrestrial habitats.

Our decision to develop only 1% of the total area at The Red Sea destination speaks for itself. Once The Red Sea and Amaala become operational, we will limit the number of visitors at both destinations to

help protect habitats and wildlife, including the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtle and Halavi guitarfish and the regionally endangered sooty falcon. We will limit The Red Sea to one million visitors annually, and Amaala to 500,000.

Q | What makes the region you are developing unique and special – attractive to tourists?

A | We’re developing an incredibly diverse region. It ranges from an archipelago of idyllic islands fringed by the world’s most vibrant coral reefs to rugged mountains, dormant volcanoes and dramatic desert dunescapes. There’s no shortage of

“I try to listen to the experts before making a decision; I don’t pretend to know something I don’t”

Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea

John Pagano CEO, Red Sea Global

opportunities to explore both above and below the water and to learn first-hand about the unique local culture and traditions from the region’s gracious and welcoming residents. This corner of Saudi Arabia is a hidden gem for international tourism. And it’s all within eight hours of flying time for 85 percent of the world’s population.

Q | The Red Sea will be ready to welcome the first guests in 2023 – is that going to happen?

A | We are firmly on track to welcome guests this year to our first resorts at The Red Sea. They are our Six Senses Southern Dunes, and the St. Regis and Nujuma Ritz-Carlton Reserve resorts, located on a collection of islands known as Ummahat.

Thirteen more hotels will open in 2024 to complete our first phase at the destination. We plan to raise that number to 50 hotels once the project is completed. At Amaala, we are developing eight hotels in the first phase of the Triple Bay development and plan to welcome our first guests in 2024.

Q | Is the International Airport also due to open this year?

A | Yes, our Red Sea International Airport will open this summer, with capacity to handle domestic arrivals from both Riyadh and Jeddah. By 2024, it will be able to accommodate international flights. It will be powered solely by renewable energy, like the rest of The Red Sea destination, and is on track to become the first carbon-neutral airport in the Middle East.

Q | What other milestones will be hit in 2023?

A | This will be a pivotal year for our company. We’ll be opening our first three hotels and our dedicated airport, transforming The Red Sea from a project to a destination. We’re also pushing

The Red Sea Aerial

A colourful underwater world - Al Wajh Lagoon

Our landscape nursery is the largest in the region and will provide more than 25 million plants for landscaping our destinations by 2030

“We see ourselves as a company of visionaries and innovators that aims to do better for people and planet”

John Pagano CEO, Red Sea Global

ahead with the remaining 13 hotels in the destination’s first phase, as well as eight resorts at Amaala. That’s enough to keep us busy for now, though we hope to make some exciting announcements throughout the year regarding our growing portfolio of projects and subsidiaries!

Q | You have just taken delivery of the villas for the Sheybarah Island resort. Is that a significant milestone?

A | The first of our orb-shaped over-water villas arrived at Sheybarah Island in early January. They were manufactured by Grankraft in the United Arab Emirates and shipped to us by sea. We’ll take delivery of the remaining villas throughout this year.

These amazing villas are clad in stainless steel and will perch above the crystal waters off Sheybarah Island, about 30 minutes by boat from the mainland. They’re a great example of the efforts we make to minimise our impact on the environment at The Red Sea. By having the villas manufactured off-site and shipped to us ready-made, we need only to install them, thus avoiding any potential disturbance to delicate wildlife habitats by having to construct them on-site.

Marine life institute will accelerate conservation-driven research, while offering visitors truly multidimensional experiences

Back to the Future

They say that all good things come to an end, but they are wrong. After more than 100 issues under various iterations, Business Chief is evolving – once again reinventing itself for the needs of a very different corporate world.

From June, Business Chief will be back with six bimonthly editions covering New York, London, Dubai, New Delhi, Singapore and Shanghai with dedicated Desk Editors delivering exclusive content and executive insights in these regional hubs of global commerce. And that’s just the start.

“Business Chief in its many guises has been shining a light on best business practices and inspirational leadership for more than 8 years,” says Editor-in-Chief Scott Birch.

“Our expanding footprint means we can bring our readers even closer to the C-suite leaders and innovators that matter most right now, and the addition of more lifestyle content allows us to create and curate a portfolio that promotes work-life balance for busy executives.”

Here we look back at selected issues from the Business Chief story so far… just click the front covers for a trip down memory lane.

Business Chief is evolving. From June, your favourite window on the world of business and executive leadership will be back with a new look, new team, and new footprint

Discover the upside of uncertainty to unleash innovation

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

Uncertain times are a catalyst for innovation acceleration. But first you must face the fear of uncertainty. So says Professor Nathan Furr on a video call with Business Chief from his home in Paris.

And Furr should know. Because, as well as teaching innovation and technology strategy at INSEAD, arguably the world’s leading business school, the Professor has spent the last two decades interviewing innovators all over the world.

“Nothing could be more important, in the long run, than innovation and experimentation,” declares Furr. “We live in a world of constant change and the only way forward in a world of uncertainty is through experimentation. We must recreate ourselves and our organisations, step by step, all the time –otherwise, we become obsolete with time.”

Furr points to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as a leader obsessed with this concept of constant recreation. “He named the building where he worked ‘Day 1’ to remind everyone that the moment they start to sit back and think they have arrived is the moment that decline will set in,” says Furr.

There is only one certainty in uncertain times – the need to innovate. We talk to INSEAD’s Professor Nathan Furr to discover how to reframe uncertainty to unleash possibility

If we can reframe uncertainty in terms of the opportunity – the gain – rather than the loss, we will feel less anxiety and more courage

Enabling

educators. Empowering students. Explore how we accelerate student discovery, learning and innovation with our Digital Education 3D Experience.

Innovation and the case for reading

As Chief Purpose Officer at Deloitte US, Kwasi Mitchell is responsible for leading the organisation-wide strategy that powers Deloitte’s commitment to purpose and driving a broader impact for its clients, people, and the communities in which it operates.

Kwasi built and oversees the firm's first dedicated Purpose Office, focused on addressing some of the world's most complex societal issues - including DEI, sustainability and climate change, education and workforce development, and technology trust ethics - supporting clients on their journey to becoming purpose-driven organisations, and engaging employees to live their purpose daily.

Kwasi also owns the firm’s CSR function and oversees Monitor Institute by Deloitte which works with non-profit philanthropies and advises them on their corporate strategy. “This brings best-in-class thinking to what we do based upon what is observed and also serves as a model for others,” he says.

Prior to being named Chief Purpose Officer, Kwasi was the DEI leader, the pro bono and social impact lead for Deloitte’s 50,000+ Consulting practice. He has served as a Principal at Deloitte

And at no time is the need to recreate, innovate and reach for new possibilities more pertinent than now, when the fallout from the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way organisations do business and economic uncertainty intensifies.

Facing the fear of uncertainty

Furr argues that the main inhibitor of innovation is not uncertainty per se, but our fear of the uncertainty of change because we don’t know what is on the other side.

“Humans are wired to be afraid of uncertainty,” he says. “This made sense 100,000 years ago when anything foreign could be potentially lethal. But we no longer need to fear the unknown in the same way because we now live in a world that is radically safer, and full of incredible possibilities.”

Approaching uncertainty is the only way we ‘step out’ into this field of potential to evolve, argues Furr – who for more than two decades has been interviewing innovators and has discovered that to do anything new, they all faced uncertainty first.

“They had to step into the unknown before discovering possibilities. I was curious about how these innovators and entrepreneurs overcame their fear of uncertainty.”

Drawing from these hundreds of interviews, as well as pioneering research in psychology, innovation, and behavioural economics, Furr has co-authored a new book, designed to help organisations and leaders embrace uncertainty and transform it into a force for good.

In The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown, Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Harmon Furr

deliver dozens of tools and techniques that can be used to face, navigate, and see the upside of uncertainty.

“The framework we have developed is meant to encourage everyone to meet every uncertainty with hope, creativity, and belief in the upside you may not yet see.”

Re-frame uncertainty as possibility

To enable this, Furr argues the need to reframe the uncertainty in terms of its possibility rather than the potential losses.

We are wired to fear losses and seek gains, he says, and the challenge is that uncertainty almost always registers as a potential loss, and so we end up being afraid of it, try to reduce it, or avoid it altogether. But the problem is that any new possibility only comes after going through uncertainty.

“Consider the moments in your own life of which you are most proud – the career change, the relationship risk, moving somewhere new. All these possibilities came only after first facing uncertainty. The same is true for innovators. To accomplish anything new, they first must learn to face uncertainty to capture an opportunity.”

Furr says uncertainty and possibility are really two sides of the same coin, and that the same is true of unplanned uncertainties, like the pandemic, job loss, or other crises. While these unplanned uncertainties certainly have very real downsides, they also come with new possibilities.

And if both businesses and individuals can re-frame uncertainty in terms of the opportunity – the gain – rather than the loss, we will feel less anxiety and more courage.

“Consider the difference during the pandemic between leaders who framed the pandemic as the ‘worst thing’ that has ever happened to us versus those who framed it in terms of ‘our chance to prove ourselves’,”

Furr, adding that the “positive forward momentum in the latter was massive.”

The same principle is true in other settings, such as responding to a potential disruption. Furr says that while leaders often talk about the importance of establishing a ‘burning platform’ to motivate people, the most famous application of that phrase hails from a company that failed to respond – Nokia.

“Rather, empirical research shows that leaders who frame a disruption in terms of the opportunity, rather than uncertainty, are much more effective in leading positive responses to the disruption,” he argues.

Nothing could be more important, in the long run, than innovation and experimentation

Borders vs Barnes & Noble is a case in point. The major difference between success and failure in this case came down to how Barnes & Noble actively and constantly framed the threat created by Amazon as an opportunity to do business in new and different ways, leading to a very positive response.

Uncertainty ability –discovering possibilities

So, what skillsets or qualities must leaders leverage to transform uncertainty into opportunity?

Furr talks about the idea of ‘uncertainty ability’ – the ability of an individual to discover the possibilities in an uncertain world – and says that leaders today have an incredibly powerful opportunity to demonstrate uncertainty ability because their teams look to them as a source of courage and vision.

“Authentic courage and vision always embrace and admit that not knowing and failure are natural obstacles on the way to transformation and success,” he says.

best podcasts to make you a better leader

The best leadership podcasts are packed with stories of success and failure, and deliver valuable knowledge and teachable moments – here are 8 to try

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

Great leaders have one thing in common – they are continuous learners. Which is why podcasts are the perfect food for thought for those in leadership roles. Not only can they help to build knowledge on the go, but they are packed full of inspirational success stories and teachable moments that are sure to enhance the way you lead. We round up eight leadership podcasts to help inform and inspire.

Entrepreneurs on Fire

Number of episodes 3,865

Overview Founded and hosted by John Lee Dumas, author of The Common Path to Uncommon Success, awardwinning podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire generates more than a million listens monthly. Dumas picks the brains of inspiring entrepreneurs providing listeners with inspiration and practical strategies to help them ‘fire up’ their entrepreneurial journey. Dumas was the first podcaster to interview entrepreneurs and having undertaken nearly 4,000 entrepreneurial stories to date – including interviews with Seth Godin, Barbara Corcoran and Tim Ferriss – he's pretty much got the genre sewn up. Topics of discussion are diverse, from the highly practical (How to successfully leverage LinkedIn for Sales) to the inspirational (Matthew Gallagher: from homeless to self-made multimillionaire). Among recent inspiring interviews, discussions on the value of ‘niching up’ with Rankings.io CEO Chris Dreyer and on making different generations on teams a competitive advantage with Tim Elmore, founder of Growing Leaders.

Must-listen episode

What it’s like to be acquired by Cisco, Oracle, and Red Hat by Salto CEO and co-founder Rami Tamir –who discusses his journey and shares a strategy for successful acquisitions.

John Lee Dumas Host of awardwinning podcast

Entrepreneurs on Fire

“Success is a journey. Success takes time. Success takes guidance”

John Lee Dumas

HBR IdeaCast

Number of episodes 892

Overview Hosted by HBR’s leading editors Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch, HBR IdeaCast is an award-winning weekly podcast that shares important ideas from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Running since 2006, the podcast covers business strategy, innovation, leadership, and management. Episodes are 20-30 minutes long and include some serious business heavyweights, from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to Mastercard’s Ajay Banga and General Motors’ Mary Barra discussing equally heavyweight (and relevant) topics from what leaders need to know about a looming recession, to recruitment strategies, improving AI outcomes and mastering the art of persuasion. Themed bonus episodes spotlight business ideas that changed the world. Among recent compelling episodes – work insights from the world’s longest happiness study; why quitting is sometimes the best option; and how women can form deeper bonds to fight bias at work.

Must-listen episode

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky on hiring strategies and the skills that matter most from the new world of work.

Alison Beard

Curt Nickisch

Leadership and Loyalty

Number of episodes 843

Overview Claiming to be a podcast that top Fortune 500 execs listen to, Leadership and Loyalty is a long-running series hosted by Dov Baron, a Top 30 Global Leadership Guru and bestselling author of books including One Red Thread. Twice-a-week episodes feature diverse guests and thoughtprovoking conversations focused on creating positive change as a leader. Dov interviews everyone from thought leaders and futurists to psychotherapists, professors and CEOs on a diverse range of informative topics, from the power of data literacy to improving your company culture and embracing difficult conversations. Past guests have included Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of billion-dollar brand Quest Nutrition; Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist; Dr Ellen Langer, the Mother of Mindfulness; and Kevin Harrington, inventor of the infomercial. Among recent episodes – renowned leadership coach Joshua Freeman discusses why emotional intelligence is a crucial organisational value, while entrepreneur Fred Joyal offers steps to being super bold in business.

Must-listen episode

Find Your Way –

American business executive and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina discusses finding your way and unleashing your potential.

Dov Baron

From Founder to CEO

Number of episodes 408

Overview If you're a company founder who wants to take your business forward, From Founder to CEO is the perfect podcast. Host entrepreneur Todd Uterstaedt interviews a diverse mix of CEOs who tell their stories, reflect on the journeys made and deliver the lessons learned. As Todd himself says, “we offer over 400 founder interviews with over 200 hours of mistake, misconception and mishap stories from their journeys scaling their companies”. The conversations Todd has with his CEO guests are both inspiring and actionable and designed to help founders scale business and transition to becoming a great CEO. Topics include everything from leadership style to scaling skills with practical podcast subjects including how to delegate when you’re an empath, how to navigate boundaries, and how not to let failure obscure your genius. Founders and CEOs interviewed include Mailchimp’s Ben Chestnut , Hint’s Kara Goldin , and Dunkin’ Donuts’ Robert Rosenberg

Must-listen episode

Netflix’s co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph reflects on his own leadership, that of former partner Reed Hastings, the birth and growth of Netflix, and relinquishing the top job.

Todd Uterstaedt

Masters of Scale

Number of episodes 339

Overview More than just business interviews, original podcast series Masters of Scale hosted by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is all about thinking boldly and differently. In each episode, Reid introduces a different theory on how successful businesses scale and then goes on to test and turn the validity of each theory via interviews with legendary business leaders about their path to scale with cameo appearances from other leaders and voices. One episode features former President Barack Obama discussing ‘the right moment to act’ with a cameo appearance from the Black Eyed Peas. This concept results in an original format that demonstrates just how companies can grow from zero to infinite and shows how big concepts and simple hacks can change everything. Other big minds Hoffman has picked include Mary Barra , CEO of GM, on the company’s pandemic pivot; executive chairman of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, on how acquisitions become an ecosystem; and Melanie Perkins, CEO of Canva on the secret power of onboarding. Among recent interviews: Cisco’s John Chambers reveals his tried-and-tested playbooks to success; while Mercedes-Benz’s CEO Ola Kallenius discusses reinventing the brand for an all-electric future.

Must-listen episode

Do things that don’t scale – Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky says that if you want your company to truly scale, you first have to do things that don’t scale. Here, he shares Airbnb’s route to crafting what he calls an ’11-star experience’.

Reid Hoffman Silicon Valley entrepreneur, LinkedIn co-founder and host of podcast series Masters of Scale

“A great leader’s drumbeat doesn’t force people to follow them; it inspires them to want to move in the same direction”

Reid Hoffman

The Diary of a CEO

Number of episodes 305

Overview Hosted by straight-talking charismatic entrepreneur Steven Bartlett of Dragon’s Den TV fame, The Diary of a CEO has a simple mission – to deliver unfiltered success and “give you the knowledge you need to create the life you want”. Host Steven did it (from university dropout to millionaire by age 23) and so can you – that’s the message behind this podcast, which has quickly attracted a cult following and is now one of Europe’s biggest podcasts. Steven sits down with some of the world’s most influential people, experts and thinkers and draws out their remarkable and oft emotional stories and journeys to the top –discovering untold truths, learned lessons and key insights. Both informative and uplifting, and often emotional, Steven’s guests are diverse, with previous interviews including with Virgin founder Richard Branson, who discusses his own journey from dyslexic drop-out to building a billion-dollar empire; and with the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who reveals the real reason for wanting to be the boss.

Must-listen episode

Mo Gawdat , 30-year tech veteran, former Chief Business Officer at Google X, and entrepreneur (co-founded over 20 businesses) shares his journey to find the ‘happiness equation’ following the death of his son.

Steven Bartlett

Dare to Lead with Brene Brown

Number of episodes 75

Overview Known for her research on courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, American professor, lecturer and author Dr Brene Brown has a podcast based on her latest book, Dare to Lead – which debuted at #1 on the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Based on the premise that to innovate, create, and build a better and more just world requires daring leadership, Brene describes the podcast as a “mix of solo episodes and conversations with changecatalysts, culture-shifters, and as many troublemakers as possible”. She talks to everyone from politicians and activists to CEOs and artists with recent interviews including with Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor of Texas, on brave leadership; inclusion strategist Ruchika Tulshyan about the state of belonging at work; and neuroscientist Dr Amishi Jha on finding focus. Other topics of discussion include creating a digital mindset.

Must-listen episode

Brene pairs up with organisational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek to discuss everything that’s happening in the workplace right now.

Dr Brene Brown Professor, lecturer and host of podcast Dare to Lead, based on her latest book, Dare to Lead

“Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging”

Dr Brene Brown

Simon Sinek Business speaker and bestselling author brings his eternal optimism to the podcast platform with A Bit of Optimism

A Bit of Optimism

Number of episodes 70

Overview Business speaker and bestselling author Simon Sinek brings his eternal optimism to the podcast platform with A Bit of Optimism – where he talks to a mix of guests, from executives to activists, researchers to athletes, about life and leadership. Among notable interviewees –retail executive Annmarie Scichili discusses the spirit of generosity; award-winning Harvard professor Amy Cuddy talks about finding your tribe; and the legendary CEO of manufacturing firm Barry-Wehmiller, Bob Chapman, shares his thoughts on leadership. Typically running 30 minutes long, the episodes delve into everything from the benefits of failure and the future of branding and design to resolving conflict. setting boundaries and being grateful.

Must-listen episode

Gen Z in the Workplace

– Simon discusses the unique differences of Generation Z with father-and-son research team David and Jonah Stillman, helping leaders understand the impact they can have on the workplace.

“Bad leaders care about who’s right. Good leaders care about what’s right”

Simon Sinek

How gamification in corporate learning can improve engagement

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

Last year, as part of a company-wide strategy to promote digital transformation among employees, global banking group BBVA introduced a new and improved upskilling system.

Designed to reinforce, update, and deepen employee knowledge, the training system was created in a digital, gamified environment where employees can decide their own development pathway and learn via different methods, from videos and podcasts to simulators and game-based learning experiences.

Courses completed in the new system increased sevenfold in the first 48 days, compared to the bank’s previous digital learning platform.

For BBVA, recently named Europe’s most sustainable bank by S&P for a third consecutive year, gamification is an extremely important element of its training system design –as it helps to “cement employee motivation and engagement and therefore commitment to development”, says Pilar Concejo, BBVA’s Global Head of Learning. “It allows us to design experiences in which employees feel much more identified and increase their level of commitment to the learning process.”

And what business wouldn’t want to achieve that? Having a workforce that is motivated, engaged, and committed is the holy grail in post-pandemic business – where hybrid working reigns supreme, digital transformation is accelerating and employee burnout is rising.

In a hybrid working world, gamification of corporate learning can deliver more motivated and engaged employees and teams – which is why more firms are signing up

Get reliable network coverage and security protection, fast.

A modern network must be able to respond easily, quickly and flexibly to the growing needs of today’s digital business. Must provide visibility & control of applications, users and devices on and off the network and Intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. Be scalable and automate the process to provide new innovative services. Support IoT devices and utilize state-of-the-art technologies such as real-time analytics, ML and AI. And all these must be provided with maximum security and minimum cost.

This is the power that brings the integration of two cloud managed platforms, Cisco Meraki and Cisco Umbrella. This integration is binding together the best of breed in cloud-managed networking and Security. cisco.com

Gamification – previously more commonly used in business as a tactic to win and retain customers – is proving that in the corporate learning landscape, it can achieve just that. A recent survey by TalentLMS found gamification makes employees feel more productive (87%), more engaged (84%), and happier at work (82%).

It’s little wonder then that more businesses, from IBM to BMW to Deloitte, are turning to gamification as a strategy not just in sales and marketing but as part of HR and learning development to attract and develop talent and boost worker motivation and engagement.

Following roll-out of its digital badge pilot program in 2019, IBM noted a 694% increase in the number of individuals who passed their end-of-course exam; while Deloitte, which uses leaderboards in its digital leadership academy to help participants develop soft skills, has seen a 47% increase in the number of return users each week.

David Semach, EMEA Head of AI and Automation at Infosys Consulting tells Business Chief that while gamification is the “go-to idea” for making modern consumers love brands, buy products, and stay loyal, it has “serious potential for internal training and engagement too”.

And since the onset of the pandemic, acceptance of gamification by business has become more widespread, as companies are forced to engage with digital transformation, says An Coppens, Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation, which creates gamebased and gamified experiences to help remote and hybrid businesses thrive.

“They realise that some of their work tools or work setups and structures aren’t quite so motivational, especially for younger employees like Generation Z who have grown up with apps and games and use them in their personal lives.”

“The benefits of gamification for employees is attracting more of the right people to the team, which in turn stimulates a more productive team culture and better retention”

An Coppens Chief Game Changer, Gamification Nation

Benefits of gamification in motivating and engaging employees

Gamification as a business strategy is nothing new. Defined by Gartner as “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals” – game-like elements have been part of business optimisation strategies and brand awareness for decades.

Big brands, from Starbucks to KFC to Nike, have been using it as a marketing tactic to enhance product sales and loyalty through incentive-driven gamified campaigns for years. While, among early pioneers of gamification in corporate learning, Hilton Garden Inn introduced in 2009 a video game for workforce training – something they insist boosted information retention among employees and improved the guest experience.

Because, while gamification is sometimes oversimplified as reimagining one’s mundane tasks as fun goals or exciting challenges, it offers a lot more than that – encouraging engagement in activities and improving the memories of those participating.

An, who frequently uses team-based gamification in an employee setting to stimulate team collaboration, says gamification of employee learning can attract more of the right people to the team, thereby stimulating a more productive team culture and improved retention. “Our motto is ‘Teams that play together stay together’ as we believe games connect us as humans on a deeper level than just communication”.

Simply put, gamification can change behaviour and create habits in a noncompetitive environment. It breaks down

complex concepts into bite-sized content, makes learning fun and immersive (often in a VR setting), gives feedback and measures progress in real-time, and incentivises employees allowing them to earn points, status, and rewards as they improve their skills.

“Creating a memorable experience that surprises and delights pays exponential dividends in terms of customer and employee loyalty,” David says.

Expert Panel

Scientists have shown how the chemicals behind the brain’s pleasure system, endorphins, and dopamine, can improve motivation, prompt repetition, and enhance learning. Taking part in challenges or competing to win a skills badge, say, can improve employees’ retention, expand their knowledge, and promote cooperation across organisations – something more needed than ever in a remote working world.

David Semach, Partner and EMEA Head of Artificial Intelligence & Automation, at Infosys Consulting

With over 17 years of business and IT experience, David’s role sees him regularly collaborate with Fortune 500 companies on AI solutions that include business disruption, machine learning, Bots, cognitive and predictive capabilities, and RPA. He is an expert advisor on the challenges that come with AI roll-out in an organisation, and how to overcome these to achieve optimal return on investment.

An Coppens, Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation

At award-winning agency Gamification Nation, An offers gamification and game design solutions to clients worldwide, including Adidas, Chuff, Google, Merck and Thomson Reuters. She is also CEO of My G-Nation and MyDigitalOffice.io involved in building a metaverse for work to help create a positive team culture for hybrid and remote teams. An has worked in L&D and change management roles for Modern Times Group, Xigma Management Consultants, Philips Electronics and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.

“Training in the future will be both mobile and personalised – these are inherently linked to AI and gamification technologies”

David Semach Partner and EMEA Head of Artificial Intelligence & Automation, Infosys Consulting

“When you know what motivates and drives your team members, you can achieve change by appealing to what they desire or what can be shown as the desirable new vision,” An tells Business Chief. “To stimulate action towards said change is to provide the first tangible next step. You would then look at ways of nudging them towards what you want more of in terms of changed behaviour and rewarding some of these items when the effort to achieve them has been fulfilled.”

Gamification and personalised learning

Today’s workers have very different expectations. Described by David as being “more meandering than ever” the modern employee doesn’t fit the mould and expects more bespoke career paths than their predecessors.

“Because of this attitude shift, personalised training, learning and development journeys are an essential differentiator for employers right now,” David tells Business Chief. “Training in the future will be both mobile and personalised – these are inherently linked to AI and gamification technologies.”

Infosys Consulting uses its own proprietary digital tools to recreate the best of in-person learning, all of which are cloud-based and mobile-first so employees can access them anytime and anywhere.

“AI is vital to both virtualise and personalise L&D initiatives, moving away from the onesize-fits-all programmes in the past.”

David points to gamification as the missing piece to add to this AI-enabled training. “We are seeing increased investment in training platforms that learn your strengths, weaknesses, learning style and working preferences and adapt accordingly to create a truly enjoyable and engaging experience,” he says.

These insights can be used to automatically suggest suitable training courses and modules to a person’s role, as well as adapting the way individual training is delivered. “With these gamified applications, organisations have the ability to automate employee training programmes, saving significant time and costs in a difficult economic climate whilst

5 steps to ensuring gamification is effective as a business

An Coppens, Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation outlines her five tips for businesses considering introducing gamification

1. Understand the motivation of your target audience

2. Tailor the experience to their motivation so they feel happily inspired to talk action and engage

3. Make it memorable with good graphics, storylines and engaging characters they can relate to, learn from, and be inspired by

4. Make it inclusive. That may mean having to design multiple journeys to suit different experience levels and abilities

5. Don’t look at any one framework to solve all of your problems. Use what matters for your people

actually improving employee engagement – which often falls victim when time or funds are of short supply.”

The future of gamification –AR, VR and the Metaverse

The application of AI to new technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Extended Reality (XR) is moving gamification into the next level –leveraging the principles of gamification in real time, moving from training to learning by doing, and from one-size-fits-all to personalisation.

David says that while the use of VR and AR is already becoming prevalent in the education sector, “we are yet to see the same traction in corporate settings”.

One study predicts 14 million US employees will use AR glasses for on-thejob tasks and training by 2025, with some companies, like BMW, already deploying AR headsets in some of its factories for engine assembly training. While wearing them, employees are guided through all steps of the process and can reference visualisations to learn more about parts they are working with in real life.

5 firms using gamification to motivate learning

How 5 companies have incorporated game-like elements into corporate learning programs to engage and motivate.

1.

Using storytelling as a gamified element to encourage participation, in 2011, Siemens launched an online game called Plantville featuring a character called Pete the Plant Manager. This online game, which has trained more than 23,000 engineering professionals, simulates the experience of being a plant manager, providing an innovative, educational and fun way to train employees on best practices for plant operations.

Often cited by experts as one of the most important elements of a gamified experience, leaderboards show participants how they rank amongst their peers. At Deloitte, after each completed activity, participants are able to view a list of the top 10 performers with the list resetting each week to encourage newcomers to compete.

4. IBM

The company’s Social Media Training Program includes a progression element, where participants move onto new levels upon completion. In the program, trainees can acquire three levels of certification – Specialist, Strategist, Master.

Earning badges which represent various learner achievements is another way of gamifying learning and one used by IBM. The firm’s digital badge program, which further incentivised learners by enabling them to instantly post their badges on social media, proved successful with 87% of participants saying they were more engaged because of it.

5. Walmart

The Big Four Firm uses leaderboards to help employees develop soft skills.

The retail giant has reportedly trained over a million of its associates using VR headsets as part of its VR employee training program and estimates that VR has returned “over a million full days of work” thanks to VR’s immersive experience reducing one-hour training to 10 minutes.

Siemens

2. Cisco

3. Deloitte

David tells Business Chief that these technologies have extensive applications for remotely upskilling employees, especially when combined with gamification. For example, developing presentation skills, something that’s an often unenjoyable process for staff standing in front of a room of colleagues, can now be achieved in a virtual and fun way.

“By populating virtual rooms with realistic elements like distractions and background audience noise, and gamifying the process of dealing with these correctly, employees can build these skills in a more enjoyable and engaging way. With AI, solutions like these can also give feedback on interpersonal elements like pace of voice, number of hesitation words and even eye contact,” he says.

An believes that the current developments around metaverses and digital workplaces will become part of how we work in the future.

draw inspiration from, where people come together to give their skill and experience for a goal and the key is that they volunteer or opt in to doing so because they believe in the goal or cause.

“The big trend is toward self-organised autonomous teams as we see with the whole metaverse movement,” she says. “The metaverse itself is using game worlds or at least game technology to create experiences whether with avatars or with real people that is bringing us into an interesting place where more and more game companies are entering the business world.”

An also believes that whilst tech is driving some of the advancements, making the gamified interactions created to be more human in nature and more holistic towards the whole person at work will be vital.

Quoting world-renowned designer of alternate reality games Jane McGonigal, who

She points to the workings of decentralised teams as an example to READ THE FULL STORY

What the SEC climate disclosure rule means for your business

As the SEC finalises its new climate disclosure rule, we talk to Wes Bricker, PwC’s US Trust Solutions Co-Leader, about the ramifications for executives

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a historic new rule that would require publicly traded companies to significantly increase reporting of their climate-related risks, emissions, and net-zero transition plans.

The new climate proposal aims to enhance and standardise companies’ climate-related disclosures for investors and other market participants, including greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to climate change risks – ensuring consistency in the quality,

and comparability, of information contained in corporate climate disclosures.

If enacted, the new ruling would apply to all public companies that file the US 10-K as well as foreign private issuers that file 20-F forms with the SEC. Although the SEC’s regulations don’t apply directly to private companies, privately owned businesses that are in public company value chains still need to pay attention.

“Under the rule, companies would be required to disclose climate change risks to their operations when they file registration statements, annual reports, and other filings,” Wes Bricker, PwC’s US Trust Solutions Co-Leader tells Business Chief.

Wes Bricker

While all businesses are at different points in their ESG journey, here are five things all should consider:

1. Assemble a cross-functional team to create accountability for ESG performance Finance has the experience to oversee accounting, controls and reliability of ESG information, while sustainability teams have the deep subject matter experience and context. Companies should address any knowledge gaps through upskilling or hiring.

2. Ensure you have dataregulators will expect

It’s critical to clearly define ESG metrics, their scope and boundaries, what systems the information comes from and who the owners are inside the company. To do so, companies should gather baseline data to compare current performance against future goals and milestones.

3. Set an overarching strategic approach to ESG

This is not an exercise merely to tick a regulatory box, but to create sustainable advantage and value. Companies should connect ESG strategies, milestones and reporting to the overall business strategy.

4. Upskill corporate directors

Boards, especially audit committee members, need to better understand how ESG fits into the overall business strategy to appropriately manage governance oversight responsibilities.

5. Prepare for independent assurance

The SEC proposed independent, thirdparty assurance for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions to bolster confidence in climate change information (for accelerated or large accelerated filers).

Wes says the SEC’s proposal is historic for the US and fits into a global pattern that is increasingly pushing for critical reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions, climate risk disclosure, and other sustainability-related information.

“While climate disclosures around the world vary, the SEC’s proposal seeks to foster comparable, consistent climate information that companies with global operations are already complying with and the rule aims to be consistent with the building blocks approach set out by international organisations,” he says.

“This is an important step to prevent greenwashing and to make sure everyone has access to the same quality of information”

Wes Bricker

PwC’s Vice Chair –US Trust Solutions Co-Leader

5 things every company should consider

Ensure consistency and prevent greenwashing

An increasing number of organisations are making net zero commitments and providing reporting to share information about emissions and their pathway and milestones to transition – a disclosure of metrics relating to company climate journeys that is currently voluntary.

But now regulators, investors and other stakeholders are increasingly asking for comparability, consistency and enhanced quality in ESG reporting, explains Wes, and SEC rulemaking is a step in that process. “This is an important step to prevent greenwashing and to make sure everyone has access to the same quality of information,” he says, adding that the timing of the proposal is reflective of what investors are expecting from businesses.

“Historically, the SEC steps in to enact measures when there’s a significant need for the disclosure of information relevant to investors’ decisions. Many companies

have made net zero commitments and have been voluntarily disclosing their climate journey. But investors, as well as consumers and other stakeholders, are not only expecting companies to report this, but the overall market is pushing companies to disclose it in a standardised way that allows for comparability.

“Accurate and standardised reporting also provides investors and other market participants with more consistency. As well, standardised reporting creates accountability for companies in regard to their progress in meeting their ESG goals and protecting the business from climate-related risks.”

Wes explains the proposal is a muchawaited step by the SEC to respond to investors’ expectations to have better, more reliable information to make decisions. “It’s a necessary step to provide investor-grade, decision-useful information that can inform the decisions that underpin the functioning of the capital markets,” he says.

Wes Bricker – public service passion

Wes Bricker, PwC’s Vice Chair –Co-Leader, has been fortunate to have several experiences at the SEC, serving as a Professional Accounting Fellow and also being appointed to Chief Accountant.

“Both of these positions were incredible opportunities that allowed me to be in public service and follow in the footsteps of my Uncle Blake who worked as a public defender,” says Wes. “These experiences offered me an opportunity to apply my previous experience in audit, law and public policy to build a stronger accounting profession in a way that protected the public interest and rebuilt trust in our capital markets.”

Wes tells Business Chief that the SEC focuses on supporting an environment that’s worthy of the public’s trust, whether it’s promoting investor protection, capital formation or the fairness and efficiency of our markets.

“People must trust that the system will operate effectively. It’s a mission I feel passionately about to this day.”

At PwC, Wes has been able to bring a balanced understanding and appreciation

for the stakeholders, regulations, policies and standards that impact the accounting profession. “I’ve been able to apply my insights and knowledge to support my clients and our people and help the firm in our never-ending pursuit of quality and adherence to all applicable standards and regulations.

“As CPAs, whether serving in the private or public sector, we have an important responsibility to the public to provide assurance over financial information so stakeholders across the capital markets can have confidence that there is reliable, quality data they can use to help make more informed decisions. Building that trust requires the inclusion, not exclusion, of a diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, perspectives, functions, and disciplines.

“I am incredibly proud of my public service and the many opportunities to work with professionals from different backgrounds, including government, private sector and academic institutions, to help advance the reliability of decisionuseful information.”

Wes Bricker

“Businesses are at different points in their ESG journey making it easier for some to comply with the proposal, whereas for others, significant investments will be necessary”

PwC’s Vice Chair –US Trust Solutions Co-Leader

FINANCE THAT SCALES WITH YOU

Easy multi-entity management and reporting

Sage Intacct cloud finance software for financial services

LEARN MORE

And while the final adoption of the new ruling may not happen until 2024, Wes urges business leaders to “pay attention and make preparations now to properly anticipate and prepare for the rule requirements”.

Challenges for business

Wes explains that like other compliancerelated measures, the proposal does require additional resources, costs, investments and time, which may present a burden especially for smaller businesses that are public companies.

“Businesses are at different points in their ESG journey making it easier for some to comply with the proposal, whereas for others, significant investments will be necessary,” he says.

To meet these new requirements, many businesses will likely need to transition to investor-grade and tech-enabled reporting, to “dramatically accelerate their climate change reporting processes, while implementing effective governance and internal controls”.

In a comment letter to the SEC, PwC proposed that the effective date of any final rules should be phased and should also consider the time needed to develop and implement related systems, processes, and controls. “A phased approach would allow businesses to have additional time to review the final rule’s impact, potentially reducing the cost and burden of implementation,” explains Wes.

Ramifications for the leadership team

For senior leaders, the SEC’s climate disclosure rule carries various ramifications but perhaps the most important, according to Wes, is how compliance with the proposed rule will play an important part in telling a company’s overall financial picture to investors, government regulators, and other critical stakeholders.

“Senior leadership will need to continually consider how its climate-related risks position a company across both the short and long term. With these disclosures no longer being voluntary, senior leadership also must be mindful of how climate-related risks offer a new way for investors to compare companies across the same industry.”

Ultimately the role of complying with SEC’s ruling will lie with the CFOs and their role leading a company’s overall finance operations. The climate-related disclosures will filter into a company’s overall filings which squarely sits as the responsibility of the CFO.

Additionally, part of a CFOs role will be explaining how these climate-related risks translate to a company’s overall financial

Top 10

Female CEOs

WRITTEN BY: TOM CHAPMAN

CEOs

Female CEOs run less than 5% of the world’s largest businesses, according to Fortune’s Global 500, but those who make the list are worthy of celebrating

Just 24 companies in the Global 500 –which ranks firms by their worldwide revenue – are led by female CEOs. This, nevertheless, represents an all-time high when it comes to female

leadership in Fortune’s annual list, which has been compiled every year since 2014.

But just who are these powerful, trailblazing women and how have they made their mark on the world of business?

Alka Mittal OIL AND NATURAL GAS

(Ranked 190 in Global 500)

Another big jump down to 190th in the Global 500 is Alka Mittal, head of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Mittal became the first woman to ever lead ONGC as its CMD when she was appointed in January last year, succeeding Subhash Kumar following his retirement.

She has been credited over the years with implementing the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme in the ONGC, bringing on board more than 5,000 apprentices.

Mittal has also played a key role in ensuring employees can expect a safe working environment, especially women and engineers at offshore platforms and remote locations.

Jane Fraser CITIGROUP

(Ranked 141 in Global 500)

Another CEO to take up their position in 2021, Jane Fraser is Citigroup’s first ever female chief.

What’s more, Fraser is the first woman in history to run a major Wall Street bank.

The long-serving executive first joined Citi in 2004, going on to lead functions including corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Hailing from Scotland and a graduate of the University of Cambridge, Fraser previously served as president of Citigroup and CEO of Global Consumer Banking.

Catherine MacGregor ENGIE

(Ranked 130 in Global 500)

Over three decades, Catherine MacGregor has dedicated her entire career to the energy sector, managing numerous complex industrial projects.

MacGregor first spent 23 years at Schlumberger, the world’s leading provider of reservoir identification, drilling, production and processing technologies for the oil and gas industry.

She then headed up the Technip Energies entity of oil services company TechnipFMC from 2019 to 2020.

MacGregor has been CEO at the ENGIE group since the start of 2021.

Carol Tomé UPS

(Ranked 97 in Global 500)

Carol Tomé has spent her career working for some of the world’s biggest companies.

Having started out as a Commercial Lender with United Bank of Denver (now Wells Fargo), Tomé became Director of Banking at JohnsManville Corporation, and then Vice President and Treasurer at Riverwood International Corporation.

She took up the same positions with Home Depot in 1995, before moving up the ladder to become Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer – helping to establish the firm as one of the world’s largest retailers.

Joining UPS made Tomé the 12th CEO in the company’s 115-year history.

Sarah London CENTENE

(Ranked 66 in Global 500)

Sarah London has enjoyed a meteoric rise since joining Centene from Optum Analytics in 2020.

Initially serving as Senior Vice President of Technology Innovation and Modernization, London assumed a raft of responsibilities as she progressed to becoming Vice Chairman.

Last year, she went one further as she was appointed CEO.

London’s time in education saw her receive a BA degree in history and literature from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mary Barra

GENERAL MOTORS

(Ranked 64 in Global 500)

On being appointed CEO at GM in 2014, Mary Barra became the first woman to lead one of the big three automobile companies in the US. Her appointment also earned her a place among TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Barra, who is of Finnish descent, has built up decades of experience at GM and served in various high-profile positions. Under her stewardship, the firm has invested billions in electric vehicles and self-driving cars, while also topping rankings for gender balance in the workforce and pay equity.

Gail Boudreaux ELEVANCE HEALTH

(Ranked 50 in Global 500)

A successful athlete on the basketball court during her time at Dartmouth College, Gail Boudreaux subsequently completed her MBA at Columbia Business School in 1989.

Boudreaux's working career has taken her to various healthcare firms across the US, including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare.

She moved across to health insurance provider Anthem in 2017 to become the company’s CEO.

The firm, which has since rebranded to Elevance, has almost 50 million members and serves in excess of 115 million through its affiliated companies.

Rosalind Brewer WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE

(Ranked 45 in Global 500)

Rosalind Brewer’s appointment to the position of CEO at Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2021 made her the only Black woman at the top of an S&P 500 company.

In 2019, this trailblazer had already become the first Black woman to sit on Amazon’s board.

Brewer’s rise to the top is all the more impressive when you consider she was a first-generation college student who subsequently started her working career as a chemist at Kimberly-Clark.

Prior to joining Walgreens, she served in top positions at Sam’s Club and Starbucks, implementing groundbreaking racial bias training for thousands of employees at the latter.

Sin Yin Tan PING AN INSURANCE (Ranked 25 in Global 500)

You have to jump to number 25 on the Global 500 to find another female-led company.

Hailing from Singapore, Sin Yin Tan holds bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and economics, as well as master’s degrees in both electrical engineering and computer science –all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After spending time as a Global Partner of McKinsey and Company, Tan joined Ping An in 2013 and has taken up various C-suite positions over the years, including CIO and COO.

She now serves as co-CEO of the company, alongside Bo Yao and Yonglin Xie.

| Managing Asia

Ping An co-CEO on the Chinese giant's transformation from insurance to technology

BC CEO Club: Karen S. Lynch, CEO of CVS Health

01

Karen Lynch CVS HEALTH

(Ranked 10 in Global 500)

Rightly regarded as one of the world’s most influential businesswomen, Karen Lynch became CEO at CVS Health back in February 2021, when she succeeded long-term chief Larry Merlo.

Lynch boasts more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, having held executive positions at Cigna and Magellan Health Services

After joining CVS, she served as Executive Vice President and as President of the company’s Aetna arm.

Fortune has ranked her as the world’s most powerful woman in business for the last two years.

PLAY

Photo credit: Remedy Place

Social wellness rising

New York City

Dubbed the ‘world’s first social wellness club’, LA’s Remedy Place, has taken its social selfcare concept to the heart of New York’s Flatiron District with a new outpost.

Tapping into the booming wellness industry, which is worth at least US$1.5 trillion and is expected to grow 5-10% in the near-term, according to McKinsey, Remedy Place is the brainchild of Dr Jonathan Leary, a globally soughtafter health and wellness expert who practices what he preaches.

Seeing first-hand how patients struggled to live a healthy lifestyle and still be social, in 2018, Leary set out to build a space that would enhance health and social lives in tandem.

Armed with a mission to “help people feel better and feel more connected to their bodies and the people around them”, Remedy Place made its debut in LA in 2019, instantly becoming a hit with sports stars, celebrities and C-suite executives.

READ THE FULL STORY

Digital Nomad Spain and Ecuador

Spain and Ecuador began welcoming foreign remote workers to their respective shores in January following the unveiling of the digital nomad visa

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

Nomad visas

Ecuador join the club

Photo by Juliana Barguero on Unsplash Costa Rica’s 12-month remoteworking visa can be extended by a further 12 monthsv

Spain and Ecuador started to welcome foreign remote workers to their respective shores in January 2023 with the unveiling of digital nomad visas.

The new Spanish visa, part of the country’s Startups Act, will allow remote workers earning a minimum monthly income of €2,000 to live and work in the county for up to five years – giving close neighbour Portugal’s one-year visa (you must earn at least €2,800 per month) a run for its money.

While South American country Ecuador, known for its high mountains and deep rainforests, is luring remote workers with the promise of “low cost of living” and “authentic experiences”. Under the country’s new Rentista Visa, remote workers who earn at least US$1,313 (€1,266) per month will be able to spend up to two years In the country.

Growing list of countries luring remote workers to foreign shores

Spain and Ecuador join a growing list of countries worldwide – from the Caribbean to Europe – that have rolled out digital nomad visa programs in the last few years, as they look to rethink tourism in the post-pandemic world.

Designed to tap into the digital flexibility being offered by today’s businesses, these programs invite foreigners – whether selfemployed or employed with an overseas company – the chance to reside in, and work from, their countries visa-free.

Barbados was one of the first countries out of the digital nomad blocks, in July 2020, unveiling its 12-month-long Barbados Welcome Stamp, closely followed by Caribbean-island Antigua & Barbuda, which upped the global mobility ante – unveiling a visa that allows digital nomads to reside for up to two years.

Photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash Spain’s recently launched digital nomad visa allows non-EU remote workers to travel visafree across 26 EU member countries

Who wouldn’t want to work from an island that boasts 365 beaches, one for every day of the year?

As Antigua & Barbuda’s tourism minister Charles Fernandez puts it – “if you are working from home in an apartment in New York or London at an exorbitant rate, you can come to Antigua where the cost of living is much lower, and the water is beautiful. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Since then, more Caribbean islands – namely Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands – and a raft of other countries, including Georgia, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Croatia, Dubai, Czech Republic, Greece, Costa Rica, Portugal, Mexico, and Iceland, have rolled out the red carpet for global remote workers.

Depending upon the country, visas last from six months (Iceland) up to five years (Spain, Indonesia) with most offering one- or two-year stints, though many are renewable and some can even lead to residency (Portugal) or citizenship (Antigua).

Requirements for gaining a visa vary, but most require applicants to show proof of employment with a minimum annual income, ranging from US$25,000 to US$150,000, and proof of health insurance for the duration of the stay.

Perks, pros, and pitfalls of individual visas

One of the main perks of such a visa is a reduction in taxation. Greece is luring remote workers with its digital nomad tax incentive that offers a 50% reduction in income tax and social security payments, while Spain’s new visa grants preferential tax status for the first four years of residency, at just 15% (instead of 24%) income tax.

Tax-free overseas income and tax-free cryptocurrency are two perks of Portugal’s popular digital nomad visa, while

Photo by Leo Roomets on Unsplash Estonia’s capital city Tallinn was named the world’s best city for remote working thanks to its affordable cost of living and digital maturity

in Croatia, Estonia and Indonesia, remote workers are not subject to income tax though must obviously pay tax in their own countries. While Georgia’s visa is quite the pull for individual entrepreneurs, as it taxes just 1% of your business’s gross revenue up to US$155,000.

There are other pros and cons to the various visas on offer. While Bermuda’s digital nomad visa doesn’t require a minimum income to move there (and even accepts postsecondary students), it is one of the world’s most expensive countries so cost of living here is very high.

Barbados’ cost of living is also high, but the island nation remains a pull for remote workers not just for its year-round sunshine and laid-back lifestyle, but its fast broadband which boasts higher speeds than the UK.

European cities like Georgia, Croatia, Italy, Estonia, and Portugal offer a much lower cost of living. Estonia, whose visa entitles remote workers with a minimum monthly income of €3,504 to stay up to one year, is a popular choice thanks to its digital maturity with 99% of public spaces available online 24/7 in the capital city Tallinn (named best city worldwide for remote workers in 2021). That said, Estonia’s visa lasts for just 12 months and isn’t renewable like many others are.

One of the biggest selling points of the Portugal, Spain and Estonia visas is that remote workers can travel visa-free throughout the Schengen Area, a region comprising 26 EU member countries.

Only launched last October, Portugal’s digital nomad visa has been especially popular thanks to this, not to mention an abundance of coworking spaces, including being home to the world’s first digital nomad village located on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira.

Processing takes anywhere from 5 business days (Barbados) to 15 (Costa Rica) with processing costs minimal, typically US$1,500-2,000. You can travel in and out of the county as you wish without paying income tax.

Photo by Aayush Gupta on Unsplash Among perks offered by Portugal’s digital nomad visa – taxfree overseas income, low cost of living and plenty of coworking spaces

Corporate gifting reinvented –meaningful, mindful, custom-made

Companies are migrating from co-branded swag manufactured in bulk to more thoughtful, personalised and green gifts, as corporate gifting grows post-pandemic

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

While working as the manager of multiple urgent care clinics in Tacoma, Washington, Lou Elliott-Cysewski came up with an idea that would change her future and that of the planet.

“My dedicated team and I were often given gifts like cheap plastic tumblers decorated with motivational quotes as a ‘thank you’ for our hard work. I grew tired of these gifts, which I felt reflected a lack of care for the providers working hard at the understaffed clinics.”

Upon discovering that the swag industry (promotional products) was nearly 80% waste (more than US$24 billion in corporate swag is binned each year), Lou saw an opportunity to leverage corporate procurement activities to solve global problems like waste, climate change and equity.

In 2018, Lou founded Coolperx, with the mission “to transform the swag industry from a toxic polluter into a credible, brandbuilding force for people and the planet”.

Today, Coolperx is not just a multimilliondollar mission-driven business, but the first net climate-neutral and social purpose merchandising company in the world helping some of the world’s

biggest businesses – among them Google, Microsoft, and Amazon – through both their procurement and sustainability initiatives.

Using the ClimateCost Index, a proprietary and accredited Scope 3 metric created by Lou and her team, Coolperx helps clients ascertain a holistic and highly accurate analysis of their environmental and brand impact and make informed swag procurement decisions. The company is also the first online B2B gift and brand merchandise marketplace for worthy manufacturers to sell their products to corporate clients.

“Currently, only 21% of typical swag products are kept by recipients for any length of time,” declares Lou, who was listed as one of the Top 100 Trailblazing Entrepreneurs of 2021 by the Enterprise League.

“This is not only a stark lack of ROI, but it’s a huge liability for brands. When a company makes public statements about its commitment to environmental sustainability and then turns around and distributes meaningless, toxic swag to its community, it is engaging in a particularly egregious form of greenwashing and destroying credibility.”

Lou tells Business Chief that as a society, we have steadily increased our fixation on consumerism, and the tradition of giftgiving has been taken to the extreme as an overt symbol of over-consumption. “Instead of gifting people carefully selected items, companies all too often opt for cheap, plastic products that the intended recipients will keep for a few months, if even that.

“But we’ve now reached a tipping point. Consumers and employees want to support companies that live up to their commitments to the planet, including in their corporate gift-giving practices.”

“The corporate gifting market continues to show healthy growth, due largely to organisations expanding gifting beyond the holidays to year-round occasions”

Steven Winnick Senior Analyst, Head of Innovation, Coresight Research

Mindful gifting and quality product on rise

The tide is turning and the corporate world is looking increasingly to ‘mindful’ gifting – a welcome transition given that the corporate gifting market is in growth and estimated to increase from US$258 billion in 2022 to US$312 billion in 2025, a 6.5% CAGR over three years, according to a recent Coresight Research report

“The corporate gifting market continues to show healthy growth, due largely to organisations expanding gifting beyond the holidays to year-round gifting occasions,” Steven Winnick, Senior Analyst at Coresight Research tells Business Chief.

Coresight’s report reveals that while organisations are gifting less frequently

Corporate gifting by numbers

59% Employees who are more likely to stay with their jobs when receiving gifts regularly

6.6%

The average annual rate by which the corporate gifting market will grow over the next three years, from US$258 billion in 2022 to US$312 billion in 2025

US$24 billion

The amount of corporate SWAG that gets thrown out each year. And, the logoed stuff that you take to Goodwill? They bundle it and sell it by the pound where it gets shipped to a developing country and most often burned, says Lou.

52%

Percentage of organisations that outsource elements of corporate gifting to external companies, but just 8% cite using an end-to-end corporate gifting platform for managing and executing corporate gifting

(2 to 5 times per year over six or more times annually) they are investing in pricier and more mindful gifts. “Mindful gifting is a distinct trend with organisations gradually understanding the value of sending out quality gifts to their employees and partners/clients,” Manik Bhatia, Senior Analyst at Coresight says.

And the data backs this up, with ‘quality of product’ the top criteria in terms of importance to gift buyers, followed by ‘timely delivery to recipient’ and ‘simplicity of process’. This points not only towards increasing mindfulness among corporate gift givers, Manik explains, but is an indication that “we may be gradually migrating from co-branded swag manufactured in bulk to more thoughtful corporate gifts”.

AI powering personalisation and choice

With this move to more mindful gifting comes a preference for personalisation and choice with the gifting industry “advancing in important ways, especially e-gifting innovations, which are providing greater flexibility and customisation options for both the gift-giver and recipient,” says Steven.

With e-gifting – HR, marketers, sales, or employees are able to send gifts digitally in

“Corporate gifting –especially when gifting to groups – is headed towards less frequent, pricier and more mindful gifting”

Manik Bhatia Senior Analyst, Coresight Research

Outsourcing vs in-house

While organisations are using corporate gifting in more sophisticated and creative ways, such as expanding gifting occasions beyond the holidays, they are still facing challenges with the types of gifts they can give. “This can be attributed to the lack of flexibility and scalability of their existing gifting programs,” Manik Bhatia, Senior Analyst at Coresight, tells Business Chief.

Manik says nearly half (48%) of those surveyed manage end-to-end corporate gifting internally without a gifting platform — and that this group is relatively more challenged versus those outsourcing corporate gifting either partially or fully. Among the issues they find very challenging are the inability to purchase gifts from

multiple brands/retailers (33%), limited choice attributes (32%), managing gift inventory, storage and shipping (30%), and limited range of products (28%).

Conversely, outsourcing to a gifting provider – which 52% or organisations do, according to Coresight research – offers multiple benefits, allowing organisations “to centralise and streamline corporate gifting, to ease friction points such as inventory management and shipping, and lower gifting program costs while delivering more engaging gifting experiences”, Manik says.

Manik is predicting that as the corporate gifting market grows, more organisations will use outsourced gifting solutions and platforms.

seconds via email or text. Recipients receive a customised gift notification, including a video, and can modify or exchange the gift on their device before it ships. Steven says this helps eliminate the need to gather shipping information in advance while ensuring a satisfied recipient with a gift they truly want (and therefore probably won’t discard).

It marks the end of ‘one size fits nobody’ gifts that no one wants or uses, he declares. “With e-gifting, there’s no need to worry about what size the person wears or what colour they prefer.”

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used increasingly by gifting platforms, both to automate the gifting process, and to counter the one size fits nobody gifting approach – ensuring gifts are tailored for each recipient and therefore meaningful and useful. AI-based corporate gifting platforms Alyce, EvaBot, and Giftpack

Experiences –untapped opportunity for corporate gifting

Manik Bhatia, Senior Analyst at Coresight Research, says experiences offer a huge untapped opportunity for organisations, as they deliver multi-fold benefits, and he believes they will continue to grow in importance over the coming years.

“First, group events can enhance team bonding and foster oneness among employees. Second, it provides newer opportunities for employees to showcase their strengths/talent outside of work and can be a huge morale-booster. Finally, they can help employees with their worklife balance and provide opportunities to reduce stress.”

Mintel’s recent shopping report indicated that 66% of people aged 25-34 think experiential gifts are better than tangible items and multiple gifting platforms already

offer experiences and on-demand services. Among these, Alyce (from historical tours to professional portrait sessions); Tinggly, whose tagline is “Give stories, not stuff’ and which specialises in curated travel experience gift boxes; and Blueboard, whose belief is that experiences contribute more to long-term happiness and do more to foster social connections than material goods.

Lou Elliott-Cysewski, CEO, Coolperx believes experiential gifts can “absolutely work in corporate gifting”, but says they have to be done right. “You can’t abandon intentionality just because you’re not giving someone a physical item. Trying to get your team together for a cooking class or a virtual happy hour can feel like work if your culture isn’t already inclusive and your employers don’t feel valued.”

AI all use AI to analyse the digital footprint of individuals to suggest the most suitable gifts. A personalised list of items is then sent to the recipient from which they can then choose.

Lou points to the ‘gift of choice’ as a trend emerging in corporate gifting circles. “The reality is that it’s impossible to find one thing that all your different recipients will love. My recommendation is to give people three different gifts they can choose from, especially if your company is truly committed to reducing landfill waste and creating an inclusive workplace.”

Not only do recipients feel “empowered, seen and supported” when they get to choose their gift, but they get something they truly love – meaning that fewer gifts go in the trash.

“A socially responsible gift can increase goodwill among your team by showing them that you care not only about them but also about society and the planet at large”

Lou Elliott-Cysewski CEO, Coolperx

Gifting – pivot to priority in a hybrid post-pandemic world

Taking a mindful approach to the items a company sends as gifts doesn’t just make a difference to the planet – It can also make a difference to the relationships a company has with its customers and employees.

After all, gift-giving, at its core, is all about relationships. “Whether we like it or not, we look at gifts as a reflection of how someone feels about us,” says Lou. “They have the power to make us feel appreciated, approved of, and valued, or disregarded, snubbed, and taken for granted. Done well, swag can increase feelings of goodwill and belonging, which in turn can lead to greater job performance, satisfaction, and loyalty.”

Corporate gifting has always been an important strategy for businesses in building connections and driving loyalty with employees and customers, but during the pandemic it became even more vital as a tool to “support business goals and KPIs for multiple stakeholders”, says Steven – and is expected to continue, as companies look for new ways to motivate and manage remote workforces and connect with clients.

Steven explains how during the Covid19 lockdown in 2020 a growing number of organisations identified gifting as a way of strengthening and building connections

Next-generation corporate

These 10 platforms are changing the corporate gifting game with more meaningful product, purpose-driven brands, AI-powered personalisation, and customised automation

Caroo

Formerly known as ShackNation, Caroo offers premium snacks and beverages, gifting from purpose-driven brands, and team building activities, and lets businesses choose from existing curated gift boxes or they can curate their own, complete with a pesonalised card. The company also partners with Pachama to offset carbon emissions on all domestic deliveries and donates meals to Feeding America for every gift delivered. The innovative platform automatically sends, tracks, and manages every moment of recognition.

Blueboard

Launched in 2014, this gifting platform was born from the idea that experiences do more to foster social connections than material goods and makes it easy for companies to reward employees and clients with personalised experiences. Blueboard lets employees and other corporate gift recipients choose among hundreds of experiences, ranging from US$150 TO US$425,000, with popular choices including spa and food experiences, and weekend getaways.

corporate gifting companies

Coolperx

The world’s first and only social purpose (and carbon-neutral) B2B brand merchandise agency and marketplace helping enterprise and mid-size companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and Amazon make informed procurement decisions, Coolperx features worthy products from worthy manufacturers and are raising the bar on quality goods. Businesses can shop by brand (more than 50), by product (from workspace to wellness, travel to home) or by social impact. As consultants, they help with curation and customisation.

Uncommon Goods

This corporate gifting site handpicks creative, original quality gifts and experiences from independent artists and designers and as well as from an in-house design team who create unique gifts. They claim that each gift they offer “serves a purpose, solves a problem, stuns us with its beauty, is handmade, unusual, and make us wonder ‘why hasn’t anyone thought of this before’.” They also offer digital products and experiences that allow for remote group participation.

A modern procurement platform for today’s business

PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

WRITTEN BY: ILKHAN OZSEVIM

iQuantum is a global technology platform that uses AI & ML to enable innovation and procurement focusing on supplier diversity and ESG

Hetal Mehta is the founder and CEO of iQuantum Inc., a modular, modern procurement platform. As the leader of iQuantum’s woman and minority owned business, Hetal works closely with all internal teams, customers, partners, and the iQuantum Advisory Board of industry champions and practitioners.

Hetal Mehta’s journey into the industry

For many years, Mehta worked as a developer and consultant to procurement teams. Through that experience she recognised the need for a more sophisticated and user-friendly procurement solution, “one that does all the efficient and effective consolidations, automation and workflows – but also helps guide alignment between buying decisions and larger strategic corporate goals like increased diversity,” she says.

“My in-depth experience and understanding of supplier diversity led me to realise that customers struggle with finding appropriate suppliers and are prone to continuing business with existing ones – even if that is not ideal.

“With iQuantum our goal is to leverage machine learning and AI to provide a modern procurement platform with access to the largest global supplier database that includes diverse and sustainable supplier options. This helps customers build a more resilient and robust supply chain.”

iQuantum’s unique selling point

iQuantum Inc. is a modern Source-to-Pay platform designed to meet today’s procurement needs for Supplier Relationship Management, Diversity and ESG Sustainability tracking and reporting. They provide the tools and transparency to align spend decisions to strategic corporate goals.

HETAL MEHTA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IQUANTUM

Mehta says: “There is no single provider on the market who competes with us pinto-pin.” iQuantum is the only SaaS platform to provide:

• Complete Supplier discovery to Pay on one platform WITH modern ESG and full diverse supplier management.

• New supplier discovery from a database of millions of global suppliers to increase supply chain resilience and support new product introduction (NPI) sourcing

• Integrated supplier communication and collaboration with in-built Chat and conversation storage for future reference and context

• Modern approach to complete strategic sourcing for indirect, direct and new product introduction with internal team collaboration

• Rich contracts, procurement, and spend management analytics

• Integrated Tier 1 & Tier 2 Diversity and ESG Sustainability reporting and benchmarks

“Prioritising diversity in your employees and your supplier base as a part of ESG is integral to the growth and future trajectory of the company – employees, leadership, investors, stakeholders, and customers seek brands that are improving their profiles”

• Government and Customer reporting along with Subject Matter Expertise by fine-tuning their diverse spend tracking and achieve the elite Billion Dollar Roundtable or BDR

• Diverse and small supplier visibility to iQuantum’s Fortune 500 customer base, including support for supplier marketing of their products and catalogues

• Modular licensing approach and enterprise interoperability to accommodate each customer’s needs, budgets, and existing system investments

• Single code base for quick implementation, easy maintenance, and simple configuration with a sophisticated, userfriendly user experience

• Access to global database of suppliers including diverse/non-diverse and green suppliers for procurement to add to supply chain and achieve savings

• Better alignment, reduced risk, and increased compliance across procurement, finance, and corporate legal

HETAL MEHTA

TITLE: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

LOCATION: IQUANTUM

Hetal holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, and, prior to founding iQuantum, she logged more than 15 years of IT consulting experience with financial firms on Wall Street. Her technical background combined with her sharp domain expertise has been instrumental in building iQuantum; engaging industry-leading customers, attracting and mentoring top engineering talent, and delivering top-class business results, she has driven iQuantum’s growth over the years. Hetal Mehta has been recipient of Steve Awards and Women of the

HETAL MEHTA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IQUANTUM

The importance of diversity in procurement and supply chain and the role of iQuantum McKinsey reported that working with diverse suppliers leads to an 8.5% in cost savings, which is more than the 3 - 7 % savings most procurement organisations realise.

“Prioritising diversity in your employees and your supplier base as a part of ESG is integral to the growth and future trajectory of the company – employees, leadership, investors, stakeholders, and customers seek brands that are improving their profiles,” says Mehta.

Qualified diverse suppliers bring savings and better service to customers. Procurement leaders have recognised this, and are looking at ways to increase their diverse supplier base (increasingly Tier 1 and Tier 2 diversity reporting is becoming a mandate across different industry verticals).

“Every purchase made needs to be aligned to strategic corporate goals and help to move the needle. Increased government regulation and consumer scrutiny of corporate brand spending has increased the need for a new procurement approach”

She says: “We see these two tiers in Manufacturing, and in Law firms it typically comes from customers setting goals to win RFPs, while for the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry the stimulus comes from the government and encourages organisations to negotiate diversity goals and to report them annually.”

iQuantum’s automated customer and government reporting solution is helping customers achieve this. “This automation,” says Mehta, “and our in-depth subject matter expertise in exclusion criteria rules, is also helping customers achieve their goals and get on to the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable BDR. Our global database of suppliers allows customers to source from new diverse suppliers to meet their goals.”

How iQuantum tackles modern business challenges

Businesses today need help driving alignment across divisions and teams. Core brand values and strategic goals need to be surfaced in all corporate decisions – but most importantly in spend decisions. Mehta says: “There is a critical need to meet the diversity spend and ESG sustainability goals being set by leadership and closely tracked by government regulators and investors.

“Our customers like to work with us due to our commitment to customer success, our responsiveness to customer needs and our budget-friendly pricing.” This approach relates to the findings in the McKinsey report concerning better savings and an enhanced overall experience when working with diverse suppliers.

iQuantum: A modern procurement platform for today’s business

Supporting women-owned businesses

iQuantum has subject matter experts to partner with diverse businesses (women, minority, veteran, disabled, LGBT) around the globe to provide guidance on the certification options and process; enriching their supplier profiles to maximise their reach and relevance to upcoming RFQs (Request For Quotes) RFPs (Request For Proposals) and RFIs (Request For Information), or Direct Material Sourcing.

Mehta says: “We also assist certified businesses in getting catalogue-ready, to simplify enterprise purchasing of their products. Our regular supplier outreach, newsletter supplier spotlights and social media channels promote and support women, minority, and other certified businesses. It’s part of our mission and our DNA.”

Adapting to procurement developments

Procurement needs today have changed. They need a platform which addresses

McKinsey reported that working with diverse suppliers leads to an 8.5% in cost savings, which is more than the 3-7% savings most procurement organisations realise.

HETAL MEHTA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IQUANTUM

today’s modern challenges of Diversity and ESG Sustainability tracking. “Every purchase made needs to be aligned to strategic corporate goals and help to move the needle,” Mehta says.

“Increased government regulation and consumer scrutiny of corporate brand spending has increased the need for a new procurement approach.”

“Customers benefit from our “Only Buy What You Need” approach which helps them avoid paying for unused functionality. Our rapid onboarding makes the user experience better and decreases the time to ROI.”

“If you are looking for a modern modular procurement platform to meet today’s procurement needs, iQuantum is the solution.”

“Our customers like to work with us due to our commitment to customer success, our responsiveness to customer needs and our budgetfriendly pricing”

Quantum’s Strategy

iQuantum’s Strategy is best seen according to 3 main facets -

1. For Diversity, their approach is two-fold. Firstly, they want to help companies find, on-board and buy from diverse suppliers easily. Secondly, they aim to help diverse suppliers gain exposure to potential customers by giving them a platform to market their products and services

2. For ESG, iQuantum’s goal is to help make this an integral part of the company and not just an afterthought to meet reporting requirements. For example, they help companies assess their GHG emissions footprint early in their product development when designing new products or building new facilities

3. For Source-to-Pay, iQuantum’s goal is to make the entire process seamless. They provide a single platform upon which companies can execute all aspects of procurement, ie Finding suppliers (Q-Discovery), Qualify (via RFx and Direct Material Sourcing for Manufacturing), Onboard (Contracts), Procure (Order Management), Monitor (SRM), and Control (Spend Analytics), but also allow modular consumption. They also aim to help companies preserve their existing investments, if they require, by integrating with any systems they may already have installed

iQuantum’s outlook for the future

The Diversity market is moving from being driven by government mandates, to one where it is an integral part of company strategy. Mehta believes that iQuantum is, “in the early stages of realising the full potential of this market.”

She says: “For ESG, this is truly a nascent but swiftly developing market.

Companies simply don't have a good way of assessing their GHG footprint, and we are one of the few solutions that can help them achieve this. We see considerable promise in helping companies assess their environmental footprint.”

In the Source-to-Pay space, iQuantum’s customer conversations have proved that legacy procurement providers are not only unable to meet today's modern business requirements, but also have yesterday's UX. Mehta says: “We are solving this problem.”

Finally, on the subject of regulations, Mehta says: “There are regulations going into effect and being defined every single day. We are keeping a constant eye on any changes that may impact rules, reporting, and best practices.

“iQuantum always keeps the SEC, SBA, CDP current, and up-to-date, helping customers to adapt and remain agile to the changing environment.”

MEHTA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IQUANTUM

“There is no single provider on the market who competes with us pin-to-pin”