5 must reads for the weekend

We keep our ear to the ground for the interesting stats, insights and discussion points you need to feel in the know.   

1. COP28 is just around the corner 

COP28, the 28th annual United Nations (UN) climate meeting is just five weeks away. So what can we expect? Looking back at last month’s New York Climate Week, where over 75,000 people marched on the streets calling for change, several themes emerged that we expect to influence the debate at COP28. One example, is that we cannot solve the climate crisis without solving the biodiversity crisis. “Climate is often perceived as the primary focus for action, when actually climate is dependent on nature,” says Amy Brachio, EY Global Vice Chair, Sustainability. Conserving and restoring nature - think green roofs, constructing wetlands and planting forests - is now seen as a mitigation solution, just as much as an adaptation solution. It is estimated that nature can provide up to a third of global mitigation efforts, but current investments in nature-based solutions need to triple by 2030 for this to happen. What’s the EY view? More in this Economist Impact article...  

NY Climate Week: What does this mean for COP28?   

2. Helpful science fiction 

How do you build a business for a future consumer, when you don’t know what the future might hold? Even understanding the direction of travel, unfortunately, isn't always enough. Instead, companies must also harness the power of storytelling - and even science fiction - to fire their imagination and create future world scenarios. Science fiction is in fact, one of the first resources that futurists use in their predictions. A growing number of consumer-facing companies actually use science fiction writers to help anticipate future trends. In this article, take the quiz to find out what future world scenario best fits the way you live. You can also meet Sam and Wanyi, Gen-AI-powered personas who talk to the lived experience of the future world scenarios they inhabit... 

If you could meet tomorrow’s consumers today, what would you ask? 

 3. Clinicians sound the alarm 

Today’s care delivery models rest on the idea that clinicians will continue to work as they have for generations - for long hours, often on call and unpaid for their documentation and training of new staff. Meanwhile, the next generation of doctors is much more focused on work-life balance. To better understand the drivers of health care workforce shortages, uncover leading practices and hear from frontline clinicians, EY teams conducted more than 100 in-depth interviews with health system executives and clinicians worldwide. The top factors causing them to consider leaving the profession? Lack of autonomy or control (cited in 42% of responses), administrative burden (38%) and moral injury and concerns about patient safety (27%). Clinicians in several countries shared stories of not being able to get the care they believed their patients needed, and then seeing them cycle through the health system ineffectively, without addressing the root cause of disease or preventing crisis. While digital transformation will play a huge role in solving the problems, clearing multiple time-consuming obstacles, the clinician's voice remains critical. We explore six key actions that could help. 

How will you respond to clinicians sounding the alarm on unsustainable care delivery models? 

4. Responding to crisis 

A leader’s statement goes viral on social media. A product defect leads to massive recalls. New technology threatens to make the company obsolete. A virus triggers a pandemic shutdown. A war breaks out and reroutes the global supply chain paths – sound familiar? These are just a few examples that were cited by directors during recent discussions about the challenges of overseeing crisis management today. While they may take different forms, crises all create an urgent call to action that goes outside the normal course of business and processes. But the problem facing leaders today is that we now live in a world where a crisis never seems to end - all as the impact is accelerated by social media. No wonder the term “permacrisis” is quickly finding its place in the corporate lexicon.  So, as crises become increasingly interconnected and persistent, traditional one-off crisis management approaches are no longer effective which begs the question: how can boards support resiliency in the face of constant crisis? 

How can boards support resiliency in the face of constant crisis? 

5. Diversity is key 

The COVID-19 pandemic made it vital for businesses across the globe this year to focus on finding new ways to engage customers and employees. But how? One way is through technology. It’s clear – tech can create a better future but not alone. From a technological standpoint, teams at EY are seeing a continued focus on intelligent automation and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. But they’re also seeing a positive shift in thinking around how businesses engage and motivate their workforce, how they nurture innovation and how they look after people’s mental health. But why is this so important? Simply put; because diverse organizations produce better business results. When diverse talent is involved in the design of technological solutions, we get to better solutions faster and diversity of thought minimizes the risk that we design bias into solutions, which is especially critical in AI-driven systems. But that’s not all...  

Why effective collaboration demands tech, inclusion and diversity  

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