5 must reads for your weekend

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

1. The great supply chain reset

We have probably seen the end of singular, linear supply chains geared toward efficiency and optimization due to the war in Ukraine, but a number of shocks had already shattered international faith in this legacy model. The global pandemic, the Fukushima nuclear crisis and the blockage of the Suez Canal all exposed fractures and weaknesses in the linear supply chain. What should businesses consider when rethinking the design principles of supply models in the search for resilience?

The CEO Imperative: Through relentless disruption, how can you stay the course?

2. Accelerating the energy transition

“The ways that European and global companies and markets will be impacted by the ongoing global economic and geopolitical changes will no doubt be top of the agenda at the upcoming World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos,” Andrea Guerzoni writes in his latest blog. There are three interconnected themes emerging he says: the acceleration of the energy transition, the reshaping of the global operating environment for companies and the importance of leveraging digital and technology to navigate these changes.

A world in transition: what’s next for Europe?

3. The climate cost of powering bitcoin

Many large tech companies powering data centers already meet 100% of their electricity needs through renewable energy power purchase agreements. But the conventions of commerce — creating, selling, owning, investing — being established around the metaverse are much more problematic from a climate perspective. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) minted through blockchain-based processes and paid for with cryptocurrency, have become the predominant means for conveying ownership rights to assets such as digital art and virtual land. Yet, one average Ethereum transaction consumes 60% more energy than 100,000 credit card transactions, while an average Bitcoin transaction consumes 14 times more energy.

Metaverse: could creating a virtual world build a more sustainable one? | EY - Global

4. Learning is never done

“If businesses plan on making sustainability a core part of their strategy, it’s imperative they work to ensure all their employees have the right skills to help advance this work,” Amy Brachio writes on LinkedIn. “While deep technical expertise and degrees are vital to meeting the societal needs, many people who assume ESG roles today come from a range of different professional backgrounds. According to a recent study, more than 50% of Chief Sustainability Officers have a background in business, and 20% are engineers. Meanwhile, people from fields like law and marketing outnumber those with backgrounds in biology and chemistry…it’s important to focus on giving all employees – from new hires to top executives – a working knowledge of sustainability so they can support their clients’ sustainability goals.”

Your sustainability strategy depends on your people. It’s time to invest in them.

5. A new definition of growth

“You’ll never believe…!”, “Why you can’t live without…”, “This is the last thing you’ll ever need…” — social media feeds are full of these clickbait headlines. Consumers dislike them because they’re often misleading. Companies love them because they work. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) and other customer-facing leaders are caught in between. Until now, this is an approach that has worked. But customers are demanding more and better from the companies they do business with. In the latest EY Future Consumer Index survey, 68% of consumers think the company’s behavior is as important as what it sells, while 69% say brands must behave ethically and in line with community expectations. Yet only 38% think the positive actions brands are taking are good enough.

How can you create a growth strategy where everyone wins?

If you do one thing:

Everything has a cost. Work out what is important to you.

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