A more productive approach may be to stay focused on your business needs â whether attracting new customers, improving operational efficiency, rapid prototyping of products, improving customer experience to boost retention, or something else. Then, consult relevant experts about the potential range of solutions, which may or may not involve the metaverse. Only after you have identified the appropriate solution for your business should you turn your attention to the technical ramifications.
Consider the analogy of forming a business community. There are many valid reasons for doing so, such as obtaining feedback, gaining advocates, and supporting product or service development. Some businesses can assemble a community in the physical world relatively easily â but not all. Restaurants, for example, might find it straightforward to attract a sufficient number of âfoodiesâ near their real-world sites, while a motorcycle manufacturer might have a smaller, more widely distributed customer base, to which it is more difficult to reach out. The appropriate starting point, therefore, is to consider what would be needed, across all technologies, to build a community for your particular business. The metaverse might be the answer you arrive at â equally, it might not.
For similar reasons, many CEOs should be wary of appointing chief metaverse officers. Some companies have already taken that step, which could be right for them just as having a chief digital officer works well for many companies. But, in the very early stages of a new technology, there is a risk that time is wasted on activities that exist simply to justify the appointment. A dedicated resource is useful only as long as it is working to solve real business problems and they are not âa hammer looking for a nail.â
Stay focused on your business challenges
The desire for CEOs to develop a metaverse strategy is entirely understandable. The lure of the metaverse is irresistible: who would turn their back on a market potentially worth 10tn? But, for many, this is simply not the time to go âall inâ on unproven technologies still in their infancy.
In the meantime, many CEOs would be best advised to ensure their organizations follow a simple, limited definition of the metaverse and engage in a measured fashion with these new virtual worlds, based on a clear-eyed analysis of the business problems they are seeking to solve.