Finance Monthly - January 2022

businesses but whole ecosystems. Today, for example, Instagram is not just a platform. There is an entire ecosystem of solutions that utilise the platform’s functionalities. While at present digital technologies are behind the drive towards digital transformation, it is the flexibility and extensibility of platforms that is facilitating the next wave of innovation, allowing businesses to grow by rapidly customising the way in which they deliver value to customers and extending their offers into new markets and sectors. Our personal and professional lives will be changed dramatically with the introduction of virtual worlds called ‘metaverses’ - digital worlds which blur the distinction between our real-world and virtual lives with social media becoming more of a gaming experience. While Facebook recently announced its new name Meta to reflect its new focus on developing its own metaverse, other innovative virtual worlds have already started to capture people’s imagination. Developments such as NFTs are now allowing digital- only fashion houses such as The Fabricant to work with brands such as Adidas, Puma and Tommy Hilfiger to produce highly desirable fashion that only has a digital existence. The vision of metaverses being the experiential basis of the digital economy will be made possible through the breakthrough advances in quantum computing now being achieved. A team of scientists in China led by quantum physicist Pan Jianwei recently announced that their new Jiuzhang 2.0 quantum computer was 10 billion times faster than its previous version, meaning that it can solve a problem in one millisecond that the world’s fastest supercomputer currently takes about 30 trillion years to solve. While practical and commercial solutions are still a few years away from being realised, leaders need to start understanding the implications for quantum computing now, in order to ensure that they are fully prepared for those specific areas in which this type of technology is suitable for. Extremely large data sets will be searchable almost instantaneously, and real-world complex problems that were previously intractable will soon become solvable, such as computation in physics, chemistry and cybersecurity and providing optimisation solutions such as Volkswagen Group are developing in transportation and JP Morgan are developing in financial services. Society is now at a bifurcation point, and we do not yet fully know which new order will emerge from the current chaos and complexity. Many people are now sensing dangers from having a Meta/Facebook level of monopoly in the digital economy due to the controversies that have recently come to light. But at the same time, we should not allow these understandable concerns to stop our most creative designers and entrepreneurs to discover new ways of connecting, relating, transacting and being in the digital economy, elevating humanity and amplifying our impact in the digital economy of the future, whatever form it may take. Simon Robinson is the Global CEO of Holonomics and co- author of Deep Tech and the Amplified Organisation: How to elevate, scale and amplify your business through the New 4Ps of platforms, purpose, people and planet . Finance Monthly. Bus i ne s s & Economy 41