Coalesce: Art of the possible- A platform that brings businesses together to define the future

Ever wondered what the future holds for the business fraternity? Everyone is talking about designing business solutions of the future. But can that be done while working in silos? No. The business landscape today relies on communication and collaboration between the best and brightest minds to create results that are far greater than what each person can achieve alone.

This is the guiding vision behind Deloitte's Coalesce: Art of the Possible programme. An annual flagship programme, it brings together CXOs, industry stalwarts, and tech giants on a common platform to think through the biggest challenges and opportunities businesses face today. Held in Goa between 28-30 Sep 2022, the programme involved 162 client CXOs, including 65 strategy clients from 145 organisations and 14 alliance sponsors. The biggest names in attendance included Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Adobe, and Salesforce.

The programme involved several design thinking workshops that encouraged clients to collaboratively arrive at innovative and futuristic approaches to common business challenges. Ten CXO tracks covered the gamut of C-suite roles and the alliance experience zones where participants could present solutions, assets, and joint go-to-market services

During the design thinking workshops, 10 unique future themes with the potential to shape the future of business emerged.

1. Independent Directors will have an enhanced role to play in creating profitable and sustainable organisations.
2. CEOs will need to build next-gen capabilities, across technology and people, to lead organisations through uncertain times to come.
3. CFOs need to take on an increasing role in building talent, increasing technology adoption in areas of data management, in addition to exceeding expectations on regulatory reporting and creating sound capital allocation and investment strategies.
4. CIOs will need to step out into the realms of catalysing innovation and strategising. Within their core function, increased focus on optimising operations to deliver reliable and cost effective IT solutions, and improvements to design and technical architecture will be expected.
5. CHROs need to combine technology and talent to design new ways of working and learning. Neuroscience principles are expected to be a game changer in the way organisations and employees embrace change.
6. CXOs and Marketing and sales organisations will need to keep pace with the four emerging trends in the consumer experience industry: Simplify (streamline living, seeking out convenience, and efficiency), Immerse (engage in novel experiences), Accelerate (upgrade to cutting-edge tech that focuses on consumer interest), and Revive (bring back authenticity, trust, and a sense of belonging).
7. Risk, Control, and Compliance (RCC) functions will need to revamp existing risk governance models using new technology, to better manage, predict and monitor risks in the future. Assure, advice, and anticipate will form the core value proposition for RCC functions.
8. Cybersecurity will continue to find pride of place in organisations of he future as the business environments become increasingly digitalised. The Chief Information Security Officer’s role will evolve from being a tech-oriented position to one that focuses on business leadership.
9. Supply chain operations need to bake in increasing resilience and sustainability into their core operations to meet disruptions.
10. The future of the tax function will see enhanced collaboration between mind and machine, leading to the automation of most of the traditional tax work.

Coalesce has set a precedent for next-level collaboration to define the future, for not only the team’s peers and global counterparts, but also for India Inc. at large. This first-of-its-kind experience made us realise that putting aside our individual interests and coming together for the greater good will certainly take us towards a better and promising future. We also felt the need to create an ecosystem that enables businesses to connect, collaborate, and co-create innovative solutions to future challenges.

Coalesce 2022 lived up to its name by bringing together the collective strength of India Inc to unlock limitless possibilities—to harness the power of connections to define the future.

The article is attributed to Vinay Prabhakar: Ecosystem and Alliances Leader, Deloitte India.