You’re sitting on your sofa. You want to play a race game. You issue a command to the glasses you are wearing and a virtual road appears in front of your eyes. Welcome to the world of Augmented Reality (AR) where the virtual world meets the real world.

Arguments reality and Virtual reality is trending in India and it has impacted various industries in the country, such as consumer goods, retail, real estate, and automotive. The advent of 4G technology and high-speed communication combined with the increasing number of smartphone users has led to this revolution.

The availability of entry-level VR headsets in the market, a push from the mobile device companies have become instrumental in developing interest for VR gear among mobile users.

Here are few use-cases of digital reality across various domains

Retail– Even when you’re armed with precise measurements, trying to imagine exactly how that stunning new sofa will look in your living room is not an easy task. In order to make the task easy for the consumer a big retail home furnishing company used arguments reality. Through the use of AR, smartphone users can scan the catalog and open additional information about the product. A virtual version of the new sofa, desk or bookcase with the room in the background is shown onscreen to give them a fair idea how the furniture is going to look in their home.

Government services– AR enabled interactive training makes it possible for agents to simulate scenarios where trainees can see and interact with virtual environments.  VR and AR products and services is not just useful for entertainment sector but Government can make use of these for customs and border protection by making it easier to simulate scenarios for virtual training.

Education- AR/VR could witness high utilization in Edutech domain. It could be of immense help by employing virtual teaching, digital learning and development methods in schools and colleges.

Health– AR is one of the most promising digital technologies. It has the potential to change healthcare and medicine completely. In AR, users do not lose touch with reality and it puts information into eyesight as fast as possible. These distinctive features enable AR to become a driving force in the future of medicine.

Aerospace- Dangerous or difficult to replicate scenarios can be safely simulated with Augmented and Virtual Reality aerospace applications. This allows trainees to repeatedly practice crucial scenarios while preventing damage to equipment and avoiding bodily harm.

Overall, across domains, AR/VR is changing how products and services are developed and delivered, which is transforming into increased productivity and operational efficiencies. It has the potential to become the foundation of next-gen computing.

The outcomes of business activities always have some elements of risk. This includes strategic failure, operational failure, financial failure, market disruption environmental disaster or regulatory violation. Proper risk management provides a mechanism for identifying risks which represent potential pitfalls. There is a need to adopt holistic approach to risk management.

Traditionally, risks have been managed in companies independently by respective functional managers. But this risk management fails to recognize that different risks can overlap and cancel out with each other or can even concentrate together to hinder achievement of organizational goals.

How Enterprise Risk Management started?
The Integrated Framework of the COSO Enterprise Risk Management in 2004 was a landmark in the history of risk management. This framework provided guidance to the management teams, to implement their risk management programs. Therefore in most organisations a new function called risk management was established which attempted to identify and mitigate risks, which were most often financial, operational in nature.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) overcomes the problem by taking a broad, top-down, holistic and strategic approach to managing risks with a ‘portfolio view’. It incorporates risk management into all major aspects of an organization, be strategy formulation, reporting, compliance, or daily operations.

With globalization, more and more Indian companies are expanding their operations into newer geographies and are getting themselves listed in foreign exchanges. These companies are getting exposed to potentially newer and greater risks arising from different economic, political, cultural, and other global uncertainties. Indian companies these days are also enjoying funds from foreign investors and providing outsourcing services to foreign lands. This makes the foreign investors and foreign buyers of outsourcing services exposed to various risks, which they need to be informed about. Such developments have made adoption of ERM very critical for the success and growth of the companies in India.

Risk Management should not be viewed as a mere process, but as the culture, capabilities that help an organisation survive and thrive. So, the focus should be no longer only on identifying risks to executing strategy but to evaluate how strategy aligns to the organisation’s mission, vision, core values. This enhanced coverage of risk management should help in ensuring that stakeholder value can be created, preserved and realized.

The evaluation of strategic options would require that strengths and weaknesses of all alternatives are considered, including how the strategy aligns with the organisation’s mission. The risk profile of each strategy would have been thoroughly considered, before embarking upon the chosen one. Risk indicators and response can be thought through, based on the profile of the strategy. The organization is in a state of readiness to take on the uncertain times that we live in.

Thoughtful ERM programs help companies anticipate, adapt and respond to change. They also focus management efforts and resources on the risks and opportunities that truly matter in terms of their impact on strategy and performance harnessing the true value of Enterprise Risk Management.

Co-working spaces today are actively attracting startups, in fact, the real beauty of a co-working space is the community, it is a diverse environment that facilitates exchange of ideas and promotes collaboration.  Let’s delve deep into what exactly goes on within co-working spaces.

People opt for co-working space due to high cost of real-estate costs and social entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups and small businesses looking for a footprint in big metros. There is no doubt that the Indian start-up ecosystem has come a long way, and is now being supported by a slew of initiatives, like the central government’s Startup India. Co-working spaces act as a fulcrum of this ecosystem. Aside from providing flexible, convenient and affordable space, co-working spaces provide ample opportunities for young entrepreneurs to learn, network and grow. Through targeted workshops, networking events, introductions and mentoring sessions; the co-working space acts as a hub for all things an aspiring entrepreneur needs to become a successful one. These collaborative communities reside in co-working spaces; no wonder co-working has become the new buzzword.

Digital/business nomads, expats and others travelling to India for work for a few months are also joining the co-working revolution. So are large IT & BFSI companies to cope with rising rentals and shortage of ready-to-move grade A offices in prime property markets across India. In fact, some companies now base their client project teams out of co-working spaces, to let them remain close to the clients. Making use of co-working space reduces about 30% cost of the company. Rising cost consciousness, new generation collaboration and delivery platforms, digital workflows, dependable tech infrastructure and a thriving start-up eco-system are expected to continue to boost the trend of co-work sharing spaces in the country.

International players starting to enter the Indian scheme of things which is a good development. With lot of customized events today taking place across India, entrepreneurs have lots to cheer about as far as connecting with the right resources and obtaining learning opportunities is concerned.

As far as co-working operators go, there are several who are following a simple rental arbitrage model – the old business centre/serviced office model. Although there is a market for this, I believe we are at the cusp of change. In every industry, customers now need to be engaged, not just sold to – they need to feel a connection with who they work with, and also where they work. Commercial spaces are going through this very change, and co-working is the disruptor that will bring engagement and sexy back to the commercial real-estate space.