The Next Five

We live in a world of tremendous uncertainty where businesses are increasingly challenged to adapt to a rapidly evolving risk landscape. Economic instability, rising geopolitical tensions, technological disruption, cyber threats and the energy transition, are just some of the concerns for boards and businesses globally. Companies need to prepare for risk and maintain resilience. In this episode of The Next Five, Vince Tizzio, President and CEO of AXIS highlights the important role that the insurance industry plays in managing risk, and the need for specialisation and collaboration within industries. John Doyle, CEO of Marsh McLennan, discusses the increasing climate related risk landscape and how technology is being used to help map global risk, as well as the risk reward balance of technologies such as AI. Mark Erickson, Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group at BlackRock offers insight into Blackrock's recent report on the insurance industry's views on climate and AI risk and opportunity. Sources: FT Resources, WEF, Mckinsey, EIOPA, KPMG, Swiss ReThis content is paid for by AXIS and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department.

If money makes the world go round, then data tells you how fast it’s spinning and when it might stop. 90% of all data was generated in the last 2 years and every 2 years the volume of data doubles. With 11 billion devices connected to the internet today, the annual global data generation in 2025 is expected to be 181 zettabytes, that’s 181 trillion gigabytes. To put it in context, we use about 3 gigabytes to stream netflix in high definition for an hour. In other words, the modern world can’t live without data. To continue to understand the world, especially as we move ever more into the digital age of AI, we must better understand the data we are creating. And this means in every part of life, including in business. Alexander Igelsböck, Co-Founder and CEO of Adverity joins us to show how data can unlock business opportunities and create a competitive advantage. Florian Jacquier, Global Head of Data Consumer Engagement at Nestlé, discusses the importance for large global companies to see, understand and action your data correctly. Dr Clare Walsh, Director of Education at the Institute of Analytics, highlights how data is used by organisations and governments and the importance of data policy and governance. Sources: FT Resources, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Tyger Vilan’s Spurious Correlations, Whatsthebigdata.comThis content is paid for by Adverity and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times' Commercial Department.

The premium alcohol industry is about more than just indulgence. It’s a category that is garnering greater attention from consumers, investors and collectors. Increased disposable incomes, celebrity culture and social media has created new avenues for brand recognition and sales. Partnerships with other luxury brands also bring cross pollination appeal and is an area top spirit brands are looking to take more advantage of. Investing in premium alcohol is also an area of growth. Brand, age and rarity set the standard for big prices. The whisky category has seen records consistently broken in the last few years as wealthy individuals battle for the best bottles. In November 2023, a single bottle of The Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami, one of only 40 bottles originally released, sold for a new record price of £2.18 million at Sotheby's in London.But there are some headwinds in both the primary and secondary markets that brands and consumers need to weather.In this episode of The Next Five we speak with Duncan McFadzean, Managing Director at Noble & Co, who discusses the growth and challenges of the primary market and how brands can buck the economic downturn. Jaume Ferras, Creative Director at The Macallan, shows how luxury brands are working together to increase share of pocket. Jonny Fowle, Global Head of Whisky at Sotheby’s, conveys the highs and lows of investing in the secondary market and calls for the joys of consumption as well as investing in fine bottles. Sources: FT Resources, Forbes, Matter of Form, Mordor Intelligence, Whisky Advocate, Spirit FilledThis content is paid for by advertisers and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ Commercial Department

Individual creativity and idea construction sets us apart within our own societies, it is a deeply desirable trait, and can give you power and wealth. ‘Gosh, what a great idea!’, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ are often thought and heard. Cue Artificial intelligence, AI can enhance and enable our creativity- giving thousands of creative solutions to our input ideas. Less a brainstorm and more a cosmic tsunami of creation, all in a matter of seconds. It does this without its own personal agenda and selfish desire to have the idea that brings with it the potential for expression, power and wealth. But is it creative? Or, like in many industry applications, is AI a tool that makes us more creative. In this episode of The Next Five, we hear from Doug Eck, Senior Research Director at the Google DeepMind working on generative media, who discusses how we amplify our own human ideas with technology and that AI brings an inflection point where new art forms could develop with its help. Youtube content creator Dani Verdari, discusses the use of AI in her own content creation, the benefits of having this technology at her fingertips and how it can help others become artists and creators. She also discusses some of the issues around copyright of works that arise. Neil Maiden, Professor of Digital Creativity at the Bayes Business School, City University of London and Director of the Center for Creativity Enabled by AI, looks at how we embed creative thinking in professional practices and how AI can be used to solve problems more effectively.Sources: FT Resources, Harvard Business Review, Goldman Sachs, American Museum of Natural History, Science Daily, Lesley University, Forbes, Accenture. This content is paid for by Google and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ Commercial Department

"Prevention is better than cure” is a fundamental principle of modern healthcare. In this episode of the Next Five, in paid partnership with GSK, we look at health care prevention in ageing societies, with a particular focus on vaccine uptake. Ever since 1796, when Dr. Edward Jenner inoculated an 8-year-old boy against smallpox with a vaccine containing the milder strain cowpox, vaccination has become a part of the preventative medicine armoury. Vaccines have lowered the impact of many diseases, and benefits go beyond the health of the individual by reducing the cost and burden placed on healthcare systems and society. The COVID-19 pandemic placed a fresh spotlight on vaccines, highlighting the need but also, in some instances, the ambivalence towards them. By 2030, the number of people aged 60 and over will have increased by more than a third to 1.4 billion people. Even with the lessons learnt from the pandemic, low adult immunisation uptake remains a global problem that needs urgent solutions.In this episode I speak with Kate Hashey, Director of Communications and Government Affairs at GSK, who leads their adult immunisation work and discusses the role vaccinations play in the healthy ageing of our societies and how we must bolster action in the future to embed adult immunisation as the standard of care . Murray Aitken, Executive Director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, highlights hyperlocal data showing trends in adult immunisation globally. David Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer at the International Longevity Centre in the UK, offers insight into how we can live longer, healthier lives and where the UK sits compared to other countries on preventative healthcare spending and solutions.Sources: FT Resources, European Commission, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, British Medical Association, OECD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.This content is produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ Commercial Department

After slumping during the pandemic, business travel is picking up pace: it’s expected to hit pre-pandemic levels this year with spending on it slated to reach $1.4tn in 2024. But post-Covid, the landscape of corporate travel is changing, reflecting the evolving global economy, a diverse workforce and the growing importance attached to sustainability. The cost of travel is rising and businesses seeking to balance budgets need to find flexible tools for managing business travel and the variables and unexpected events, such as flight delays, that come with it. New innovations are becoming even more influential in the decision-making processes, such as what form of meeting or collaboration justifies the need to travel in the post-pandemic era. The whole sector is ripe for innovation and new technologies such as AI present a timely opportunity for companies to rethink their approach to business travel. Tim Lebel, Vice President and Head of Product for SAP Concur Spend Solutions joins me to discuss how AI is helping to streamline outdated travel processes and how important trust is when building AI platforms. Shelley Fletcher- Bryant, Vice President of travel consultancy firm, Advito, advocates for more sustainable travel practices in the travel sector and how AI can play it’s part in giving organisations more transparency when booking business travel. Theodora Lau, Author, Public Speaker, and founder of Unconventional Ventures offers her insight into trust of key travel data in the new AI world and the sustainability of AI systems themselves. Sources: FT Resources, PWC, Fortune, BBC, Forbes, McKinsey & Co, Business Travel News Europe, Global Business Travel Association, BCD Travel, Accenture. This content is paid for by advertisers and is produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ Commercial Department