1.3 Creating Leaders for the Metaverse age

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1.3
CREATING LEADERS
FOR METAVERSE

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CREATING LEADERS FOR
THE METAVERSE AGE

Sudhakar Rao Hari Prasad Paruchuri

Director, ICFAI Group Founder, Tihnkering

Let’s start with looking around. Seoul is all set to become the first city to host a
Metaverse platform for public services by 2023.
Coca-Cola has launched digital assets to sup- There are now alternate assets that you can
port their marketing campaigns like auctioning own in the form of wine (vinovest.co) or fine
NFT collectables for international friendship art (masterworks.in) or even trade in them at
day in the year 2021. swapd.co.
The University of California at San Diego’s Rady The Metaverse is on a march. Think of it like
School of Management uses a virtual campus the early years when Radio captured the people,
for real-time lectures, breakout spaces and out- or when film rolled out in Hollywood leaving
door areas. audiences mesmerised; first black & white and
The Havas Group launched a village within the soundless (arguably that’s where the Metaverse
sandbox to host recruitment services for im- is now) to colour and whatnot (which is where
proved candidates and on boarding experienc- the Metaverse will go). So, from what was sci-
es. ence fiction, Metaverse is now growing to be a
BMW is experimenting with creating digital fully realised reality which promises immersive
trends of all their factories and designing prod- engagement, entertainment, and empower-
ucts using Nvidia’s omnivores technology. ment. A virtual world that mimics and extends

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Photograph by Freepik

real-world activities and possibilities to a virtual other happy.
albeit rewarding experience with real conse-
quences. The Metaverse is, to borrow a
In the recent history of mankind, whenever phrase, at that “tipping point”
there happened an epoch-making invention or
discovery, it elicited disbelief about its applica- Let’s begin with the magnitude of its uptake?
tions, its impact, how it is going to roll out etc. What are its stakes? According to an estimate
From the time we had electricity to internet by the Analysis Group, the size of Metaverse
and now to metaverse, disbelief is a common economy would be $3 trillion globally in a dec-
thread. Across these game changing phases, we ade. McKinsey reveals that VC & PE funding
saw dramatic convergence of emerging technol- last year was around $13 billion which has now
ogies, improved communication, better con- gone up to more than $120 billion in the year
veyance — making lives more comfortable and 2022. It is estimated to touch anywhere from $3
more fulfilling. trillion to $5 trillion by 2030.
Metaverse is written off (which many do) as the As customers are going to be impacted first in
latest buzzword which is hazy. True in a way. entertainment, social, gaming, travel, shopping
However, it is undeniable that it is a fluid con- et cetera; organisations (already happening as
cept even now. But so were the movies when a matter of fact) would automatically focus on
they were launched initially. Who would have marketing/branding campaigns, learning and
predicted that from a colourless soundless stilt- development needs, meetings, events/confer-
ed expensive experience it would have evolved ences, product design etc.
to something which plays out on Youtube where It is estimated that there are already 3 billion
the consumers of the content and the producers gamers working on Metaverse to speed up the
of it form an overlapping reality making each next stage in this game. Already Blockchain is
a forerunner in the decentralised creator econ-

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omy — an economy where interoperability be- Photograph by Freepik
tween worlds is the key. Edge computing helps
capture data, store, and process it locally across on foot, before horses were domesticated, were
local networks and smart devices. 5G is all set very different from the generals who command-
to lower the latency. Headsets with haptics are ed armies on horsebacks.
being rolled out. Organisations are betting on Let’s step back and see what are the early signs of
Metaverse enterprise solutions software devel- Metaverse? What are the areas where custom-
opment - all will lead to build a creator focused ers will experience it first? What could be the
economy. focus areas for organisations to develop/build
Therefore, we need leaders who can create/har- Metaverse? What does Metaverse demand from
ness technologies, develop products, build de- lead players in the ecosystem? A broad under-
vices, host platforms, formulate new business standing of these requirements would help us
models and build this ecosystem of Metaverse. identify the right kind of leadership that will
The world is going to see a set of independent help fuel the Metaverse.
developers and creators, which will largely com-
prise of Gen Z folks. What is the range of their At a higher level there are five
Functional skills, what will be the Behavioural fundamentals that are fuelling
contours and what could/would their Leader- this change:
ship traits be like?
And now to the crux of this article; Who 1. Primed interconnective experiences — An
and what kind of leaders are well suited for a audience that’s already experienced the ben-
Metaverse? After all every new technology has efits and joys of being interconnected (think
influenced styles of leadership. The warlords Whatsapp, virtual groups et al).

2. Higher processing power — from DOS to
Mobiles which are powerhouses in their
own right we have come a long way.

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3. Robust networking and speeds — from mo- Miniverse.
dem to 5G this has addressed the issue of
latency and buffering Discussions in corporate boards make it appear
as if the Metaverse concept/idea has landed
4. NexGen interfacing — this is perhaps the from alien space. But nothing can be farther
technology area “waiting to leap” with vir- from the truth. Way back in 1984, the first book
tual gear like headsets, body suits, motion that hinted and actually used that something
chairs, Metaverse-experience rooms like like the metaverse was the iconic Neuromancer
home-theatres etc to give us that fully im- by William Gibson who speaks of a ‘virtual real-
mersive experience to give that sense of ex- ity dataspace’ called the ‘matrix’.
tended reality across our five senses. Later in a fully realised fingers-on-what-to-
come Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash published
5. Commercial viability at user level — think in 1992 who actually coined the word Metaverse.
of this where content creation is democra- And it is eerily similar to what is now emerging.
tised (aka YouTube style) where it’s not only Users of the metaverse gain access through it
a content/experience consumption reality through individual terminals (call them mo-
but is also a revenue generator of its own for biles or laptops or what you will today) and they
many of its participants. appear as avatars interacting with each other.
As recent as 2018 Ready Player One by Ernest
If we have to create these leaders (or at least Cline depicts a metaverse where ‘escape from
give some sense of a roadmap to the would- reality for entertainment and meaningful en-
be/could-be leaders) where do we begin? How gagement’ is the main theme. Sounds familiar?
do we align the present leadership models and To be more rooted and connect it to something
tweak, change or radically alter them? Should familiar think of Vishnu and his many avatars
we start at the level of academia or in the indus- (there are more than ten by the way) and it is
try or both? also no surprise that the very word, “AVATAR”

To understand the Metaverse
let’s explore the contours of a

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is one of the keywords in a miniverse. So from Let’s simplify. But do note that this is a two way
one fundamental spring (Vishnu) emerge mul- street. The participant (user) is also a creator/
tiple Avatars giving rise to multiverses (and as player and not passive.
a whole this is the Metaverse of Vishnu). But The five minimum qualities of a good any-verse
does it stop there? Wonderfully no. Because would include;
the metaverse of Vishnu overlaps with the 1. Logic
metaverse of Shiva, Brahma, Lakshmi, Saras- 2. Imagination
wati, Parvati, Ganesha, and so on. Curiously a 3. Expandability
miniverse like Krishna (an Avatar) is the origin 4. Identifiability
of a full well realised metaverse. 5. Sociability
In fact the entire Hindu mythology or Greek But above all of this five we would place one
mythology can be seen as independent Metav-
erses with many Miniverses or Multiverses. And more.
so are the Marvel universes of Superman, Spi- 6. The democratic fundamentals of checks,
derman or the DC Universe of Justice League.
An author like Brandon Sanderson has created balances and partial-control.
multiple books (more than 20 in the last count) So, what kind of leadership model would ena-
in a metaverse called the Cosmere. They are like ble this? Leadership theories have been rough-
Galaxies within which multiple planets thrive ly classified into eight types which most of the
on their own and are logically consistent while readers of this article would be aware.
interacting with their own individual differenc- 1. The Great man theory of leadership aka
es.
“Leaders are born not made”.
So what are the basic 2. Trait theory of leadership aka “If you have
definitions of a Miniverse?
the traits then they can be leveraged, opti-
1. It is logically consistent (however weird). mised or be made to reach their potential”.
2. It allows for imaginative expandability (for 3. Contingency theory aka “Match your lead-
ership style to the situation”
the participants). 4. Situational theory aka “Adapt to the situa-
3. It is capable of evoking an emotional reso- tion”
5. Behavioural theory which is a mirror image
nance (stickability). of the Great man theory aka “Leaders are
4. It allows the formation of relationships be- made not born”
6. Participative theory aka “Lead democrati-
tween avatars (for the participants). cally taking everyone’s views into account”
5. It has its own norms, mores and practices 7. Transactional theory aka “Reward the doers
and fire the non-performers”
(identifiable by its participants). 8. Relationship theory aka “Build trust with
Multiple miniverses which can connected with your people and achieve transformation
dots (logical, imaginative or emotional) will through strong associations”
make a metaverse. Is it easy? No. Is it possible? Now which of the above leadership theories
Yes. throw a light on the kind of leadership needed
So the creators of any-verse (mini, multi or for the new metaverse age.
meta) should acknowledge that they are creat- Curiously most of the theories don’t place im-
ing something on which once rolled out they
have “partial control”. Criticism if any will come
quick. Success too if done well will be as quick.
Now comes the question of what it takes to
create a mini-verse, multi-verse or metaverse.

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portance on driving “creation” or evaluation of (a weed) that you want to remove or an un-
something “created” as an important trait. Most expected flower (that you may want to nur-
of them spring from a style of leadership which ture).
essentially is “directional” or “as if there is a 3. Look for patterns that one could nurture.
path” and it has to be travelled efficiently. Patterns in the way things evolve — not
This perhaps is one of the most limiting funda- just the project but also the way the team is
mentals of the existing leadership theories or aligning itself. Yes. Let the team have that
styles according to the present two authors of freedom. The lesser the rules and defined
this article. roles the better it would turn.
Largely all the eight above theories of leadership 4. Be willing to be contradicted and to contra-
can be bunched under what we call an “ARCHI- dict. Yourself and others. Because projects
TECT” style of leadership. in the metaverse like plants in a garden may
1. This style presumes that the end goal is de- not necessarily take a single road. And new
roads lead to new things which never could
finable in advance. have been imagined at the outset.
2. This style presumes that a leader can shape This leads us to the next thing. A style of think-
ing which has been much discussed in the last
the multiple events that will lead to this end two years — Fluid Thinking. While absolutely
goal in a largely controllable manner. apt in the context of the metaverse we would
With literature like Sun Tzu’s Art of War spear- say that one may want to take it one step further
heading business leadership literature there is and say “Fluid Personality”.
no surprise that leadership takes on a macho, While “Fluid Thinking” has a connotation of
plan, act, achieve and repeat character. But the being limited to “logic” the Metaverse lead-
metaverse demands a different kind of leader. ership is going to demand more than “logic”
alone. It needs one to be fluid about emotion/
We call him the “GARDNER”. empathy, values/acceptance and new ideas that
can seem to be imaginative to the borderline of
Think of a Gardner. There is no definable goal threatening/illogical. So any decision making
with sharp edges and features. The goal is more has to take multiple variables into account and
amorphous, more forgiving, more broader and variables that may/will crossover the bounda-
inbuilt into the Gardner style is a humility that ries of standard inductive and deductive logic.
there are going to be plans or actions that could
fail or at least which need massive changes That’s why we prefer “Fluid
which force one to eat their egos. Now that (to Personality”.
say the least) is not going to be easy.
Specially the “unlearning” from the present James P Carse, a Professor of History and Liter-
models of leadership. ature of Religion, authored a book titled “Finite
and Infinite Games”, published in the year 1987.
So what does it mean to be a In this book presciently the author states that
Gardner? there are two kinds of games. We cannot sum-
marise it better than what Carse himself does;
1. Start with visions. Not goals. The difference “There are at least two kinds of games: finite and
is in accepting that visions are much more infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose
amorphous and essentially elastic while of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of
goals are clear and primarily rigid. continuing the play. Finite games are those in-
strumental activities - from sports to politics to
2. Watch the progress everyday (as much as wars - in which the participants obey rules, rec-
possible). The milestone approach of the
Architect style of leadership may not suit
well when you may want to spot something

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ognize boundaries and announce winners and paths that are intuitive and watching/tweak-
losers. The infinite game - there is only one - in- ing them closely on a daily/regular basis and
cludes any authentic interaction, from touching is willing to fail and discard some initiatives
to culture, that changes rules, plays with bound- and/or repurpose them.
aries and exists solely for the purpose of con- 5. Someone who respects rivals as actors who
tinuing the game. A finite player seeks power; inspire rather than as opponents to crush.
the infinite one displays self-sufficient strength. 6. Someone who has mastered the art of trav-
Finite games are theatrical, necessitating an elling between the left/right logical/creative
audience; infinite ones are dramatic, involving brain hemispheres comfortably.
participants...” 7. And lastly someone who can get into the
In essence, building a well realised metaverse for state of ‘flow’ articulated well by Mihaly
any business should be seen as an infinite game. Csikszentmihalyi
There is no winning. The winning is rolling out
something that has staying power. Something What are the practices that
that builds on itself with the participation of its could lead to this new age
many actors/avatars while being fulfilling to its leadership mindset/thinking/
participants. evolution ?

It is the journey which is an Three float up as important:
end in itself. 1. Experience variedly (reading, seeing, travel-

Simon Sinek in his book, “The Infinite Game” ling, eating, meeting, discussing. . . you get
takes the concept of Carse which more originat- the idea).
ed in philosophy and applies them to business. 2. Aim for ‘peak performances’ (let’s try to ex-
It’s a must read where he details an ‘Infinite plain this with a simple example. Let’s say
Mindset” that leaders desirous of playing the you started walking. Your average is 2 kms
infinite game should possess. Let’s borrow and a day. You can comfortably stretch to 3 kms.
rephrase some of Sinek’s insights to define that The idea is to push yourself to 5 kms once
the leader for this new age would be someone a month and then keep raising the bar. The
who can build these worlds where its partici- idea is not to do it consistently. But think of
pants can take multiple paths, meet each other, it like climbing a mountain once in a while.
go on journeys that are fulfilling and satisfying. Periodically. Not regularly. This can be done
And that kind of leader needs to be; with any activity. Music. Painting. Dancing.
1. Someone who can articulate a positive vi- Writing. Walking was just an example.)
3. Meditate.
sion. With this a note at the end would help. The
2. Someone who is flexible as a personality in- metaverse is still in its evolution. True to
spirit of a Gardner the authors acknowledge
ternally and externally. that their own observations and thinking
3. Someone who inspires that same flexibility would evolve. 

in teams by building trust and self-worth.
4. Someone who has the courage to flag-off

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Photograph by Freepik