US Venture Funding Soars

Following new ventures and their funding.

Venture funding soared to record $64 billion in Q1

By Ari Levy @LEVYNEWS

Venture funding in the U.S. hit $64 billion in the first quarter, according to analysis from Ernst & Young, using data from Crunchbase.

That’s the highest amount ever for a single quarter and equal to 43% of all the venture money raised in 2020.

“A year ago everybody thought we were sliding into the abyss,” said Jeff Grabow, U.S. venture capital leader at Ernst & Young ... " 

Ethereum and Ernst & Young

In Forbes, more examples in the space, here using a zero-knowledge approach. 

Ernst & Young Doubles Down On Its Bet With Ethereum
Ben Jessel  Contributor
Crypto & Blockchain
I write about fintech and enterprise adoption of blockchain technology.

On December 19th 2019, the audit and consulting giant Ernst & Young announced the release of their “third-generation zero-knowledge proof blockchain technology” to the public domain as part of the firm’s effort to make public networks ready for enterprise adoption.

Ernst & Young’s advocacy of public blockchain network infrastructure, as opposed to permissioned and private networks (referred to as private networks going forward, for brevity), is notable given that the firm’s industry peers have either remained neutral on the public vs. private network debate or have voiced skepticism on the viability of public networks. ... "

Teams Fighting Burnout

Rarely seen this attempted, or effectively done.  Lip service.  In one on one cases, but not as a group.  Rewards?   And usually too late. 

Teams Fight Burnout Together  in the HBR
By Tony Schwartz, Rene Polizzi, Kelly Gruber, Emily Pines

Here’s a vexing paradox. On the one hand, companies are offering more wellness and well-being options than ever before, including mindfulness and yoga classes, nap rooms, and fitness facilities. On the other hand, employee burnout has risen to such a level that the World Health Organization now considers it a workplace hazard.

Most corporate well-being offerings are well-intended and potentially valuable. The problem is that without challenging the deeply embedded mindset that more, bigger, faster is always better, these offerings don’t get fully supported, nor are they widely and freely utilized.

Earlier this year, Ernst & Young (EY) and The Energy Project set out to test a hypothesis: If all members of a client-serving team rallied together to build more rest and renewal into their lives, they would feel better and they’d get more work accomplished in less time.   ... "

Public Blockchains for Private Business Data

Blockchains as a service?  Would get them more commonly used and understood.  More detail about the direction at the link.  Privacy of data is being emphasized.

Coming soon: Public blockchains for private business data
Ernst & Young has created a public blockchain prototype it plans to launch in 2019 that lets companies transact with any number of partners in an open network while protecting the privacy of each participant and their data. .... 
             
By Lucas Mearian
Senior Reporter, Computerworld ... "

Integrated Work System

A conversation with former enterprise colleagues led me to this piece on reliability innovation I had a small part in.    See the tag links to Los Alamos Labs, which was also involved.  Here to pass this on to my readers for reference, worth examining.

Pointer to some of the above work in R&D Magazine.
This was originally offered for use by KPMG Consulting. in 2005.

EY and P&G Alliance  and see also @EY_Alliances
What will operational excellence look like in your organization’s future?

Despite investments in lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and total productivity maintenance, companies are struggling to achieve a breakthrough in manufacturing productivity. EY and P&G have combined their manufacturing excellence capabilities to bring a significantly different approach to attaining higher levels of manufacturing performance.

P&G’s Integrated Work System (IWS) is a proprietary way of improving manufacturing reliability, reducing costs and elevating productivity. IWS is a disruptive way of working predicated on two primary principles: the drive to zero losses and 100 percent employee ownership. The EY and P&G alliance combines the Integrated Work System with the global EY manufacturing performance improvement experience and P&G certified consultants to help clients improve performance via sustainable change and transformation.  ..... 

Newsroom
  
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has recognized EY as one of twelve top performing companies to receive its highest honor of being named Excellence Award winners and External Business Partner of the Year at the 2016 P&G External Business Partner of the Year Recognition Dinner, which recognizes exemplary partner collaboration.

Among P&G’s more than 50,000 suppliers and agencies, EY was the only professional services organization to receive the award. EY has now received the P&G Excellence Award six times and the Partner of the Year award three times.

Kristina Rogers, EY Global Consumer Products and Retail Leader, says:

“We are thrilled to be recognized by P&G for EY’s commitment to collaboration. With the industry facing unprecedented disruption, business innovation is critical to meet changing consumer wants and needs and to sustaining profitable growth. We are proud to be a key member of the P&G innovation ecosystem, challenging thinking and helping to deliver on its consumer promise.”

David Taylor, P&G President and CEO, presented the award to EY for engendering strong trust and collaboration through agility and quality advisory services.

Taylor says: “Supplier partners have a key role to play in our ability to deliver. The more integrated and connected P&G and our supplier partners are, the better able we are to be more innovative and productive in meeting consumers’ needs.”   .... "

Defining Digital Shoppers

Interesting statistics in Retail Wire. " ... Ernst & Young and Havas Worldwide are just two of numerous firms attempting to classify the still-emerging digital consumer in recently published reports. What questions are most important to ask when looking to define digital shoppers? What traits are particularly important to access in exploring how digital may alter the path to purchase?  ... "