PA Consulting Group and the United Nations promote breakthrough innovation and disruptive technologies at UN Global Compact Leaders Summit

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alan Middleton, CEO of PA Consulting Group (PA), will moderate a panel discussion at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York City today on how organisations can achieve breakthrough innovation in pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs represent a US$12 trillion opportunity for businesses. Yet at current pace, the global community risks coming up short on many of the targets.

To date, efforts to accelerate progress towards the SDGs have largely focused within individual organisations and their existing value chains. During his session at the Leaders Summit, Middleton will highlight the need for organisations to adopt an approach of breakthrough innovation, which calls for looking beyond incremental change to find new business models that deliver both societal and economic outcomes. He will also emphasise that disruptive technologies are key to powering many of the breakthrough innovations.

In partnership with the UN Global Compact and Volans, PA has identified twelve disruptive technologies that have the potential to drive significant improvements in business performance and the quality of life of the world's population. For each technology, PA has developed an executive summary which details its key features, provides examples of its applications, outlines its potential positive and negative societal impact, and explores how it can enable economic growth.

The disruptive technologies and their associated potential are:

    --  Additive manufacturing - reduce waste, improve performance, create new
        products, and challenge global supply chains.
    --  Artificial intelligence - transformational automation and machine
        learning, the potential of which is as yet unknown.
    --  Autonomous road vehicles - revolutionise travel and logistics by
        fundamentally shifting our attitudes to transport and mobility, creating
        new business models.
    --  Big data - deliver better understanding of our complex, interconnected
        world, to provide improved understanding, decisions and outcomes.
    --  Blockchain - build digital trust through tamper-proof online
        transactions which could revolutionise management of IP, personal
        records, identity, ownership, provenance, etc.
    --  Digital agriculture - combine sensors, communications, and advanced
        computing to increase productivity and reduce resource consumption.
    --  Gene editing - manipulate the genetic code of plants and animals,
        potentially changing human health and food production forever.
    --  Internet of things - apply sensors, connectivity and computing to
        previously isolated objects to unlock new value networks.
    --  Next generation robotics - move from fixed repetitive tasks to free
        unstructured collaboration with humans and change the world of work.
    --  The microbiome - deliver new understanding of the microbes around and
        within us, and use bacteria to prevent and treat diseases.
    --  Unmanned air systems - transform delivery, inspection, surveillance,
        imaging, search and rescue, logistics and law enforcement.
    --  Virtual and augmented reality - enable new forms of experience,
        collaboration and interaction, without the need for physical presence.

Alan Middleton, CEO, PA Consulting Group says, "Achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals offers economic opportunities estimated to be worth at least US$12 trillion. Right now we are falling short because change has been incremental and delivered mostly within individual organisations and their existing value chains. We need businesses to adopt an approach of 'breakthrough innovation,' looking beyond incremental change to identify new business models that will deliver both societal and economic outcomes. Disruptive technologies will be at the heart of many breakthrough innovations and will enable organisations to operate in new and far more sustainable ways while seizing huge commercial opportunities. A daunting challenge for sure, but taking the long-view, 'business as usual' is a bigger risk than pursuing breakthrough innovation."

About PA Consulting Group

We Make the Difference.

An independent firm of over 2,600 people, we operate globally from offices across the Americas, Europe, the Nordics, the Gulf and Asia Pacific.

We are experts in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government, healthcare, life sciences, and transport, travel and logistics.

Our deep industry knowledge together with skills in management consulting, technology and innovation allows us to challenge conventional thinking and deliver exceptional results that have a lasting impact on businesses, governments and communities worldwide.

Our clients choose us because we don't just believe in making a difference. We believe in making the difference. www.paconsulting.com

For more details on the twelve disruptive technologies see: http://www.paconsulting.com/insights/united-nations-global-compact/

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pa-consulting-group-and-the-united-nations-promote-breakthrough-innovation-and-disruptive-technologies-at-un-global-compact-leaders-summit-300523337.html

SOURCE PA Consulting Group