Building a Blockchain Strategy? Deloitte’s CTO Has Advice For You

Author: Michael del Castillo / Source: CoinDesk

As one of the earliest enterprise firms to specialize in blockchain, Deloitte has quickly become a fixture in industry news and at conferences. But just how important is the emerging technology to its business?

For context, despite generating $36 billion in revenue last year, the “Big Four” auditing firm has invested in just one blockchain startup. Further, it has only officially opened two blockchain labs – with a third soon to be launched.

In this light, Deloitte’s investment strategy might seem like a small series of shots in the dark. But the truth, according to Deloitte Consulting’s chief technology officer, Bill Briggs is that it’s anything but.

In an exclusive interview, Briggs described how an elaborate series of programs not only helped his firm decide how to invest in blockchain, but also proved instrumental in getting the firm into blockchain in the first place.

Briggs told CoinDesk:

“We’re creating value maps to bring to light an industry for a given domain, function, process; where are the places that have concrete, simple to understand, no-regret value?”

Brigs estimates that 70 percent of Deloitte’s investments are made in these easy-to-understand product-market fits, with the remaining 30 percent focused on less certain, more experimental prospects.

“The further out you get, no one has the answer,” said Briggs.

Data vacuum

At the core of the strategy are a number steps designed to tap into the wisdom of the crowd. But, it’s not just any crowd that generates Deloitte’s investment data.

Rather, the global consultancy that employs 244,000 people has established a network of cells around the world that scan for the latest blockchain trends culled from data created by its own personnel.

Founded in October 2015, Deloitte’s S3 group consists of strategic analysts whose sole job is to “sense, scout, and scan” global financial services. Based in New York City, the team of three analysts gathers original data from events, clients, startups and paid data sources like DataFox to look for potentially valuable patterns.

This investment due diligence considers variables including the potential of an idea based on its market size, unit economics and market traction.

Then those trends are “populated” into Deloitte’s System Relationship Management Platform (a development of the customer relationship management, or CRM, concept already in wide use across sectors) and sent directly to select groups of the firm’s employees. These groups, in turn, provide feedback based on experience related to the trends.

Similarly, Deloitte’s Innovation Tech Terminal…

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