Future of Business

How would you like to have your own personal banker? The traditional model of banks as a store of value and source of liquidity, and of bankers as trusted personal financial advisors, is under threat like never before. We discuss the range of these threats with Alec McLaurin, MBA student and then look at how one bank in America is find opportunities amongst the threats with Steve Gotz, former COO and co-founder of Pivotus - the innovation arm of Umpqua Bank.

How do you account for carbon? In part 2 of our take on climate change, we speak to Richard Barker, professor of accounting at Oxford and Fellow of the International Accounting Standards Board in London. Professor Barker guides us through the challenge of getting companies to report on their carbon emissions.

How do you future proof yourself from AI? How do you future proof yourself from AI? The threats from artificial intelligence are supposedly many and imminent from a full take over to widespread job losses. We caught up with Dr Vivienne Ming, theoretical neuroscientist and Founder and Chair of Socos Labs at the Social Impact Careers Conference at Saïd Business school, to discuss how we can future-proof ourselves and what AI means for our education system.

LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes? We dive into the high-tech future of transport with Nick Earle, VP at Virgin Hyperloop One. Hyperloop is a super-fast transport system where pods carrying people and cargo are shot through a vacuum tube at incredibly high speeds, taking you from LA to San Francisco in thirty minutes. The race is on to build the first functioning Hyperloop, with Virgin facing competition from Elon Musk as well as firms in the Middle East and Asia. We talk to Nick about the challenges they’re facing as well as the impact Hyperloop technology could have on the way our cities are designed to function.

AI’s effect on the labour force, who wins man or machine? In a society rapidly moving beyond the traditional employment paradigm, how do we distribute wealth equitably and find our purpose in life? We explore the future of work with Oxford Professor Jonathan Trevor, covering everything from the utility of employment to daily working life in the future. We close out the episode by chatting with Google Chief Economist Hal Varian, who is optimistic about the coming automation revolution and believes we need machines to take over the job hole left by retiring baby boomers.

How can an institution that is over 900 years old teach its students about the future? We speak to Peter Tufano, Dean of Oxford's Saïd Business School. Can an institution that is over 900 years old teach its students about the future? In this episode we speak to Peter Tufano, Dean of Saïd Business School about how Oxford achieves this, the societal challenges keeping him up at night and the opportunities he is excited about.