Watchwords for Tapping into the Metaverse Make it Relevant: “Companies will want to have their own environments, their own attributes, their own business models … [and not look to] ”join some universal virtual space,” Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics Kevin Werbach said at the Mack Institute Conference on the Metaverse. Werbach is also an expert on the metaverse, and his research interests include blockchain and digital assets. According to Werbach, it is important for organizations to understand which dimensions of the metaverse are relevant to their business and customer environment. He spelled out the choices they must make to benefit from the metaverse: “There's a thread of the metaverse that is entirely about games – entirely about people having fun. There are pieces of the metaverse that are entirely about community. There are pieces that are entirely about work and business activity and shared spaces for business communication. Understand which dimensions of that are relevant to you and then understand always when dealing with emerging technologies, what's your value proposition?” From Physical to Virtual: Kahn offered some tips on how retailers are preparing themselves for the metaverse. As a first step, some companies are trying to translate their physical experience into a virtual one, she said. She pointed to the fast-casual food chain Chipotle, which invites its customers to put together a burrito virtually, and then Chipotle would connect that virtual creation with the real product and deliver it in real time. Fashion brand Dolce Gabbana, for instance, got its metaverse feet wet at the Decentraland Fashion Week, March 2022, where it had virtual catwalks, using cats as the models.