Putting The Magic Back Into Magic Leap

Walter Delph knows a thing or two about building large businesses from small ventures – and then keeping them there. Delph’s CV includes stints at Goldman Sachs and Verizon, but he has also built – and sold – his own social media-oriented start-up; and he is best known as co-founder of Boston Consulting Group’s Digital Ventures, the consultant’s wildly successful technology incubator.

Now Delph is taking on a new challenge, joining Magic Leap as the company’s chief business officer. Founded 10 years ago, Magic Leap has developed a range of innovative technologies in the virtual reality market – though it prefers the term spatial computing – and earlier this year appointed Peggy Johnson, formerly a senior executive at Microsoft, as its CEO.

“I fundamentally believe that virtual reality will fundamentally change the way that people go about their day-to-day lives,” Delph says. “Our challenge is to think about which groups will take advantage of it today, tomorrow and in the future.”

That does indeed cut to the chase of the challenge facing Magic Leap. In its early years, the business secured backing running into billions of dollars from a spate of high-profile investors, including Google, Alibaba, AT&T and a couple of the world’s best-known sovereign wealth funds. But it has struggled to sell its technology to consumers and earlier this year announced significant job cuts; such problems have also taken a toll on the company’s valuation.

Delph is not phased by these setbacks. “Virtual reality was initially seen as a consumer-focused technology, but I think enterprise is now going to be a more lucrative opportunity in the short term,” he argues.

In its next phase, Magic Leap’s focus will be on selling its services to businesses – it sees its technology as hugely beneficial for companies that want to connect staff working in different locations, for example, train staff remotely, or review designs, developments and new ideas. The company stresses that the technology isn’t virtual reality, where users are immersed in a new world, or augmented reality, which makes use of a screen; rather, spatial computing combines the images projected with the physical reality of your location.

Now is the perfect time to be selling the concept to business customers, Delph argues. “This awful pandemic has accelerated changes in the way people do business,” he says, pointing to the huge increase in working from home and e-commerce. “We are very well positioned to take advantage of that.” Magic Leap’s technologies will help manufacturing companies provide remote assistance on factory floors, Delph says, or make it easier for students to collaborate; employers will be able to use spatial computing to train staff in a variety of competencies and skills, both old and new.

Effectively, Magic Leap has performed a pivot – a concept familiar to successful entrepreneurs who are accustomed to changing the focus of businesses struggling to gain traction with their initial direction of travel. Delph and his colleagues are betting that with other ingredients in place, the timing is right for Magic Leap to succeed with a new focus for its products and services. “We’ve got great technology and great people,” he adds.

Delph could be the perfect candidate for such a mission, given his blend of entrepreneurial and blue-chip experience. “I speak both languages,” he says. “I understand how start-ups work but I also know corporates.”

Indeed, Delph believes his own career path is a good match for a business such as Magic Leap as it pursues its long-term goals. “Entrepreneurs need to set a goal with their strategy, but there is very rarely a straight line to that goal,” he warns. “My own career has been much more of a zig-zag – but that’s fine, because you’re picking up new skills and experiences along the way.”

Delph also believes Magic Leap has one other advantage that will help it prosper. A long-time advocate for corporate diversity, he says: “One of the attractions of working with this business was its diverse management team and board – it has a real commitment to putting the best people in place.”

The technology sector is often criticised for its record on diversity, something Delph blames on unconscious bias, but this gives businesses such as Magic Leap an edge, he argues. “I believe diversity of thought is good for business,” he says. “You get to see the business from a range of different vantage points and this fundamentally changes how you talk to customers.”