International Conference: Competitive Advantage in a Changing World

Technological change, new global competitors, resource constraints and a more fragmented international order are reshaping how organisations create and sustain advantage.

Amsterdam

Where will your organisation’s next source of competitive advantage come from?

Technological change, new global competitors, resource constraints and a more fragmented international order are reshaping how organisations create and sustain advantage. Established strengths can erode quickly and, as powerful technologies become widely accessible, having the tools alone is rarely enough to differentiate an organisation.

The challenge is to understand where distinctive value is created today, where that advantage is vulnerable and how it can be renewed as conditions change.

Organisations may need to revisit strategy, business models and customer value, use AI to enable reinvention rather than simply make existing activity more efficient and build the ability to sense change, make decisions and execute faster. They also need sufficient agility to adapt when assumptions no longer hold.

This conference will examine both the external and internal dimensions of competitiveness, helping leaders strengthen performance today while continuing to renew their organisation’s advantage for the future.

What the conference will deliver
Participants will leave with:

• A clearer view of the technological, geopolitical, competitive and resource-based forces reshaping organisational advantage

• An approach for identifying where their organisation creates distinctive value and where current advantages may be vulnerable

• Practical perspectives on how AI, business-model innovation and changing partnerships can reshape value creation

• A clearer understanding of the organisational capabilities required for speed, scalable innovation, resilience and adaptability

• Practical implications for leadership, organisation design, talent, culture and workforce capability.

Who is this event for?
Senior HR and business leaders responsible for shaping strategy, organisational capability and the future competitiveness of their organisations.

Arturo Bris Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, Professor of Finance, IMD and Director, IMD World Competitiveness Center

Arturo Bris Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, Professor of Finance, IMD and Director, IMD World Competitiveness Center
Arturo Bris is Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, Professor of Finance, and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. An award-winning teacher and program director, he ranks among the top 100 most-read finance academics worldwide. He is the author of several books, a frequent speaker at international conferences, and appears regularly on international media outlets. His work has been published in The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Legal Studies, and The Journal of Business. He has also had articles published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Handelsblatt, among others. Bris’s areas of expertise include corporate finance, corporate governance, financial regulation, and competitiveness. As Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, he works with governments all over the world assessing, measuring, and managing the competitiveness of countries. The WCC produces trusted annual rankings on economies’ competitiveness, and, under his leadership, it has expanded its coverage by adding new rankings on talent, digital competitiveness, and smart cities. n addition to leading the Center, Bris conducts research on the relationship between income inequality, social mobility, and competitiveness. His work on the international aspects of financial regulation focuses particularly on the effects of bankruptcy, short sales, insider trading, and merger laws. He has also researched and lectured on the effects of the Euro on the corporate sector and the valuation impact of corporate governance changes. His recent work includes a comprehensive study of 3,692 CEOs from 22 countries from 1991-2019, which found strong evidence that existing studies overestimate the impact of CEOs on the performance of the firms they lead, and an analysis of the outlook for globalization in the post-COVID-19 period.
Michael G Jacobides Sir Donald Gordon Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School

Michael G Jacobides Sir Donald Gordon Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School
Michael G. Jacobides is the Sir Donald Gordon Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. He works at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and digital transformation, focusing on how AI reshapes firms’ value propositions, the rise and governance of digital ecosystems, value migration, the evolution of industries, firm boundaries, and organisational design. He combines academic research with practice, advising senior leadership teams of Fortune 500 firms and scale-ups as Lead Advisor at Evolution Ltd. He is also an Academic Advisor to BCG’s Henderson Institute and advisor in Evolver.ai. His work has informed strategy and transformation efforts across a wide range of organisations globally. Professor Jacobides’ research has been published in leading journals including Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and Industrial & Corporate Change, where he serves as co-Editor. He has received awards from organisations including the Sloan Foundation and StrategieForum, and since 2019 has been recognised among the world’s top 50 management thinkers.
Dr. Christiane Prange Professor and International Management Consultant

Dr. Christiane Prange Professor and International Management Consultant
Dr. Christiane Prange is a professor and international management consultant. She previously worked in Shanghai, where she held a position as a full professor of Strategy and International Business at Tongji University, and lectured in Executive Programs at Jiaotong and Zhejiang University. She has lived and worked in more than six countries, including Germany, France, China, Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Over the past 20 years, she has developed training programs and provided consulting services to multinational corporations—such as SAP, Infineon Technologies, Siemens, Swisscom, Saint-Gobain, Novartis, and Volvo—as well as to medium-sized enterprises. Her areas of expertise include the design and implementation of global strategies (particularly Europe and Asia-China), and corporate transformation strategies with a focus on capability development and agility. She earned her Habilitation (the qualification to supervise academic research) from the University of Lyon 3 in France, her PhD in Management Studies from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and an MBA from the Free University of Berlin in Germany. Additionally, she completed executive training at Harvard Business School. Her previous academic appointments include positions at EMLYON Business School (France), the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria), Tufts University—The Fletcher School (USA), Liverpool/Laureate and the Open University (UK), and TIAS Business School (Netherlands). She gained consulting experience in the internal consulting division of SAP AG and at Detecon Consulting. She currently is a Distinguished Professor at Woxsen University in India, where she also serves on the board of the India-China Center. Furthermore, she is the founder of Caralan Global Advisors and the Caralan Global Institute; through these entities, she collaborates with partners to offer trainings, workshops, and research-based consulting services.
Dr. Mark Esposito Professor of Strategy & Technology Policy, Northeastern University and Chief Economist, micro1 (Silicon Valley AI Lab)

Dr. Mark Esposito Professor of Strategy & Technology Policy, Northeastern University and Chief Economist, micro1 (Silicon Valley AI Lab)
Dr. Mark Esposito is recognized internationally as a defining voice at the intersection of artificial intelligence, strategy, and the future of economies. He is a Global Expert of the World Economic Forum and a trusted advisor to national governments worldwide. He serves as Professor of Strategy and Technology Policy at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, where he is also Affiliate Scientist at the Global Resilience Institute. A social scientist with deep roots at Harvard University, he holds appointments at the Center for International Development at Harvard Kennedy School, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.For his work in public policy, he is an appointed Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and Professor of Economic Policy at Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in the UAE. He serves as Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI laboratory, and holds visiting professorships across institutions around the world. He served from 2015-2019 as Institutes Council Co-Leader, at the Microeconomics of Competitiveness program (MOC) at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, at Harvard Business School under the mentorship of Professor Michael E. Porter and as Founding Research Fellow of the Circular Economy Center at the Judge’s Business School at University of Cambridge, from 2016 to 2020, where he retains a Senior Associate role.