Events
Digital-First B2B Sales: Optimizing the Customer Journey for Online Growth
April 24, 2025 (Virtual)
As B2B companies increasingly shift toward digital sales channels, optimizing the end-to-end customer journey has become paramount. This session will explore how digital tools, automation, and AI can streamline the buying experience while boosting online sales. Industry experts and corporate leaders will share best practices to address common barriers in digital transformation, from integrating new technologies to ensuring seamless internal alignment.
Key themes include bridging traditional and digital sales approaches, building resilient digital infrastructure, and fostering data-driven decision-making. This interactive discussion will equip participants with actionable insights for refining the digital B2B customer journey and unlocking sustainable online sales growth.
Building Innovation Capacity in Southeast Asia
March 26, 2025 (Singapore breakfast)
As international companies expand in Southeast Asia, they must navigate diverse market dynamics while ensuring their innovation strategies contribute meaningfully to business performance. Striking the right balance between corporate-led and open innovation is critical to sustaining competitive advantage against nimble local players.
This interactive roundtable will explore how multinational companies can build robust innovation ecosystems that align with global strategy while enabling localized agility. Discussions will focus on structuring innovation teams, optimizing external collaborations, and measuring the tangible impact of innovation initiatives.
Key themes include defining the optimal blend of internal and external innovation resources, managing in-house functions versus leveraging startups, universities, and agencies, aligning global innovation strategies with local execution, mitigating risks while maximising value creation from external partnerships, and measuring innovation initiatives' financial and strategic impact.
From AI Pilot to Scale: Building an Organization to Integrate AI into Operations Systematically
March 6, 2025 (Virtual)
As AI technologies become mainstream, enterprises must move beyond one-off pilots to fully embed AI into their core processes. This session will explore how AI-powered corporate agents can optimize operations and decision-making, define preconditions for adoption, and assess ROI across different functions—from HR and customer service to R&D. Participants will discuss strategies to integrate AI seamlessly into existing workflows while tackling the challenges that can arise at scale when blending new solutions with legacy systems.
Key themes include AI-driven operations, cross-functional ROI analysis, and the cultural and infrastructural shifts required for successful AI rollouts. Focusing on peer-to-peer dialogue, the conversation will equip leaders with practical insights for unlocking quick wins and significant long-term value—accelerating an organization’s evolution into an entirely data-driven enterprise.
Speaker: Etienne Charlier, Partner, Asia Growth Partners
Corporate Venturing in the Age of Software-Led Innovation
January 17, 2025 (Shanghai breakfast) and February 27, 2025 (Virtual)
As software-driven innovation reshapes industries, large organizations must rediscover their entrepreneurial roots to remain competitive. Traditional corporate structures often struggle to balance agility with governance, making it challenging to adopt venture-like approaches to innovation. This session will explore how established companies can foster internal entrepreneurship, structure venture investments, and navigate Asia’s unique business ecosystems to drive long-term growth.
Key themes include corporate venture building, investor dynamics, and balancing corporate control with startup-style innovation. Focusing on peer-to-peer dialogue, participants will discuss best practices in governance, capital structures, and intrapreneurial culture to equip leaders with practical insights for accelerating transformation in a digital-first business world.
Speaker: Nils Wagner, CEO, Rehau New Ventures
Innovate or Stagnate: A Fork in the Road
December 5, 2024 (Singapore breakfast) and December 3, 2024 (Shanghai breakfast)
Multinational enterprises face increasing challenges from nimble local competitors in Asia's diverse and fragmented markets. The choice for Western MNCs is clear: localize and innovate, or risk being outcompeted. Too often, headquarters dismiss valuable insights from regional teams, missing opportunities to identify emerging trends. The urgent need to empower regional teams, link local-for-local innovation with global resources, and align subsidiaries with headquarters’ priorities is evident. This session will explore tactics, structures, and governance models to navigate these challenges effectively, focusing on how speed and agility can outperform size in dynamic markets.
Dec 5 Speakers: Yifei Zhang, Partner, Head of China, Control Risks; Michelle Woo, COO, IMI Venture Studio; Sebastian Mueller, Co-Founder, MING Labs
Dec 3 Speakers: John Gao, Chief AI Strategist, SenseTime; Sebastian Mueller, Co-Founder, MING Labs
The Next Chapter in China’s Growth Story
November 21, 2024 (Zurich seminar)
As China’s economy navigates challenges from a property market downturn and a slowing technology sector, many observers predict a decline in its global economic ambitions. However, Beijing is recalibrating its economic policies to ensure a softer landing, balancing domestic overcapacity and expanding its international market presence. This session will delve into China’s evolving growth trajectories, risk dynamics, and the trends shaping sectors from electric vehicles to e-commerce, offering insights into how businesses can adapt to these changes effectively.
Speakers: Alexandra Scherrer, Co-Founder & CEO, Carpathia; Dr. Daniel Kirchart, Founder, FLYNT; Bianca Pestalozzi-Houchangnia, General Manager EMEA, On
Moderator: Nils Wagner, CEO, REHAU New Ventures
Made in Germany at China Speed
November 19, 2024 (Munich salon)
The business landscape between China and Germany is entering uncharted territory. China’s rapid innovation and strategic economic maneuvers present challenges and opportunities for German companies. While some debate the impact of EU duties on Chinese electric vehicles, others focus on the competitive pressure from China’s advancements in low-cost mobility and green tech sectors. This session will explore strategic growth opportunities in Asia, integrating Chinese innovation into German operations, and effective cross-cultural partnerships to build resilient and collaborative business strategies.
Facilitators: Erik Walenza, CEO, Asia Growth Partners; Dr. Markus Anding, MD, Excubate; Dr. Mirko Wormuth, CEO, Energiepiloten
Innovation Mixer
August 27, 2024 (Shanghai drinks gathering)
China’s Third Plenum prioritized three key pillars: science-based innovation, green energy, and consumption driven by the “Chinese way.” Promising a more significant role for market forces, rural land reform, and unification of national markets, the policy direction aims to balance growth and stability. However, analysts remain cautious about the continued reliance on SOEs and supply-side policies. This mixer will provide innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors a platform to discuss China’s evolving opportunity landscape and share insights on navigating this dynamic environment.
GenAI Adoption: An Asia-Focused Exploration
August 1, 2024 (Virtual)
The world is entering a new era of automated intelligence. This AGX dialogue will assess the state of GenAI adoption across Asian companies, exploring both “quick win” and “big win” use cases that improve productivity and drive revenue growth. The session will address key adoption challenges, including regulatory hurdles, rapid technological advancements, corporate IT policies, and cultural and process change management.
Speaker: Hongbing Zhang, Chief Operating Officer, DaoCloud
Competitive Advantage in the AI Age
April 13, 2024 (Shanghai afternoon tea)
Generative AI presents both an opportunity and a challenge for businesses, reshaping innovation, competitive advantage, and strategic growth. This exclusive peer-to-peer session, facilitated by Mark Greeven, Professor of Strategy at IMD China, will explore how corporate leaders can harness AI to accelerate benefits across their organizations. Participants will gain insights from real-world case studies on effectively deploying and scaling AI initiatives, including the CEO and key executives from a leading South American insurance group.
Speaker: Mark Greeven, Professor of Innovation Management & Asia Dean, IMD
Unlocking Business Value from Generative AI
April 12, 2024 (Munich breakfast)
With fervent commitment from C-suite executives and unguided experimentation with generative AI by employees, a unique “pincer movement” is reshaping how businesses approach innovation, competitive advantage, and strategic growth. Despite Gen AI's attention, a gap remains between curiosity and clarity. This session aims to bridge that gap by providing a structured and dynamic approach to understanding AI’s promise and pitfalls.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Alexander Pretschner, Technische Universität München
NPI & Supply Chain Resilience Strategies
April 2, 2024 (Virtual)
This session will focus on building resilient supply chains capable of withstanding the pressures of high-stakes new product introductions (NPI), navigating the “China + N” phenomenon, and driving supply chain diversification in Asia. Participants will explore strategies to optimize supply chains for enhanced availability, cost-efficiency, quality, and ethical standards. This session will offer insights into scaling operations in Asia, creating exceptional teams, and executing successful product launches from concept to market.
Speaker: Former APAC Operations Leader, Apple Inc.
Innovation Mixer
January 24, 2024 (Shanghai drinks gathering)
A new year is upon us! After four years of promising starts and challenging ends, will 2024 provide the stability and platform needed for China’s innovators and entrepreneurs? This mixer will facilitate an open discussion on outlooks, opportunities, and potential challenges shaping China’s innovation landscape in 2024.
China Forward – 2024 Insights
November 9, 2023 (Shanghai CXO dinner)
This exclusive dinner dialogue brings together leading Chinese investment partners, prominent economists, and senior executives for an insightful evening. Discussions will focus on China’s next growth hotspots, including Generative AI, deep tech, and macroeconomic trends anticipated in 2024. Designed as a peer-to-peer exchange, the format encourages candid conversations, connecting regional strategies, innovation blueprints, and leadership insights for the year ahead.
Speakers: James Jin, Managing Partner, Ventech China; Jonathan Anderson, Founder, EM Advisors ; Richard Wang, Partner, Draper Dragon Fund
Blueprinting Corporate Venture Building
October 19, 2023 (Virtual)
The business landscape is shifting across industries, making balance more essential for growth than ever. Establishing the proper structure is key to success. This session will explore how organizations can balance independence and alignment, empower winning teams, ensure long-term organizational stability, secure financing from multiple sources, and build an effective innovation funnel to discover new opportunities. Through interactive panels and breakout discussions, participants will exchange insights and strategies for building resilient and innovative corporate ventures.
Speaker: Pieter Van De Velde, Founding Partner, Ninepointfive
Innovating in Asia
September 7, 2023 (Singapore breakfast)
Discussions will focus on the transition towards Asia-for-Asia-centric models, the challenge of crafting fit-for-market solutions, and the long-term commitment needed for strategic expansion. The session will explore perspectives on strategic priorities, organizational design, and tactical initiatives, fostering an open dialogue among participants.
Innovating in Asia
August 18, 2023 (Shanghai innovation forum with IMD)
The breakfast and afternoon discussions centre on localized innovation—how businesses can adapt innovation pipelines to align with highly competitive local-for-local market dynamics. A highlight of the session will be the presentation of AGP's “Innovating in Asia” report, a collaboration with IMD Business School, based on data from over 90 MNCs.
Speakers: Misiek Piskorski and Mark Greeven, Professors at IMD; and Benjamin Zhai
Innovating in Southeast Asia & India to Ignite Growth
July 13, 2023 (Virtual)
Southeast Asia and India are emerging as critical hubs for manufacturing and market growth, driven by favorable demographics, effective industrial policies, and the strategic reallocation of priorities under the “China + N” strategy. This session will focus on localized innovation and address the unique challenges of managing socio-economically diverse markets like Singapore and India. Participants will discuss FDI trends, assets financed by foreign investments, and how organizations are restructuring innovation teams to support growth in these dynamic regions.
Speaker: Priyanka Kishore, Asia Decoded.
The TAO of Decarbonization – Tracking, Analyzing, Optimizing
April 19, 2023 (Virtual)
The new standard of business success lies in profitability and sustainability. This session explores practical strategies for achieving growth while embracing decarbonization goals. Discussions will address balancing economic, environmental, and social responsibilities, building and deploying digital solutions for decarbonization, and translating sustainability goals from board directives to frontline action. Participants will gain insights from successful case studies and engage in peer-to-peer exchanges to achieve scalable, future-proof transformations.
Speaker: Axel Berger, Chief Sustainability Officer, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbHorganizations
Balancing Global Operations: Fostering Growth Across Regions
February 24 (Virtual)
As Asia becomes an increasingly important growth driver, organizations face the challenge of balancing operations across regions while fostering collaboration and alignment across borders. This session will focus on how companies reconfigure their organizations, bridging cultural and operational structural differences to support sustainable growth in Asia.
Speaker: Chief Digital Officer, APAC of a leading specialty chemicals group
Enterprise Metaverse Applications & Business Models
January 12, 2023 (Virtual)
The enterprise metaverse promises to revolutionize how businesses operate, collaborate, and innovate. This session will explore the readiness of today’s tech stack, the challenges that remain, and the potential impact of immersive digital environments on organizational efficiency. Participants will discuss the role of digital twins in replicating business processes, enabling optimized decision-making from the C-suite to frontline teams, strengthening remote collaboration, and fostering new approaches to product development.
Speaker: Eric Liu, Founder & CTO, Virspatial Technologies
Building Effective Teams and Ecosystems
November 15, 2023 (Virtual)
For many multinational corporations (MNCs) headquartered outside of Asia, the region serves as a centerpiece for growth strategies, not only for its sales potential but also for its role in driving leading-edge innovation, shaping industry norms, and advancing sustainability initiatives. However, conventional approaches to local innovation are no longer sufficient in an era where ecosystem-led business models redefine growth paradigms. This session will explore how leaders can balance resolve and resilience, navigate uncertainty, and collaborate beyond traditional corporate boundaries to co-create new value.
Speaker: Mark Greeven, Professor of Innovation & China Dean, IMDToday, MNCs face a dilemma: pursuing an investment-lite approach to minimize risks or an expansion strategy to maximize growth potential.
Building Alignment Between Headquarters and China Subsidiaries on Innovation Strategy
June 16, 2022 (Virtual)
Over the past two decades, European multinationals have established their presence in China, driven by manufacturing efficiencies and market growth opportunities. However, geopolitical tensions, rising local competition, and pandemic-induced restrictions have reshaped strategic priorities. Today, MNCs face a dilemma: pursuing an investment-lite approach to minimize risks or an expansion strategy to maximize growth potential. This session will explore how companies can align global and Chinese digitalization and innovation strategies, address localization requirements for digital assets, and balance short-term profits with long-term competitiveness in China’s evolving market landscape.