The CEO Dialogue

Rio Tinto CEO, Jakob Stausholm emphasizes relationship-building and empathy to restore Rio Tinto's social license and guide its decarbonization efforts. **** Read our magazine, I by IMD, here . Discover IMD's leadership programmes here .

Read our magazine, I by IMD, here . Discover IMD's leadership programmes here .

Margherita Della Valle tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how she is delivering radical change to reenergize Vodafone and paving the way for greater diversity in leadership. -- Read our magazine, I by IMD, here . Discover IMD's leadership programmes here .

Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of the company which makes game-changing obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, explains how its culture and long-view underpin its recent turnaround.

Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni why he has remained laser-focused on implementing its purposeful growth agenda and why the company decided to exit Russia.

A year into the job, Marco Arcelli, CEO of ACWA Power , tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how the Saudi company plans to triple assets to $250 billion in six years by expanding internationally.

Anticipating rising raw material costs, Tata Steel’s CEO & Managing Director TV Narendran tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how he introduced a change management process to instill a culture of future readiness at the 100-year-old industrial company.

Henrik Andersen discusses with IMD President Jean-François Manzoni the challenges of navigating supply chain disruptions and soaring raw material costs over the past three years, and why he changed the wind farm developer’s culture to encourage openness and trust.

Regenerative agriculture techniques are vital to improve the resilience of crops and help farmers achieve humanity’s dual objective of growing more food using less land, the CEO of the Swiss agriculture group tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni, as he advocates for carbon labelling on produce. 

Dilhan Pillay, CEO of Singapore’s global investment giant Temasek, discusses with Jean-François Manzoni the importance of a carbon tax and how his company is working to ensure ‘every generation prospers’ without sacrificing profits.

Mostafa Terrab, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Moroccan fertilizer group OCP, explains to IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how sincerity of intent helped him gain the trust of his people. ------- Read our new magazine, I by IMD, here . Discover IMD's leadership programmes here .

Antoine de Saint-Affrique is a man who doesn’t let himself, his employees, or his investors get too comfortable. Since becoming the CEO of French food and nutrition giant Danone in September 2021, the 58-year-old executive has delivered some uncomfortable truths. Saint-Afrique has clearly called out the company’s underperformance compared to peers while remaining confident that Danone is operating...

Rakuten CEO Mickey Mikitani tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how – by challenging conventional wisdom and encouraging all staff to tidy their own offices – he has grown his company from an e-commerce startup into an ecosystem spanning internet services, fintech, and mobile.

The Wallenberg sphere operates in about 180 countries and its holdings generate a total of $260bn of annual revenue. But Marcus Wallenberg, chairman of the family holding company, explains to Jean-François Manzoni why working for the benefit of his native Sweden is so important. The Swedes even have a word for it: landsgagneliga. As companies grapple with some of the biggest upheavals since the in...

In Nairobi’s industrial area, motorcycles piled high with bright yellow plastic tubs zip through the early morning traffic to deliver food staples like flour, cooking oil, and pulses to women who have set up makeshift stalls to cook meals for low-income workers. The street food vendors place their orders the day before via an app and pay for their purchases with mobile payment system M-Pesa.  This...

For Schneider Electric, making a difference centers on bringing technology and expertise to best manage energy – specifically sustainably produced electricity. After 16 years in charge of the French multinational – seven as CEO and a further nine as Chairman – Jean-Pascal Tricoire has clear views on what keeps him motivated.  “You have to be very stubborn strategically and very agile tactically,”...

The role of any CEO comes with a unique level of pressure that must be actively managed. David Loew, the Chief Executive of Ipsen, knows this well. Since joining the French pharma firm in 2020, he has led it through a complex transition; and says he holds a strong belief in “single accountability”.  In this episode of the CEO Dialogue, Loew tells IMD President Jean-Francois-Manzoni about how his v...

Jan Jenisch, CEO of Holcim, discusses with IMD President Jean-François Manzoni the importance of building and maintaining strong relationships with all stakeholders… In the five years since taking the helm at Holcim, Jenisch has overseen a complex acquisition, creating a company with 70,000 employees and net sales of nearly CHF 30 billion. Jenisch explores the responsibility and opportunity the 11...

As the chief executive of Wärtsilä, one of the world’s leading power technology and services providers for the maritime and energy industries, Håkan Agnevall has called on governments and companies to speed up decarbonization in these two sectors that account for roughly a third of the world’s carbon emissions. Agnevall himself joined Wärtsilä as CEO in February 2021 from Volvo Buses, a subsidiary...

Founded in 1988, Ping An has built itself into Asia’s largest insurance company, selling US$110 billion of insurance premiums last year. But while Ping An made its name in insurance, the company has also established itself as one of China’s leading digital innovators; and the key figure driving some of its cutting-edge technologies is Jessica Tan. As one of Ping An’s three co-CEOs Tan is helping t...

Less than six months after Julie Sweet was named Global CEO of Accenture, COVID-19 hit. For some businesses, the pandemic marked a breaking point; but Accenture was ready to ride it out. Sweet says the company has been preparing for a rapid change to working life for a decade, and that as far back as 2013 the company was declaring that “every business is a digital business”. Julie Sweet has been i...

Takeshi Niinami became President and CEO of Suntory Holdings just over seven years ago, in October 2014. His task: to help the company manage the biggest event of its 120-year history – its purchase of the US’s Beam Inc, maker of Jim Beam and a host of other spirits, for US$16 billion. In conversation with IMD president Jean-Francois Manzoni, he discusses why CEOs need to embody their company valu...

As CEO of the Adecco Group, Alain Dehaze has a unique perspective on the future of labor. The pandemic revealed just how quickly workplaces can change, and his fortune 500 group has helped millions of people find jobs and reskill in an uncertain and highly-competitive global economy.  For Dehaze, the pandemic did not create new megatrends but accelerated them; making it all the more important for...

Riad Sherif is truly an expert in his field. Trained as a doctor, his drive to succeed in business led him to pharmaceuticals; and a successful 25-year career at corporate giants like Sanofi and Novartis.  After reaching the top of the pharmaceutical industry, he joined the start-up Oculis in 2017.  And as IMD President Jean-François Manzoni discovers, that move has paid off.   As CEO, Riad has st...