I by IMD

Business resilience depends on recognizing the true costs of profit and changing how leaders measure success.

In this interview with Florian Hoos, Professor of Sustainability and Accounting at IMD, Swiss business leader and environmentalist André Hoffmann explores what it takes to turn that conviction into action.

Hoffmann shares five messages including his core message for business leaders today and tomorrow: taking nature seriously is part of running a successful company.

In this episode, Swiss explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard joins IMD MBA candidate Kartik Ashta to discuss why resistance is often a signal to change approach rather than push harder.

Drawing on his record-breaking adventures and pioneering clean-technology projects, Piccard explains why great leaders motivate instead of convince, how crises become opportunities when we accept them, and what leaders must be willing to "throw overboard" to adapt to a changing world.

Our guest:
Bertrand Piccard is a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist, and founder of the Solar Impulse Foundation. He made history with the first non-stop balloon flight around the world and later co-piloted Solar Impulse, the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the globe. He is also leading Climate Impulse, an initiative aiming to achieve the first non-stop round-the-world flight powered by green hydrogen, demonstrating the potential of clean technologies to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future.

Interviewer:
Kartik Ashta is a current MBA candidate at IMD where he focuses on bridging the gap between businesses and policy in areas related to sustainability, resilience, and geopolitics. Before coming to IMD, he spent five years across think tanks, consulting, and the UN, advising companies and governments on how to solve complex social and commercial issues.

How do you lead a company when you are not its ultimate owner, but the custodian of a centuries-old legacy? Lamberto Frescobaldi represents the 30th generation of one of Italy’s most enduring wine families. His answer is uncompromising: inherited assets should have “value zero”; leaders must focus on what they create during their own lifetime.

In conversation with Alfredo De Massis, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at IMD, Frescobaldi explains why “tradition […] can trick you,” why beauty can distract leaders from the daily realities of business, and how his company is responding to falling wine consumption and global oversupply. From succession and family governance to diversification and sustainability, this episode offers a candid lesson in stewardship, strategic focus, and the ability to keep changing without losing your identity.

Our Guest: Lamberto Frescobaldi
President, Marchesi Frescobaldi
President, Unione Italiana Vini

Lamberto Frescobaldi represents the 30th generation of the Frescobaldi family, whose documented winemaking history in Tuscany began in the early 1300s. Trained in agriculture in Italy and California, he joined the family enterprise before becoming President of Marchesi Frescobaldi. He also serves as President of Unione Italiana Vini, the association representing Italy’s wine industry. 

Website: https://www.frescobaldi.com/en/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marchesifrescobaldi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marchesifrescobaldi/

Ipsen CEO David Loew unpacks six years of radical transformation that enabled a mid-sized, family-controlled biopharma company to take on the biggest competitors in the industry.

Our Guest: David Loew, CEO, Ipsen

David Loew has served as CEO of Ipsen, a publicly listed, family-controlled specialty biopharma group (~6,000 employees, ~€4 billion revenue, operations in 40 countries, products in 100 countries), since July 2020. He joined Ipsen from Sanofi, where he led Sanofi Pasteur, the company's vaccines division, for four years, and previously spent more than 20 years at Roche across various roles and geographies.

Former ING and UBS CEO Ralph Hamers joins IMD’s Murat Tarakci to unpack how he led “banking’s biggest digital transformation” – and why AI may redefine financial advice.

Drawing on his experience at two of the biggest banks in the world, Hamers argues that CEOs “cannot delegate what your strategy is, what your brand stands for, how your people behave,” and must personally connect the dots between purpose, strategy, culture and execution”. He lays out his three-way innovation engine, his vision of banks as “tech companies with a banking license,” and a bold claim that “advice to clients can be better generated through AI than through an advisor.”

He explains why “restructuring is generally a reaction to a burning platform” and how he reframed ING’s future by asking, “what is left from our DNA?” and turning that into a purpose-led transformation story.

To dive deeper, check out: 

• Ralph Hamers’s new book,  Do Your Thing: Lessons from banking's biggest digital transformation
• I by IMD’s new report, The future of banking
  
  

Our Guest:

Ralph Hamers is a Dutch banker and business leader best known as the former CEO of ING Group and UBS Group. He spent 29 years at ING, became CEO in 2013, and led the bank through a major digital transformation focused on mobile banking, agile working, customer experience, and platform thinking; ING said he helped turn the group into “a leading digital bank.” In 2020, he left ING to become Group CEO of UBS, a role he held until 2023, when Sergio Ermotti returned to lead the Credit Suisse integration. In 2026, Banking Circle Group announced Hamers as its chairman, citing his experience scaling global financial institutions and advising fintech companies including Arta and Grab. His book Do Your Thing: Lessons from Banking’s Biggest Digital Transformation draws on the ING transformation to offer a leadership framework for connecting purpose, strategy, culture, and execution. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphhamers/

What does it take to lead one of the world’s most loved brands — and still admit it had become too slow, too complex, and too hard to move?

 In this CEO Dialogue, LEGO CEO Niels Christiansen discusses with IMD’s Jean-François Manzoni how he simplified the organization, empowered local teams and expanded beyond children to adult fans. He explains why LEGO opened stores when others were closing them, why “the basis is physical” even in a digital world, and why sustainability remains a long-term investment even when “consumers are (…) not willing to pay for it.”

When Christiansen took over as CEO in 2017, he stepped into a company that had “stalled”. Today, LEGO Group has grown into the world’s largest toy company, with revenues exceeding €11bn ($12.8bn) and around 34,000 employees worldwide. It is one of the most remarkable brand stories in modern business.

Listen in to understand how LEGO rebuilt momentum — not through grand slogans, but through disciplined execution.

Our Guest:

Niels B Christiansen
President & Chief Executive Officer, the LEGO Group; CEO, LEGO Holding.

Niels Christiansen joined the LEGO Group as CEO in 2017 after leading Danfoss. Under his leadership, LEGO has expanded its retail footprint, invested in sustainable materials, strengthened digital play experiences, and continued to rank among the world’s most loved brands.

What does it take to inherit a family legacy without becoming trapped by it? In this episode of I by IMD, Marleen Dieleman speaks with Chef Pam, the visionary behind Potong, a 120-year-old family pharmacy in Bangkok’s Chinatown which she transformed into a world-renowned restaurant and cultural landmark, earning her the title of the World’s Best Female Chef. 

Her story is not just about creating the best Thai food, or serving cocktails in her family’s former dispensary, or receiving the desired Michelin Star. It is about migration, risk, reinvention, and what it means to build something deeply personal inside a multigenerational legacy.

She is strikingly clear about the choices that shaped the journey, recalling that during the pandemic-era rebuild, “I sold all my gold” to invest in the project, working all the way to today, where “it’s not about money anymore,” to continue the family business. Chef Pam’s business partner is her husband, and together with their daughter, who has to cope with her parents working long hours in the kitchen, they are already planning their next steps and expanding their footprint in the neighborhood. Her advice to next-generation leaders is blunt: “I don't think there's a shortcut.” 

This episode conversation offers unique insights and a powerful lesson: legacy does not have to be a constraint. It can be the building material of innovation.

Our guest:

Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij (Chef Pam) is a Thai chef and entrepreneur who reimagined her family’s 120-year-old Chinese medicine building into Potong, a Michelin-starred restaurant known for progressive Thai-Chinese cuisine. She was awarded “World’s Best Female Chef” in 2025, the first Thai and first Asian woman to receive that title.

Ann Perrins on rebuilding Atlassian Williams F1 through talent, culture, psychological safety – and the long road back to winning.

What does it really take to rebuild a Formula One team from the inside out? 

In this episode of I by IMD podcast, Susan Goldsworthy hosts Ann Perrins, Chief HR Officer at Atlassian Williams Racing, to discuss the human side of elite performance: how to attract world-class talent, build a culture people want to stay in, and transform an iconic team without losing its identity. 

Perrins makes it clear that this doesn’t mean a soft agenda: the team “can't return to winning unless we get that right.” She also reframes a term many leaders misuse: “psychological safety is not about everything feeling nice and comfortable.” And she is blunt about the reality behind the glamour: “we’re very explicit and we don’t sugarcoat it.” 

Our guest:

Ann Perrins is the Chief Human Resource Officer at Atlassian Williams Racing. Before joining Williams in 2023, she built her career across banking, consulting, and global engineering and operations environments, including 17 years at BP and senior roles at GKN Automotive. At Williams, she is helping lead the people, culture, and talent transformation needed to support the team’s return to winning.

What does it take to restore confidence in a 160-year-old bank that investors had stopped believing in? 

In this episode, IMD’s Jean-François Manzoni speaks with Societe Generale CEO Slawomir Krupa about rebuilding a major institution from the inside out: stronger capital, more cost discipline, harder strategic choices – and a leadership culture of clarity and accountability.

Krupa does not frame transformation as storytelling. He frames it as work. He says the bank inherited “weak foundations,” warns that dismissing challengers such as fintechs is “a recipe for disaster down the road,” and explains why some painful decisions were made because “it was the right thing to do.” 

Our Guest:

Slawomir Krupa
Chief Executive Officer, Societe Generale

Slawomir Krupa became CEO of Societe Generale in May 2023 after spending nearly his entire career at the bank. Before becoming CEO, he held senior leadership roles across Corporate and Investment Banking, served as CEO of Societe Generale Americas, and led Global Banking and Investor Solutions. Under his leadership, the bank has focused on restoring capital strength, simplifying the portfolio, and repositioning for sustainable growth.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slawomir-krupa/

Scaling a company is not about chasing headlines. It’s about proving customers care.

In this episode of I by IMD, Katarina Bonde shares hard-earned lessons from decades in venture-backed tech, board leadership, and global scale-ups. She challenges founders to validate demand before celebrating growth: “If no one is… spending money to buy it, you actually don't have a product.” 

Katarina, who served as board chair and CEO in various venture-backed tech firms across the US and Europe, also reframes the AI discussion. The opportunity isn’t in the current bubble, but in the smart use of data – “the real gold here.” 

For rapid-growth startups, so-called scale-ups, who are tempted to prioritize land grabs over margins, Katarina offers a grounded reminder: “You have to show that you have a business model that can pay for itself.” 

Our Guest:

Katarina Bonde served as Chair of companies including Mentimeter, Stillfront Group, and others in Sweden’s digital ecosystem. She also served as an executive in various venture-backed tech firms in Europe and the US and is an active angel investor.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katarinabonde/