I by IMD

90% of startups fail. For all sorts of different reasons. And few people want to talk about it. But WiReD Magazine co-Founder and IMD Executive in Residence Ian Charles Stewart and Aike Festini, Founder and CEO of logistics startup Luckabox AG, are more than happy to.

In our latest IMD ACE Founders Series podcast interview Stewart and Festini discuss what happens when things go wrong, how to spot the signs of an ailing business, and lessons that can be learned for next time. 

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Aike Festini is a passionate, compassionate, and curious serial entrepreneur who has been awarded multiple tech awards for her startup LuckaBox Logistics AG. She is currently the founder of Rebels With A Cause, offering scaling and innovation strategies for SMEs and Scale Up Startups. Aike also acts as an executive coach for startups and SME leaders in the digital sphere and mentors other executives and entrepreneurs as they build their businesses. She’s been featured on Forbes, CNN, as well as many newspapers and business magazines in the DACH region.

Ian Charles Stewart is Chairman of the WheelsPlusWings Foundation, is a Trustee of the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada, and is an Executive in Residence at IMD. Stewart is also an investor in and advisor to startups in the FinTech and Media sectors. Stewart was the Co-Founder of WiReD Magazine and Founder and CEO of Aztec Internet (responsible for BBC News Online and FT.com). Stewart was formerly MD of venture capital in the Rothschild Group and a Venture Fund Manager within the Lazard Group. Stewart has served as Mentor, Judge, and Lecturer to students in Venture Capital and Social Entrepreneurship programs at London Business School, was a Visiting Professor and Enterprise Board member of the University of the Arts, London, and holds an MBA (with Honours) from IMD.

As the FinTech arena moves beyond smoothing back-office processes and facilitating relationships between existing players we are seeing a new generation of B2C players rise to take on the incumbent institutions.  

With the rise of challenger banks, we also see hybrid organizations seeking to use new technologies and the resulting processes and public awareness thereof to slice up markets a little differently. Alpian is one such nascent institution, with both new aspects and old backers, seeking to bridge the gap between high street/ retail banks and service-based private wealth managers.  

Schuyler Weiss is a dual U.S.-Swiss citizen and he has been CEO of Alpian for the past three years. In a conversation with IMD Executive in Residence Ian Charles Stewart, he discusses the near future of how you manage your money.

Raffaello D’Andrea co-founded warehouse automation company Kiva Systems, which was sold to Amazon in 2012 for $775m and rebranded as Amazon Robotics, and then Verity, the autonomous indoor drone company now growing quickly in Zürich. 

He is also a Professor of Dynamic Systems & Control at Switzerland’s leading technology university ETH, in Zürich and was formerly an Associate Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University in the US.  

In conversation with Ian Charles Stewart, WiReD Magazine co-founder and IMD Executive in Residence, D'Andrea talks about the future of Robotics and AI/Machine Learning in our latest Founder Series interview.

Oyster began with a question: How can we make global employment easier for companies and talented workers? 

Building an all-star team shouldn’t be limited by borders. Now, the company is on a mission to make it easier than ever for growing companies to hire, pay, and take care of brilliant employees - wherever they are in the world. 

Tony Jamous, the founder of Oyster, is a tech entrepreneur and angel investor. He is currently building the future of work through the distributed talent enablement platform that allows growing companies to tap into the global talent pool and offer their remote workers around the world a great employment experience. 

Prior to Oyster, Tony co-founded and led Nexmo, a leader in CPAAS (Communication Platform As A Service) acquired by Vonage in 2016. Tony holds a Masters in Computer Science from Grenoble Institute of Technology in France and an MBA from IMD.

In this episode of IMD's "The Interview" podcast, Sarena Lin, Chief Transformation & Talent Officer at Bayer, speaks with IMD's Professor Misiek Piskorski about digital transformation and leadership.

Bayer is a global enterprise specializing in a range of life sciences fields including pharmaceuticals, consumer health, and crop management. Sarena Lin has been a member of its Board since 2021 and, as CTTO, she is responsible for human resources, strategy, and business consulting. Lin is also the Labor Director of Bayer AG.

Mikołaj Jan Piskorski, also known as Misiek Piskorski, is Professor of Digital Strategy, Analytics, and Innovation and Dean of IMD Asia and Oceania. He is an expert on digital strategy, platform strategy, and the process of digital business transformation. He works with companies in various industries across the globe to support them through digital transformation.

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

Host: Professor Misiek Piskorski
Guest: Sarena Lin
Produced by: JohnJo Devlin
Editing: Max Bower

"Influence doesn’t work the way you think, because you don’t think the way you think."

So says Zoe Chance in her latest book, Influence Is Your Superpower. As a Professor at the Yale School of Management, Chance is an expert in behavioral economics, and her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy.

In conversation with IMD Professor of Strategy and Political Economy David Bach, Chance discusses her book and how executives can cultivate charisma, negotiate comfortably and spot manipulators before it’s too late. As well as the importance of alligators.
 
Read our new magazine, I by IMD, here.
Discover IMD's leadership programmes here.

Guest: Zoe Chance
Host: David Bach
Produced by: JohnJo Devlin
Editing: Max Bower 

***This podcast interview was recorded in 2021***

As competition in the retail banking space increases and consumers demand more services, new players are entering the market and disrupting our relationships with our wealth. 

One of these companies is German challenger bank Nuri. Led by CEO Kristina Walcker-Mayer, Nuri offers an on-ramp to crypto investment and wealth management tools directly from your phone.

Walcker-Mayer previously worked as a product lead at N26 and also spent several years at Zalando in the loyalty and mobile apps team. In conversation with Ian Stewart, she discusses crypto-currency, digital strategy, and the future of wealth.

This IMD interview is part of the ACE Founders Series hosted by Ian Charles Stewart - the co-founder of WiReD Magazine, and Executive in Residence at IMD. In each session, Ian interviews a successful founder on their path to date and their plans for the future.

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

Guest: Kristina Walcker-Mayer
Host: Ian Charles Stewart
Produced by: JohnJo Devlin
Editing: Max Bower 

Once named amongst Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, Nicholas Christakis is now the director of Yale’s Human Nature Lab; a position that puts his diverse range of skills to good use.

With expertise in several fields including sociology, ecology, medicine, and evolutionary biology, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science has a track record of groundbreaking research.

In this interview, Christakis discusses his latest book, Apollo’s Arrow, with IMD Affiliate Professor of Leadership, Katharina Lange. Highlights include the profound and enduring impact of coronavirus, and what we can learn from plagues of the past.

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

Host: Katharina Lange
Guest: Nicholas Christakis
Produced by: JohnJo Devlin 

When Peter Bakker joined World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) a decade ago, the conversation on climate change was very different. Back in 2012, he says, companies were still grappling with the 'why' of environmental issues, rather than the 'how'.

Fast-forward 10 years and the business landscape has been transformed, the WBCSD President & CEO said. Today more than ever, sustainability is a central issue for growing companies.

By developing tools to help leading businesses tackle climate, WBCSD has been working to build a more balanced world. Made up of more than 200 members, this CEO-led community is accelerating the system transformations needed for a net-zero, nature-positive and more equitable future.

In conversation with IMD's Professor of Strategy and Political Economy David Bach, Peter Bakker discussed the changing face of conservation, why equality is good for business, and his vision for 2050.

Read our new magazine, I by IMD, here.

Discover IMD's leadership programmes here.

Host: David Bach

Guest: Peter Bakker

Produced by: JohnJo Devlin

In the finale of Should I Fly, Professors Jim Pulcrano and Patrick Reinmoeller layout their conclusions on the big question; and find that things aren't so straightforward.

Who should take responsibility for the aviation industry's emissions? How much is flying truly impacting the environment? When is enough travel enough?

In this 7th episode,  they cover the tough choices that will need to be made to reign in the aviation industry, and the need for its survival.

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Credits:

Produced by JohnJo Devlin

Written and presented by Professors Jim Pulcrano and Patrick Reinmoeller

Links:

Read our new magazine, I by IMD, here.

Discover IMD's leadership programmes here.