A decade ago, NIO was an idea. Today, the Chinese startup is one of the most innovative electric mobility brands in the world. On this episode of Leaders Unplugged,  Mark Zhou, Executive VP and Chairman of NIO’s Product Committee, shares how they did it – and what’s next.

Mark recalls that NIO’s founder William Li “only gave us like 36 months… to set up a company, grow the organization, deliver the vehicles, set up the power swap stations.” For him and other early hires who joined the company from legacy competitors, accustomed to carefully sequenced five-year plans, this wasn’t just ambitious — it was radical.

But NIO’s real differentiation comes from its founder’s background in mobile apps, with an obsession for community and experience design. It led the team to build lounge-style “NIO Houses” instead of traditional car dealerships. Instead of charging stations, NIO developed three-minute battery swaps that Mark calls “very addictive. Once you get used to the battery swap, you don’t want to go back.” It also led to resilience. When NIO entered a crisis, ”our users really stood up and said, let’s save this company.”

Western carmakers can learn a lot from NIO’s story – about founder-led conviction, busting stereotypes, and the uncomfortable truth of innovation: “People love to talk about the bright side of innovation”, Mark says. “They try to avoid the uncertainty.”

 Our guest:

Mark Zhou
Executive Vice President & Chairman of the Product Committee, NIO

Mark has helped scale NIO from a Shanghai startup to a global EV challenger, overseeing product strategy, global R&D, and international expansion.

Live from Davos: IMD’s Julia Binder and David Bach cut through the headlines on geopolitics, AI, energy – and competing visions for the international order.

Recorded live on the final day of WEF 2026 in Davos, David Bach sits down with colleague and fellow IMD professor Julia Binder to unpack what shaped the week beyond the headlines – and why there is room for optimism.

Bach reflects on two competing visions now emerging in global affairs: a world driven by raw power, and an alternative he describes as values-based realism or principled pragmatism, insisting on “a commitment to democracy, the rule of law, human rights, free speech, self-determination, and respect for sovereignty” while recognizing and navigating the distribution of power and influence.

While discussions on sustainability and greater inclusion were less present on the main stage, Binder shares her assessment from behind the scenes: “It’s not that the sustainability conversation is dead. It’s happening under different terms. It’s reframed,” she explains. Many companies, she notes, are practicing quiet corporate activism: “We can’t speak out at the moment, but actually our actions do not just continue – we’re doubling down, we’re putting more money on the table.” Overall, a new logic dominates the transition: “those that will win the race for AI are the ones that manage energy better.”

Our Guest:

Julia Binder is the Director of IMD's Center for Sustainable and Inclusive Business, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and the host of “Inside the Transition”. She works with organizations globally on transformation and helps leaders turn sustainability and societal challenges into strategic opportunity. LinkedIn - https://ch.linkedin.com/in/julia-k-binder 

In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD President David Bach speaks with Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, about leading a global shipping giant through geopolitical tension, climate pressure, and permanent uncertainty, into the future of global trade.

Our guest

Rolf Habben Jansen – Chief Executive Officer, Hapag-Lloyd AG

Rolf Habben Jansen has led Hapag-Lloyd since 2014, transforming it into one of the world’s top-five global container shipping companies. A veteran of the logistics and transport industry, he has championed decarbonization, digitalization, and quality as the company’s defining competitive edge.

Walmex CEO Guilherme “Gui” Loureiro on reinventing Walmart Mexico into a purpose-driven digital powerhouse – by overcoming his own ego.

Recorded live at the IMD International Alumni Symposium in Lausanne, this Leaders Unplugged episode features Walmex CEO Guilherme “Gui” Loureiro in conversation with IMD's Alyson Meister.

Loureiro recounts how he led Walmex (Walmart Mexico & Central America) from a “very, very successful brick-and-mortar company” into a purpose-driven digital ecosystem: “When we started to ask how we could contribute for this change instead of waiting for the country to change – then the transformation started.”

He shares his own leadership reckoning — “I said to my wife, I’m a dinosaur. And my company is a dinosaur company.” — and the humility that followed: “My desire to transform the company was bigger than my ego.”

The conversation draws from Loureiro’s new book, Reinventing the Leader: How to Change Yourself to Change Your Company – a masterclass in how leaders transform themselves to transform their organizations. And it comes with a proud announcement: Gui Loureiro is not only the newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Walmex, he is also joining IMD as Executive Resident Professor. Welcome Gui Loureiro!

In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD President David Bach sits down with Financial Times Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator Gideon Rachman for an unflinching look at the shifting balance of global power – and what it means for leaders today.

As Rachman puts it, “It’s hard to get past Donald Trump as the sort of biggest current disruptive force in international politics… because essentially he represents the United States turning on the global system that it helped to create after the Second World War.”

And yet, amid disruption and doubt, he remains cautiously hopeful: “Can liberal democracy survive? Yes – because in the end it’s an idea that’s almost impossible to kill.”

This conversation is a guide to understanding how politics, power, and leadership are being redefined before our eyes – and what to do about it.

Our guest

Gideon Rachman is Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator at the Financial Times and one of the world’s most influential geopolitical commentators. As the Financial Times’ Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator and author of The Age of the Strongman, Easternization, and Zero-Sum World, he provides deep insight into how global politics and economics shape the world of business and leadership. Gideon also hosts the Rachman Review, a podcast that gives a chance to listen in on his reflective and often probing conversations with politicians, intellectuals and analysts around the globe.

In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD President David Bach sits down with Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas, for a raw conversation on Europe’s energy transition and the courage leaders need to navigate it. 

Andersen delivers a stark warning on Europe’s complacency: “Europe is 50% dependent on import of energy day in and day out. The truth is we import more LNG gas from Russia than we did in 2022.” He explains how China is building up its alternative energy capacities faster than any other nation – and dismantles hype around unproven solutions, such as Hydrogen: “It is a little bit of a dream that is beyond a dream”. His purpose for being an outspoken leader is clear: “Our kids will say, ‘we will never forgive you because why did you keep talking about something that doesn’t happen?’”
And he delivers a strong lesson to his peers: speak out, take blows, and act boldly in a volatile world.

Our guest:
Henrik Andersen – Group President & CEO, Vestas

Henrik Andersen leads Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine company. With decades of international executive experience, he is at the forefront of Europe’s energy transition, navigating geopolitics, policy, and technology on a global scale.

How Maersk is rewriting the rules of shipping decarbonization – through collaboration, purpose, and placing big bets on the fuels of the future.

What happens when one of the world’s largest shipping companies decides not to wait for regulation – but to lead by collaboration?

In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD President David Bach sits down with Morten Bo Christiansen, Senior Vice President and Head of Energy Transition at Maersk, and Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, to unpack one of the most ambitious transformations in business: the race to net-zero-emission shipping.

From ordering vessels with dual-fuel methanol engines to securing long-term bio- and e-methanol offtake agreements, both leaders share how they’re building a collaborative approach that includes the entire shipping ecosystem, tackling regulatory battles, and dealing with the fact that only about 2% of Maersk's customers currently pay the green premium. 

“The only way to avoid the complexity that we have today, would be to do nothing“, Morten Bo Christiansen says, “and that’s not really an option.” 

Global rules are being rewritten. Pictet’s Maria Vassalou joins David Bach to discuss BRICS, AI, aging societies – and why leaders must rethink everything they thought they knew.

As global trade rules unravel, AI accelerates, and demographics shift dramatically, what should business leaders do? What do they need to rethink, and where should they invest? 

Listen to this thought-provoking episode of Leaders Unplugged with the Head of the Pictet Research Institute, Maria Vassalou, and learn how to challenge your assumptions – from China’s long game and the rise of BRICS, to what aging societies and AI mean for future growth. In conversation with IMD’s president David Bach, Maria Vassalou shares a powerful message: Globalization, free trade, and world peace – the principles most of us have built their decisions on – are all being challenged, she says. “And the idea that we can continue doing what we have been doing seems… not a very good idea.” Her advice: The winners of the next three decades will lead with “strategic investments in demographics, technology diffusion, and production efficiencies.”

If you want to understand where the world is headed – listen to this episode.

Harvard’s Daniel Ziblatt explores how democracies fail and why business leaders must act now before it’s too late.

“Democracy is a system of competition: not harmony, but contest... When that competition is fair, something extraordinary happens.” 

In this gripping keynote and fireside conversation with IMD President David Bach, Harvard professor and political scientist Daniel Ziblatt reframes democracy as a circuit breaker against power hoarding — and business leaders as essential players in defending it. 

Recorded live at IMD’s annual flagship event OWP, Ziblatt warns that “most democracies die at the hands of elected leaders... who use the very institutions of democracy to subvert it.” 

For Ziblatt, democracy is not idealistic fluff — it’s a vital check on catastrophic failure. “Without democracy, political leaders are much more likely to make major blunders.”

Ziblatt, author of “How Democracies Die”, delivers a direct challenge to those in the room, and to everyone listening: “The future of democracy is in the hands of people like you – people in positions of leadership in society – to draw the red lines, to remind fellow citizens of this, and to stand up for democracy.”

Marc Maurer didn’t build ON by playing it safe. In this live conversation with IMD’s Alyson Meister, the outgoing Co-CEO explains why betting on purpose, rejecting hype, and ignoring the industry playbook paid off:

1. Culture over hype.
 “We’re actually the anti-metaverse.” ON doubled down on real-life movement instead of pixels, and built a brand with soul.

2. Purpose-driven growth.
 “Why do we need to grow 28%? Why not 20%? Who tells you it should be 28?” Maurer insists that growth must serve the purpose, not the markets.

3. Hire outsiders, build insiders.
 “For the first 10 years or so, it was forbidden to hire from a competitor.” ON’s originality? No legacy thinking, just bold innovation.

With insights on sustainability, Gen Z expectations, and life after ON, this episode – recorded live at IMD’s flagship event Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) – is a masterclass in leadership.