The second weekly digest synthesising key discussions from China’s Mandarin-language AI podcasts — tracking the rapid pace of model releases, startup funding, regulatory developments, and the widening US-China AI competition.

The inaugural weekly digest distilling the most significant AI developments discussed across China’s leading Mandarin-language podcasts - covering breakthroughs, business moves, and policy shifts as seen from Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Rollercoaster of Strategic Thinking (or the surprising way in which analysis & creativity interplay on AI problems) and Projects Portfolio Management (or the simple rule for ensuring you’re still in business in a few years time). 

Bart Hamers, Director Analytics & Artificial Intelligence @ BNP Paribas Fortis. 

Bart is a senior data & analytics leader with over 20 years of experience in data science & AI. Bart spent his career as manager for the large financial institutions BNP Paribas Fortis, Dexia and as consultant working for Deloitte. Bart holds a PhD in Mathematical Engineering from Leuven, and he is interested in how most organizations can increase efficiency & improve business insight by implementing a true data-driven decision culture. Bart typically achieves this for employers & clients alike by integrating the typical 5 dimensions of an Analytics & AI organizational structure: strategy, people, processes, data, and technology.
 

Wim Ilsbroux, Partner Strategy & Digital Transformation @ KPMG Belgium. 

Wim has a triple-track career with periods in management consulting (with McKinsey, and now KPMG), in the financial services industry (with Axa, and Dexia ), and in entrepreneurship (with The Future Generation). Throughout this, he is passionate about helping organizations move forward and improve their performance in times of uncertainty. Wim also loves cultural diversity, having had the opportunity to work with diverse teams in multiple countries & sectors, and learned a lot from that.

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Mutation Game (how to borrow from Mother Nature to achieve structured creativity), and Share Your Vulnerability (or the gift of showing yourself as a full human being). 

Kim Chua, Partner @ OC&C Strategy Consultants

Kim is a strategy consultant with over 20 years experience of driving strategy and growth in the media industry. She has recently joined OC&C Strategy Consultants as a Partner and has held leadership roles at Channel 4, Sky, and Freeview, where she focussed on digital and commercial strategy on the frontiers of SVOD, streaming and digital advertising, as well as driving the diversity and inclusion agenda. A mother of two school-aged girls, Kim keeps her balance spending time at her pottery wheel, practising her yogic sun salutations, or getting lost in a good book.

Angela Jopling @ Accredited Leadership Coach & Coaching Supervisor 

Angela spent 10 years working as an OD  consultant with Accenture and as Global Head of Training & Development at British Airways. She has since been running her own coaching business for 20 years, and works with a range of leadership clients in the corporate world. Angela works primarily with leaders and sometimes with leadership teams, and also trains internal coaches & supervisors. She loves the opportunity to liberate others from limited thinking, and facilitate leaders to step into their best selves more of the time. As a mother of three daughters, she is passionate about enabling women to play bigger in their lives. Angela has a degree in Economics, a Masters in Psychotherapy, and is a Master Accredited Coach with the Association for Coaching. She is also an accredited coaching supervisor.

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Magic Tree (or the unique mathematical formula at the heart of any business issue), and Single Source of Truth (or maximising results by having complete agreement on the diagnostic). 

Matthew Kearney, CEO @ LeadingResponse. 

Matthew has a 20 years’ track record of successful leadership at companies at the crossroad of tech & media, in the UK and the US, with Screenvision, Daily Mail Online, Talent Partners, and now Leading Response. He has also held board-level positions with multiple for profit & non-profit entities like Telenor, Rock, BAFTA and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Matthew holds an aeronautical engineering degree from Manchester University and an MBA from London Business School, and he enjoys supporting an English football team with a losing record, Everton. 

Tim Nale, SVP of Technology @ LeadingResponse. 

Tim is responsible for all the technology products at Leading Response. Most recently, he was the CIO for Koozie Group Inc, where he led the company’s technology team through a corporate carve out from BIC Société, and implementation of Salesforce, Operational Data Store, Web Services, MicroServices, and Cloud utilization, along with the modernization of the ERP and various operational support systems. Over nearly 30 years, Tim has held leadership positions in 6 companies; always leading the development of multiple internet-based systems, business process, and standards.

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Myers-Briggs (or the value of self-knowledge in leading your best life - professional & otherwise), and Trade-Offs (or the surprising business insights of the most successful communist leader in China). 

Thomas Wu, Vice President, Strategy and Insights @ McDonald's China. 

A strategy consultant turned strategist and business manager, Thomas’ skill set spans from navigating senior executives through strategic issues in boardrooms, to optimizing production processes with line-workers on a factory floor. Equipped with strong curiosity, empathy and entrepreneurial spirit, Thomas has been constantly challenged and has been proven successful across multiple industries and geographies, from consulting in Hong Kong (with OC&C and Roland Berger), to ride hailing in Beijing (with Didi), and food retail in Shanghai (McDonald’s). 

Tony Qiu, Head of International Business @ Kuaishou Technology

After an early career in finance (Morgan Stanley, Bain Capital), Tony has spent the last 8 years building the international arms of 2 giant Chinese tech firms: Didi, the main global ride-hailing competitor to Uber, and Kuaishou, the main global competitor to TikTok. Fighting in the #2 position in both these 2 markets, has given Tony a deep realisation that strategy is about making hard choices. His 12 years spent in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, and Beijing also inform his global understanding of business.


Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Innovator’s Dilemma in Business (or the curse of the demonstrated best practice), and Innovator’s Dilemma in Cancer Treatment (or which approach to take when the options & the risks are properly real …). 

Richard Hughes-Jones, Executive Coach @ High-Growth Tech Businesses. 

Richard is an executive coach who helps leaders navigate business & personal growth in a complex world. His clients are entrepreneurs and executives in startups, corporates and VCs. Richard became an executive coach in 2013, after a decade at Deloitte Consulting and Her Majesty’s Treasury. He is very explicit that having been diagnosed with cancer in his early thirties had a massive impact on his life choices & career decisions. He has a unique insight into making strategic choices under duress. 

Rob Glynne-Jones, Consultant Clinical Oncologist @ NHS East & North Hertfordshire. 

Rob is the Macmillan Lead Clinician in Gastrointestinal and Colorectal Cancer at his hospital. He is also Chief Medical Advisor to the national UK charity Bowel Cancer UK, and has a major interest in communications skills and patient choice. He is a member of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Rob has a unique insight into helping people making strategic life choices under duress.

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Happy Line (or the art of really, really understanding your customers, and treating them as they want to be treated), and Kicking Stones Away (or how to influence people by making them feel good). 

Sam Gilbert, Best-Selling Author @ “Good Data”. 

An expert in data-driven marketing, Sam was employee number one and chief marketing officer at Bought By Many, an award-winning fintech start-up named as one of Wired’s hottest start-ups in Europe and ranked in the Sunday Times TechTrack100 list of the UK’s fastest growing companies. Previously, he was head of strategy and development at the data company Experian and head of consumer finance at Santander. Sam Gilbert is now an affiliated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and the author of “Good Data” a fascinating book making the case for controlling big tech while still achieving the positive benefits from data. 

Paul Morrish, Co-Founder & Group Corporate Director @ Succession Wealth, ex-Managing Director, Consumer Finance @ Santander UK. 

Former banker Paul Morrish is the co-founder of Succession Group, a wealth management company which employs over 600 people in 20 offices across the UK, handling £10bn worth of client investments. Paul has bought 60 companies in eight years to help build that business. The business was recently sold to Aviva PLC for £385m. A passionate Exeter City supporter, he was appointed to the club’s board in 2006 and developed & delivered the strategy and business plan which saw the Grecians regain Football League status in 2008 and League One promotion in 2009. Paul is also an active member of the Exeter Network Church (ENC), which focuses much of its work on the needs of the poor and vulnerable in the community, and a Trustee and leader of Devon Christian Youth Camps, which provides five summer camps in South Devon for young people.

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon

Strategy hacks discussed in this episode: Reverse Logic (or the art of asking good questions), and Macro vs. Micro (or the benefit of alternating between perspectives). 

Hery-Christian Henry, Group Head of Brand & Sustainability @ Wipak. 

Hery is a Malagasy-German, raised in Finland, who built a global dance academy for underprivileged kids in Europe & Africa (DanceTeam International), whilst holding a day job at Deloitte Consulting. He now leads the sustainability drive at Wipak, a flexible packaging company that aims to become the first zero carbon packaging company in the world by 2025. Hery is also the  founder of Empowermotion.com, an online academy helping young professionals implement the habits of the world's most successful artists, entrepreneurs and athletes in a high performance peer group. 

Krista Tukiainen, Head of Research and Reporting @ Climate Bonds Initiative. 

Krista oversees the global research pipeline of the Climate Bonds Market Intelligence team, producing analysis to help shift capital towards building low-carbon, resilient societies. An environmental economist by training, Krista previously worked as a Consultant at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Sustainable Development followed by an ESG advisory role at London-based boutique firm Longevity Partners. She has also collaborated with impact-driven companies and investors, using machine learning to identify and carry out large-scale carbon sequestration projects, or helping define investment thesis and impact measurement approach for VCs. 

Find & follow Fred on:
- Book: fredpelard.com/book
- Twitter: twitter.com/fredpelard
- Youtube: youtube.com/fredpelard
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fredpelard
- Instagram: instagram.com/fredpelard

Producer: Michael Bannon