Reflecting on the wealth of knowledge shared at the recently concluded South Summit in Madrid, here are some standout invaluable lessons ( what they don’t teach you in Biz School type! )?There were hundreds of sessions over long 3 days with 11 tracks and these are from which stayed in my mind.
- Day 1 was fun with a panel session on “Mother Nature's Gadgets: The Collaboration of Nature & Tech,” where I spoke about
ECOSTP Technologies (P) Ltd.
and how Biomimicry has helped solve many challenges today. Also learned from
Antoine Ambert
why chocolates are going to be costly. Cocoa prices crossed $10,000 per metric ton as Ivory Coast and Ghana have been hit by a combination of heavy rain, dry heat, and disease recently, along with unnatural ‘single crop’ plantations. Perhaps the solution lies in intercropping with bananas! Nature has solutions.
Gilad Goren
did a brilliant job of stitching chocolates with cow!
-
Steven Bartlett
was a rock star with a fully packed auditorium - he oozes energy and spoke about the nuances of his decision-making framework used by Jeff Bezos - Type 1 decisions (irreversible decisions that cannot be changed once executed. therefore, they require careful thought.) and Type 2 (these are reversible decisions. even after executing them, you can change them if you like. therefore, you must act on such decisions quickly.) He also stressed the need for regular gymming and ‘professional sleeping’.
- “Do You Really Need to Fundraise in 2024?” Alberto Sanz, Lily Joo, Fatou Diagne, and
Etienne Gillard
gave incisive comments on “focusing on one KPI that takes the company to profitability” and spoke about global opportunities - for example, Chile offering millions for disruptive startups. Gillard discussed the evolving themes over time: initially, the focus was on shareholders, followed by the mantra 'customer is king,' and now the emphasis is on communities.
- Juan Antonio and António José Coutinho spoke about how EDP is working on the energy transition process for the last 20 years, constantly innovating with in-house + open innovation. They highlighted the fact - Solar power has dropped 90% in the last 10 years! The fourth-largest wind energy player even implemented a floating windmill (https://www.edp.com/en/news/first-floating-wind-farm-continental-europe-now-fully-operational
) in a 100-meter deep sea. Amazing pushing the innovation envelope!
-
Gijsbertus J.J. van Wulfen
was a riot storytelling “Why People Reject Your Ideas?” Wearing his golden suit, he narrated the ‘deaf frog’ story and exhorted us to push our boundaries. It was profound, as we in the audience were meant to strip down naked alongside Gijs..... Jeez! Please watch the full TED talk video here - In 15 minutes he storytells powerfully till the coin drops!!! https://youtu.be/4beD_OXvffg?si=iIq3uDJhl6irbOAK
- Though everyone spoke about AI, the “Human Leadership in Artificial Times” by Jesus Hijas, María de León and Klaus Nielsen was soothing as they spoke about compassion and love. Monk Klaus spoke about why meditation (internal cleanse) is as important as taking a shower (external cleanse). This gentle reminder helped - I meditated. Thanks!
- “Break the Mold: Female Leadership Across Industries” by Mar Hurtado de Mendoza, Rachel Thomas, Sarah Harmon, and Kathryn Minshew was a deep dive into gender issues - just 10% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women. Rachel (Lean in) spoke about how Gender Bias shows up in the workplace and how Lean in is helping. Interesting! Corporations usually get a woman CEO when the ship is sinking... and perhaps that is the reason that the average tenure for women CEOs is 4.5 years, compared to 7.2 years for men.
- “From Seed to IPO: The Value of Brand” by Manuel de Luque, Christof Schminke, Marina Specht, and Bryce Keane spoke about building ‘magnetic brands’. Lots of learning gems! “The way branding was done last 100 years - create a message and consistently shout 24/7 is dead - today is the world of Taylor Swift and Airbnb who build communities”. “Creating the Brand Platform is the secret sauce” “Brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room”, “Your customers are changing every 3 weeks - so create a brand proposition which can adapt”, “creating the cultural currency” and “overcoming purpose fatigue and nowadays everyone is on a purpose drive”.
- “Lights, Camera, Exit: Strategies for Business Transitions” -? Pedro Fernandez, Walter Mair and Aquilino Pe?a Perez spoke about the usual pitfalls during exits- Being aware of hidden taxes and putting on the table all the startup issues to avoid surprises are important. Also business are never sold, they are bought - so show up and be visible to prospective buyers so that you are in their list. Storytelling is also super important and lastly the key is to find 'good investors and good advisors.'
- “Game Changer Series: Get a Clue in Health” - Aline Gomez and Ida Tin . Was amazing listening to
Ida Tin
, Co-Founder of Clue and mother of the term Femtech, about the ways technology is reshaping women's healthcare and our culture, promoting wellbeing not only for women but across societies. She extrapolated the complexity of Female health - Bone Health, Mental Health, and Brain Health and the ethical issues and how we build products for health. ‘Maletech’ was another point of discussion :)
- Jeff Hoffman was the rockstar on day two with his “Behind the Scenes: Tales From the Top” story along with Diego del Alcázar. He spoke about building Booking.com
and Priceline.com
. Amazing learning’s (please watch it when the video is uploaded - must watch). “Create your single Gold medal product and get Gold medal talent to work”, “Narrow casting”, “What is your aircraft steel?”, “Intent vs Activity”, “Pick the laundry and give Maria a hug” etc. Wow!
- “Ctrl+Alt+Defeat Climate Change: Harnessing Interconnected Systems” by Isabela Del Alcázar, Martin Schwab, Mathias Wikstr?m, and Nick de la Forge. Interesting takeaways included: “We got into this climate change mess together, and we need to get out together.” "We need to tackle the elephant in the room - Climate problem is a 'funding problem' and tackling climate change requires capital at scale, BUT money will flow ONLY if we assure returns. Showing only 'impact' will not work.” “Yes - we are hitting the planetary boundaries, but we WILL act if we can show value! - Texas moved to renewables ONLY as it is the cheapest form of new electricity.”
- “Future Thinking – Dubai’s D33 10-year transformative agenda and building the future today.” They spoke about the secret sauce of Dubai, unlike other cities, which is their ability to execute - and now they have a grand ambition - D33 plan is to double Dubai's GDP in 10 years!! The plan also aims to create the world’s best talent ecosystem, with future growth expected to be driven by intellect rather than the muscle power relied upon in the past. The innovation sandbox to assist AI, clean tech, prop tech, and health tech is planned.
- “Building Giants: Blueprints for Success” -? Alexandre Lazarow and JC Glancy spoke about how growing ‘remote’ helped them get the best talent globally. And the one 140-character success secret they recommend is “persistence prevails all”.
- Arianne Alcorta and Olivier Pailhès in the session “SaaSing Your Way to Success” spoke about adding AI layer on SaaS products. The Conversational AI opportunity is alluring - imagine AI analyzing every single phone call made by your sales staff and suggesting corrections! They also articulated that your product should be at least 3x better and have one killer feature and make clients pay early on as everyone wants it free forever.....
- “Biotech Breakthroughs: Genetics, Longevity, and Healthcare” was another interesting session panelled by Diego del Alcázar, I?aki Berenguer, and Martin Varsavsky They spoke about ethical considerations of the world's first gene-edited babies in China and recent case of a 65-year-old giving birth in China. Innovations are emerging at the intersection of AI and healthcare, allowing software engineers to create products without wearing the traditional white coat of biologists.... in the future., a robotic surgeon will do a more accurate surgery than humans. Consider the body as a car where parts can be organically replaced instead of the current method of donor organs which has a high rejection rate.
- Patricia álvarez spoke about the need to do internal ‘brand communication’ to match the ‘external brand communication’ using internal brand ambassadors in “Inside – Out Branding: Corporate Culture, Leading, and Inspiring by Example” section
- In “Solo-Founders + Right Tools = Scalability,” track Gabriel De La Rosa and Sami Abou Saab shattered the myth that co-founders are mandatory for success and funding! This marks a paradigm shift from the earlier perception of "What if the founder goes under the bus?". They spoke passionately about the high risk associated with co-founders who are not congruent based on their past experience. And, of course, history has plenty of solo heroes like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, etc.
- “Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution” was a great session by Juan José Güemes Barrios and
Uri Levine
. Lots of learning gems - “Bigger the problem - bigger the opportunity, so spend time on the problem”, “keep failing - when you have nothing to lose make bold moves”, “it takes time - even Chat GPT took 7 years to build” “Create value first - money will follow”.
- ….And of course, lots of deep learnings come from peers and not just from speakers. Great lessons on Spain's history from
Laura Delgado González (C.H.I.A.)
and how to build 'mini network effects inside flywheel to create force multiplier' from
Roman Kravchenko
... invaluable lessons....
