Creating a renewable future in the bioeconomy

Creating a renewable future in the bioeconomy

with by INSEAD Alumni Gilles van Nieuwenhuyzen, Executive Vice President and Head of Packaging Solutions, Stora Enso.

Stora Enso,The renewable materials company” has done great efforts in living the INSEAD creed “Business as a Force for Good“, making sure its business works with local communities to take responsibility for the environment whilst leading the bio-economy and supporting the customers in meeting demand for renewable eco-friendly products.

On November 29, 2019, we were fortunate to listen to great insights from an impact- and purpose-driven world-leading company presented by Gilles van Nieuwenhuyzen is Executive Vice President and Head of Packaging Solutions and an Insead Alumni. The event was hosted at PWC Sweden.

Gilles van Nieuwenhuyzen is Executive Vice President and Head of Packaging Solutions at Stora Enso since 2015. Prior to this, he was President of the Enablers division at DuPont Nutrition & Health (formerly Danisco) 2010 – 2014. Earlier he was Executive Board Member and Division President at the Dutch food ingredients group CSM, and held positions at Rexam, DSM and McKinsey. He is a Dutch national and holds a MSc in Applied Physics and an MBA from INSEAD.

Gilles shared how their products were renewable and circular by nature.

Global warming is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The fossil world is about to come to its end as societies and consumers demand change. Stora Enso, “The renewable materials company” is living the INSEAD creed “Business as a Force for Good” by replacing fossil-based materials with renewable, eco-friendly solutions. Come and listen to great insights about sustainable profitable growth & renewable innovations from a company that claims: Everything that’s made from fossil based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow.

And still how hard Stora Enso worked in a major transformation of the entire company to make all dimensions sustainable, which had named them global leaders in Sustainability. Gilles also share how the transformation and ambition in Sustainability is ongoing.

An interested and engaged crowd had met up at PWC where the event was hosted to learn more form their INSEAD colleague on how to transform companies to become circular and sustainable.

More happening at INSEAD on the topic of Business as a Force for Good.  

INSEAD has established a centre, the Hoffman Global Institute for business and society,  to drive the focus on using Business as a Force for Good

An inaugural event was also held by INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre (ICGC), the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society (HGIBS) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) with participants from INSEAD Directors Network to  address sustainability from multi-level perspectives including both macro and micro approaches with a particular focus on boards’ responsibilities and on validating what a curriculum for board members committed to such a responsibility might look like.

The conference was named Towards Sustainability: A New Curriculum for Boards, on 8-9 April in Fontainebleau . More information can be found

Visit the website for more information and photo gallery >

Click here for video highlights >

INSEAD The Force for Good Conference was held in the afternoon of 5 October and brought together more than 620 attendees. The conference convened a diverse set of business leaders and prominent academics to share their views, experiences and strategies on how business can prosper and produce positive outcomes for society. More about the conference

 

 

Strategy in the age of AI: What are the lessons for Swedish competitiveness

Strategy in the age of AI: What are the lessons for Swedish competitiveness

with INSEAD Deputy Dean Peter Zemsky, Mats Agervi, CEO Combient and Luka Crnovic-Friis, CEO Peltarion

 

On October 16, 2019 business leaders and policy makers joined INSEAD Alumni Association Sweden to listen to and interact on the topic of AI in business.

Listen to the interview done by Swedish Radio of Prof Zemsky from the event (in Swedish)

The event was introduced by Eskil Ullberg, Board Member at INSEAD Alumni Network Sweden. PWC Partner Katja Severin Danielsson welcomed the participants as PWC was hosting the popular event.

Professor of Strategy and Deputy Dean of Innovation at INSEAD, Peter Zemsky works on digital transformation and innovation and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects strategies on resource allocation by businesses. He co-directs the new INSEAD and Singularity University joint programme The Future of AI: Seizing the Opportunity and has developed a range of award winning online courses including the executive education course Strategy in the Age of Digital Disruption.

INSEAD Prof. Zemsky presented issues of Europe lagging behind US and China on Artificial Intelligence, competing in the global talent race, mastering AI at board levels and policy development.

Prof Zemsky talked about AI strategy, pointing out the early mover advantage, with an interesting reflection on how AlphaGo really tipped Asia towards investing in AI.

See a short video with Prof Zemsky.

 

Mats Agervi

CEO of Combient Group and Chairman Combient Mix. Combient Group is a unique frontrunner in the global AI race and works with 30 of the largest companies in the Nordics on a joint mission to speed up digital transformation across industries. Today, Combient count 30 companies representing as many industries, a total of €150 billion in revenue and 600 000 employees, including Atlas Copco, Electrolux, Epiroc, Ericsson, Husqvarna, Kone, Investor, Saab, Scania, SKF, Stora Enso, Wärtsilä and more. The network is collaborating under a joint non-disclosure agreement across boards, management and business units. Together with Combient’s team of specialists as well as an ecosystem of top universities and startups, they have created an out-of-the-ordinary space for shared assets and rapid growth. Combient Mix is their data science and analytics company, spun off to deliver best in class automation services to the network while ensuring a responsible approach to AI.

Mats Agervi shared his experience and perspective of AI in Business, he focussed on the importance of addressing AI collaboratively between different companies towards AI Ecosystems  and how Nordic could use its unique competence in collaboration to speed up and create competitiveness for Nordic companies.

See a short video with Mr Agervi.

Mr Agervi also shared insights in how they are working in an academic research project 4Boards.ai with their companies, exploring how their boards and companies could better take leadership in the AI era. Involved in that academic research project is also INSEAD Alumni Association Sweden Board Member, Liselotte Engstam.

Luka Crnovic-Friis,

Founder and CEO of Peltarion, a leading Swedish AI startup providing an operational AI platform producing real-world cross industry AI applications at scale and speed. Over 300 companies have used Peltarion AI technology including NASA, Tesla, iZettle, General Electric and Deutche Bank. Peltarion was recently listed as one of Europes 100 hottest startups. The Peltarion team is led by top engineers from Spotify, Skype, King, TrueCaller and Google.

See a short video with Mr Crnovic-Friis.

Luka shared his experience and perspective of AI in Business, he made the point of aiming for quickens  by “picking the low hanging fruit-that is real fruit”

In a dialogue with these CEOs of two of the leading Swedish AI actors, Mats Agervi, CEO Combient and Luka Crnovic-Friis, Peltarion, Prof. Zemsky discussed “What strategies for AI could Swedish companies pursue?” and “What are the impacts for Swedish competitiveness?”

The room was packed full with engaged INSEAD Alumnis and guests.

More from INSEAD on the topic of

“Business as a Force for Good”.

An INSEAD blog on Digital collects some of the insights shared on Digital 

The Boardroom Digital Transformation Survey shared in this Governance talk Series by Andrew Shipilov, INSEAD Professor of Strategy

Insead is collaborating with Singularity University.

Prof Zemsky interviewing SU Founder Peter Diamandis on Digital and AI

SU Founder Peter Diamandis SU Global Summit 2019 Key note

INSEAD is starting its fourth global hub and its first hub in US in San Fransisco during 2020.

Including a joint program between INSEAD with Singularity University on AI

 

INSEAD also held an AI Forum in France, summarized in these 15 videos.

 

 

 

 

Summerised by

Liselotte Engstam,

Board Member at INSEAD Alumni Association Sweden & INSEAD Directors Network,

NED, Advisor, Affiliated Researcher