Agility 2.0: Building Adaptable Organisations

Kai Anderson is one of Germany’s most sought-after change experts. He is driven by and driving topics of organisational agility and human centered transformation. A sparring partner for executives, Kai supports realigning and transforming companies with modern people management. After graduating with an industrial engineering degree and founding a software company that ultimately failed, he worked as a consultant at a University of St. Gallen spin-off. In 1999, he and a college friend founded Promerit AG as a new type of consulting firm for transformation and talent management. Today, he develops cutting-edge management methodologies (such as the agile organisation model or human digital transformation) in cooperation with clients and academic partners. Kai is a popular speaker at industry events and author of the books Das Agile Unternehmen (The Agile Enterprise) and Digital Human.

Scott Anthony is passionate about helping individuals and organisations develop the capacity to thrive in today’s world of never-ending change. He is a Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he teaches a course called “Leading Disruptive Change,” and a Managing Director and Managing Partner Emeritus at Innosight, where he helps leaders design new growth strategies, build innovation capabilities, navigate disruptive innovation, and manage strategic transformation.  
Scott has written eight books, including most recently Eat, Sleep, Innovate (2020) and Dual Transformation (2017), which describe how forward-thinking organisations can navigate disruptive change and own the future. His most recent Harvard Business Review article is “Persuade Your Company to Change Before It’s Too Late.” Scott lived in Singapore from 2010-2022, where he served as a member of the Committee on the Future Economy and as Board member of subsidiaries of Temasek (MediaCorp) and NTUC (LearningHub).He has given keynote addresses on six continents and is Harvard Business Corporate Learning’s most in-demand external subject matter expert.  
In 2021 Scott was named the world’s seventh most influential management thinker by Thinkers50. He has been nominated for the Thinkers50 Innovation Award three times, winning the award in 2017. Scott received a BA in economics summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and an Executive Master in Change from INSEAD, where he graduated with distinction.

Kate is a Partner and the Global Advisory Solutions and Insights Leader at Mercer. Her role involves strategising growth opportunities for Human Capital Consulting, bringing new products to market and supporting the business’ professional practices; Talent Strategy, Mobility, Workforce Rewards, Executive Rewards, HR Transformation and Communication. 

She has over 20 years’ experience in the Human Capital consulting helping organisations achieve a talent advantage through people. Kate has expertise in people strategy, talent management, assessment/leadership development and HR process design. She has held office and market leadership positions in multiple countries. Prior to her current role, she was the growth market regional practice leader for the talent strategy business.

Kate commenced her career with American Express where she focused on new employee orientation and its impact on cultural integration. Her interest in cross-cultural leadership and decision making have been constants throughout her career.  She is a UK Chartered Occupational Psychologist with an MSc. in Organizational Psychology.

Having worked and lived in many locations, she appreciates the challenges associated with managing talent in mature and growth market environments. Kate’s technical background lies in people strategy, design of talent management solutions, organisational development, performance and succession management systems, assessment and hi potential development, as well as and career architecture and job levelling.

Stéphane Girod’s research, teaching, and consulting focus on the development of business agility in response to the many forms of disruption faced by organisations in today’s world. He sets out his thinking on the topic in his book Resetting Management: Thrive with Agility in the Age of Uncertainty. He has particular expertise in the luxury sectors and leads IMD’s Luxury 2050 initiative. Girod helps executives and established companies to foster agility at the strategy, organisational, and leadership levels in response to digital, (de)globalisation, and other forms of disruption. He is an expert on linking agility and digital transformations.

Professor Connson Locke joined the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2008 where she teaches Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, and Negotiation and Decision Making. Connson has over 30 years’ experience as an educator, coach, and consultant working in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Australia. Prior to entering academia, she served as Regional Training and Development Manager for the Boston Consulting Group where she was responsible for the learning and development of consulting staff in 10 offices across Asia Pacific. Connson holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Business Administration (Organisational Behaviour) from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University where she graduated with honours. Her book, Making Your Voice Heard, uses the research on power and influence to help people speak up to those who have more power than they do.

Rupal Patel’s high-octane career has taken her from military briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. During her thrilling career as an analyst and field agent at the CIA, she advised Four-Star Generals, earned War Zone Service Medals, and was recognized by the CIA Director for “superior support to the President of the United States.”

After leaving the CIA, she earned her MBA from London Business School and started her first award-winning business over ten years ago. Called a ‘Power Woman’ by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine and a ‘super-strategist’ by her clients, Rupal is a sought-after international speaker and corporate consultant who has spoken in front of thousands and worked with top-tier organizations around the globe.

Her trailblazing work has been incorporated into the MBA and Executive MBA programs at London Business School, Henley Business School, and the University of Edinburgh Business School, and her commitment to developing the next generation of leaders extends into her pro bono work as an Advisor for Virgin Startup and as Entrepreneur in Residence at London Business School.

She is the author of the international best-seller From CIA to CEO: Unconventional Life Lessons for Thinking Bigger, Leading Better, and Being Bolder (to be translated into Chinese in February 2023 and launching in North America in May 2023). The book offers a powerful new toolkit for living and leading that reveals how the techniques of the CIA can help anyone remake the rules of success and become unstoppable.

Gillian has worked as a senior HR practitioner and OD specialist for several organisations including Swiss Re, Vodafone and BAA. Prior to her HR career, she was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting and is also a qualified solicitor. Gillian has written various CRF reports on subjects including HR strategy, organisation design and development, leadership development, coaching and diversity.

Nigel Sullivan is Chief People Officer at Bupa. As a member of the Executive Team, Nigel leads the transformation of People Functions including all aspects such as payroll, operations, recruitment, talent, OD, engagement, training and development. Prior to joining Bupa, Nigel was Group Human Resources Director for TalkTalk from 2010 – 2017. He started his career in Human Resources at Rover Group and subsequently held senior HR positions at Nortel Networks, Marconi and the logistics group Wincanton plc. He is a Non Executive Director of the Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Bath.