Hello Judith, I'm here together with you in Davos.
You are leading BCG's global CEO Advisory team.
Thanks a lot for making the time.
Thanks for having me.
Let me quickly ask you, what are your main takeaways from Davos
so far?
Look, I think this year, for me, Davos feels a bit like the final dawn of
a new era.
We've talked about geopolitics moving from cooperation to more competition,
world trade moving from integrated to more fragmented for a long time.
I think this week's, where this coincides with the start of a
new US administration, has brought this home to every CEO here.
That's the new normal.
I still found the discussions here optimistic and practical,
very much focused on what does this now really mean for business leaders?
How do we compete?
If trade is more in economic blocs, where do we really excel at?
And for Europe specifically, how does that drive a really innovative
industrial policy?
But also practical questions on how do we extract value from AI?
How do we build a really strong geopolitical muscle to prepare our our
companies for increased volatility?
Those were some of the really practical things I felt leaders were really
grappling with.
A wonderful summary.
It resonates very well with me.
Judith, thanks so much.
Now taking a quick view on the CEO Advisory, what are the key elements that,
as part of those programs. - At the core,
we aim to do three things and offer those to CEOs.
One is individual programs.
We do those primarily for CEO candidates in a formal board process for new CEOs
who's at the start of a new tenure and really need to take time and want to take
time to reflect on what defines success for them very personally.
And also for what we call next generation CEOs,
leaders who are probably two to four years from their first CEO position and
would really like to reflect what it takes.
So that's the call.
We delivered a bit more than 200 of these programs last year and then we saw
another 450, 500 CEOs in what we call CEO learning
communities.
Those are both face to face and virtually.
And it's really getting a like-minded group of twelve,
fifteen CEOs together on an agenda of shared interest.
It's not a BCG show.
It's really learning from each other.
And then certainly we invest in research of topics that are relevant for CEO
performance.
Where do CEOs spend their time on, what's the role and profile of a great
chief of staff?
So that's what we do, Yeah.
And learning from each other from CEO to CEO, I guess.
And if you have to pinpoint the one thing that CEOs are mostly appreciative of?
- I believe it's really that idea of taking time to reflect out of very
fragmented, crowded calendars where they always feel
they're running.
I also think it's, it's this fact that it's about themselves
and really that reflection on what makes them successful, what gives them energy,
not only about the business.
And then lastly, it's the complete confidentiality, right,
a safe space that they can really reflect also on the hard things and not be on a
stage.
And do you see...now, most of what the work that we are doing
or that you are leading is in the private sector.
Do you see also demand coming in from the public sector?
We've served CEOs in the public sector in very different shapes and forms.
So CEOs of state-owned companies, CEOs of NGOs and other international
organizations or partly also CEOs or directors of federal agencies or state
agencies.
And I think part of these, their challenges are obviously different.
They deal with a stakeholder environment that's usually a lot more sophisticated
and complex, but a lot of the challenges in terms of,
what's my narrative for where I would like to take the organization,
what is a really high-performing leadership team,
where would I like to evolve the culture of the organization.
I think these are universal and that's what CEOs and the public sector
appreciate as well.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thanks a lot for sharing your insights and I wish you a wonderful,
successful last day here at Davos.
Same to you.
Thank you.