Benoît Potier, Chairman and CEO of Air Liquide (France)

Video link: https://youtu.be/EyQbUh-ySmU [06:24]

In this video, Air Liquide Chairman and CEO Benoît Potier discusses some of the main trends in the business environment that affect Air Liquide, such as the impact of digitization or the increasing use of hydrogen for mobility purposes.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- What can top managers like Potier do to successfully adapt their organizations to changing conditions in the business environment?

- What role do corporate entrepreneurship and innovation play for a company like Air Liquide in a fast-changing business environment?

Video link 1: https://youtu.be/8P488zDX1bM [02:38]

This video includes a few impressions from and comments about the launch of the i-Lab, Air Liquide’s innovation lab that was set up under the leadership of Benoît Potier.

Video link 2: https://youtu.be/SiPWY1UdW4E [sequence from 00:00-02:05]

This video sequence provides further insights into the work of the i-Lab.

Reflection and discussion question:

- How can an organizational unit that is clearly dedicated to innovation (like the i-Lab) foster innovativeness and corporate entrepreneurship in a large organization like Air Liquide?

Suh Kyung-bae, CEO of AmorePacific (South Korea)

Video link: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/south-korean-beauty-brand-amorepacific-looks-to-global-expansion.html [12:25 minutes]

This CNBC video features an interview with Suh Kyung-bae, the CEO of the South Korean cosmetics company AmorePacific. The main topics of the interview are the history of AmorePacific and the company’s expansion into international markets.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- How has innovation contributed to AmorePacific’s success in the highly competitive cosmetics market?

- How is innovation linked to the ability to enter new international markets?

Article link: https://www.tharawat-magazine.com/grow/amorepacific-cosmetics-innovation/#gs.57qxpf

This article from tharawat magazine explores how innovation contributed to AmorePacific’s rise as a global player in the cosmetics industry.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- What makes AmorePacific one of the “world’s most innovative companies”?

- How can top managers like Suh Kyung-bae contribute to making their organizations more innovative?

Cindy Mi, founder and CEO of VIPkid (China)

Video link: https://youtu.be/DNO6jjz4Kg0 [03:38 minutes]

Cindy Mi is the founder and CEO of a Chinese start-up company called VIPkid. She set up a digital language learning platform on which Chinese students can have one-to-one teaching interactions with English language teachers from North America. In this video interview, Mi explains the business idea behind VIPkid.

Article link: https://www.fastcompany.com/40525523/how-vipkid-ceo-cindy-mi-made-education-a-universal-language

This Fast Company article includes an interview in which Cindy Mi explains how she first recognized and then exploited the business opportunity that lies in connecting Chinese students with language teachers in the US and Canada with the help of digital technologies.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- How did Mi recognize the business opportunity that she tries to exploit with her start-up company VIPkid?

- Keeping in mind the criteria for preliminary opportunity assessment from your textbook, how would you assess the business opportunity that Mi has tried to exploit?

Article link: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/28/cnbc-interview-with-cindy-mi-founder--ceo-vipkid-.html

This transcript of an interview that Cindy Mi gave for CNBC provides additional information about VIPkid’s business model.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- Using the business model canvas, how would you describe the main elements of VIPkid’s business model?

- If you were to write a business plan for VIPkid, what would you include in such a plan?

Deepa Bachu, co-founder and CEO of Pensaar Design (India)

Video link: https://youtu.be/z6vm2wAZBYc [06:18 minutes]

In this video, Deepa Bachu, co-founder and CEO of Pensaar Design, an Indian company that specializes in providing consulting services in the field of innovation, explains the main principles of design thinking.

Reflection and discussion questions:

- After watching the video, how would you describe the main principles of the design thinking approach?

- How does design thinking differ from a more “traditional” problem-solving approach?

Article link: https://2019.agileindia.org/qa-with-deepa-bachu-co-founder-and-ceo-at-pensaar/

In this interview, Bachu reflects on the role that leaders play in creating more creative and innovative organizations.

Reflection and discussion question:

- Referring to what Bachu said, what can a manager do to foster creativity and innovativeness in their organization?