Peter Drucker warned us: “The large organization has to learn to innovate, or it won’t survive.” What could be more in the spirit of his work than to challenge what managers “know” about creating new value—and learn what survival demands next.

Chair
Eduardo P. Braun Leadership expert and consultant 

Speakers
Richard Straub Founder and President, Global Peter Drucker Forum
Sebastian Schütze Rector, University of Vienna

In an opening round of quick calls to action, thought leaders underscore what is hardest about managing innovation, what excites them about the future, and where research-based and peer-practice insights will matter most.

Chair
Eduardo P. Braun Leadership expert and consultant

Opening Salvos
Linda Hill Professor of Business Administration, Chair of the Leadership Initiative, HBS
Rita McGrath Professor of Strategy, Columbia Business School
Gianpiero Petriglieri Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD

Practice Leaders
Arne Gast Senior Partner and global leader of Culture and Change Leadership serviceline, McKinsey and Company
Lenka Pincot PMP, PMI-ACP, PfMP, PMI-PBA, CAPM Chief of Staff to the CEO, Project Management Institute 
Michael Lurie Chief Catalyst, Bayer
Helmut Reisinger CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Palo Alto Networks
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. SHRM-SCP, President & CEO, SHRM

As organizational strategies increasingly hinge on innovation, leaders are under new pressure to make high-stakes decisions with very little relevant data. What new capabilities do top teams need to build?

Chair:
Julia Kirby Senior Editor, Harvard University Press

Speakers:
Gerd Gigerenzer Director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, University of Potsdam
Roger L. Martin Professor Emeritus & Former Dean, Rotman School; Strategy advisor
John van Rossen Global Strategy and Execution Leader, EY- Parthenon

Only the very top leadership of an organization is in position to drive large-scale transformation—and with that power comes absolute responsibility to make deep shifts when necessary. A panel of veteran change agents shares insights on reorienting a large enterprise when innovation suddenly becomes “job one.”

Chair:
Daniela Herneth People & Business Developer; Leadership Coach

Speakers:
Andrea Petrone Global Executive Coach and Advisor
Nadja Zhexembayeva Founder & Chief Reinvention Officer Reinvention Academy
Sabine Vinck Client Partner and Global Leader at Spencer Stuart

Every single social and global issue of our day,” Drucker famously said, “is a business opportunity in disguise.” Recent decades have seen an explosion of entrepreneurial idealists. How is their work—and its impact—changing?

Chair:
Luciana D’Abramo Chief Programme Officer and a Board Member of FOUR PAWS International

Speaker:
Isabelle Spiegel Global Head of Environment, Vinci Group
Atje Drexler Senior VP Futures and Networks, Bosch Foundation
Deepa Prahalad Innovation/design strategy consultant

It’s often a long road from scientific research to value-creating innovation—and lapses at any point along it can rob societies of massive economic rewards. What mechanisms could put groundbreaking discoveries on a faster, surer track to impact?

Moderator:
Hannah Wundsam Managing Director of AustrianStartups

Speakers:
Elisabeth Zehetner Austrian State Secretary for Energy, Startups and Tourism
Georg Kopetz Member of the Executive Board at TTTech and member of FORWIT
Helmut Schönenberger Co-founder and CEO, UnternehmerTUM
Clas Neumann SVP and Head of SAP Labs Network

Launching next-generation ideas can be easier when a company isn’t subject to capital markets pressures, but it can also be trickier—especially when family dynamics complicate consensus. How can innovation champions navigate the conflicting priorities, visions, and varying appetites for risk?

Moderator:
Reinhard Prügl Head of Institute for Family Business, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Speakers:
Catharina Knobloch Chief Digital Officer, CKV Group
Antonia Neuner Head of Strategic Projects – Group Transformation & Innovation, SKB Group
Sonja Zimmermann Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Berndorf AG

As organizations—and societies in general—put more emphasis on innovation, we may have to admit that education systems designed in the early years of the industrial revolution are no longer fit for purpose. Would some judicious tweaks make all the difference? Or is it time for total overhaul?

Moderator:
Lily Bi President & CEO, AACSB International

Speakers:
Adam Yearsley Global Head of Talent Management for Amer Sports
Mariëlle G. Heijltjes Dean, Maastricht University School of Business and Economics
Frank Krings Independent Director and Advisor; President SAP Fioneer

Sovereignty debates are raging with regard to AI and other commercial innovation realms, and trusted ecosystems are needed more than ever. How can these challenges be embraced as opportunities?

Facilitation:
Thomas Kirste Director at Bosch Management Consulting Innovation for Business & Digital Strategy
Peter Williamson Professor of International Management at University of Cambridge and Judge Business School

Speakers:
Gertrud Götze Board Member of T-Systems Austria, Executive Transformation Leader
Georg Stadlhofer Board Member, Drees & Sommer Austria
Christian Vrancic Head of Strategy, SAP Sovereign Cloud

How are most enterprises applying artificial intelligence? So far, mostly to gain operational efficiency and reduce costs. But the bigger impact will come as these powerful capabilities fuel next-generation offerings—and light a fire under top-line growth.

Chair:
Michele Zanini Co-founder Management Lab

Speakers:
Shin Shuda Global CEO, Uvance Wayfinders, Fujitsu
Bastian Bergmann Co-founder and COO of Solsten
TBA

Innovation, Drucker said, is “the specific tool of entrepreneurs.” Hear from founders of fast-growing ventures about spotting opportunities in changing conditions, and honing that tool to build ingenious solutions again and again.

Chair:
Angelika Reich Leadership Advisor with Spencer Stuart

Speakers:
Carolin Gabor Co-Founder & Managing Partner of caesar 
Renat Heuberger CEO of HUSK and Founding Partner of Terra Impact Ventures

In this two-hour workshop designed to be especially valuable for HR leaders, learn how major trends are changing priorities and driving innovation in technology, strategy, diversity, performance management, leadership, and more.

Chair:
Dana Maor Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Speakers:
Patrick Guggenberger Partner McKinsey & Company, Vienna
TBA

It isn’t enough to have an organization working harder at innovation. Teams also have to work faster. This session will uncover ways to speed collaboration, slash schedules, bypass roadblocks, and “ship” while the market is hot.

Chair:
Bill Fischer Emeritus Professor of Innovation Management, IMD

Speakers:
Sapthagiri Chapalapalli Head of Tata Consultancy Services Europe
Jana Werner Executive in Residence, Amazon Web Services
Florence Sardas Chief Transformation Officer, Forvis Mazars Group

Isaac Asimov anticipated this moment eighty years ago, when he spelled out his rules for robots. Have we figured out since how to keep our astonishing technologies human-centered?

Chair:
Johan Roos Professor and Member of the Board  at Luxembourg School of Business; Senior Advisor to the Global Peter Drucker Forum

Speakers:
Peter G. Kirchschläger Professor of ethics and Director of the Institute of Social Ethics, University of Lucerne
Mathis Bitton Ph.D. candidate in Harvard’s Government Department; Head researcher at NYU’s Emerging Technologies Collaborative
David Weinberger Senior Researcher, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University

There’s a lot of magic to super-productive teams—but these days, a lot of method, too. This interactive session combines peer exchange with expert perspectives on which innovation management approaches work best in practice.

Chair:
Guillaume Alvarez Director Corporate relations at Global Peter Drucker Forum

Speakers:
Abdelmoula El Hadi Group Head of Innovation EMEA & APAC Knauf Insulation
Roman Przybylski President of the Management Board, Kety S.A
Leif Huff Design Professor, Design Strategy & Innovation Leader

Innovation management is fundamentally people management—everything begins with human ingenuity and everything proceeds with human energy and enthusiasm. How can leaders ensure they are cultivating, and not crushing, this absolutely core advantage?

Chair:
Mary Meaney Haynes Social Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

Speakers:
Julia Simet Principal, Global Talent Officer, Gensler
Adam Yearsley Global Head of Talent Management for Amer Sports
Gianpiero Petriglieri Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD

It’s not just about launching special initiatives or setting up incubators off to the side—truly progressive organizations have gone beyond isolated efforts to reinvent their management systems, from how decision rights are distributed, to how capital gets allocated, to how performance is measured.

Chair:
Yoshikuni Takashige Senior Advisor, Ridgelinez Limited, Fujitsu

Speakers:
Ike Nwankwo Chair of PMI Board of Directors
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez Thought Leader in Project Management
Fabian Kesicki Head of Corporate Development, Wien Energie

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. SHRM-SCP, President & CEO, SHRM
in conversation with
Amy Edmondson Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School

19:30     Aperitif
20:00     Gala Dinner

Host   
TBA

Dinner speech
Gary Hamel Director, Management Lab; Visiting Professor, London Business School

DRUCKER CHALLENGEAWARDS CEREMONY
MC
Mark Kennedy Partner, Chief Client & Markets Officer, Forvis Mazars Group

Finalists of the Drucker Challenge Essay Contest

The famous opening line from the boomer TV series “The Bionic Man” applies to businesses and other large organizations today. The pairing of human and machine capabilities creates a bionic superpower … but only if we rebuild processes, structures, and systems to leverage it.

Chair:
Robin Speculand CEO of Bridges Consultancy Int; Co-founder Strategy Implementation Institute

Speakers:
Markus Reitzig Professor for Strategic Management, University of Vienna (Opening statement)
Doris Birkhofer President of Siemens France; CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure
Kevin Nolan President & CEO, GE Appliances, a Haier Company

“Next-Gen Innovation” means going beyond targeted initiatives to make the quest for new value creation constant and enterprisewide. It means looking strategically at portfolios, capabilities, platforms, and roadmaps—and there’s also that small matter of getting clear on purpose …

Chair:
Carla Arellano Operating Partner, InTandem Capital Partners

Speakers:
Jürgen Reiner co-CEO Europe, Managing Partner at Uvance Wayfinders, Fujitsu
Julien Villalongue Managing Director of Leonard, Vinci Group
Loes Bresseleers Global Head of HR at argenx

Healthcare has a long history of life-changing innovation. But will next-gen breakthroughs come from inside its ranks? Explore how cross-fertilization of ideas from many quarters might yield trusted solutions at scale.

Chair:
James Mountford Executive coach and editor

Speakers:
Florence Dupré Global Healthcare Officer, La Poste Santé & Autonomie
Adam Sewell-Jones Group Chief executive Officer Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Martin Curley Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University; Director of the Digital Health Ecosystem at the Innovation Value Institute
Fahad Bin Ahmed Al-Harbi Vice President, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University

You’re asking your people to be more innovative and take initiative—yet you can’t allow the enterprise to be pulled in a hundred different directions. How do you get both focus and progress? It takes a strong, shared sense of purpose.

Chair:
Eduardo P. Braun Leadership expert and consultant

Speakers:
Kitty van der Heijden Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF
Bill Anderson CEO, Bayer AG
Josef Aschbacher Director General of the European Space Agency
George Q. Daley Dean, Harvard Medical School

No one would deny that, if new ideas need to be hatched and developed, richer collaboration should be encouraged. The quest continues, though, to discover the kinds of workplaces, tools, and techniques that are most generative. Here’s a look at new ones inspired by research and showing promise in practice.

Chair:
Katarina Roder Head of People Development & Culture, OEBB-Infrastruktur AG

Speakers:
Nilofer Merchant Co-Founder, The Intangible Labs (TIL), Author “Our Best Work”
Mark Mortensen Associate Dean, Middle East Campus INSEAD
Cornelia Choe CEO, The Leaders Alliance

Delve into cases of AI applications that have really delivered, reinventing solutions and solution approaches in cybersecurity and other realms of existential importance to twenty-first century organizations.

Chair:
Melinda Lee Ferguson VP of Sales Acceleration, EMEA, Palo Alto Networks

Speakers:
Thomas Masicek Senior Vice President of Cyber Security at T-Systems

Europe has no shortage of talent, ideas, and public support for innovation, yet ventures struggle with the journey from idea to industrial business. What are the missing conditions? Using Europe as a concrete starting point, this session will draw broader
lessons.

Chair:
Stefan Wagner Chair for Technology and Innovation, University of Vienna

Speakers:
Alex Adamopolous Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Emergn
Antonella Mei-Pochtler Executive Vice Chair, Pochtler Industrieholding
TBA

In an AI-filled world. leaders will drive exceptional performance with human strengths—and will build them with focus, trust, and clarity rather than relentless optimization. What remains uniquely human in leadership will be judgment, psychological safety, and the ability to sustain innovation and energy across organizations.

Chair:
Simone Ahuja Innovation Strategist, Bestselling Author & Founder, Blood Orange

Speakers:
Annastiina Hintsa CEO, Hintsa Performance
Maud Bailly CEO Sofitel Legend & Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems – Accor Luxury & Lifestyle
Thomas Bubendorfer Solo climber and author

No stage, no slides—ownership of this session is dynamic and shared. Pose a question, walk to a circle that holds appeal (nobody assigns you), and get to work. It’s a cycle that takes 90 days in real life, but experiencing it for an hour could make you a believer.

Speakers & Hosts:
Michael Lurie Chief Catalyst, Bayer
Bill Anderson CEO, Bayer
Michele Zanini Co-founder, Management Lab
TBA

The countries most able to shape outcomes on the world stage – and to weather large-scale shocks – have built their military and economic strengths on technologic advantages. In the midst of a new industrial revolution, how might the global power
balance shift?

Chair:
Monika Rosen Vice President Austro-American-Society

Speakers:
Adrian Wooldridge Global Business Columnist at Bloomberg Opinion
Mehran Gul Author of The New Geography of Innovation
André Loesekrug-Pietri Chairman & Scientific Director, JEDI
Ravi Kant Former Managing Director and Vice-Chairman, Tata Motors; key leader in the Jaguar Land Rover acquisition and subsequent turnaround

Governance is not everyone’s job but everyone feels the pain when it isn’t done responsibly … boards tend to be very risk aware … no director ever gets sued because innovation doesn’t get funded … In the typical organization, board members don’t see it
as their job to spur on innovation.

Chair:
Isabelle Grosmaitre Founder & CEO of Goodness & Co

Speakers:
Mathilde Lemoine Group Chief Economist Edmond de Rothschild & Member of the Global Investment Committee
Angelica Kohlmann Co-founder and Chairman of the Kohlmann & Co. Family Office
Michael Kramarsch President of the Financial Experts Association (FEA) and CEO of Merlin Beteiligungs- und Beratungs GmbH

Today’s prevailing innovation methods—featuring funnels, stage-gates, annual cycles, review committees, and portfolio processes—were designed when ideas were generated and evaluated only by humans. Today, AI agents are in the mix, generating myriad hypotheses and learning continuously. How should management systems adapt?

Facilitator/Designer:
Lalit Karwa Head, TCS PACE, Tata Consultancy Services, Europe

Speakers:
Wendy Tan Managing Partner, Flame Centre, psychologist, researcher and practitioner

No innovation goes far if it doesn’t solve a real customer problem. But there are different schools of thought on how to spot those pain points, sift through data, learn from input and feedback, and get customers on board with new ideas.

Chair:
Giuseppe Stigliano Entrepreneur & Strategic Marketing professor

Speakers:
Menaka Gopinath Chief Marketing Officer, PMI
Gonzalo Brujó Global CEO & President at Interbrand
Melinda Ferguson VP of Sales Acceleration EMEA, Palo Alto Networks

In regions hoping for more innovation-driven economic growth, the perennial debates are about regulations—but those are only the start of how governments throw up barriers to positive change.

Chair:
Josée Touchette Lawyer, accountant, and Director certified by the Institute of Canadian Directors

Speakers:
Anna Pietikäinen Head of the Regulatory Policy Division, Public Governance, OECD
Tom Tugendhat Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; Former UK Minister
Emily M. Dickens Chief Administrative Officer, SHRM
Veit Dengler Independent Member of the Austrian National Council

Every meaningful improvement begins with a novel thought. Are you and your team good at generating ideas? Insights from cognitive psychology research may get your creative juices flowing.

Chair:
Stefan Stern Journalist; Visiting professor in management practice at Bayes Business School

Speakers:
Guila-Clara Kessous UNESCO Peace Ambassador; Executive coach
Eva Asselmann Professor of Differential and Personality Psychology at HMU Health and Medical University in Potsdam

Innovators are always forward-looking, working to create what hasn’t existed before. But some are especially focused on how the world around them is changing, and what has to be done now to make it through.

Chair:
Christian Lüdtke CEO, Bryck Startup Alliance/RAG Foundation

Speakers:
Howard Yu Professor of Management & Innovation, IMD
Valerie Hackl Managing Director of Gas Connect Austria
TBA

Speaker:
Amy Edmondson Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School

Speaker:
Richard Straub Founder and President, Global Peter Drucker Forum