“China is not difficult to understand — it is difficult to lead in if you try to run it on titles and slide decks instead of trust, relationships, and speed.” — Dr. Guido Maune, Managing Director of Maersk Container Industry in Qingdao, on why Western companies keep misreading China: not because the market is “hard,” but because relationships, speed, and customer-first execution matter more than titles, playbooks, or product perfection. In this episode: • 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: trust in China is built through relationships, not just competence, credentials, or org charts • 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮’𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: from copying to improving to leading in areas like battery tech, AI, and manufacturing execution — and what Europe gets wrong about “how that happened” • 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘃𝘀 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀: why “best engineering” can still lose if you miss the features customers actually value (and how this shows up in automotive) • 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: why “de-risking” to Vietnam or elsewhere often fails without supplier density, and why China’s infrastructure still changes the cost-quality equation • 𝗛𝗤–𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: the paradox of directness, why bad news gets suppressed, and practical tactics to communicate hard truths with facts, humor, and solutions • 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲: lowering power distance, getting “hands dirty,” building psychological safety, and creating a culture where people speak up • 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻𝘀: why many Chinese companies will accept 2–4 years of losses to win a market, and why European firms struggle with that patience model • 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: why the best local leaders leave slow-moving Western orgs, and what HQ must change (cadence, visits, response time, decision rights) to keep them If you lead across borders, manage China operations, or sit between HQ intent and local execution, this conversation will sharpen how you think about trust, speed, and leadership culture in China. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

“China is not just the biggest auto market. It is where the industry’s pace, consumer expectations, and innovation frontier are being reset.” In this episode of Leaders in Motion, Kevin Hong sits down with Pierluigi Visotti, Managing Director and Founder of Ulysses, to unpack what China’s automotive acceleration means for Western OEMs, and what cross-border leadership really requires when the market moves faster than headquarters can process. Pierluigi shares his journey from Italy to nearly a decade in China, the early misconceptions he had to unlearn, and the on-the-ground signals many global teams missed, even while being present in-market. In this episode: • Why China’s EV rise became a true turning point, and what it did (and did not) solve for profitability • The real reason Western OEMs missed the shift: culture, attention, and disconnected HQ–China operating models • What “new generation” consumers actually want: experience, digital continuity, and a car that behaves more like a device than a machine • Why copying China will not work, and why the only sustainable response is innovation rooted in local consumer truth • The leadership model that scales across borders: mixing teams, rotating talent, and building real decision flow between HQ and region • Luxury auto’s durable edge, and the new pressure coming from “premium at an affordable price” players If you lead across regions, build in China, or compete with China-driven innovation at home, this conversation will sharpen how you think about speed, strategy, and operating reality. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

“𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁.” Jenny Lai, President & CEO for Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau at Bluebell Group, a platform that helps luxury and lifestyle brands enter, scale, and perform across Asia, on the most persistent misunderstanding global HQ teams bring into the China luxury conversation — and why “China” is never one consumer, one city, or one playbook. Jenny’s career arc is unusually “full-stack”: from strategy (McKinsey) to building Michael Kors Greater China from the earliest days, to senior leadership at Louis Vuitton and Versace, and now managing a multi-brand portfolio across categories. The throughline is not glamour. It’s operating speed, decision rights, and the hard work of translating global brand intent into local execution. In this episode: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗤–𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: not “tension,” but alignment on brand direction plus autonomy, resources, and trust to execute locally 𝗪𝗵𝘆 “𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮” 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: sub-economies, cultural variance, and execution realities that don’t travel well from a slide deck 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮’𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱: easy to understand in theory, difficult to act on if your “last visit” was 12–24 months ago 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: experience-driven luxury, niche fragrance, “daily luxuries,” and why big brands may return differently than the 10–15 year growth era 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄: not technical skills — character: resilience, agility, and the appetite to build in a market that no longer guarantees easy growth 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀: why the path differs by category, and why “digital-native” strength still has to meet offline execution and brand building in-market If you lead a brand across borders, manage APAC growth, or sit between global intent and local realities, this conversation will sharpen how you think about market nuance, talent, and operating speed. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this solo episode, Kevin Hong shares key insights on why Chinese New Year creates so much friction inside international companies — and what strong China leaders do differently. CNY is not just “seven days off.” Operational work slows down. But relationship work accelerates. That gap is where most HQ misunderstandings start: HQ either keeps pushing (and mistakes responses for consent), or goes completely dark (and signals absence in a relationship-driven moment). Kevin breaks down three practical insights that most global teams miss: availability is not the same as safety, operations can pause while relationships must stay active, and the right approach is planned, personal outreach — warm, specific, and non-transactional — followed by a prepared re-entry plan when work resumes. If you lead across China and HQ, manage partners in China, or want to build trust without burning out your team, this episode will give you a clear way to handle CNY without damaging the relationships that actually make the business run. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

"I just want to build a company like Google. That was very naive. But that was my passion." Google engineer turned founder Sega Cheng on what happens when you leave the Valley to build an AI startup in Asia — and why the hardest part of the journey was not learning new skills but unlearning the DNA of deterministic code to lead with probabilistic uncertainty. Based in Taiwan, Sega spent six years at Google (Mountain View and Taiwan) working on Android before co-founding iKala in 2012. Fourteen years later, iKala serves over 1,000 enterprises across Asia-Pacific with AI adoption platforms and operates Kolr, the world's largest influencer marketing platform with data on 300 million creators. From cloud infrastructure to AI-powered marketing, Sega has navigated multiple pivots, five funding rounds, and the reality that building a team in Asia with Silicon Valley speed requires finding traits most education systems do not cultivate: adaptability, bottom-up initiative, and tolerance for shipping imperfect products. In this episode: Why the Valley-Asia gap is not about technology, but about digital transformation readiness — and how that gap created iKala's first business model The hidden cost of technical founder → CEO transition: from writing code to allocating resources, from deterministic logic to probabilistic leadership How to hire for adaptability in top-down cultures: why CVs are now useless, what open questions reveal, and why Sega listens more than he talks in interviews If you are a technical founder navigating the shift to CEO, building teams across Asia-Pacific markets, or trying to balance Silicon Valley speed with local talent realities, this conversation will reshape how you think about leadership, hiring, and what it takes to scale a startup when systems break at borders. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this solo episode, Kevin hong share key insights from our executive webinar on sales hiring in founder-led businesses, featuring Yining Wang (serial entrepreneur who took a company public in two years) and Christian Schneider (CEO of File AI, a Series B enterprise SaaS company). Their experiences reveal three critical insights that most founders miss: the environment mismatch between established companies and startups, the mindset that actually predicts success over credentials, and the trust problem that prevents founders from scaling through delegation. I focus on the hiring decisions that separate founder-led businesses that scale from those that stall—and what it takes to identify sales entrepreneurs, not just sales operators, in uncertain environments. If you're a founder struggling to make your first sales hire work, or if you're building a team in a high-growth environment, this episode will give you the clarity and framework you need to hire differently. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

"AI can mimic our voice, but it cannot capture our vision." Burson WPP senior director Kaveri Roy on what happens when marketing agencies navigate the collision of artificial intelligence, cultural nuance, and global storytelling — and why "localization" is no longer about translation, but about co-creating with context to build campaigns that resonate across India, APAC, and beyond. Based in Mumbai, Kaveri has spent 15 years at the intersection of marketing, communications, and cross-cultural strategy. From early content roles to planning and digital leadership at Fleishman Hillard and Economist Impact, she has helped both global brands and regional players navigate the realities of Asia's diverse markets: the cultural elasticity required to contextualize campaigns, the friction between Western frameworks and local meaning, and the hard truth that what works in Brooklyn rarely works as-is in Bangalore. In this episode: Why cultural context is not a data set: how AI's Western bias shows up in tone, metaphor, and what "success" looks like The hidden cost of copy-paste campaigns: why Nike's "Just Do It" works in the West but P&G's "Thank You Mom" resonates deeper in collective cultures What ESG means across regions: in Europe it's regulation, in India it's inclusive growth, in Southeast Asia it's resilience and adaptation How to bridge HQ and regional teams: contextualize, don't just translate — and why co-creation with local teams is non-negotiable India's shift from creative back office to pilot market: the role of agility, cultural intelligence, and language fluency in shaping global campaigns Leadership in the age of AI: why intuition is not magic — it's curiosity, mental stillness, diverse feedback, and pattern recognition that machines cannot replicate If you work across global and regional markets, lead brand strategy in culturally diverse ecosystems, or want a clearer lens on why AI cannot replace the human bridge of culture, this conversation will reshape how you think about marketing in a world that moves faster than planning cycles. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

“In China, three-month-old insight can already be outdated.” Kantar advisory partner Ye Han on what brand strategy really looks like when the market moves faster than your planning cycles — and why “brand excellence” is no longer a marketing function, but a company-wide operating system that links strategy, product, experience, and people. Based in Beijing, Ye Han has spent two decades helping both international and Chinese companies navigate the realities of China’s consumer ecosystem: the speed of innovation, the friction between China and HQ decision cycles, and the hard trade-offs between agility and long-term brand equity. She also shares what she’s seeing as Chinese champions move outward — from product-first expansion to building global brand management systems. In this episode: Why China forces a different definition of agility (and what “18 months vs 4 months” means in practice) The hidden cost of moving fast without strategy: how companies become copyable when brand equity is missing What “brand excellence” means now: consistent experience across touchpoints, employees, and corporate strategy How to reduce HQ–China friction: principles stay global, relevance goes local Chinese companies going global: the mistake of buying awareness without building meaning + linkage to category If you work across China and global HQ, lead brand or strategy in fast-changing markets, or want a clearer lens on why transformation fails when systems cannot keep up with reality, this conversation will recalibrate how you think. Follow the show and leave a rating to help more leaders find it. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

“Online? Offline? They cannot be separate — consumers don’t care where they buy.” Omnichannel operator Loïc Réthore on why most transformations fail when they start with tech instead of vision, people, and governance—and how strong operating discipline stops channels from competing with each other and starts protecting margin and customer experience. From building brands across APAC (Japan, Greater China, Australia) in senior roles spanning Jurlique, Dyson, DFS, L’Oréal, LVMH, and Unilever, Loïc shares what actually travels across markets: cultural agility (“read the air”), active listening, and leaders who combine high skill with low ego. In this episode: Why omnichannel is a vision + governance problem before it is a platform problem The pricing and promo calendar discipline that prevents channels from undercutting each other Travel retail vs domestic: keeping the story consistent while changing store design and execution Centralized vs localized models: how category and product reality determine the operating design Mobility and cultural agility: why international careers still require curiosity, EQ, and real-market immersion If you lead across markets, manage channel conflict, or want a cleaner playbook for building resilient growth in volatile regions, this one will sharpen your instincts. Follow the show and leave a rating to help more leaders find it. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Autonomy isn’t independence — you earn freedom by serving the brand.” Luxury beauty leader Guilhem Souche on why the best global-to-local leaders win trust by delivering results and protecting the Maison—and why product-first localization beats “one-size-fits-all” every time. From launching Lancôme Absolue and Génifique, to leading across Asia in roles spanning L’Oréal, LVMH (Dior), and Coty, Guilhem shares what actually travels across markets: a simple filter for every plan—good for sales, good for image, brings something new. In this episode: The global⇄local filter that simplifies decision-making: sales, image, novelty Why product-first localization (textures, tones, routines) moves the needle before media or pricing The bridge leader’s job: educate HQ early, align on a common language, and build two-way ownershi If you lead across HQ and markets, build brands in fast-moving regions, or want a clearer playbook for turning local wins into global adoption, this one will sharpen your instincts. Follow the show and leave a rating to help more leaders find it. --- 🎧 Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your executive inspiration and learn how global leaders think ahead, move faster, and lead smarter. Subscribe to our newsletter (https://lyc-partners.us22.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6ba34d5d9e108df4fae223c8&id=a0961ca045)to get access to exclusive insights and all the details about the Leaders in Motion Academy, our executive program. If the topics discussed resonate with your own leadership challenges or the conversations happening in your organization - assessing international leaders, aligning global and local teams, building capabilities across regions. You can reach us at LYC Partners (http://www.lyc-partners.ai/contact-us) to set up a consultation. -- Produced by Bonjour Podcast (https://www.bonjourpodcast.com/) (Melanie Hong), Leaders in Motion blends storytelling, strategy, and data-driven insight, giving today’s leaders a roadmap to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and lead with intention. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.