December 7, 2022. Shanghai – Building organisational resilience is key to thriving in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) world, according to views shared by CEIBS faculty during the Pudong International Talent Hub Forum held today.

Co-organised by Shanghai’s Pudong District government and CEIBS, the forum is an annual gathering of experts, scholars, business leaders and human resource executives from leading companies which come together to exchange views on the latest talent strategies and trends related to international talent development in Pudong.

In his opening remarks, CEIBS President (European) Dominique Turpin noted that every organisation needs three key elements to thrive: meaningful purpose, capital and talent.

“Most companies collapse or fail because they don’t have the right people or leadership, as products and strategies are made by people. Therefore, talent is the most valuable factor in competition,” President Turpin told the audience.

Having they said, he further pointed out the importance of detecting, developing and retaining talent.

“Retention is the most challenging, as it requires us to understand employees’ sources of motivation, especially young people who have totally different ideas from the previous generation,” he said.

CEIBS President Wang Hong then delivered a keynote speech on digital empowerment in the VUCA era across four aspects, including the development of the global and Chinese digital economy and Pudong’s talent needs.

She stressed that the digital economy has become a major force in reshaping the global value chain in the post-epidemic era. We should therefore take the opportunities presented by the new round of global industrial change and explore new areas of development with talented personnel, she explained.

“Pudong should not only bring global talent into Shanghai, but also export talent and help them go global to showcase the cultural soft power of the city,” President Wang said.

Speaking via pre-recorded message, CEIBS President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Marketing Dipak Jain then proposed a new methodology to get through the challenges and global disruptions of the VUCA era.

“We need to transform from being stressed to feeling blessed with a ‘CALM’ attitude. ‘C’ is for ‘Compassion’, ‘A’ is for ‘Acceptance Culture’, ‘L’ is for ‘Lifelong Learning’, and ‘M’ for ‘Mindset’,” Prof. Jain said, adding that difficulties come our way to make us better, not bitter.

He also discussed three elements in branding Pudong, with a focus on intellect, imagination, and innovation.

“Pudong is a vibrant community driven by human talent and development. We need to, first, create world-class education, an entrepreneurial spirit and financial technologies; second, connect Shanghai’s industrial base and infrastructure internationally; and, third, create a strong work culture and ethics to empower people,” he explained.

Also addressing the forum, CEIBS Honorary Professor in Accounting and Academic Director of the DBA Programme Hwang Yuh-Chang talked about policy assessment and incentive mechanisms for scientific and innovative talent in the digital age.

He pointed out that Class II restricted stock (restricted stock refer to insider holdings that are subject to certain sales restrictions) is an important way to motivate management teams.

The event also featured an engaging roundtable discussion where panellists shared ideas on current talent strategies and trends, as well as the future of the job market and workplaces driven by digitalisation.

Wrapping up the discussion, CEIBS Professor of Management Jean Lee concluded that corporate resilience lies in three realms: first, the ability to recover from setbacks; second, persistent and persevering spirit to long-term goals; and, third, a positive and growth mindset to become stronger.