All sessions are streamed live from Boston, MA (EST) and will be available as recordings for all ticket types for a limited time.  

9:00 - 9:45 am 

Chief Strategy Officer Panel | When AI Challenges Strategy: How Three CSOs Are Responding 

(HBR Executive Subscribers Only)

Jennifer Moll, Maran Nalluswami, and Sherry Sanger with Adi Ignatius

A closed-door session featuring top Chief Strategy Officers on the strategic challenges and opportunities facing leaders today. Attendance is open to all HBR Executive subscribers. To register your interest, please email hbrexec@hbr.org. 

Fast-changing customer behavior, AI, and geopolitical shifts are forcing just about every company to transform its strategy. This session brings together chief strategy officers who are responding from different vantage points. Jennifer Moll is sharpening focus and leading an AI-driven product shift at DTEX. Maran Nalluswami is repositioning Synchrony as people shop and pay in new ways. Sherry Sanger of Penske is doubling down on innovation. Together, they’ll share what’s working, what’s still in progress, and how they’re staying focused.

10:00 – 10:30 am  

Kick-off Keynote: Inventive Strategy and the ‘Unbossed’ Organization

Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School

We stand at an inflection point. Organizations are optimized for a world that has irrevocably changed, and the structures that drove mass productivity now actively suppress the human ingenuity we need. In this opening keynote, global strategy and innovation expert Rita McGrath will challenge the assumptions underlying how businesses have been run for the past century, making a provocative case: the success recipe we’ve taken for granted is no longer fit for purpose. Drawing on her latest thinking about “inventive strategy,” she will lay out a practical framework for transforming businesses from rigid hierarchies into “unbossed structures”— systems that empower those closest to customers and markets to independently innovate and make decisions. She’ll show how defining what’s “non-negotiable” versus what’s “up for grabs” creates the balance between structure and freedom necessary for rapid reconfiguration in an age of transient competitive advantage. Following the talk, HBR editor-in-chief Amy Bernstein will facilitate an audience question-and-answer session. 

10:30 am – 11:00 am

Executive Interview: How to Build an Adaptable Business

Jana Werner and Phil Le-Brun, Amazon Web Services

While companies pour trillions into transformation efforts, few see lasting results. In this conversation with HBR editor-at-large Adi Ignatius, which will include audience questions, Phil LeBrun and Jana Warner, AWS executives and authors of the new book The Octopus Organization, offer a solution, explaining how businesses can model themselves after one of nature’s most adaptive and intelligent creatures. Unlike “Tin Man” organizations that view business as complicated but controllable, Octopus Orgs recognize the truly complex, nonlinear, uncertain, and constantly evolving nature of today’s world and design their businesses to sense change in real time and respond accordingly. 

11:00 am - 11:30 am

Masterclass: Why AI Means Radical Change

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School 

 In this interactive lecture, HBS professor Tsedal Neeley will provide evidence-based insights and use cases on how organizations can drive successful AI transformation. Central to this session is the 30% rule of the digital mindset: the minimum organizational change and technology capabilities needed for people to lead in a future shaped by data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Neeley will highlight the importance of change skills across all levels; overcoming silos that hinder data sharing; and rethinking processes in light of generative and agentic AI, which are transforming workflows and redefining organizational operating models. Amy Bernstein will facilitate the audience Q&A.  

11:30 am - 11:50 am  

Sponsored Session: The Agentic Enterprise — How to Scale AI to Drive Outcomes

Liz Centoni, Cisco

As artificial intelligence moves from experimentation to enterprise reality, leaders face a critical inflection point. The question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to drive real results while building trust and supporting employees through change. In this sponsored session, Cisco EVP and Chief Customer Experience Officer Liz Centoni discusses these challenges and why many organizations remain stuck in “pilot purgatory,” in conversation with Julie Devoll.

11:50 am - 1:00 pm  

LUNCH BREAK

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Masterclass: Who’s Going to Succeed with AI?

Andrew McAfee, MIT

It’s clear that artificial intelligence is changing the business world, bringing unprecedented opportunity and disruption. So who’s going to succeed with AI? Which kinds of companies will be ready to seize these opportunities — and enable the disruption? In this interactive session, Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at MIT and cofounder and codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, will reveal the secrets of “geek organizations”: those that have mastered the craft of rapid, deep technology-fueled change. In the AI era, that craft is more valuable than ever. The geek will, in fact, inherit the Earth. Adi Ignatius will facilitate the audience Q&A.  

1:30 pm - 2:00 pm

CEO Interview: Why AI Transformation Needs a Human Touch

Nigel Vaz

Most enterprise-wide AI initiatives fail because the talent, incentives, workflows, and trust structures aren’t integrated. The AI adoption race will be won by organizations that redesign how people interact with AI products. In a conversation led by HBR editor-in-chief Amy Bernstein, Publicis Sapient CEO Nigel Vaz will explain how leaders can take a more intentional approach to digital transformation, engineering systems that unite human judgement with AI capabilities to create real operational value at scale. 

2:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Experts in Conversation: Blue Ocean Strategy — Today and the Future

 W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, INSEAD

Renowned management scholars and corporate advisors Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne examine the enduring impact and evolution of their groundbreaking work on blue ocean strategy, as well as its continuing relevance and influence in a constantly changing world that is now confronting the rise of artificial intelligence. Adi Ignatius will conduct the interview, including audience questions.  

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Interactive Case Study Discussion: TikTok’s Winning Strategy

Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Harvard Business School

With nearly two billion global users, TikTok is now a leading social media platform. How did the app break into a market that many considered protected by a strong strategic moat? What role, if any, did AI and machine learning play in creating TikTok’s overnight success? In this interactive discussion, hosted by Amy Bernstein and including small-group breakouts, HBS professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee will unpack the drivers behind TikTok’s rise and discuss what its success means for the future of social media, advertising, and the attention economy in general. What lessons does TikTok’s story hold for businesses in any industry?