Smaranda and Dragos of Upgrade 100 and IQ Digital invited Matthew back to keynote their summit in Brasov, Romania, three years after his last in-person keynote with them before the pandemic.
In front of around 300 local entrepreneurs and CEOs from companies such as BCR and Vodafone, the summit's themes were digital transformation, startup nation and the future. Matthew brought all three into a single keynote on how to 'Win the Future': first helping the audience envision it, then giving them the critical thinking and tools to understand it, develop world class strategies and cultures, build it and lead it.
"To win the future you first have to envision it, then build the critical thinking and tools you need to understand it, develop world class strategies and cultures, build it, and lead it."Matthew Griffin, Brasov, February 2023
He was more direct than usual, choosing to share insights he normally reserves for closed-door sessions with the boards of organisations such as Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Samsung and Visa, which they have used for years to sharpen their competitive edge and enter new markets.
The session moved from multiple disruptive industry shifts, and how they can be used to undermine incumbents' status quo, to step by step guidance on how to explore the future, model it and develop actionable strategies to lead it. Straight afterwards, Matthew joined a panel on how organisations such as Vodafone can use these insights to disrupt their own businesses and industries in Romania and beyond.
