With an eye on the future of business: Insights of the CIM Summit 2024

The CIM Summit took place on April 6th, 2024, at the Bank of Cyprus Headquarters in Nicosia.

The theme of the summit was "The Future of Business: Adapting to a Changing Landscape". In a time marked by rapid technological advancements, cultural shifts, and global challenges, companies must remain vigilant to react and adapt to these changes. The Summit highlighted these challenges and offered guidance for the future.

The CIM Summit is a point of reference for the business community of Cyprus and the region and it had speeches by world-renowned academics from leading Management Schools in Europe and renowned business executives.

Bringing academia and the business industry together sparks a robust exchange of knowledge, paving the way for a seamless transition and guaranteed success. “By supporting events like this, we actively allow Cypriot and international businesses to be informed about the latest developments in all market sectors. This reflects our holistic approach to corporate responsibility, where we recognize the interconnectedness of education, business, and societal progress”, - underscored Energame’s commitment Marianna Hadjiandoniou, Executive Vice President at Energame.

The conference opened with a welcoming speech from the Minister of Finance, Makis Keravnos, representing the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides. The minister spoke about the positive prospects and economic growth of the Cypriot economy. However, he highlighted the dangers posed by global socio-political issues. Moreover, he assured that the Cypriot government is alert and ready to adopt any necessary measures.

Makis Keravnos

A welcome greeting was delivered earlier by Yiangos Hadjiyiannis, CEO of CIM - Cyprus Business School, who referred to the two new partnerships of CIM and the importance of being ahead of developments. Then Dr. Nicolas Mastorgianopoulos, Member of the Board of Directors of Green Energy, discussed the collaboration of Green Energy with CIM and he emphasized the need for digitization and transition to a green environment, since, as he said, there can be no progress without them.

The speeches of the academics that followed were informative and insightful. Casidhe Troyer, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School, discussed research examining the relationship between index ownership and corporate R&D strategy in particular, while Sue Dopson, Deputy Dean for People and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, gave her speech with the theme, “From Ego to Eco: What Do Leaders Need to Get Better At?”

Then, Trudi Lang, Senior Fellow in Management Practice at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, with her speech, "How to Avoid Being Haunted and The Value of Taking The Broad View in Strategy”, she discussed what is involved in taking a broader view of strategy, and how in turbulent conditions strategy is as much about ‘who’ the organization is – its identity - as ‘what’ it does.

The speeches were wrapped with David Stillwell, Professor of Computational Social Science at Cambridge Judge Business School, who talked about Generative AI, like ChatGPT, which solves many problems close to the level of an expert human, and image generation algorithms such as from MidJourney, creating pictures that are in some cases photorealistic. He raised questions such as, “What does this mean for the future of work?” “Who is going to be disrupted and how?”

To wrap up the event, a panel discussion was held, bringing together the speakers from the summit. Natasa Pilides, Ex Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry, and currently Vice President of the Advisory Board at CIM, moderated the discussion.

Natasa Pilides