Pascal Coppens

In 2019, Pascal Coppens’ bestseller China’s New Normal was published. Pascal predicted that by 2025, China would be setting the standard for innovation in ten different sectors. In hindsight, his predictions were spot on. Top brands such as Huawei, TikTok, TEMU, Ant, BYD, DJI, and BGI leave us little doubt now that China is ahead of the curve. But today, China is reinventing itself to go beyond market or service innovations and is focusing on becoming an intellectual property powerhouse, a creator and inventor for the world.

The most impressive aspect of this transformation from copycat to innovator is that it took the nation only 15 years. What triggered this change? What enabled China to achieve what no other country could? Pascal’s keynote, China’s New Normal, provides clear insights into modern China and reveals the new potentials and superpowers emerging from its fast and furious innovators. As Beijing intends for China to become the world leader in innovation by 2030, it leaves Western companies only five years to prepare.

A new world is emerging today. Our democratic model is under pressure. The Cold War mentality is coming back to life. The world appears to be in a deep trust crisis. China aims to assume the role of superpower in this new world, which creates a distressing sense of fear in the West. This fear is further fueled by reports about China’s ambitions, leadership, military might, different model, and value system. These factors leave us with the question: Can We Trust China?

This keynote addresses many of the common questions we have about China. By highlighting these themes through a dual lens, we learn how the Chinese themselves think about these issues, why they trust their system and future more than we do, and how China views us today. In this animated presentation, Pascal sharpens the positions and tensions between China and the West. Through eight circles of trust, Pascal delves with much nuance into a Chinese reality that widely opens a strongly polarized worldview. An open mind is certainly required for this loaded story.

Understanding China is increasingly challenging. This keynote provides essential insights into the unique dynamics shaping China’s business world in the current socio-economic  environment within the broader China-US-EU geopolitical context.

Pascal addresses common misunderstandings and myths about China. Crucial for grasping business interactions with Chinese, his keynote explores the different generations of Chinese business leaders, highlighting their distinct strengths and weaknesses.

China’s unique approach to innovation—marked by rapid adaptation, scalability, and intense competition—presents both opportunities and challenges for doing business with Chinese companies. It also offers practical advice on navigating business dealings with Chinese partners.

To truly decode China, this keynote provides a Chinese perspective on how the government and its people view the nation’s future. “Decoding China” equips business leaders with the knowledge needed to successfully navigate the complexities of the Chinese market and better prepare for competition from Chinese companies.​

The US is on the verge of a full-blown technology and trade war with China. What led to this shift? China opened up to global trade and became the factory of the world, benefiting economies worldwide. Today however, China is seen by the US as its primary strategic adversary, while the EU is confronted with discord among its nations on how to deal with Beijing. Meanwhile, China continues to face persistent systemic, social, political, and economic challenges at home. Could China’s past economic miracle come to an abrupt end?

China is now transitioning from enhancing “self-sufficiency” to crafting “a master plan” to become a smart, proud, productive nation and a leading global innovator. Economically ready to move forward, China is advancing scientifically and legally, while geostrategically aligning with the Global South. Therefore, China’s Next Miracle could potentially take the world by surprise once again. Are we ready for it?

This keynote offers a nuanced and fresh perspective on a superpower in transition. From innovation to political guidance, China is quickly adapting to a changing world.​

What if China’s next miracle happens? Better be ready!​​​​

China has rapidly developed from replicating Western innovations to creating complex innovation ecosystems.

These ecosystems have made their companies speed and scale up, save cost and attract skills, but also made their businesses more resilient and sustainable. We will cover Chinese ecosystems like the WeChat Super App, Alibaba’s platforms, Haier’s micro-enterprises and reveal how the Chinese government builds a supply chain ecosystem of for example electrical vehicles. ​​

​Pascal will break down the key elements of these open ecosystems, and explain how businesses outside China can develop similar ecosystems to drive sustained innovation. How do these Chinese internal business ecosystems create microenterprises, digital platforms,​ and business opportunities. China demonstrates how growing a business ecosystem can improve customer experience, remove friction, increase resilience, shorten the supply chain, leverage investments , make the company more sustainable and generate additional revenue from new customers and industries.

In 2015, China announced its goal to become a world leader in AI by 2030. By 2020, the US started restricting China’s access to global AI resources because it was clear that Chinese companies had become front-runners in the global AI race. Examples include TikTok’s AI algorithms, Baidu’s largest fleet of robotaxis, and Ant Financial’s facial recognition payments. These AI applications, among others, have already become mainstream in China over the past few years.

Since 2019, Chinese companies have also been working on generative AI. When ChatGPT was released at the end of 2022, it took the world, including China, by storm. The Chinese quickly embraced generative AI, supported by their government, which was the first to issue a Generative AI regulation. As a result, China now has over 200 large language models, with Baidu’s Generative AI ‘Ernie bot’ amassing over 200 million users so far.

This keynote demonstrates why and how China has become an AI laboratory at scale in just 8 years time.

Today’s Business leaders are faced with increasing uncertainty and challenges.

The prevailing leadership models from successful Western CEOs often fall short in giving us all the answers. After all, they thrived during a predominantly stable and safe era in which trust in the brand, its purpose, the systems and the people were their anchors to success. In the present geopolitical climate, these anchors no longer suffice and leaders need more to navigate the rough seas.

Chinese business leaders have already learned to survive this ‘new normal’ for decades. They’ve thrived against all the odds at an incredible pace; in a hostile home market dealing with unfair competition, a lack of funding, a void of regulations, a distrust in brands, a decrease in customer loyalty, and major societal shifts.

This keynote offers ‘out-of-the-box’ inspiration with many examples of how Chinese business leaders have become more resilient, of how their business savviness is success-driven and competitive by using team-building and networking, by being customer centric, digitally empowered, autonomy steering and ecosystem oriented. It offers an explosive cocktail, unveiling the secrets of Chinese companies like BYD, Haier, PingAn, TikTok and TEMU who have become global market leaders against all the odds. Western business leaders need to learn to survive again!

The world is more fluid and unpredictable than ever, presenting us all with many economic, geopolitical, societal and ecological challenges. Nations also seem to diverge ever more in their worldview on how global affairs and trade should evolve: A bipolar or multipolar world?

China’s miracle growth, innovation leap and new leadership has fueled the tensions with America, while sparking new relationships and interests from the non-Western world. Which paradigm shifts could this entail? Is China’s economy in trouble or could China create its next miracle? From AI to sustainability, from Beijing to Brussels this keynote unveils how China is driving the Global South towards a new multipolar world.

​On the other hand we have India, the new growth nation for Asia and the world. A democracy better aligned with Western nations than China today, but with a culture and history that seeks to shape its own sustainable future. Can India take advantage of the de-risking from China trend, and become the world’s factory of tomorrow? What are the paradigm shifts that India and China want to ​ride on?

This keynote compares China with India in the context of a new world order and innovation.  ​It also unveils how both countries are shaping a multipolar world, where China is driving development and India is driving sustainability.​