Alumni

Securing growth capital without sacrificing control, values, or long-term vision is a critical challenge for founder- and family-led businesses.

This inaugural INSEAD Insights Live webinar draws on the new study Building Together: Partnership Capital as a Growth Catalyst for Midcap Founder- and Family-Led Businesses. The study was conducted by the INSEAD Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise in collaboration with 65 Equity Partners.

Based on an analysis of more than 19,000 businesses across nine countries, the study examines how a growing class of patient minority investors can help founder- and family-led companies scale, professionalize and navigate succession while preserving ownership and decision-making authority.

Professor Bala Vissa will discuss the findings with Alex Stirling, Partner at 65 Equity Partners, and Riccardo Braglia, Executive Chairman and CEO of Helsinn Healthcare SA, bringing together perspectives from research, private capital and family enterprise.

Drawing on 25 years of experience advising clients across a wide range of negotiations, Jon Hughes shares practical lessons, recurring patterns, and insights from the front lines of negotiation consulting.

How can companies build customer-centric, future-proof business models in an age of AI while scaling across markets and channels and making sustainability a genuine source of customer value?

Since its launch in 2017, waterdrop® has grown from an Austrian start-up built around a small hydration cube into a €126 million global business spanning e-commerce, its own stores, retail partners and marketplaces. In this INTHECASE webinar, INSEAD Professor Joerg Niessing will be joined by Martin Murray (MBA’15D), Founder and CEO of waterdrop®, and Tina Scheele (MBA’02J), customer strategy expert and former Partner at Monitor Deloitte.

Using waterdrop® as the starting point, they will explore the broader lessons for both challengers and established companies: how to connect physical and digital experiences, use data and AI to reimagine customer engagement and personalization, evolve from products towards ecosystems and new business models and turn sustainability from a corporate ambition into meaningful customer value. 

Why participate?

·       Explore how companies can move from products to customer ecosystems and new business models.

·       Understand how data and AI can transform customer experience, personalization, and engagement – not simply automate what companies already do.

·       Consider how sustainability can become part of the customer proposition and a source of differentiation

·       Learn what established companies can take from digital challengers – and what challengers must change as they scale.