When Mao Shing Ni was 6 years old, he fell from the rooftop of his family’s three-story home in Taiwan, slipping into a month-long coma and suffering a spinal cord injury and brain damage. Doctors warned his family that he would either spend his life in a vegetative state or in a wheelchair.

Neither prediction came true, thanks largely to his father, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor, who treated him daily with acupuncture, bitter herbal teas and patient rehabilitation. 

“Chinese medicine saved my life,” he says. “And that had a huge impact on me when it came time to choose my path.”

Ni chose to follow his ancestors into the family profession of TCM, making him the 38^th generation of his family to do so. 

“I was inspired to be able to offer hope to patients who otherwise would not have any,” he says. Chinese medicine is very different from Western medicine “in that we believe the body possesses natural healing capabilities,” he explains. “Our job as doctors is to awaken that healing capability, and then to guide it. So, our work really is about empowering patients’ innate healing capabilities.”

A wellness prescription 

For the past 40 years, that has been his calling: guiding patients back to health — and restoring hope when it’s in short supply. 

Known as “Dr. Mao” to his patients and staff, Ni has carried out that mission in many roles — as a practitioner at his clinic, Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica, California, USA; as past president of Yo San University, the institution named for his grandfather; as the author of multiple bestselling books on health and wellness, including the popular “Secrets of Longevity” in 22 languages; and as a nationally recognized voice on longevity. Across each platform, his focus remains the same — helping people live better — not just longer.

Get the best doctors on your team, but who’s driving the team? You are.   ”
— Mao Shing Ni, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner share

In March, the YPO member will visit Bangkok to accept his Best of the Best Award for his YPO chapter and to participate in a YPO Thought Leadership Advisors (TLA) panel. He will discuss how to extend life, drawing on practical wisdom from four decades at the forefront of integrative medicine and longevity science. He will join other leading experts offering deep insights into wellness best practices, shared exclusively for chief executives on YPO’s video platform, The Source.

“Ultimately, everyone’s looking for longevity — better quality of life, for sure, and living as long as you can, of course,” he says. 

Lead your health team

Ni urges leaders to take charge of — and not outsource — their health. 

“A lot of people surrender their health care and their health to the doctors,” he says. “But that’s not how it should be. This is your life. Nobody knows your health better than you.”

It’s clear to Ni that longevity is a leadership skill — one that CEOs must prioritize.

“Of course, get the best doctors on your team, but who’s driving the team? You are,” he says.

For lasting vitality, Ni outlines a four-point longevity playbook with simple, actionable steps focused on the “tried and true,” not the latest trends, to guide leaders to reclaim their health and sustain it long term.

Step 1: Eat less, live longer. 

It’s his first and most important principle. “Because we’re well off, we can afford to go to a steakhouse and eat a 16-ounce porterhouse steak,” he says. “But the question is, should you?”

To help people eat healthier, Ni authored a bestselling cookbook, “Dr. Mao’s Secrets of Longevity Cookbook: Eat to Thrive, Live Long, and Be Healthy,” where he interviewed centenarians around the world, gathering their favorite recipes and their top habits for good health. 

Step 2: Move regularly. Movement is medicine.

In Chinese medicine, the concept of energy is central to how the body functions and heals. “Energy carries all the signals throughout the body,” he says. 

Blood follows qi — the life force or energy — making circulation essential for delivering nutrients and oxygen while removing waste products. Regular movement, therefore, becomes critical to health. Regular is the key word here. Going to the gym first thing in the morning and then sitting for eight hours undermines the benefits of exercise. 

“Sitting for eight hours is as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes,” he says. 

If you sit at a desk for most of your day, Ni recommends standing and moving every hour. He advises short walks, doing 10 squats or even jumping rope. It doesn’t have to be intense to keep energy and blood flowing consistently throughout the day. 

“I’ve met centenarians around the world who’ve never gone to the gym,” he says. “How do they live to be 100? They walk everywhere.”

Step 3: Reduce stress. Stress ages us faster than time.

Ni calls stress a “silent killer,” connecting chronic stress to cortisol, inflammation and accelerated aging. And the reality is, chief executives live in a world of constant demands and urgent needs, keeping their bodies in constant survival mode, with adrenaline and cortisol pumping.

He urges leaders to listen to their body and create moments to reduce stress, like with meditation, breath work or reflective journaling. 

“I look at peace as a health strategy,” Ni says. 

To find that peace, leaders must regulate their nervous system because, he explains, “If you don’t, it will regulate you and cause all kinds of functions to malfunction.”

As a YPO certified forum facilitator, Ni reminds his CEO peers of the simple forum best practice — starting every meeting with a centering exercise, like a breathing practice or visualization. And those moments of peace “change you and everyone.”

His hope is that the leaders continue to use those techniques every day in their life so that they can speak and act from a place of clarity, not emotionality.

Step 4: Treat longevity as legacy. 

“It’s not what you build. It’s the life force that built it,” he says, adding, “It’s your life force that allows you to continue to build.”

Leaders need to eliminate what is extraneous and draining in their lives, so they can live a focused, purpose-filled life. Doing more just to accumulate more is not a path to longevity. 

Ni says, leaders need to ask themselves: Is it worth it — exchanging my life force for wealth? “Because on every deathbed, no one will say, ‘I regret not spending more time to make more money,’” he says.

The answer

For Ni, the answer to longevity is following the path of simplicity. He watched the habits and studied the choices of over 100 centenarians and found it’s not money giving them this longevity — it’s the simplicity they choose for their lives. Simple but nourishing foods. Movement. Peace. Legacy. 

“They are vital. They are healthy,” he says. “And they can still dispense wisdom and advice with clarity.”

It’s really this simple. “Longevity requires no fancy things,” Ni says.

Many founders would view building a market-leading company as an end goal. For YPO member Yohei Kiguchi, Founder & CEO, LiCUBE, it was a signal to aim higher. 

Following an engineering doctorate at Cambridge, Kiguchi set out to build Japan’s largest EV-charging network. In just few short years, he achieved exactly that — scaling it into a billion-dollar, publicly listed business and retiring to the French Riviera at the ripe old age of 32.  

By many people’s standards, he had succeeded.  

But for Yohei, it didn’t feel that way for long. The luxury lifestyle of Monaco soon began to feel hollow. He craved a fresh challenge. He needed a new project. Something bigger. 

That hunger led him to the Deal Tank stage at YPO’s 2025 Global Business Summit with a very different kind of idea — one that moved beyond national scale, was global in scope and guided by a vision for humanity’s future. 

The idea that won the room 

Kiguchi’s idea ultimately rose to the top of more than 100 submitted pitches, was selected as one of three finalists and was voted the winner by his YPO peers at the summit.  

He tells the story with an easy, self-effacing humor. During his presentation, one judge kept asking unusually sharp, in-depth technical questions. Later he learned that the man in the hat and glasses who had spent all that time grilling him was actor, investor and YPO Deal Tank judge Ashton Kutcher. Maybe this meant he had a shot.  

YPO gives immediate international access. I think that’s a very tangible outcome. ”
— Yohei Kiguchi share

“That was the first moment I realized I might be selected,” he recalls. “I was about to go out and get a coffee. But then I thought, my name might get called. I better stay!” 
Kiguchi’s pitch centered on his new startup, LiCUBE — a deep-tech company developing ultra-high-purity lithium materials for frontier industries, from next-generation batteries and semiconductors to space exploration and, longer term, the ultimate end goal of enabling nuclear fusion. 

The spark 

To understand where that idea came from, we have to go back. Kiguchi founded his previous company in 2015 with the intention of building the largest electric vehicle charging network in Japan — and that is what he did.  

“The vision was too small,” he says. “I’m very proud of that company. But I wanted to dream bigger.” 

His early success and retiring to Monaco placed him among top-tier founders and CEOs.  

In these circles, conversations were not about maintaining success but about defining the next great leaps in human progress. 

A conversation with a tech CEO Kiguchi describes as a “mentor” turned to artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear fusion, what Kiguchi calls the three “last human frontiers.” 

The question for Kiguchi was not which frontier sounded most ambitious, but where he could meaningfully contribute. AI and quantum computing were exciting, but not his domain. “I’m an energy guy,” he says. “I understand how nuclear fusion works. That’s something I can do.” He is, at heart, an engineer — grounded in energy systems and infrastructure. Fusion, with its promise of near-limitless clean power, felt like a frontier he could help advance. 

Curiosity led him to ITER, the international nuclear fusion research project just outside Marseille, France — a two- to three-hour drive from Monaco. While others might have chosen to spend their time relaxing on the Riviera, Kiguchi preferred to make regular trips to the research center, looking, he admits, a little out of place as he pulled up in his Monaco-plated Ferrari to spend the day talking science with ITER’s engineers and physicists. The contrast was not lost on him. “I’m not sure,” he laughs, “but I might have been the only one doing that.” 

What he learned surprised him. The bottleneck, he realized, was not simply the complexity of building fusion reactors. It was fuel. Specifically, lithium-6 — a rare isotope required to produce the tritium that powers most fusion reactor designs. 

Despite the vast engineering effort poured into reactor design, the supply of lithium-6 was limited and heavily concentrated. Much of the world’s production capability sits in China and Russia, leaving little scalable supply elsewhere. For a technology intended to power the future, the fuel itself is both scarce and strategically constrained.

Enter LiCUBE 

Rather than attempting to compete directly in reactor design, Kiguchi turned his attention to the overlooked fuel supply chain.  

In Japan, researchers had been working quietly for years on advanced lithium isotope separation technologies. The science was there, but it lacked scale, capital and a clear commercial mandate. Monetization was still 10 to 20 years away — too distant for most investors and institutions.  

“The vision was too small … I wanted to dream bigger.”  ”
— Yohei Kiguchi share

For Kiguchi, that was precisely the point. “To win this game,” he says, “first, as a CEO, we define the game. We set the goal, we form the team and we run for that.”  

That’s what he did. He committed to funding the entire research team himself, freeing them from the uncertainty of grant cycles and government budgets and giving the work a clear commercial direction.  

That decision became LiCUBE — a company built to industrialize the science and bring it to market. 

“Starlink before Mars”

Without the rare lithium-6, most fusion designs cannot run. That is the long game.  

“We want to eventually make the lithium-6 isotope for nuclear fusion,” Kiguchi says. “That’s a gamechanger for human history.” But the 10–20-year timeline, he admits, is uncertain. “Maybe longer. We can’t wait for that.”  

LiCUBE’s current focus is on developing “4N” lithium — meaning 99.99% purity, the “four nines” that give the material its name. 

This is the ultra-pure form of lithium used in advanced industries, from solid-state batteries and semiconductors to space systems.  

“Like how Elon Musk gave us Starlink before Mars,” he explains. If lithium-6 is Mars, then 4N lithium is Starlink — the interim product that’s building capability, credibility and revenue now, while keeping the long horizon firmly in sight. 

That YPO factor 

Kiguchi brought this strategy of aiming for lithium-6 as the long-term horizon, while focusing on 4N as the short-term commercial bridge to YPO’s GBS Deal Tank. 

GBS’ value to Kiguchi is not just financial. It is the access it brings — to peers, to conversation and to insight that’s candid, technical and grounded in real-world experience. 

“YPO people are usually very well connected locally,” he says. “Their value is not only in themselves — it’s having a whole community behind them.” In a sector shaped by geopolitics as much as engineering, that kind of embedded access matters. 

In the weeks after the summit, he says he held more than 30 follow-up conversations with YPO members. Some explored investment. Others offered regional and operational insight. 

“YPO gives immediate international access,” he adds. “I think that’s a very tangible outcome.” 

His advice to other members is simple: Show up and engage. Not every conversation needs to generate immediate capital. The relationships matter. The mission is long-term. He plans to travel to Türkiye in November for GBS 2026.  

To win this game, first, as a CEO, we define the game. We set the goal, we form the team and we run for that. ”
— Yohei Kiguchi share

And what does a CEO focused on fusion-era materials do to unwind? Kiguchi laughs at the question. Beyond the Monaco drives to fusion labs and long conversations about isotopes, there is a simpler answer.  

Mid-interview, he disappears from the screen, returning moments later with his eight-year-old French bulldog, Lon, holding her up to the camera with obvious pride. 

For all the talk of lithium-6 and long-term, space age horizons, there is something grounding in that image — a reminder that even those chasing the “last human frontiers” remain, at heart, no different to any of us. 

The fusion breakthrough may be decades away. The work, however, has firmly begun. 

YPO members can join the GBS 2026 in Istanbul by registering here.  

The traditional CEO playbook focused primarily on stimulating and capturing demand is becoming obsolete. According to the EY-Parthenon 2026 Global Economic Outlook, the global economy is shifting toward an era defined by supply-side volatility.

Global growth is projected to slow modestly to 3.1% in 2026, down from 3.3% in the previous two years. What stands out, however, is the continued resilience of the global economy amid increasingly complex crosscurrents.

“Global headwinds like slowing growth, tariff shocks and demographic shifts are very real, and so are the opportunities,” says YPO member Stasia Mitchell, Global Entrepreneurship Leader, Ernst & Young LLP.

The landscape is being radically reshaped by trade realignments, fiscal constraints and a bifurcated AI revolution. Success in 2026 will be determined not by how well leaders predict what consumers want, but by how effectively they manage structural shocks to inputs, talent and capital.

Here are five forces shaping the economic outlook.

Trade policy disruption

Trade policy has emerged as the primary driver of supply-side volatility. The average U.S. tariff rate surged from 2.4% in late 2024 to an estimated 16.8% by late 2025. Consequently, global supply chains are being rerouted. U.S.-China trade has dropped by over 35% as companies seek broader diversification.

Global headwinds like slowing growth, tariff shocks and demographic shifts are real, and so are the opportunities. ”
— Stasia Mitchell, Global Entrepreneurship Leader, Ernst & Young LLP share

Organizations are no longer treating tariffs as temporary spikes but are embedding these costs into long-term cost assumptions. CEOs must prioritize diversifying sources and developing contingency strategies for ongoing supply-side disruptions.

The AI divide

AI is emerging as the strongest supply-side counterweight to slowing growth. Investment in data centers, semiconductors, cloud infrastructure and software deployment could potentially add two to four years of growth to the U.S. economy over the next decade.

However, adoption is creating a clear division. AI-intensive firms are capturing measurable productivity gains in high-skill roles including finance, professional services and tech, while job growth in routine occupations stalls. A fear of missing out is driving speculative investments, but rapid deployment may put some companies without a strategic framework at risk.

The key is disciplined scaling, integrating technology while managing risk and reskilling talent.

“Entrepreneurs and CEOs who act decisively, ethically integrate AI for productivity, and build resilient ecosystems will not only adapt, they will lead,” says Mitchell.

Fluctuating financial markets

A defining feature of 2026 is the widening disconnect between short-term central bank policy and long-term borrowing costs. Even if policy rates decline, long-term yields remain elevated due to inflation expectations and global public debt approaching 100% of GDP.

To protect liquidity against currency and commodity volatility, leaders need to prioritize stronger balance sheet resilience and adaptive hedging strategies.

Competing fiscal priorities

With elevated debt-to-GDP ratios, governments can no longer easily absorb economic shocks. Resources are increasingly diverted toward defense and security spending amidst geoeconomic rivalries, leaving less for infrastructure or education.

Business leaders should expect less fiscal support, potential tax liabilities and a greater need for private-sector investment in areas like energy transition and AI infrastructure.

The demographic deficit

Demographics have shifted from a slow-moving trend to a structural crisis. With two-thirds of countries below the replacement birth rate, the working-age population is stagnating. This demographic deficit triggers labor shortages, rising wage pressures and an increased reliance on automation and AI.

Leaders must treat talent as a strategic variable, embedding workforce redesigns and reskilling initiatives into their five-year plans to sustain productivity.

The path forward

These forces signal a shift toward a more fragmented, supply-driven global economy.

Entrepreneurs and CEOs who act decisively, ethically integrate AI for productivity, and build resilient ecosystems will not only adapt, they will lead. ”
— Stasia Mitchell, Global Entrepreneurship Leader, Ernst & Young LLP share

Success in 2026 will depend on resilience, adaptability and disciplined strategic execution. Leaders who proactively redesign supply chains, deploy AI for productivity and rethink workforce strategy will be best positioned to navigate this volatile landscape.

As YPO’s Strategic Learning Advisor, EY connects you to world-class people, programs and thought leaders to help you thrive. YPO members can learn more at YPO Strategic Partnerships.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a rapidly defining priority for chief executives worldwide — or at least it should be. That was the clear message from AI experts Rajeev Kapur and Brandon Powell who spoke at YPO EDGE in Sydney.

In their session, “AI Implementation in Business,” they addressed how CEOs can turn AI into a competitive advantage for their companies and themselves.

Powell, founder and CEO of HatchWorks AI, has helped launch more than 100 digital products and scale AI solutions across the Americas; and Kapur is a two-time bestselling author and CEO of 1105 Media who has built and exited three companies.

Before companies begin implementing AI, Powell stresses that the first question business leaders should answer is: What’s the return on investment (ROI) on this?

“Is it going to make me money, save me money, save me time? And how am I going to measure that ROI,” he asks.

A 2025 report from MIT Media Lab’s NANDA initiative, “The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025,” found that 95% of enterprises are failing to see an ROI from their generative AI pilot projects. But Powell clarifies that reflects only the laggards — not the leaders who are approaching AI with the right strategy and execution.

“The leaders in AI are failing at around 30%,” he says. “They’re getting it done. But most companies are in that laggard category.”

Solve – don’t create – a problem with your AI

The difference between those who succeed and those who fail often comes down to the how and where they apply AI. Too many organizations invest in the wrong use cases.

“It doesn’t matter how good it is and how well you put it out there — if it’s the wrong use case, you’re not going to get the return,” he says.

For example, a company might decide to build a chatbot, but their customers primarily call by phone. The company built something no one is going to use.

Do not take the human out of the loop. ”
— Rajeev Kapur, CEO 1105 Media share

“User experience is still really important when it comes to AI,” Powell says.

One of the best ways to identify high-impact opportunities is for a company to start talking to AI, he says.

“We have a GPT that we built called Opportunity Finder; it’s free — you can get it off our website — and it walks you through a set of questions,” Powell says. “Use it to understand your industry and what people are doing with AI. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

CEOs also should examine their own profit and loss statement and decide where they can scale the business without adding additional employees.

“Maybe it’s customer service, maybe it’s sales,” he says. “Focus there because that’s where you’re going to have the best ROI.”

Don’t discount the human touch

But technology alone doesn’t equal success. Kapur says it’s easy to spot when companies are using AI wrong because it’s clear they’ve removed the human element.

“Do not take the human out of the loop,” he advises chief executives.

The winning formula is AI plus human judgment; AI needs to be a partner, not the boss, Kapur adds.

Case in point

To prepare for his EDGE talk, Kapur put that advice into practice. After creating his presentation, he shared details about the audience and conference with ChatGPT and asked the platform to analyze his presentation.

“It gave me information to adjust — stuff that would take me hours to figure out on my own, Googling or talking to other people,” Kapur says.

This partnership can be an easy entry point for chief executives to begin wading into the waters of AI. Use it as a rehearsal partner for presentations, sales meetings and board prep.

“Put in the information about the person you’re meeting with or the team you’re meeting with,” Kapur says. “Then you can say, ‘What are three questions that are important that I can ask him or her? What are three questions they might ask me that I can prepare for? What are some challenges that I might face, or some objections that I might get from them based on the product we offer?’”

It doesn’t matter how good it is and how well you put it out there — if it’s the wrong use case, you’re not going to get the return. ”
— Brandon Powell, CEO HatchWorks AI share

But Kapur says it’s critical to give good data before asking questions. AI performance is only as good as the data behind it.

“It’s only going to train on the data you provided. If you have garbage data, it’s going to give garbage answers,” he says. “Bring the best of the AI and the best of the human experience together to provide a winning combination,” Kapur says.

The takeaway for leaders is simple: It’s time to start investing in AI for your company and yourself.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to hear Powell, Kapur and more experts on AI:“The CEO AI Test: Are You Ready to Lead or Likely to Fail.

By the time award-winning New York University London and Oxford University academic Hagai M. Segal stepped onto the stage at YPO EDGE in Sydney, an earlier panelist had asked the question hovering over many global boardrooms: Are we already in World War III?

Segal paused.

“If you’re not in Ukraine or Gaza,” he says, “you get up every morning wondering what you’re going to have for breakfast and what you’re going to watch on Netflix — not whether a rocket is going to land on your head.”

The good news is, Segal says, this is not World War III.

The harder truth is more complex.

“We are in a polycrisis world,” he says — one “in which multiple things are bubbling all at once.”

For global chief executives, that distinction matters.

Not collapse — convergence

Geopolitical instability. Economic fragility. Artificial intelligence (AI) power shifts. Migration pressures. Cyber conflict. Climate stress.

Individually, these risks are manageable. The danger lies in convergence — when geopolitical shocks collide with economic vulnerabilities and create systemic inflection points.

“You may not be interested in geopolitics … but geopolitics is interested in you. ”
— Hagai M. Segal, Award-winning Academic and Geopolitical Consultant share

History shows geopolitics alone rarely triggers prolonged downturns. It is the “double whammy” — economic weakness layered onto geopolitical stress — that destabilizes markets.

Yet amid the noise, Segal urges leaders not to mistake volatility for chaos.

“So much of what is going on in geopolitics today is actually playing out through logic and through mechanisms that we can understand,” he says.

Even U.S.–China tensions, often framed as existential, are being managed behind closed doors. “They want their conflict … to be an economic one, not a strategic one,” he says.

The challenge is not predicting catastrophe; it is recognizing patterns early enough to respond.

Geopolitics today, Segal quips, is “not like walking into your 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom and hearing heavy metal. It’s not World War III. But it is the constant drumbeat behind us.”

It’s background music. You may tune it out — but it’s always playing.

The governance gap

If the risks are mounting, the greater concern may be how little many organizations have changed.

Global surveys show most executives expect an unsettled decade ahead. Yet many admit they have not meaningfully adapted their governance models.

In Segal’s research — including interviews with dozens of CEOs — he sees a recurring pattern.

“Many boards are behaving as if basically there’s nothing they can do about this,” he says.

Part of the issue is psychological. Risk tolerance often mirrors the personality of the chief executive. Some leaders see chaos as uncontrollable and retreat into familiar metrics. Others assume geopolitics sit outside their mandate.

For decades, geopolitics could be “parachuted in once a year and then largely ignored.”

That model no longer works, according to Segal.

One company Segal advised discovered this when truck drivers began asking about cobalt sourcing in the Congo and forced labor in Xinjiang. The board was stunned. The company had strong ethical standards — but had never communicated them internally.

The solution was not reinvention. It was alignment. Geopolitical oversight moved closer to the board.

Within months, recruitment strengthened, morale improved and new clients followed.

The risk was not the supply chain itself. It was the disconnect.

“You may not be interested in geopolitics,” Segal reminds the business leaders in the EDGE audience, echoing the fifth century Greek statesman Pericles, “but geopolitics is interested in you.”

Ignoring it is no longer viable.

Cultural adaptation, not panic

If the message felt urgent, it was not alarmist.

“There’s no magic answer,” Segal tells the room. “Adapt the fundamentals. Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

Resilience does not require radical reinvention. It requires integration, starting with values.

“Values are your compass,” Segal says. “In moments of uncertainty, clarity of the mandate anchors strategy.”

Add knowledge, not as academic expertise, but as literacy — curated research, AI agents surfacing geopolitical insights and regular executive discussion. Geopolitical awareness is now “a vital skill of the C-suite.”

Then practice.

“The first time an enterprise will practice a cyberattack, they realize in five minutes why they’re doing a practice,” he says. “Simulations expose blind spots — whether forgotten legal counsel or outdated response protocols.”

And engage externally.

Governments increasingly lack the speed and technical depth to manage cyber threats or supply chain vulnerabilities alone. CEOs must step into the role of corporate diplomats — contributing insight, capability and partnership.

The shift Segal proposes is subtle but profound: CEOs should see themselves as “chief resilience officers, not because collapse is imminent — but because volatility is structural.”

From risk to advantage

The session in Sydney ended not in anxiety, but in reframing. “The uncertainty created by political and geopolitical events does not diminish the opportunity that may be found,” Segal says.

Companies that integrate geopolitical awareness early often find themselves entering markets competitors avoid. They identify mispriced assets, underserved regions and overlooked partnerships. They modernize governance before a crisis forces their hand.

In a world where multiple crises simmer simultaneously, the advantage belongs to those who are prepared — not panicked.

The drumbeat will continue.

The question for leaders is whether they will treat it as noise or as a signal.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Segal’s EDGE session: Hagai M. Segal: The CEO’s Geopolitics Playbook Signals, Scenarios, Decisions

Most companies chase speed. Lucy Guo engineers it — scaling at extraordinary velocity while making the hard calls that growth demands.

Raised in California’s Bay Area innovation ecosystem, she taught herself to code by 10 years old, and by the time she was a teenager, she was building and scaling commercial applications. She went on to co-found Scale AI, became a Thiel Fellow and is the founder and CEO of Passes, a platform reshaping how creators build businesses.

Alongside her work as a founder, she has made more than 100 investments through Backend Capital, influencing companies across artificial intelligence (AI), fintech and consumer technology. Recognized by Forbes as the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, Guo represents a new generation of builders redefining both entrepreneurship and scale.

During a fireside chat with global chief executives at YPO EDGE 2026 in Sydney, she advocated for speed not as an aspirational notion, but a survival strategy. The conversation quickly moved past startup clichés to something more practical: how leaders can intentionally design momentum.

Moving fast, she argues, isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less, better.

Start before you are ready

It’s understandable for founders and their teams to hold off on a launch until what they are building feels “perfect.” But Guo discourages this kind of delay.

“I see the mistake that most people make is that they spend months building a product, and then no one wants it,” she says. “My philosophy has always been to build the MVP [minimum viable product].”

This doesn’t have to be a polished platform or a fully fleshed-out ecosystem, but rather the smallest viable test of whether the market cares. A landing page, a manual workflow, a prototype assembled with off-the-shelf tools — the goal is learning, not elegance.

Early failures compress feedback cycles, sharpen judgment and bring light issues and successes faster than extended development ever could, she argues.

Double down on winners

Starting early gives you an edge, but to gain real momentum, Guo says, you need to know where to place your bets.

For Guo, a defining moment in building Scale AI came not from a grand strategic pivot, but from recognizing traction in a high-value customer: Cruise (now owned by General Motors).

“We realized that it was going to be a hit when Cruise became our customer,” she says. “The self-driving car market had a lot of money to spend, so we ended up doubling down.”

“I do think that AI is going to be our best co-pilot. … [It’s] never going to be able to relationship build or negotiate deals, but it’s going to free up a lot of our time … while AI works on the more mundane, repeatable tasks. ”
— Lucy Guo, Architect of the Creator-Led Business Revolution share

This lesson is less about any single customer and more about pattern recognition. Leaders frequently chase new ideas, features and growth channels. Guo suggests the opposite: Commit resources to validated demand. Growth, in this framing, becomes less about invention and more about amplification.

Guo points to systems that compound over time rather than delivering one-off spikes. At Scale AI, its growth is the company’s proprietary data, she explains. “Your models are only as good as the data.”

Subtraction as strategy and progress over perfection

If you want to move fast, you need to be able to make decisions fast, and Guo’s approach to making decisions is intentionally simple. Features are evaluated across two axes: impact and build time. Anything scoring poorly is removed — no debate, no attachment and no sunk cost rationalization.

She extends this mindset directly into product development, advocating for releasing products before they feel complete.

“I like building things to like 90% and then putting it out in the market,” she says. “It’s a pretty false belief that something needs to have like a perfect UX [user experience] or UI [user interaction] in order for it to get adopted.”

The economics of perfection rarely justify the delay, she argues. “If someone wants a product badly enough, they’ll go through bugs; they’ll go through bad UX,” she says.

People, culture and transparency

Most conversations about speed gravitate toward product and growth. But Guo argues that velocity often breaks down somewhere less obvious.

“I would say the No. 1 way where it breaks is hiring,” she says, adding that as companies grow, the push to add people can slowly dilute standards.

“I prefer hiring ICs [individual contributors] and promoting from within rather than bringing in external leaders,” she explains. “Because external leaders often want to rebuild the team instead of doing the work themselves. Promoting ICs is better because they’ve actually done the job and can evaluate others properly.”

Equally destabilizing, she notes, is the distortion that comes with hierarchy.

“As you add leaders and managers, things get polished up to the top, so what you’re hearing is no longer reality.”

Rather than relying solely on formal reporting, Guo prioritizes unfiltered visibility into what is happening inside the organization.

“One thing I do now is — I make sure that I have a little mole in every single division,” she says. “They’ll tell me what’s actually going on.”

In a similar vein, she advocates for recording all conversations using a transcription tool, like Otter.ai, to automatically summarize things and add another layer of transparency.

“I do think that AI is going to be our best co-pilot,” she says, pointing to its ability to remove friction from repeatable work.

Human judgement, however, is still key.

“[It’s] never going to be able to relationship build or negotiate deals,” she says, rather “it’s going to free up a lot of our time … while AI works on the more mundane, repeatable tasks.”

From product development, building teams and workflows, Guo made a case for practicing discipline, information integrity and systems that amplify human capability.

Velocity, in Guo’s world, is less about moving fast, and more about moving with intention.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Guo’s session from YPO EDGE. Lucy Guo, Stephen Ibaraki: From Zero to Unicorn – What it Really Takes to Build Fast | EDGE 2026 – YPO The Source

At YPO EDGE in Sydney, Stella Clarke, a development engineer at BMW Group since 2007, delivered a powerful message to CEOs and senior leaders. Breakthrough innovation rarely begins with certainty; it begins with curiosity, discomfort and persistence.

Truly disruptive ideas are born from daring to think differently. “Words don’t move people – prototypes do,” she emphasizes.

By making ideas tangible, leaders can transform skepticism into belief and mobilize organizations around bold possibilities.

The starting point of innovation

However, for Clarke, it was far more personal. The inspiration came from a device many use every day: the e-reader.

She marveled at how electronic ink technology required energy only to change color, not to maintain it. “For an engineer, it’s the closest thing to magic that you could imagine,” she says.

Clarke wondered if this technology could transform the surface of a car. But having the idea was only the beginning. As a “work-level engineer,” she had to navigate skepticism from herself and others. 

If you invest so much of your time and energy into something, you feel every failure, but with every failure you learn. ”
— Stella Clarke, Development Engineer at BMW Group share

“I often have to fight a little harder, think a little longer, prove mostly to myself that I belong in the room,” she says.

This mindset reflects a reality many innovators face inside large organizations. Breakthrough ideas often come from individuals who are not in positions of power.

The implication for leaders is clear: Innovation depends on empowering curiosity at every level.

Transforming disbelief into belief

The bridge between an idea and a project is the prototype. Clarke’s early attempts at local makerspaces were far from perfect.

“The first samples were not convincing,” she admits. “The first feedback was, overwhelmingly, skepticism. And with skepticism, it’s hard to not let that carry over into failure.”

To scale innovation, leaders must give their teams permission to fail as well as the time to pivot.

“If you invest so much of your time and energy into something, you feel every failure, but with every failure you learn,” she notes.

What Clarke learned was that the technical aspects weren’t reaching people. She needed to appeal to their emotional side. Instead of showing graphs, she invited management to imagine.

“I would say, ‘Imagine you got into your car and it looked like this,” she says. “Imagine if the flowers could change colors, they could fall off the branches and you could simulate the seasons.”

Clarke helped them visualize the possibilities and sparked their curiosity. “They could understand how color change could transform our products,” she says.

Risking reputation for the vision

In March 2020, Clarke was set to present her work at BMW’s internal innovation exhibition, an opportunity for engineers to showcase their ideas and gain management support.

It is open to employees at all levels. “Everyone has a chance, regardless of who you are,” she says.

Just three days into presentations, COVID-19 hit and the exhibition was canceled.

Rather than abandoning her project, even temporarily, Clarke took a risk by conveying her idea to those who missed the exhibition. She created a “really embarrassing” video pitch, speaking to the camera like a YouTube star, and emailed it to the largest group imaginable within the company.

“It took me two weeks to make the video, way too long to write the email, but pressing send was the hardest part,” Clarke says. “I risked my reputation with this ridiculous video. I risked not being taken seriously as an engineer at a company known for fast cars and great motors.”

Her courage paid off. The video circulated to the top of the hierarchy and leadership asked a pivotal question: “Can you really do this on a whole car?”

Scaling the impossible

When an idea moves from a small-scale prototype to a full-scale product, the technical challenges multiply. Turning the electronic-ink concept into reality proved far more difficult than anticipated. The material was temperamental. Carbon would disperse and short the conductive layers, preventing the color switch.
 
“Finally, we got one segment switching,” Clarke recalls. “We just needed to do this 240 more times. But at this point, I knew this would work.”
 
Having the time and resources to test and solve for unforeseen technical hurdles is essential to scaling an idea. The trial and error and discomfort was worth it.

Next time you have an idea and something doesn’t feel comfortable, hold on to it. You may be where innovation starts. ”
— Stella Clarke, Development Engineer at BMW Group share

The BMW i Vision Dee, featuring advanced, full-color electronic ink technology, was unveiled at CES 2023. “The world was shocked and delighted,” Clarke says. “And it’s not easy to shock and delight people.”
 
By the time Clarke collaborated with South African artist Esther Mahlangu on a later iteration, the complexity had grown to 1,349 individual segments, each capable of 32 different colors.
 
Transformative innovation does not require permission, title or perfection. It requires curiosity, courage and the willingness to embrace discomfort.
 
“Next time you have an idea and something doesn’t feel comfortable, hold on to it,” Clarke advises. “You may be where innovation starts.”

Imagine booking a driverless car to meet you at the airport, take you to dinner, or run your kids to school as easy as turning on a light switch. That day may not be as far away as you think.

The question is no longer whether autonomous driving can work. Today, it is how to roll it out safely, commercially and at scale.

At YPO EDGE 2026 in Sydney, Pony.ai Founder and CEO James Peng took to the stage to address this turning point — from technical breakthrough to real-world deployment.

That shift is being driven by what Peng describes as a moment of convergence. “Why now,” he asks. “Because the technology, infrastructure and regulation have matured, and we are reaching a global inflection point.”

One company already operating at that intersection is Pony.ai. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2016, it initially focused on U.S. development but quickly shifted its efforts toward China’s rapidly evolving market. Today, it operates fully driverless services in major cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou, showcasing the transition from early innovation to large-scale operation. For Peng, the change rests on a simple logic: Autonomy will be adopted only when it is trusted.

Trust built on safety

That trust, Peng argues, would be earned through measurable improvements in safety. “Safety is the prerequisite for everything,” he adds.

He points to advances in sensing, layered system redundancies and large-scale simulation that allow artificial intelligence (AI) drivers to train for billions of miles in real-world traffic conditions. These systems are now far better at predicting and responding to variable conditions. He also describes a three-step safety response: The system can rely on backup components to continue the journey, pull over if there’s a problem or, if necessary, come to an immediate stop — always moving the vehicle to a safer state.

“Mobility will become a service, not a product. ”
— James Peng, Pony.ai Founder and CEO share

The result, he says, is autonomous performance around 10 times safer than human-driven vehicles.

And when it comes to real-world deployment, this measurability matters. For Peng, the significance of those gains lay in the fact that they could be clearly verified by regulators and partners — a prerequisite for moving from controlled pilots to services the public can use.

From pilot to public service

That process is already under way. Peng points to the commercial rollout of fully driverless robotaxi services in China, where passengers are already able to hail a ride through standard mobility apps. “This is not a demo,” he says. “This is a real service.”

In that environment, trust is built in live traffic, with every mile adding to the operating history regulators require for further expansion.

Beyond China, pilot programs and partnerships are under way in South Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Europe. Each follows the same model of controlled introduction and gradual scale, shaped by local regulation.

Scaling the model

Peng explains that scaling autonomous mobility isn’t a sudden, one-size-fits-all rollout. “Start with perhaps 10 vehicles, then scale gradually,” he says — operating first within a defined area, building a record of safe performance and expanding only as regulators and partners gain confidence in the data. Each market moves at its own pace, shaped by local frameworks and public acceptance. The result is a measured, collaborative expansion rather than disruptive overnight change.

The economics are beginning to align as well. Peng notes that the cost of an autonomous ride is already comparable to a human-driven service. With costs approaching parity, broader adoption becomes possible in other regions.

The same technology is also moving into freight, although on a longer timeline. Peng explains that autonomous trucking faces higher safety thresholds and requires national regulatory approval before it can scale, placing it several years behind passenger services. Even so, dedicated truck programs are already in development, pointing to a wider transformation that extends beyond urban mobility.

Reshaping the city

Peng also emphasizes that autonomous mobility could reshape urban life. “Mobility will become a service, not a product,” he predicts. As younger generations become less interested in car ownership, summoning a ride on demand could replace the need for private vehicles. In turn, cities could reclaim space currently used for parking, creating more room for public areas and green spaces. Ultimately, Peng suggests, autonomous mobility won’t just be a technology shift — it will be a cultural one, changing the way we move and how we live in the spaces around us.

The pattern he describes is a slow build rather than a sudden disruption. Prove safety, operate in a defined area, expand as confidence grows. It is a model that depends on long-term collaboration between technology companies, manufacturers, regulators and cities — and one that rewards patience over speed.

For chief executives, the message is clear: The race is no longer to invent the technology, but to earn the trust that allows it to scale.

In that environment, progress depends less on breakthrough moments than on the discipline to prove performance, work with regulators and build long-term partnerships market by market.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Peng’s session from YPO EDGE: Peng, Hui: The Future of Mobility – Integrating Humanity with Autonomous Technology

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa delivered a stark warning to global executives at YPO EDGE in Sydney. The information ecosystem shaping business, governance and society is under unprecedented strain.
 
“What we collectively do in the next six months will determine whether journalism and democracy survive,” she urges. “It’s a critical moment.”

Her message reframes leadership for an era defined by the attention economy, where traditional loyalty is being dismantled by algorithmic amplification, manufactured hype and viral outrage.

The battle for truth

For Ressa, the Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Philippines’ leading digital media company, and former lead reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN, the fight for truth is a career-long mission.

“I’m a journalist; I’m not an activist, but when it is a battle for facts, journalism is activism,” Ressa asserts, whose efforts to protect freedom of expression are chronicled in her book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future.”

Today’s broader fight for democracy and journalism is a narrative warfare.

“You have a digital battlefield that rewards emotions and monetizes outrage,” she explains. “It has become an economic model that monetizes attention.”

By prioritizing fear, anger and identity conflict over factual debate, social media ecosystems have weakened the gatekeepers of truth – media, courts and experts – and replaced discourse with emotional polarization.

The challenge is compounded by generative artificial intelligence (AI). “The commercial tech that we are using has, what they call hallucinations, I call error rates, of anywhere from 16% at best to 79% at worst,” Ressa notes.

An altered information ecosystem

According to Ressa, paid independent creators are responsible for 66% of all online engagement. This influencer-driven reality is reshaping the flow of information and replacing traditional legitimate sources.
 
“Please never call a journalist an influencer,” she cautions. “Standards and ethics and values matter.”
 
With social media penetration exceeding 85% in most developed countries, influencers now wield more power over public perception than traditional institutions. As a result, society has a fragmented shared reality that is weakening democratic institutions around the globe.

What we collectively do in the next six months will determine whether journalism and democracy survive. It’s a critical moment. ”
— Maria Ressa, Co-founder and CEO of Rappler share

 
The breakdown in trust is not simply a political issue. Businesses now operate in environments where misinformation spreads faster than truth, and that can quickly erode consumer trust.
 
Companies are expected to speak out against untruths and injustices. In this new reality, silence is no longer neutral. “If you don’t speak, silence is complicity,” Ressa warns.
 
The civic response to federal immigration practices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is an example of how leaders can stand by their values. “700 businesses in Minneapolis stood up,” she says. “They shut down for a day, which meant they lost business.”

An approach to rebuilding trust

The good news is that change is possible through collective action. Trust can be rebuilt through a whole-of-society approach that mobilizes technology, journalism and community, Ressa explains.

First, it’s important to invest in public-interest technology so that public opinion is reflected in government policies. Deliberative technologies can help engage the public and support democratic participatory processes.

At this time, “not much has been written about a public interest tech stack, because America has given it to Silicon Valley,” Ressa says. Her advice: “Let’s build tech that will protect us, that won’t manipulate us.”

Second, it’s important to strengthen independent journalism through global funding mechanisms. The funding of factual reporting can safeguard information integrity.

For example, the International Fund for Public Interest Media founded in 2019 provides grants to media outlets to ensure the integrity of information. “We went to democratic governments and asked them for their overseas development assistance funds, 0.2%,” she says, noting they had raised USD60 million by 2022 to combat narrative warfare in low- and middle-income markets.

“You cannot have rule of law if you don’t have facts,” Ressa emphasizes.

Lastly, community networks can help disseminate fact-based content. “If you’re organizing communities in the physical world, you’ve got to organize them in the virtual world, because that’s the only place we have right now,” Ressa emphasizes.

For example, Rappler partnered with approximately 150 groups including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok to provide fact-checking and debunk election-related misinformation in the Philippines.

“People are worth trusting,” she says. “Inspiration spreads as fast as anger.”

Becoming more resilient

Ultimately, survival in this fragmented reality requires personal and organizational integrity. Leaders must define their boundaries before they are tested.
 
“You have to know what you stand for,” Ressa emphasizes. “You can’t become a monster to fight a monster. Values are not transferable.”
 
Vulnerability and relationships remain powerful counterforces to digital polarization. “In a world that is so cynical and full of toxic sludge, I’ve found that lowering your shields allows you to have real connections,” she says.
 
In this era where hype and outrage command attention, leadership must be anchored in transparency, values and courage. “If you draw the line, then you hold the line,” Ressa advises.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Ressa’s session from YPO EDGE: Maria Ressa: Attention Economy – What Leadership Looks Like When Loyalty has been Replaced by Hype and Outrage.

What if the most disruptive force shaping the future of business isn’t artificial intelligence (AI), geopolitics or climate, but biology?

At EDGE 2026 in Sydney, Tiffany Vora challenged leaders to rethink one of our most basic assumptions: how long we expect to live, work and contribute to the world.

A molecular biologist turned futurist, Vora brings credibility to the conversation. With a Ph.D. from Princeton, faculty roles at Stanford and her current work at EY Tech University, she sits at the intersection of biotechnology, AI and human performance. She now helps organizations anticipate how advances in longevity and wellness will reshape leadership itself.

Once comfortably filed under science fiction, longevity is quickly becoming something far more practical, measurable, investable and increasingly modifiable.

As she put it: “What if 150 is the new 80?”

She began with a simple exercise, asking the YPO members how long they expected to live. Responses ranged from 80, 90, 100. An underlying message started to emerge: Our assumptions about lifespan influence nearly everything: career pacing, financial planning, succession decisions, even how we think about risk.

Lifespan vs. health span

A central theme of the session was the distinction between lifespan and health span — a difference with growing relevance for leaders.

Lifespan measures the number of years we are alive. Health span measures the years we remain healthy, active and productive.

The future envisioned by longevity science isn’t simply extending life but extending vitality.

Today is the most boring the biotech revolution is ever going to be. ”
— Tiffany Vora, Biotechnology Futurist and Longevity Innovator share

Rather than inevitable “wear and tear,” aging is increasingly understood as a set of biological processes from DNA mutations, chronic inflammation, cellular senescence and epigenetic changes. These are cellular and molecular mechanisms researchers can observe, measure and potentially influence.

In other words, aging isn’t your body wearing out; it’s biological. And biology, increasingly, can be studied, measured and influenced.

Biology becomes technology

“We’re at this moment where increasingly, biology isn’t separate from technology. Biology is technology,” says Vora.

With that framing, she zoomed out to the broader shift happening right now. Advances in gene editing, regenerative medicine, AI-driven diagnostics and targeted therapies are rapidly transforming how we understand aging and disease.

And the pace, she suggested, is only going to accelerate.

“Today is the most boring the biotech revolution is ever going to be,” she says.

It’s an idea that is both unsettling and reassuring. What feels extraordinary today may soon feel routine. Treatments once unimaginable from gene therapies and precision medicine to AI-enabled health monitoring are steadily moving from research labs into clinical practice.

She was careful to note, however, that these breakthroughs promise delay, not immortality.

Many of the conditions that define aging, Vora says, are increasingly seen through a new lens. Cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration can move away from inevitable outcomes and be reframed as biological processes that might be able to be slowed, postponed or in some cases, partially reversed.

The 100-year career

Longevity tends to be a health care story. This is YPO EDGE, so of course, Vora framed it as a leadership story.

What happens to the workforce if people live longer and remain healthier for more of their lives? What does retirement mean if individuals remain healthy and cognitively sharp through their 80s or 90s? How do organizations rethink talent pipelines for careers spanning multiple distinct chapters? Are companies prepared for four or five generations working side by side?

These are all questions Vora says that chief executives — especially those particularly interested in futurism — need to ask themselves. Retirement timelines, career arcs and succession planning are built on our assumptions about biological limits that are becoming less constrained.

For leaders, this presents both friction and opportunity. Organizations that proactively rethink workforce design, intergenerational collaboration and long-term human capital strategy may gain advantages that their competitors fail to anticipate.

The most immediate strategy

Despite her futurist framing, Vora’s most urgent advice was strikingly pragmatic: Don’t die.

“That’s literally the most important thing you can do today,” she admits. “And it sounds absurd, but the truth is — a lot of these advances, particularly the biomedical ones, are going to take a little while to figure out what’s safe and what actually works. Don’t exit this life before then if you can possibly help it.”

While biomedical breakthroughs progress, the most powerful interventions available today are familiar and unglamorous: sleep, exercise, cardiovascular health, metabolic stability and stress management. She also adds some directives: Stop smoking, wear a seatbelt and brush your teeth — “all the things your grandmother told you,” she laughs. “I’m not going to lie; this is super easy stuff.”

The decades-long mantras from grandmothers and doctors now carry amplified significance: Future breakthroughs will only benefit those who remain healthy long enough to access them. In this way, our daily lifestyle choices aren’t just personal health decisions but strategic time management.

Ultimately, Vora’s session reframed longevity as a foresight challenge.

Leaders can plan for technological disruption, market volatility and geopolitical shifts. But few organizations focus attention and resources on scenarios in which human biological constraints evolve in severely meaningful ways.

Because if leaders live longer, leadership changes. Accountability doesn’t fade as quickly. Decisions carry further. The ripple effects of today’s choices may last decades longer than we’re used to.

YPO members, tune in to The Source to listen to excerpts of Vora’s session from YPO EDGE: Tiffany Vora: Longevity & the Future Is 150 the New 80.