Sharon Gai

Culture Fluid, the new way to thrive in an ever-changing world

The world is shifting at speeds that are now faster than ever. From ChatGPT displacing thousands of jobs to cashless societies and digital currencies, we live in what Sharon calls a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertain, Complicated, Ambiguous) time. This is when businesses must adapt to a newer way of thinking. Sharon provides a fresh take as someone who has worked in the top companies of the US and China. She has led teams from Gen X to Gen Z, across various diverse backgrounds and types of companies. Apart from being a DEI speaker where she coined the term “Culture Fluid”, she uses the same agile methodology in a business setting, starting projects that have beat competitors and disrupted industries. Culture Fluid shows how businesses can be agile to fit the changing tides for a VUCA time ahead. Sharon uses first-hand experience and actionable insights to present a compelling vision of the future world and leaves the audience with tools and an approach to develop a strategy to succeed in the shifting landscape of the 21st century tech-driven and digital economy.

Session takeaways:

• The key macro-trends that is disrupting our world today
• An overview of what your industry will look like in the near and distant future
• Five key strategies today’s most successful players are adopting to prepare for tomorrow
• How to evolve into a more agile and disruptive competitor
• Tools and a process for developing concrete ideas for a strategy and approaches that could disrupt the industry

The Rise of the Intelligent Enterprise: How AI is Revolutionizing Business Operations

AI is no longer a futuristic concept reserved for science fiction movies. It’s already here, and it’s rapidly changing the way businesses operate, compete, and grow. From machine learning to natural language processing, AI is revolutionizing the way we work, transforming the very fabric of industries across the globe. In this keynote, we’ll dive deep into the transformative effects of AI on business and explore the tremendous opportunities and challenges it presents. You’ll discover how businesses of all sizes can leverage AI to gain a competitive edge, streamline processes, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions that drive growth and profitability. We’ll also examine the potential risks associated with AI deployment, including ethical considerations and cybersecurity threats. You’ll leave this keynote with insights and perspectives that will enable you to navigate the complex landscape of AI, make informed decisions, and position your organization for success in the future.

Session takeaways:

• Understand the difference between hype and reality when it comes to AI and its potential for business.
• Learn about practical and impactful use cases of AI in various industries and business functions.
• Gain insights into how AI is being used to streamline processes, optimize operations, and drive revenue growth.
• Discover the key challenges of AI adoption in business and how to overcome them, such as data quality, privacy concerns, and organizational change management
• Understand the importance of a data-driven culture and how AI can help drive it.
• Learn about the skills and competencies needed to succeed in the age of AI, and how to cultivate them in yourself and your team.

What brands can learn from ecommerce in China, the world’s largest consumer market

1 in 2 retail transactions in China is done online making the Chinese ecommerce market to be the most advanced in the world. Naturally, local platforms such as Tmall, JD and now Tik Tok are changing the way consumers interact with brands online. Evolving from a sales channel, to a marketing channel and now to an entertainment channel, these ecommerce platforms have evolved how brands are discovering their consumers online. This keynote will go over some of the most recent trends to emerge from ecommerce in China.

Session takeaways:

• A deep understanding of the innovations coming out of Chinese technology companies and the impact they are having on the global market
• Frameworks to think about innovation
• Be able to analyze and evaluate the strategies and business models of these companies and to apply them to different situations and projects around the world.

How to build resilience in chaos

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book, Antifragile, he spoke of three mythological creatures. The Roman myth of Damocles describes a fragile situation: a single horse hair suspends a sword over Damocles’ head – shocks will have catastrophic results. The legend of the Phoenix describes a mythical bird that rises from the ashes after its destruction. The phoenix is robust because it returns to its original state after a shock. Finally, the myth of the Hydra describes a multi-headed serpent with a special power: each time a head is cut off, two grow back in its place. The Hydra is antifragile because shocks make it stronger.

Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, and bounce back in the midst of stress, chaos, and ever-changing situations. Being resilient is especially important in today’s VUCA world. (VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), where everyone is worn down, uncertain about the future, reactive, and short tempered. The good news is that resiliency is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice. In fact, to be an effective leader today, this is an essential skill for career success. This workshop is filled with specific, practical frameworks and tools to boost your mental toughness when facing fast-paced, difficult, ever-changing, and ambiguous situations.

Session takeaways:

• Be equipped with tools used to cope with ongoing stress so it doesn’t affect your personal life or health
• Keeping yourself and your team motivated for the long road of change initiatives and shifting priorities
• Instead of fearing change, learning how to embrace change
• Remaining poised under pressure: how to instantly calm yourself and others from frustration or anger

Culture Fluid, How to be a bridge in a divided world

So there is EQ and IQ, but ever heard of CQ? CQ stands for cultural intelligence and is the ability for someone to navigate different cultures, whether at work, at home or generally in society. If you’ve moved countries, been an expat, been on an exchange, learned a new language or just travelled abroad, most likely you’ve been met with some sort of cultural shake-up. Being culture fluid enables us to traverse between cultures more easily by being more empathetic to those from another culture, a skill that is more and more needed in an increasingly globalized world.   In this workshop, Sharon will take the audience through her journey of growing up as an immigrant, and then returning to her birth country to work for the largest local internet company. She shares stories of work place micro aggressions she has experienced in both places and what she did in each instance. Open discussions will follow where participants can also share their stories and the group is given the chance to assess what are the best courses of action to take in the future. She ends the presentation by showcasing how she answers the question of – where are you from.

Session takeaways:

• Learn how to be the bridge in a team with different cultures
• Cultural intelligence and its importance in the workplace
• How to take advantage of diverse cultures in teams

Other topics from Sharon Gai

• Lessons of innovation from the world’s largest and most competitive consumer market
• AI, China and Business in 2030
• Lessons from ecommerce in China: livestreaming, NFT’s and the metaverse
• The Rise of the AI Enterprise: How to leverage ChatGPT and AI
• EQ, IQ, what is CQ? How to increase your Cultural Intelligence