Inside CVC: From Summit to Platform: Inside the Global Vision for the CVC Open Innovation Community

The CVC Open Innovation Summit began as a small gathering of corporate venture, strategy, and innovation leaders looking for something missing in the market: a trusted environment where decision-makers could collaborate on the challenges shaping industry.

In this special episode of Inside CVC, Steve Schmith speaks with Philipp Willigmann of U-Path Advisors and Daniel Kennel of BorgWarner about how the summit series is evolving into a global platform connecting leaders across industries.

They discuss the community’s mission:

To build the most trusted global platform empowering industry leaders to unite capital, innovation, and strategy to shape the future of business and society.

The conversation explores the topics driving dialogue across recent summits in Miami and Berlin, why cross-industry collaboration matters more than ever, and what comes next as the community expands globally.

To learn more about the CVC Open Innovation community and get involved, visit cvc-summit.com. 

Transcript

Steve Welcome to Inside CVC, the podcast that brings together leaders in innovation and capital investment to explore the trends shaping the business of corporate venture capital. I'm your host, Steve Schmith, and together with Philipp Willigmann, we're speaking to corporate investors, entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders. Driving the Future of Innovation Inside CVC is brought to you by Path Advisors, helping corporations and startups unlock sustainable growth through strategic partnerships. To learn more, visit ups.com. That's the letter U hyphen path dot com. And to catch up on all of our episodes, search Inside CVC on your favorite podcast platform or visit www.u-path.com/podcast. Today's episode is a special one. Joining me are Daniel Kennell of BorgWarner and Philip Willigmann of U Path Advisors. And in a bit of a role reversal, Philip joins this conversation not as a co-host, but as a guest. Together, Daniel and Philip take us inside the CVC Open Innovation Summit community and the broader platform that is taking shape around it. We discuss why it began, how it has grown from a small, curated gathering into a global network of leaders across strategy, venture, innovation, policy and academia and where the effort is headed next. This conversation is more than events. It's about building a trusted platform that brings together capital, innovation and strategy to shape the future of business and society. Let's get into it. Daniel. Philip, welcome to a special episode of the Inside CVC podcast. How are you both doing today?

Daniel Wonderful. Thank you.

Philipp Doing great. Thank you so much, Steve, and good to see you, Daniel.

Steve Absolutely. I mean, look, this is going to be a very exciting conversation. I think it's going to be unique because Philip, your role today is more in your role as you path and what you and Daniel and a whole community of folks are doing to bring together what is really a recurring platform in markets around the world. The last one was in Miami. So why don't we start with today's conversation relative to the broader CVC Open Innovation Summit series? That community, why did it begin? And maybe Daniel, I'll start with you. Philip and I have talked about this on previous shows. So from your point of view, your perspective, why did all of this activity in this wonderful community building begin?

Daniel Philip and I, we got connected five years ago, five to six years ago, and we started chatting and we both had the same mindset like, hey, around venture strategy, innovation. There are a lot of conferences out there, but they're all big and there was no really focus on the right level of seniority. And it was more educational than actually creating something. And, um, on the other hand, everything was on the West Coast. So we said, hey, let's do something. Let's do something small, intimate on the East Coast. we felt the lack of opportunities for strategy and innovation leaders on the West Coast. So we decided, okay, let's start with a more or less literally backyard event. And, um, I think the planning was, was great. Uh, we started small and, um, the first, the first edition in Miami really showed us, hey, I think we found something here. We really found a vacuum in the market. And, um, since then it has been a success story.

Steve So now we're looking, we're just coming off of Miami twenty twenty six in February, Berlin in November of last year, uh, the second iteration of Miami about a year ago. Philipp, from your perspective, what has surprised you most on how the summit series, the community has grown worldwide?

Philipp Well, I mean, I think I would like to echo, um, Daniel, when, when we put our heads together three years ago, Um, and hearing that there are so many of our peers thinking about the same questions, right? Thinking about how do we as cvc's strategy leaders, um, think about transformation? What are we going to do around energy resilience? You know, a CEO tells you on a board member, come up with a great strategy, right? And, um, we have seen this in the electrification space over the last couple of years saying, okay, great, we can come up with a with a great strategy, but what happens if the whole ecosystem changes? Geopolitics are changing. And I think really seeing all these leaders come together, being open minded in this trusted environment to talk about the challenges and then together frame up what, what, what are the questions we should ask together? What also, what can we do together? I think was over the last two, three years, the most fascinating for me to observe.

Daniel This is still for me the biggest value creation. You got a lot of pride. Mine's decision makers in one room. And rather than educating them, you should use their decision power, their brain power, their experience to actually create something for the industry, for them. And we think this is way more powerful. This is like a one plus one equals three equation here. And this is really where I see the biggest value is having a curated team of decision makers in the room and creating something together.

Steve What are you all talking about in these summits? And what sort of feedback are you getting from, from participants as you talk about these objectives, as you talk about these topics, as you talk about where we're industry is going? I think it's important for our folks to hear what kind of feedback you're getting.

Daniel So I think from my point of view, we're doing this from corporates for corporates. And it doesn't matter which industry you're in, you're facing the same struggles, the same roadblocks, the same challenges. And I think that's being reflected in the feedback and the discussions. It doesn't matter if you're coming from automotive or chemical or the medical industry. There is always an overlap of challenges. And I think this really this diversity of end markets, joining the same or sharing the same problems really makes it powerful. And I think that's being reflected in the feedback as well, that, hey, you're hitting the nail on the head. That's exactly what what we, what we are dealing with on a, on a day to day business and then hearing the, the, the, the experience or the insights from different industries really opens their mind and, and makes them think differently about certain solutions.

Philipp I would add, it's also, you know, we, we, we sometimes took some topics where we were like, well, it's a very important topic. We don't know how the group is kind of reacting to it. You know, last year in Miami, for example, we had a special topic around water. And I do recall there were people in the room saying, why are we talking about water? Of course it's important. We need to drink it, right? And I do remember a conversation between a few people who are all based in Detroit and in the automotive industry, essentially realizing in that conversation, like, holy crap, like we may not have drinking water in Detroit, uh, in last summer or maybe this summer. And we as, as industry actually have a role to play here. And we can have a positive impact on that. Uh, created a very powerful conversation. Um, even after the summit, that's one topic I think, um, where people may say, I don't know if it's, you know, it's important, but I don't know if I can do something with it. But then suddenly realizing, wow, these, these major corporations actually have a very important role to play and can have an impact. They may have not thought about. Similarly, um, when we talk about the topic of care, uh, in the German or European summit last year. I'm thinking about what can organizations do to to ensure that people actually stay healthy longer and we don't get into a care crisis. Open up a very, very interesting conversation. I think lots of people from chemicals, automotive, industrial haven't thought about, um, and you're being a bit more thought provoking. I think it's also a good way to, to push the agenda and align people around a common common goal.

Steve You know, it's interesting you bring up Carl Ganter and his conversations from water, our first episode on inside CVC nearly forty episodes ago, talking about the real life piece of this. I heard something yesterday with all of the tension and sort of the conflict that's going on right now in in the Middle East, and it sort of blew my mind. It made me really think about, uh, the conversation we had with Carl, but also building on your point, Philip, relative to why this matters to the world right now. And it was an interesting stat. And that was not. One Gulf state has more than four days reserves of drinkable water, right? All of these desalinization plants are sort of driving that way. And so as I hear you say that and reflect in the moment and in the feedback that you're getting from folks in terms of, wow, this is real world stuff. I just think it's interesting we bring that up. And here's a real world example right now that I think millions of people are struggling with right, right now.

Daniel I think it's a great example of what Philip mentioned, sharing or highlighting a problem that many people do not understand, that it's actually a problem also for them. And and if we link it back to current industry trends, you see, uh, this amazing growth of data centers and build out of compute power. But if you look at data centers, the amount of water needed to cool those. And then on the other hand side, you see that certain populations do not have more than four days of drinking water supply available. I think this is really what we're trying to what we're trying to show here, like the the industry trends, but also the substantial trends bring together and make people realize we need to be more thoughtful, we need to be sustainable.

Steve So where's this going? We now have five events under the summit. It seems that perhaps we're building something that is more a global network of strategy and venture leaders. What's the future hold as we sort of make the shift from a series of events to perhaps an ongoing, growing global platform?

Philipp This is like a big open innovation project, if you will, between various institutions. Daniel said it earlier, right? Our mission is to create something with corporates for corporates. We always ask the participants at the summits and working groups and also afterwards, what are they looking for? And I think coming out of Miami, there was definitely a clear sign that, yeah, it would be important to do something. Also in Asia, we have a lot of representatives in the room who actually are working for Asian headquartered company from Japan to South Korea, Southeast Asia. So that's something we're thinking about. But with that, also, some of the feedback is people actually don't only want to talk, write, and share, but they also want to work together. And I think that was some pretty strong feedback we received after Miami, that there's a lot of interest to go deeper on some of these topics and find a way. How can we create more like a, like a global exchange network to really drive for action? I think that's something Daniel and I and the other corporates, we're thinking about how to make that happen.

Daniel I fully agree. I think what became pretty clear after even after last year's summits, that we have the two and this year, Miami edition, we are more than a summit. What we're trying to create here is really a global community that is trying to a exchange on a more continuous level, but also create together on a more continuous level. I think we're now at a level of maturity of what we've created. That just meeting once or twice a year is not good enough. People asking for more regular exchange, asking for more content creation throughout the year. So what we're trying to what we're trying to achieve here is going away from that whole summit perception to really address the global platform, to bring industry leaders together and create value around the key impact areas. And as Philip said, it's a very diverse set of participants. But in general, what we're trying to achieve is bringing diverse industries together, bringing decision makers and capital together, and making sure that future innovation is spent and allocated in the right way. So it's really about shaping the future together from an industrial business perspective, but also from a society perspective. Coming back to the water example that we discussed earlier.

Steve I'll try to sum it up maybe in a sentence, and that's maybe all of the people in this community are working together to build this trusted global platform. Power society empowers industry leaders in a way that unites capital, innovation, and strategy. Is that fair?

Daniel Absolutely.

Philipp Great summary.

Steve So let's then dive into that. Right. So when you think back to Miami, Filipe, from your point of view, how was some of that reflected in the conversation? Bring us in the room a little bit.

Philipp Well, I think one of the topics Daniel and I and the other co-hosts over the years, surprisingly always were very keen on was also to not only talk about the industry and what happens around energy and AI, but but bringing in the geopolitical lens. And I do actually think it was the Danaher team in our first summit who spoke about, hey, we do need to talk about Asia. We do need to talk about China. We have a team there. We actually invest. How do we how do we think about this in the future? And that became like a, for us an anchor to say we also want policy in the room, right? We don't want policy just for the sake of it, but we want people in the room who actually can share and also are willing to listen to hear really to what the industry leaders have to say. And that was something which came out in Miami and also in Berlin, where people came to to us afterwards saying, oh, wow, actually that was just listening to this conversation helps me shape what we may need to do to support the growth of, of certain areas in the region, like Berlin or Miami. Um, I think that's, that's one area which, which I would highlight. Bringing policy into the mix is very important. Second one briefly is also making sure we have a strong connection to the, to the academia side, right? To the universities really being closely connected to the state of the art research. Um, what are people working on? What are their challenges? Where do they need you? Um, corporates come in in the United States, we obviously have a pretty strong connection between corporates, research labs, universities, much, much stronger than I see it in Europe. Um, but, uh, you know, we have also reflected this or saw this in the summits, right? In the United States. We have always lots of professors and universities who want to come in. In Europe, it was kind of a bit like, okay, um, you know, people were a bit shy. Uh, but, but, but bringing the universities into the mix, I think is also just very important and to have that dialogue. But Daniel, what additional, um, institutions you're thinking about?

Daniel No, to complement your thoughts. I think it's also the regional diversity. I mean, one of the big reasons why we chose Miami is it's the gateway to Latin America. Latin America right now, four hundred and four hundred and fifty million people. And the easiest access point for them to the US is Miami. But it's not only Latin America, it's also. This year was the first true global summit. We had participation from all continents and just getting those there was views into the room. I remember the board discussion or the geopolitical trend discussion, just listening how certain Asian states or South American communities think about geopolitics differently than we do was just eye opening for me, and what I've heard from the feedback from the participants for everyone. So yeah, to compliment Philip, regional diversity is, is also a critical success factor.

Philipp And maybe just to add one on top of that, after the Miami Summit, Singaporean representative connected us to the Berlin office and said, hey, why is nobody from Berlin here? You did a great summit in Berlin. And, uh, which now is actually having a conversation between Berlin, Singapore and Miami, uh, on the policy and city level to say, how can we actually make sure that we can, you know, exchange knowledge, bring companies, startups on delegations. So it's great to see that we have an impact actually at that level too.

Steve So let's build on that. What is coming up for the rest of twenty twenty six? Another European summit. Is there going to be in Asia Summit and continue the conversation. What's what's next as we look ahead to the rest of twenty twenty six and maybe beyond? Philip, let's start with you.

Philipp Well, I will say it's, you know, there is a clear willingness and plan. And then there's obviously the realities we live in, given the geopolitical environment and simple things like flying from Europe to Asia right now became a bit more difficult, for example, or going to the Middle East is right or not possible. But I think our our vision is that we would like to bring the summit to Asia. There is a lot of interest in the Southeast Asian region as well as in Japan and in South Korea. So that's definitely something we would love to make happen together with with corporates from there. And then we are in plan to bring the summit back to Europe, to Berlin at the beginning of September to ensure that everybody can really travel there. Also, the US folks don't have to forget, you know, have to miss families on Thanksgiving. And then we are thinking about a couple of site events like we did at CES at the beginning of the year, and also at the World Economic Forum, just to bring the community together. And some ideas, which we are floating right now, is to do something potentially in Japan at Sushi Tech, together with the city of Berlin, and also in discussions with some players in the Middle East who actually would love to do something. But given the current environment, that's obviously hard to say.

Daniel From a holistic, strategic level. I think twenty twenty six is our year of transformation. Um, to finally go from, hey, we're doing two summits per year to create that global trusted platform that we described earlier. All the events, side events that Philip mentioned will play a pivotal role this year. But also what we're trying to achieve in between events is really with white papers, with joined intellectual content creation to really, um, to really launch and ramp up our platform. So I would say twenty twenty six is our year of transformation. There is still a couple of things that we need to figure out. We are looking for global partners. We're looking for global support. And we want to make sure that our branding also reflects our new or updated mission.

Steve So Daniel, I want to build on that. And particularly in your role where you sit at BorgWarner at the intersection of strategy and venture. You say we're looking for global partners, etc.. So let's speak to the audience a little bit in that regard. What's in it for them?

Daniel Let me answer that two fold. So first answer will be as a participant in the summit, I'm getting unique insights from direct peers on the right level, understanding what their strategic plans and directions are. And it's a trusted environment. It's a trust that no sales environment. So there's no lip sticking. It's really that's what we're doing. Those are the challenges and just that feedback and that knowledge, taking it back to my day to day job really helps me to think differently and out of the box to certain strategic approaches or solutions, um, to, uh, to our business to strengthen our business at BorgWarner.

Steve Filip, from your perspective, what are the types of, of experiences, the types of skills, who are the types of individuals that would thrive in this community? And where can they find, uh, more information, get in contact with the right folks, perhaps, uh, start conversation about perhaps being part of this this global network.

Philipp First off, I would like to say that I personally feel pretty humbled. I'm currently not in a corporate. I work with a lot of corporates, but I'm pretty humbled that BorgWarner, Daniel other of the co-hosts like Bosch over. Let's go over Danaher. You know, trust me that I'm also pushing this forward in a way that it stays true to the original mission. It's from corporates for corporates and a non-commercial environment. So first off, I want to say thank you for the trust there, Daniel and others who are listening. We are looking for very senior executives in strategy, innovation and venture to join. So if people are interested, they can reach out. We have a website very simple at the moment WW dot CVC minus summit, which will also be in the show notes, but also just reach out to Daniel and myself on LinkedIn. We are pretty restrictive in creating the room, so we typically have around, I think in Miami, we had two hundred people who showed interest. We only selected a bit shy of one hundred. We really want to make sure that we have the right group together, and that we can have a discussion on the right level to drive impact. But if people are interested from policy, academia as well as supporters, just reach out to Daniel and me. We are very, very open and very inclusive to make sure that we can put the right stakeholders together.

Daniel My second perspective, not as a participant but as an organizer of our community. I think from a supporter perspective, what we are really offering is a unique access to decision makers in the most focused way possible. Out there, I have not seen any other platform on the market that provides access to that level of seniority and decision making power across the fortune five hundred in one room, in one community. And I think that's the key differentiator, that it's an open trust, no sales environment. And this is a unique opportunity for existing and future supporters out there to establish their brand, as well as an innovative, forward looking brand.

Steve As you both in the community build this vision of towards a global network of strategy and venture industry leaders, how does the brand of the CVC Open Innovation Summit change? How does it evolve?

Daniel As I said earlier, twenty twenty six is our year of transformation. We already decided earlier together in this call and our new vision or mission statement, but it has to be reflected in our global branding as well. So stay tuned. There will be a rollout, a formal rollout of a new branding. Our new mission statement that really reflects the message and reflects the purpose of what we're creating here.

Philipp I fully agree. I think this has evolved quite substantially thanks to the support of the community. We are working on a new brand, also with our partners, to ensure that we can create an action oriented community.

Steve I would be remiss if I did not mention, if you're listening to this podcast, there are nearly forty episodes of inside CBC and you can find them anywhere. And all of those are driven by the conversation that we had today and by the work that Filip and Daniel and the rest of the community are doing. So if you're listening to this and you're interested in learning more about where the community is going and getting involved, please get in touch with Daniel and Filip. And if you are interested in learning more about the types of conversations that only happen in the room, but also happen with the guests that we frequently have in the room and on the show, Encourage you to visit and listen to catch up on all of our episodes of inside CBC. So with that, gentlemen, thank you for your time. Any closing thoughts?

Daniel I also just want to mention it's important to me personally. It has been a great ride, a great journey over the last year, not just from me, from Borg Warner perspective. So representing Borg Warner in this initiative, but also something that I'm pursuing personally. But I also have to shout out to to Filip, who really is the driving force behind it. He decided to quit his corporate job to really drive this forward. It wouldn't would not have been possible without Filip. So a big thank you to Filip as well for making this happen.

Philipp Well, thank you very much, Daniel for the kind words. And thank you, Steve, for putting us on the show together. Yeah, I just, you know, really appreciate everybody's support and I'm really looking forward to building a community and a platform which which strives to create a more positive society.

Steve That was my conversation with Daniel Kennel of BorgWarner and Philipp Willigmann from U-Path Advisors. If today's conversation resonated with you and you'd like to learn more about the community or explore getting involved, visit CVC-summit.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please follow Inside CVC on your favorite podcast platform and share it with a colleague. We've got nearly forty episodes now with listeners around the world, spanning seventy four countries and more than five hundred cities. If you like what you're hearing and enjoy the conversations and the leaders and the perspectives we're bringing to the show, do us a favor, share it, subscribe, and allow us to continue telling this story to a broader and growing audience worldwide. As always, you can find nearly forty episodes of inside CVC wherever you find your favorite podcast or online at www.u-path.com/podcast. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.