David Cuenca

In 2026, the business of Transformation stands at a pivotal moment. Never before have macro-level incentives for systemic enterprise reinvention been matched by the technological ability to execute that change at scale. As the rapid onset of generative and agentic AI challenges long-held business norms and threatens to render more narrowly defined transformations insufficient, change leaders have the chance to push a far more assertive agenda. Genuine business transformation is suddenly not just a concept, but a necessary, unavoidable reality. What's more, the scope and scale of those transformations is exponentially greater. It might even be that the entire organisation needs to be rebuilt, from the ground up.

The purpose of this opening panel is to mimic all good Transformation projects, establishing a North Star around which the rest of the conference can rally. Before we proceed to the business of delivering change in practice, this session seeks to establish a vision for the future enterprise, something tangible towards which we can transform. To enable that exercise, our panellists and audience are asked to step into the future under the following scenario:

Our Scenario:

It's 2036, 10 years ahead of the present day. The working relationship between human and machine has evolved and AI agents are a mainstay of the workforce. The elevated pace of change and decision-making is an accepted norm. The macroeconomic environment remains complex, markets remain globally interconnected but with lingering barriers to global trade and ongoing supply chain disruption squeezing margins and demanding agility.

Our panel of Transformation leaders will build the enterprise required to confront this scenario, using the following pillars as their foundations:

• Business Model & Decision-Making: What does the target operating model look like? Do conventional business functions still exist, or are there value streams which are cross-cutting or entirely functionally-agnostic? Is the organisation much flatter in structure than the large enterprises of the past? Are smaller, distributed and autonomous teams the norm?

• The Value Preoccupation: How does the enterprise define value beyond profit? Is radical customer-centricity a standard norm driven by market competition?

• The Data Layer and AI Integration: Do core systems like the ERP remain, or have they been rendered redundant by AI? How is the enterprise using an advanced, AI-driven data analysis to drive performance and business value? Is the concept of human in the loop still holding and what level of autonomy for AI systems is tolerable?

• The Talent Pool: In a hybrid human/machine workforce, how has the talent requirement evolved in a workforce where so many core tasks have been outsourced to an agent? What has been the outcome of a decade of upskilling?

• The Cultural Imperative: What are the prevailing cultural values in the new enterprise? How has the business built uncertainty tolerance and adapted its culture to embrace an exponentially higher rate of change?

·       Gain insights into how to leverage OKRs to align with your business goals

·       Explore effective strategies to engage SMEs, process owners, and executives in your operational excellence journey

·       Sharing key practical challenges and how to overcome them during implementation

·       Setting up a Circle of Excellence to scale your operational excellence initiatives across the business

It's been a year of seismic change for global enterprise. Tariffs & market upheaval. Conflict. AI proliferation. The result? A climate of unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty which looks unlikely to abate in the near-term. Read one way, the challenges are many and overwhelming. Read another, the climate might be a catalyst for real enterprise transformation. With a much higher tolerance for uncertainty and disruption than most of their C-suite peers, they have both the mentality and skillset to drive genuine reinvention in stormy seas. Before they can do that, though, it makes sense to stop and to take stock of Transformation's core purpose in 2026. This opening session examines how a challenging backdrop can be used as a catalyst for moving from efficiency-led to mission-led transformation and, crucially, how that mission can be applied to build resilience for the business.

• How has the purpose of Transformation changed in an agentic age? Are its core principles of efficiency, standardisation and business value unshakeable, or do we need to update them?

• What does an uncertain political climate mean for our approach to setting and implementing a Transformation vision? Can we move expand on Transformation’s role as an efficiency driver to enable genuinely purpose-led transformations?

• Does Transformation need to formally own the change mandate, or can they deliver comparable or even superior value by enabling and empowering communities of change champions across enterprise?

• Do Transformation leaders need to review their focus on strategic, long-term planning in an environment where the pace of change is increasing exponentially and unpredictably?

• What responsibility does Transformation have to promote uncertainty tolerance across the wider business?