The Best-Ofs 2020 Cathay Global LP Meeting (2020 Cathay Annual Meeting)
November 6, 2020
Global
The epidemic is reshaping the global economy and accelerating technological shifts and innovation. Cathay has adapted to the latest events and recast its 2020 Global LP Meeting into two sessions separately held in Shanghai and in Paris, in full respect of sanitary measures.
This was the first time in Cathay’s history that the Annual Meeting was held in two places simultaneously and in the form of a live broadcast. This annual meeting brought together experts, scholars, founders and government executives, Fortune 500 companies, innovative start-ups, and scientific research institutions. Guests from Bpifrance, L’Oréal, Sanofi, Geopost, Decathlon, BNP Paribas, Air Liquide, Chime Bank, Le Wagon, AD Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, GENKI FOREST, Alibaba Cloud, TikTok, Bilibili, Geoskincare, Wonderlab and other speakers commented on the state of the industry and current opportunities and shared their insights and knowledge.
Founder and President of Cathay Capital, Ming-po CAI
Knowledge can help our entrepreneurs better capture opportunities and avoid risks; knowledge can further empower our team and save them from making detours; knowledge can improve the level of awareness and light up the team; more importantly, knowledge can Help our investors better capture the future of the world.
Keynote: Trust – A journey between Bpifrance & Cathay Capital – Words from Nicolas DUFOURCQ
Nicolas Dufourcq celebrated the longstanding partnership between Cathay and Bpifrance, as well as the personal friendship between Mingpo CAI and himself.
“Congratulations to Cathay Innovation for its ability to see trends which others don’t. Pinduoduo and Chime are prime examples of this ability and considerable contributors to the results of Bpifrance this year.” He also praised Cathay for its much-needed willingness to bridge Europe and China and for the progress it consistently makes in the pursuit of the general interest of both.
Keynote: “The role of giant pharmaceutical companies in today’s world”
Executive Vice President General Medecines of Sanofi, Olivier CHARMEIL
- What are the major trends moving the pharmaceutical industry and first of all the massive increase in strategic importance given to healthcare following the Covid-19 outbreak?
- The limits of healthcare systems were made apparent in this pandemic and the realisation of these failings has initiated a rush toward innovation and efficiency gains such as never before, notably in the fields of telemedicine and population management.
- Mr. Charmeil insists on the importance, not just of data, but of integrating data, which still needs much investment and expertise. Cathay’s ecosystem philosophy with its emphasis on knowledge-sharing and connecting the dots between local realities and global trends is a good guide in the matter.
Panel: “Transforming education in the post-Covid period”
Romain Paillard, CEO of Le Wagon, and Martin CORIAT, General Director of AD Education, shared their experience of the challenges and changes that occurred in the tech education sector in the wake of the pandemic crisis. As cutting-edge tech actors, distance learning was not an issue technically, but they both underline the importance of maintaining human bonding.
They suggest that the future of education will not be fully online. Although upstream processes such as enrollment, downstream processes such as performance monitoring, and the most theoretical classes can usefully be digitalized, students still seek physical presence or at least live exchanges.
When considering the future of tech, they observe that it will be difficult for Europe to compete with American and Chinese investments and that it must consequently aim for greater creativity for instance in the conception of a new education model focused on new technologies and the most optimal methods for the transmission of knowledge.
Fireside Talk: “Beyond the covid hill”
Denis Barrier, co-founder and CEO of Cathay Innovation, and Stanislas Chevalet, Deputy CEO at BNP Paribas Cardif, explore the limits to digitalization. Mr Chevalet argues that some business processes are better carried out by humans and that some companies may be over digitalizing.
Mr Chevalet recommands muscling up businesses’ human potential at the same time as we progress towards a more digital economy and way of life, in a way compensating digitalization with increased weight given to human factors. This evolution will be accompanied by an explosion of the 19th and 20th centuries’ company model toward a platform-based management paradigm.
With regards to corporate impact, Stanislas Chevalet suggests that, in the next decade or so, consensual measures will be found and adopted. And that these new norms will add a layer to investors’ panel of indicators ranging from revenues and margins to net results and now sustainability measurements.
CEO of Chime, Chris BRITT
I met the Cathay team for the first time in the summer of 2017. At that time, we were seeking a Series B financing. Cathay obliged and led this investment for Chime. Since then, we have gradually established a meaningful relationship founded on trust and cooperation both at a personal and business level. Thanks to the Cathay team for everything they have done for us, for providing us with such a unique platform and opportunity. Cathay has conducted multiple rounds of follow-up investments with Chime, which is crucial to me as CEO. I am extremely proud of our cooperative relationship, and I really look forward to working with Cathay to progress still further in years to come. Thank you for everything you have done for Chime’s great success!
Chairman of Air Liquide (China) Holding Co., Ltd Yuebing LU
“I have been an LP for the past ten years and have participated in countless annual investor conferences. But coming to Cathay’s Conference has a very different feel to it. What is the difference? First, Cathay Capital’s pool of LPs is indeed very different from that of many traditional PE firms. Many of the world’s top multinational companies are represented here. Second, discussing technological innovation and how LPs can contribute with regards to industrial collaboration is central to the Cathay conference and it impresses me very much. When I took over the Board of Directors of Air Liquide China two years ago, the plan was to expand and invest in some innovative projects in China which could be coordinated by Air Liquide. I noted that this would be a difficult undertaking without an excellent GP from which we could learn. It took us more than two years to find this GP, but we finally found it with Cathay Capital.”
Keynote: “Revolutionary transformation in French logistics”
Paul-Marie Chavanne, President of Geopost
Mr. Chavanne overviews the successful transformation of Geopost since 2008 from a transport to a service company and explains how his company prospered when his competitors floundered when faced with the rapid rise of ecommerce.
He also emphasises the need for corporate leaders to consider the worst case scenario, as well as the desired outcome to define business strategies, however unpleasant that may be. He adds that the former often conditions the second as was the case with Geopost.
By recognizing early the lethal threat posed by ecommerce to its business, Geopost was indeed able to redirect its offering accordingly, and in so doing, the ecosystem of actors which composes Geopost reinvented their services and thrived when their competitors fell short of identifying and acting upon the powerful ecommerce trend.
Impact Investing / ESG
Fabien WESSE, Partner of Cathay Capital Private Equity
Denis BARRIER, CEO and co-founder of Cathay Innovation
CATHAY’S FIRST MISSION: BE USEFUL.
Cathay Capital invests in entrepreneurs impacting the world and we work together to foster changes towards a more sustainable world, through knowledge sharing, global collaboration & technology
Fabrice MEGARBANE, CEO of L’Oréal China
“The success of a product or enterprise lies in openness. As a global group, L’Oréal has always been open to the ecosystem. Now in China, we have also established a close relationship with Cathay Capital, working together with leading companies and supporting start-ups to expand open innovation. We want our development to be beneficial to everyone. Our principle is to create value. I also firmly believe that our development can bring inspiration to the world.”
Co-founder of Cathay Entrepreneur, Head of Cathay Connect & Consult Platform
Arthur YEUNG
“The success of the digital transformation depends on a company’s senior management team’s willingness to ask three questions: Is digital transformation imperative for our company? Are the entry points and steps toward this digital transformation clear? Are there adapted supporting measures to improve the company’s organizational capabilities in this digital transformation?”
China Country Chair of Total S.A.
William ZHAO
“In the past year, we have worked closely with the Cathay team to give full play to Total’s industry accumulation in photovoltaics, energy storage, hydrogen energy and other fields, and invest in some technologies and companies that have the potential to become industry leaders.
We hope to continue to explore more outstanding entrepreneurs, advanced technologies, and innovative business models in various fields of new energy through our cooperation and the synergies built with Cathay. We will contribute jointly and witness the energy transformation of China and of the world.”
North Asia Industrial Director of Decathlon,
Frederic MERLEVEDE
“At Decathlon, innovation serves our values. Decathlon’s value propositions are not limited to retail. Our vision is to facilitate the interconnection of society and people so that they can feel the fun of sports. Our vision is to make innovation serve our vision. We believe Cathay Capital can help us realize this vision.”
Business development director,
Alibaba cloud Andrew YAO
“Every time we enter an industry, we seek to look at things from a different angle. We leverage Alibaba’s digital and business capabilities to empower new industries. When we help companies digitize, we can truly say that we are transforming an industry. We reconsider all processes both technological and business wise with a strong focus on design.”
Co-founder and CEO of Fiture, Tiger TANG
Many people think that Chinese people do not exercise, and many people will say that doing fitness is not profitable, but in fact, China is already the world’s largest and fastest-growing fitness market. The past 20 years have witnessed the complete rise of the Chinese middle class for two decades. The core signs are buying a house and buying a car. After these two things are resolved, they will pay attention to health.”
CEO of Gangtong, Chen Yong
Medifa医疗设备集团CEO Christian KELLER
The next largest industry in China is the “big health industry”. If digital transformation is done, the big health industry will become the No. 1 big industry in Tianzi. The cooperation with Cathay Capital this time is mainly to graft resources. Cathay Capital and we went to Germany and reached a consensus with Medifa last year, allowing German Medifa Medical Equipment Company and Gangtong Medical to cooperate in depth, and give full play to the advantages of both parties:
- After the integration of the resources of the two parties, in the medical gas equipment, it can give full play to the technical advantages of Gangtong Medical and the sales advantages of Medifa in 60 countries around the world, and serve the global medical gas equipment;
- The sales of Medifa’s series of operating beds in China will increase by leaps and bounds;
- The Medifa digital integrated operating room is Chinese.
Chairman of GANGTONG Yong CHEN
CEO medifa healthcare group Christian KELLER
Founder of Genki Forest, Binsen TANG
Genki Forest is using Internet thinking to make products. We first consider what you like to drink. Gross profit is not important, and we will consider last. Everyone thinks that we are fooling around, but in fact this is the standard play of the Internet-is Google considering making money by launching Gmail? He only considered making a big event; when tik tok came out, did it consider making money? He considers it for someone to use. In the first year, we had a sales count as profit. I said don’t count this. First someone drinks it before making a profit. As long as there is word of mouth to spread the product, it will naturally grow. The most important secret to the growth of the Genki Forest this year is the good stuff. The core opportunity is that the opponent doesn’t use us, and if the opponent uses us, we won’t have this opportunity. The most important source of growth is word-of-mouth drive, with more than 80% of new users recommended by others.
Intelligent system expert, researcher of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of the State Key Laboratory of Complex System Management and Control
Feiyue WANG
In whoever makes intelligent management products and organizations must tell me three things: How do you make small data into big data? How do you make big data into small intelligence? How to solve specific problems with precise intelligence and precise knowledge? You told me that your big data was collected, then you must be a lie, because no matter how big the data is in the physical world, it will always be small data. Only by trying various scenarios, the data generated by simulation and calculation experiments is called big data. Big data must be trained into machine learning, deep learning, parallel learning, and small intelligence.
From left to right: Partner of Cathay CarTech Fund John LI; Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Feiyue WANG; Managing Director of Accenture Greater China Chonglong JIANG; Business development director, Alibaba cloud Andrew YAO; Chairman of Allsense Jiantao XIA; Founder and CEO of Bochuangliandong Wei TAO; CMO of Cloundpick Yuewei LI
Leading through change of digital
Chonglong JIANG shared the future trend of digital transformation from the perspective of enterprise service digital transformation. He introduced the five core trends in the “Technology Outlook 2020” released by Accenture this year, and looked at which technologies will change the business operation model and business prospects from the perspective of business transformation.
Yuewei LI shared that convenience stores played an important role during the epidemic. He believes that digital demand is everywhere. Even though it is a very traditional but closely related business entity such as convenience stores, it also needs full digital empowerment.
The wave of the application of global intelligent technology in the industrial field has made Jiantao XIA aware of the importance of digital and intelligent empowerment of industrial production processes. For example, he said: “There are tens of thousands of power plants in China. If the intelligentization of industrial production spreads to all thermal power industries in China in the future , Will bring savings of hundreds of millions of tons of coal to our country. One ton of coal produces 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide, which can reduce pollution on a large scale and make a little contribution to the defense of the blue sky.”
Wei TAO hopes that after the entry of intelligent equipment in the future, digital and unmanned factories can be realized. “This year there are already several unmanned farms doing landing work on the user side. I hope that in the future, the machine will be able to work in the farmland completely in accordance with the standardized planting requirements, and more people will realize the online management process on the back-end algorithm. And we I also believe that technology can truly empower the agricultural planting process and enhance the planting effect.”
“The first impact brought by artificial intelligence is education, and the second is management.” Feiyue WANG humorously described the scenes brought about by digitalization in the future, and the scenes brought about by intelligence. The current management system is the management of grocery stores in the past.
Combined with the Alibaba Cloud Smart Retail sector, Andrew YAO shared his insights into the data-driven restructuring of people, goods, and markets brought about by the intelligent transformation of physical retail. “First of all, we hope to digitize customer business, and after business digitization comes data assetization. , Data is an important asset of an enterprise. I used to think that manpower is a very important asset. Fixed assets are very important assets, but data is also an important asset. How to operate these assets? After data assetization, asset scenarios are needed. In how to use such assets in the scene, the last thing is to say that the scene is intelligent. The intelligent application of these scenes is what enables us to help customers empower.”
From left to right: Investment Director of Cathay Capital Demon SHEN; General Manager of Bilibili Xu WANG; Director of Tik Tok Shanghai Hao ZHANG; Founder of Genki Forest Binsen TANG; Founder of Geoskincare Xiaokun LIU; Founder of Wonderlab Guoxun XIAO
How can social media empower the growth of Chinese consumer brands
Speaking about whether there are still dividends for new brand launches, Xu WANG and Kuan YANG analyzed from the perspective of the platform, and believed that the so-called “dividends” can only be achieved when brands truly pay attention to user needs. Wang Xu said: “The bonus is that everyone can see all the needs of users in the current insight, who can see the needs of everyone in the insight, and is willing to spend time and energy on this. If you just follow and hope to do things simple and easy, maybe everyone will Superficial.” Chen Kuan explained: “It’s not about whether the traffic has a clear dividend, but more about whether the brand has made some periodic iterations based on user needs in this traffic game or traffic strategy. This is more important. “
When the brand launch has become cold figures, is there anyone paying attention to the spirit behind the brand? Xiaokun LIU, the founder of Geoskincare, believes that there is an opportunity to make a brand in the opposite direction. When “everyone begins to pursue figures”, Guoxun XIAO, the founder of Wonderlab, believes that unless his pocket is deep enough to have enough money to continue financing, then Still need to pay attention to the numbers. “We don’t need to look at the income statement, but at least look at the information flow table. Everyone must pay attention to their own figures, and we must be responsible for the figures to be responsible for everyone. This is a market behavior. This process will always be challenging Every company has its own problems, and everyone faces competition. This is where the charm of entrepreneurship or management lies.”
Binsen TANG shared some of his insights in the Chinese consumer market to Cathay’s global ecosystem. He believes that a company cannot be a brand without its original intention and mission; at the same time, if it does not consider the problem from the user’s first perspective, the company must Not long-term; in addition, the proportion of advertising expenses in a company in the entire Chinese consumer goods revenue will become lower and lower, which is a constant trend.