Season 2: Episode 4: WEF Lighthouses — Lessons from the Leaders (Part 1)
This episode begins a special two-part series featuring five companies recognized by the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, a community of industrial sites celebrated for achieving breakthrough performance through scaled digital and AI transformation. These manufacturers span industries from pharmaceuticals and consumer goods to electronics and high-tech production, yet they share a rare distinction: they transformed at a depth and scale significant enough to be named global Lighthouses.
In this first installment, listeners will hear the story behind their journeys. What sparked the need for transformation? What changed inside their organizations? And which themes, decisions, and cultural shifts ultimately propelled them into the world’s highest-performing manufacturing network?
Along the way, we unpack what the Global Lighthouse Network represents, why it exists, how it was formed, and what earning Lighthouse status truly requires. With 201 sites worldwide as of 2025, the GLN has become one of the most influential communities advancing Industry 4.0 and scaling real-world impact across productivity, resilience, sustainability, and talent.
This is the story of the exemplars. The companies proving what’s possible when ambition meets execution, and when digital transformation moves beyond pilots to enterprise-wide results. Episode 4 lays the foundation. Episode 5 delivers the playbook.
Panelists:
Bart Talloen – Executive Fellow at World Economic Forum & Former Johnson & Johnson Executive
Anthony Loy – VP Industrial Digital Transformation Consulting Schneider Electric
Biswaranjan Sen – Global Chief Product Supply Chain Officer at Unilever
Jackie Jung – VP of Global Operations Strategy at Western Digital
Zongchang Liu – Rotating CEO at Foxconn
Top 5 Takeaways:
Benchmarking leads to breakthroughs. Learning from others, internally and externally, and setting bold goals can elevate innovation and fuel transformation.
Business impact fuels digital transformation. While each roadmaps differed, every journey began with a clear business challenge – boosting productivity, enabling sustainability, or strengthening resilience.
Empowered workers become innovators. Bringing people along on the transformation journey helps competencies grow, making the business more competitive, productive, and future-ready.
Common frameworks drive scale. A cohesive enterprise strategy needs common metrics, data models, and shared vocabulary. This standard framework approach enables scale and evolution culturally and structurally.
Proof creates momentum. Turn technical progress into cultural momentum so teams solve problems faster and smarter. Empower your workforce and let their engagement be a talent magnet.
