Season 2: Episode 4: WEF Lighthouses — Lessons from the Leaders (Part 2)
This episode wraps up our special two-part series featuring five extraordinary companies recognized by the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network, the 201 industrial sites worldwide that have proven what scaled digital transformation can achieve. In Episode 4, we explored their journeys: why they transformed, what changed inside their organizations, and the breakthrough results that earned them Lighthouse status.
In this installment, we unpack the decisions, leadership choices, and operating models that made their success possible. You’ll hear how these five very different companies (across industries, geographies, and maturity levels) made bold calls, aligned their people, governed transformation, and moved beyond pilots to real enterprise scale.
Their stories reveal clear patterns: clarity before action, operations leading the charge, external benchmarking, blockbuster proof points, disciplined scaling, and a relentless focus on people.
Most importantly, Episode 5 distills their lessons into actionable guidance for any manufacturer, whether you’re pursuing Lighthouse designation or simply trying to build your own internal Lighthouse capabilities.
Episode 4 told the “what” and “why.”
Episode 5 delivers the “how.”
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:
Start with business truth—not technology. Transformation begins with a real business problem, a defined value target, and a willingness to challenge assumptions. Once you align internally, technology will follow.
Build for scale from the start. Our Lighthouse leaders didn’t chase pilots, they built governance models, operating processes, and systems designed to scale what works and stop what doesn’t. Progress isn’t accidental, it’s engineered.
Transformation is a people sport. Bring your team along on your transformation journey. If you empower and inspire the people closest to the work, they will look for areas to improve and do so in a more committed and engaged way.
Uncover your own best practices. Each organization succeeded by aligning patterns to their own culture, ambition, and challenges. Lighthouse excellence comes from decisive choices, disciplined execution, and practicing rigor every day.
Start acting like a Lighthouse with CESMII’s help! The CESMII Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Roadmap Framework provides a blueprint to guide your journey. Get started today with the CESMII roadmap program and tools.
