Event also featured Former Prime Minister Sir
Tony Blair and Survival Expert Bear
Grylls
LONDON, Oct. 2, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Prologis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD), the global leader
in logistics real estate, today hosted its fourth annual
GROUNDBREAKERS thought leadership forum in London. GROUNDBREAKERS 2024 featured
trailblazers including FedEx Chairman Fred Smith, former UK Prime Minister Sir
Tony Blair and Survival Expert
Bear Grylls.
Prologis Co-founder, Chairman and CEO Hamid R. Moghadam was joined by FedEx
Founder and Executive Chairman Fred
Smith for the event's opening keynote. The two founders
discussed technology's influence on geo-economic trends and how
their companies are integrating artificial intelligence (AI).
"Manufacturing of basic items is not going to be re-introduced
into the West unless robotics is introduced and changes the game,"
Smith said.
Moghadam said the success of AI is dependent on digitizing
massive amounts of data: "The most important thing is digitizing
data. If you do not have data, no amount of AI can help you in any
way. Most people skip that first step."
Both leaders agreed fostering a culture of innovation is key to
attracting the right talent and delivering on customer
expectation.
"Culture is the only form of sustainable competitive advantage,"
said Moghadam. "If you explain the why to people, not only will
they sign on, but they will figure out a better way to get
there."
Smith added, "Most companies try to catch people doing something
wrong – our culture, we try to catch people doing something
right."
Panel Highlights:
The Next Normal: The Future of Delivery
Prologis
President Dan Letter engaged Dr. Stephen Peters, member of the Board of
Management at Rhenus Group, Patrick
Hertzke, partner at McKinsey Automotive Practice, and
Alex Coates, president at
Airspace, in a conversation about how consumer expectations and new
technologies are changing the world of delivery.
"It's honestly exciting when you think about what AI and data
analytics can do to improve or optimize the infrastructure that we
have around delivery," said Coates. "Can we squeeze more efficiency
out of today's infrastructure to get that right product to that
right person at the right time?"
Fashion Forward: Everyone is Unique
Vogue Business
Editor Kirsty McGregor sat
down with Paolo Zannoni,
executive deputy chairman at Prada, and Andy Ruben, founder and executive chairman
at Trove, to explore trends and innovations disrupting the fashion
industry.
Zannoni said consumers' expectations are changing – and creating
complexity for his company and the industry: "We are facing the
change from the way traditional customers shopped for luxury, even
in the luxury group business. What is making our job more complex
is that we have different cohorts – different cohorts are looking
for different experiences."
Better Health Through Innovation and Design
Healthcare
experts came together to examine how innovation in the supply chain
is impacting patient health and outcomes. Naomi Grimley, senior communications lead at
Oxford's Ellison Institute of Technology moderated a panel with
Dr. Josh Makower, the Byers
Family director and co-founder of the Stanford Mussallem Center for
Biodesign, Dr. Kristin-Anne
Rutter, executive director at Cambridge University Health Partners, and
Peter Skillman, global head
of design at Philips.
On the topic of automation, Rutter said: "There needs to be a
lot coming in the automation space because of the healthcare
industries coming onto this are so inefficient on how they manage
process and manage patients through the systems. If we want to have
sustainable healthcare systems, we're going to have to automate
both the AI and robotics that we heard about."
Energy Forward: Partnerships, Democratization and
Digitization
Prologis Chief Energy and Sustainability
Officer Susan
Uthayakumar connected with Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman at Schneider
Electric, Toby Ferenczi,
founder and CEO at Granular Energy, and Amund Vik, senior advisor at Eurasia Group.
The energy experts focused on driving electrification,
decarbonization and profitable business outcomes.
"At the core of energy, there are two contradictory but
essential challenges: progress and sustainability," said Tricoire.
"In the next 25 years, we have to provide energy to five billion
more people on the planet. At the same time, we must reduce
emissions by a factor of two."
Ferenczi commented: "With deployment of clean energy, the price
of electricity at certain times of the day is negative. That means
businesses can be paid to consume energy, and we need a total
rethink of what we mean by energy efficiency. It's not only about
reducing consumption but how we participate as a system of
connected energy networks."
Additional panels explored racing, endurance and adaptability,
and AI.
Watch the GROUNDBREAKERS 2024 Replay
Hundreds gathered
in-person, and thousands virtually, for the forum, which included
additional LinkedIn Live half-time and post-show commentary. All
sessions from GROUNDBREAKERS 2024 are available to stream on-demand
here.
GROUNDBREAKERS 2025 will be held on Oct.
2, 2025, in Los
Angeles.
ABOUT PROLOGIS
Prologis, Inc. is the global leader in
logistics real estate with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth
markets. At June 30, 2024, the
company owned or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or
through co-investment ventures, properties and development projects
expected to total approximately 1.2 billion square feet (115
million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern
logistics facilities to a diverse base of approximately 6,700
customers principally across two major categories:
business-to-business and retail/online fulfillment.
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SOURCE Prologis, Inc.