Cyril Bouquet
Cyril Bouquet is Professor of Strategy and Innovation. An award-winning researcher and teacher, he specializes in helping organizations and executives tackle complex challenges through innovation and creativity and supporting them with their transition journeys as they seek to create change and deliver progress for society.
Projects he has recently taken on include helping Nestlé to achieve its carbon neutrality objectives, working with O-I Glass to define the company’s ambition and advance its sustainability agenda, rethinking the banking experience with UBS and UBP, and re-imagining the future of women’s football with UEFA and the International Olympic Committee.
I believe everybody can be creative. We have what it takes in our heads and our hearts to achieve extraordinary outcomes, but people need the right stimulus to be able to achieve their true potential. That is the motivation for my work.
At IMD, Bouquet has pioneered a “mega dive” approach which involves working with large groups of people across an organization to ensure they become one united force capable of embracing the future together. Most recently, he has deployed this method in his work with 700 top executives at Maersk, helping the company to adapt quickly to changing environments and shifting customer demands as it evolves from being a shipping company to becoming a provider of integrated logistics solutions. He is also Director of IMD’s Innovation in Action program.
Similarly, when the French authorities announced plans to merge train operator SNCF with rail network owner RFF, Bouquet designed and delivered a pivotal meeting for the top 650 leaders aimed at helping transform the combined businesses into a new entity in which they could all take pride. The approach has been successfully implemented on several other IMD custom programs for individual businesses, including EDF and Stora Enso.
Bouquet also has a keen interest in technology and has supported tech companies such as Cisco, SAP, and Liberty Media. He has created a start-up and collaboration platform called Augmented Tribe which helps executive teams learn on the go and connect with experts whilst solving practical problems. In addition, he is part of the IMD faculty team that launched the TransformTECH program in collaboration with École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) to help senior leaders learn how new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, and the Internet of Things are transforming the world of business.
Articles based on his research have been published in prestigious academic journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. He also serves on the editorial board of California Management Review.
Bouquet is co-author of the 2021 book on innovation and creativity ALIEN Thinking: How to Bring Your Breakthrough Ideas to Life. His 2005 book Building Global Mindsets: An Attention-Based Perspective was based on his PhD thesis, which won the Academy of International Business Richard Farmer Award for best doctoral dissertation in the field.
He joined IMD in 2008 after serving for five years as Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.
