In Part Two of our special Inside CVC series recapping the CVC Open Innovation Summit in Berlin, the conversation moves from diagnosis to execution.

Episode One explored urgency. Episode Two focuses on alignment.

As Europe faces accelerating technological change, geopolitical pressure, and widening capital gaps, the challenge is no longer awareness. It’s how leaders align capital, institutions, and organizational systems once the direction is clear.

This episode brings together perspectives from SAP, the European Stability Initiative, Roche, PwC, policymakers, and summit leadership to examine why execution breaks down — and what it takes to move from ambition to coordinated action.

The conversation culminates with a look ahead to Miami, where these themes continue at the next CVC Open Innovation Summit.

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In late November, leaders from across Europe gathered in Berlin for the first European edition of the CVC Open Innovation Summit. What emerged was not another debate about whether innovation matters, but a far more urgent question: is Europe actually set up to execute?

In Part 1 of this special two-part Inside CVC series, host Steve Schmith takes listeners inside the Berlin summit to explore why this moment feels different. Corporate investors, policymakers, founders, and ecosystem leaders speak candidly about capital gaps, risk tolerance, regulation, and the growing pressure to move from ambition to action.

Across conversations with summit co-host Philipp Willigmann, German Bundestag Financial Policy Spokesperson Katharina Beck, venture investor Tanja Emmerling, PwC’s Florian Noell, SAP’s Florian Kunzke, Roche’s Caroline Creven-Fourier, and former Inside CVC guest Martin Hüllen, a clear pattern emerges. Europe does not lack ideas or talent. What it struggles with is execution at scale.

This episode explores:

• Why access to capital alone is not enough
• How regulation and policy must keep pace with innovation
• The growing tension between risk-taking and hesitation
• What execution actually looks like inside corporations
• Why human capital, culture, and trust are central to innovation
• And why alignment, not awareness, is now Europe’s binding constraint

Berlin did not produce easy answers. Instead, it surfaced the hard work still ahead.

In Part 2, the conversation turns forward—into AI, sovereignty, policy alignment, and what real collaboration must become if insight is going to turn into action.

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Europe once led the world in autonomous driving. Massive public investment. Breakthrough demonstrations. Real vehicles on real highways long before autonomy was mainstream.

So what happened?

In this episode of Inside CVC, we sit down with Christian to unpack the rise, stall, and potential resurgence of autonomy in Europe. Drawing from decades of experience across research labs, OEMs, and boardrooms, Christian explains why Europe’s challenge isn’t technology. It’s culture, regulation, and execution.

You’ll hear how early European leadership gave way to faster deployment in the U.S., why China’s “progress over perfection” mindset changed the global pace of innovation, and how fragmented regulation slowed momentum across the EU. We also explore the growing gap between hardware-centric automotive cultures and agile software development, and why autonomy is no longer about cars, but autonomous systems across industries.

This conversation goes beyond autonomy. It’s about trust, talent, and the courage to deploy innovation before perfection.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why Europe led early in autonomy and why it lost momentum
• How U.S. and Chinese regulatory models accelerated deployment
• The cultural clash between automotive hardware and agile software teams
• Why autonomy is evolving into broader autonomous systems
• What Europe needs to rebuild trust, talent, and speed

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In this episode of Inside CVC, Steve and Philipp sit down with Jen Randle, co-founder of SGNL, a strategic advisory and content firm known for helping leaders communicate with clarity, coherence, and purpose. Jen has spent her career advising executives, founders, and institutions on how to build trust by aligning what they say with what they do. Her work at SGNL focuses on narrative clarity, strategic storytelling, and the deeper system dynamics that shape leadership and culture.

Jen introduces a simple but powerful idea. Congruency is the new credibility. When the inside matches the outside, trust grows. When it doesn’t, trust erodes. And that erosion shows up everywhere including valuation, culture, M&A integration, AI adoption, ESG strategy, customer loyalty, and even a company’s license to operate.

Listeners will hear:
• Why trust should be treated like an asset on the balance sheet
• How congruency breaks and what it costs
• Why greenwashing is a failure of alignment rather than messaging
• How ESG becomes stewardship when leaders think long term
• Why M&A deals collapse when trust mapping is ignored
• How innovators earn public trust in AI, robotics, and new industrial technologies
• What leaders can ask themselves right now to find where trust is fracturing

This is a conversation for anyone building innovation portfolios, running CVC programs, merging cultures, navigating public scrutiny, or operating in markets where the permission to move fast must be earned daily.

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Engineer, board director, and Shifting Gears author Kristin Slanina joins Inside CVC for a candid conversation on what it really takes to lead transformation in an industry that’s been “five years away” from disruption for more than a decade.

Kristin shares how discomfort became one of her greatest teachers, what she learned building Ford’s original Blueprint for Mobility, and why electric and autonomous vehicles will only scale when leadership mindsets change as fast as the technology. She also takes us inside her work on EV adoption, boardroom blind spots, and the bold choices that have shaped her own career.

Listeners will hear:

• How discomfort shapes stronger leaders and why Kristin sees self-trust as a superpower
• Why EV adoption still struggles and what she uncovered during the Charge Across America rally
• The real gap between boardroom assumptions and the everyday mobility experience
• How leaders can future-proof their companies by getting back to the front lines and embracing innovation

Buy Kristin's book here: Shifting Gears: 7 Power Moves to Design a Life You Love, Grow Your Career, and Lead With Impact

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Innovation inside large companies often runs on instinct, scattered pilots, and wishful thinking. Yaron Flint joins us to explain why so many corporates still lack a true playbook — and how a more structured approach can turn chaos into clarity.

Listeners will hear Yaron discuss:

• Why he wrote Innovative Business Development and the gap he saw across global organizations.
• The four pathways for bringing innovation into a company — and why partnership remains the most underused.
• How competitor-to-competitor collaboration can actually accelerate maturity.
• The fragmentation of CVC in Europe and what it takes to build strategy-driven venture programs.

We also explore leadership blind spots, the tension between long-term innovation and short-term markets, the slowdown and reset of the “future of mobility,” and what executives should prioritize as they build the next decade of innovation inside their companies.

Buy Yaron's book here: Innovative Business Development: Implementing Transformation from Within

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In this episode, Philipp Mueller, Vice President, Public Sector at DriveLock and Co-Founder of the European Resilience Summit Series, joins Inside CVC to explore why resilience — not sovereignty — is becoming Europe’s defining strategy in an age of constant disruption.

He shares how leaders can rethink governance, investment, and collaboration around adaptation and trust rather than borders and control. Philipp, Steve, and Philipp Willigmann discuss:

• How resilience shifts from a defensive posture to an enabling mindset
• Why “flows, not borders” defines the new logic of global management
• The four pillars of European resilience and what they mean for business
• The role of corporate leaders as ethical guardrails amid rising division

In a world defined by disruption, what if resilience — not sovereignty — were the true measure of strength?

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In this episode of Inside CVC, hosts Steve Schmith and Philipp Willigmann speak with Andy Binns, co-founder and Managing Director of Change Logic, and co-author of Corporate Explorer and the forthcoming Corporate Explorer Fieldbook. Andy has spent his career helping CEOs, boards, and innovation leaders at companies like Analog Devices, RELX, and UNIQA Insurance build new growth businesses while sustaining the core.

Listeners will hear:

• Why most corporations fail to scale innovation—the “sixteen-percent problem”
• How boards and CEOs can rethink governance and incentives to unlock real growth
• What it takes to build an ambidextrous organization capable of exploring and executing at once
• Lessons from Europe’s Mittelstand and what large enterprises can learn from them
• Why embracing uncertainty and saying “I don’t know” may be the smartest move a leader can make

Buy Andy's books here: Corporate Explorer: How Corporations Beat Startups at the Innovation Game and Corporate Explorer Fieldbook: How to Build New Ventures In Established Companies

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Catch up on all episodes of Inside CVC at www.u-path.com/podcast.