GlobalPETS Forum 2016 | Think like a leader, act like a leader

Expanded concept

First of all, for the first time this year, the concept of the GlobalPETS Forum was expanded to also include the Wednesday afternoon. We offered attendees two options for the Wednesday afternoon: The first option was to find out more about the French retail industry by going on a retail tour, which was organised and sponsored by Zolux. The second option was to participate in the workshop of the GlobalPETS Academy under the inspiring guidance of last year’s GlobalPETS Forum speaker Tendayi Viki. In this workshop people worked hard at generating creative business ideas and how to turn them into real business opportunities.

On Wednesday evening, all guests were invited to the informal get-together, which was sponsored by the Karlie Group. In a wonderful setting with food, music and a ‘wine casino’, the first business contacts between the attendees were made.

How to become an executive leader?

If you want to be more than the average manager and guide your company successfully through a world full of change, which unlike in the past have disrupted existing business models. This means that you have to be motivated to introduce change in a constant process. Dare to step out of your comfort zone, stay focussed and know what your vision is. That way you will achieve the changes with your team and make the needed change happen. GlobalPETS Forum 2016 Think like a leader, act like a leader From 20 to 22 January 2016, the 17th edition of the GlobalPETS Forum took place in Nice, France. We look back at a successful event.

But to successfully guide your team you first have to establish what type of leader you are. What is your internal driver? The participants learned about their own internal drivers. People’s characters can generally be divided into seven different categories, each represented by a colour. We all have characteristics of each of the seven colours, but only one or two colours are dominant. GlobalPETS Forum attendees learned what happens when people with different or similar character profiles have to work together. This gave them insight into building effective teams and sparked some quite interesting discussions during the remainder of the conference!

Winning teams

Once you have established who you are as a leader, you will not become successful automatically. Therefore, we paid attention to what makes a winning team. What are the characteristics of a winning team? It is not about your innate habits but about improving yourself constantly. It is about going off the beaten track in order to turn ideas into action and, above all, always thinking in a positive way rather than focusing on the negative sides of potential events.

Creativity is key to being able to think outside the box and face changes with an open mind. That is what Chris Griffiths showed and taught us. Through simple exercises, he gave the attendees insight into the potential of creative thinking. His key point: ‘Everything is possible’. Don’t listen too much to your clients, and try to break their assumptions!

GlobalPETS Forum Award 2016: Valta Pet Products | Russia

Each year, the GlobalPETS Forum Award is presented to a company for demonstrating exceptional performance in relation to the topic of that year’s GlobalPETS Forum theme. This year’s topic is ‘leadership’. Russian company Valta Pet Products has proved that leadership makes a strategic difference for a company. Their leadership motto is: ‘Leadership is an art, a lifestyle, the synergy of mind, soul and heart’. That describes to a tee how leadership is different from being a good manager!

10 and 15 years loyal visitors

GlobalPETS Forum is putting the spotlight on participants who have attended the conference for the 10th or 15th time. During the 17th edition of the GlobalPETS Forum we welcomed four new attendees to this prestigious ‘club of jubilees’. This year: Sigve Arentsen | Damolin, Henriette Bylling | Aller Petfood, Paul van der Raad | Vital Petfood Group, and Per Lausen | Eldorado.