Guest: Casey Lau, EVP at Web Summit and Co-founder of Startups HK

Casey Lau has spent close to 30 years in Hong Kong building community at the intersection of startups, tech, and global innovation. As EVP at Web Summit — which runs flagship events in Lisbon, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, and Doha — he has a rare vantage point on tech ecosystems around the world. He is also co-founder of Startups HK, a pillar of the startup community in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

In this episode Casey joins Renee and Chris fresh from a month-long tech tour across five Chinese cities — Shenzhen, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai — his first time back on the mainland since before the pandemic.

What we cover:

Casey's global view from Web Summit — why the only race that really matters right now is US versus China, and why Europe is watching from the sidelines

What shocked Casey most about returning to China in 2026 — from frictionless payments to the sheer pace of change on the ground

Inside the Geely/Zeekr factory — a dark factory the size of a city block with 1,000 people doing last-mile work while robots assemble cars that were ordered online just days earlier

China's generative video AI scene — why MiniMax, Seedance, Kling, and Alibaba's Happy Horse are the models people aren't talking about enough in the West

Pop Mart Land in Beijing — why Casey thinks Labubu has barely scratched the surface globally, and what a full-scale Pop Mart theme park looks like in practice

The F&B wave coming West — Heytea, Mixue, Luckin, and why Luckin buying Blue Bottle could spell real trouble for Starbucks

Why China is forward-looking and the West is backward-looking — and what that means for the pace of innovation and adoption

Chinamaxxing — why everyone at Web Summit Lisbon wanted to talk about China, and what the cultural shift toward Chinese brands, food, and culture means for global commerce

The one through line across every category Casey visited: speed of iteration that no one else in the world can match

Dr. Sumit Mitra is CEO of Tesco Business Solutions and Tesco India, overseeing a team that spans payroll and finance to AI, property, supply chain, and customer contact — serving 90 million shopping trips a week.

In this episode he gives us an inside look at how Tesco is applying AI across the business, what's actually delivering results, and what India's retail revolution is signalling for the rest of the world.

We cover:

• What Tesco Business Solutions actually does — and why the CEO calls it Tesco's key competitive differentiator
• How Tesco structures AI into three buckets and why prioritisation matters more than technology
• The 50K / 60-day rule: how they cut failing projects before ego gets in the way
• Real AI use cases delivering triple-digit million returns in cash flow and personalisation
• Why AI for operations means reimagining the whole process, not automating a step
• India's leap from kirana stores straight to quick commerce — and what's driving it
• Whoosh, Tesco's 30-minute delivery service, already a £400M business
• Omnisol: how Tesco is now taking its proprietary AI tools to market for other retailers

Guest: Dr. Sumit Mitra, CEO, Tesco Business Solutions & Tesco India Hosts: Renee Hartmann & Chris Baker

Most companies are pretty good at writing strategies. Far fewer are good at executing them. That gap — and what to do about it — is exactly what Kevin Ertell has spent his career studying, and now he's written the book on it.

Kevin brings a rare perspective to this conversation. He started as a clerk at Tower Records and worked his way up to Senior Vice President over 20 years. From there he held senior roles at Borders, Sur La Table, and Nike, where he led digital and retail operations globally. He has seen strategy succeed and fail at every level of an organisation.

His new book, The Strategy Trap: Why Companies Fail at Execution and How to Get It Right, lays out a six-part framework he calls the Six Cs, built around two phases: setting the stage (co-creation, clarity, capacity) and showtime (communication, coordination, coaching).

In this episode Kevin, Chris and Renee dig into why execution breaks down, what leaders consistently get wrong, and why the first step of execution is actually writing the strategy itself. They also get into the role of outside consultants, how OKRs done right can transform alignment, and why stack ranking priorities beats high-medium-low every time.

Plus the NASA janitor story. You'll want to hear that one.

Key takeaways:

• Strategy writing is the first step of execution, not a precursor to it
• Co-creation drives commitment — the IKEA effect is real
• Capacity has to be created before a strategy is launched, not found along the way
• Communication should be early, loud, and continuous
• The bigger the organisation, the more structured the approach needs to be — but smaller organisations need it too

The Strategy Trap is available now on Amazon.

What does it take to turn around 12 supermarkets during a COVID lockdown? Or build a centralized logistics operation under economic sanctions? João Correia has spent 25 years solving retail operations challenges across four continents—from Ghanaian supermarkets to Iranian department stores to Paraguayan wholesale operations.

In this episode, João shares hard-won lessons about what actually drives store performance: it's not the latest AI tool, it's disciplined execution of operational fundamentals. We discuss stock visibility challenges when supply chains stretch three months, why real-time store performance matters more than post-visit surveys, and how technology should remove friction—not create it.

Key Topics:

• Why operational excellence is becoming a competitive advantage while competitors chase AI
• The critical difference between reported experience and real experience on the shop floor
• How to implement technology in resource-constrained environments (and what that teaches us about priorities)
• Store execution fundamentals that work across markets: expiry date management, standards compliance, workflow efficiency
• Change management lessons from converting stores, building logistics networks, and implementing new systems across different cultures
• The role of technology in empowering frontline teams vs. replacing them

Guest Bio:

João Correia is a retail operations veteran with nearly 30 years of experience across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. He's led turnarounds, store conversions, and logistics operations for retailers including SPAR, Primark, and Media Markt. His experience spans grocery retail, hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, and wholesale operations in markets including Portugal, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Iran, Malta, and Paraguay.

Key Quotes:

"AI and all the tech tools that are there come to improve the ecosystem in a way that they remove all the friction and give people the tools to provide a better service."

"You might have the best product, you might have the best stores, you might have the best decor in the stores. Everything fails if the human factor doesn't deliver."

"Retail is process. Retail is discipline. The truth happens on the floor—where real experience occurs."

"Back to the basics will be a competitive advantage in the future, in my opinion."

In this episode of Commerce Beyond Borders, we go deep into what actually works in social commerce today — and what doesn’t.

From London, former Meta & TikTok executive Dave Morrissey joins Renee (in Portugal) and Chris (in Shanghai) for a candid conversation about live shopping, the role of creators, why most brands are doing content wrong — and what the smartest brands are already doing next.

• Live shopping is not the answer for everyone — and most brands are doing it wrong.

• The TikTok Shop winners are founder-led, community-first brands.

• Why 40+ videos a month is becoming the new baseline for e-commerce success.

• AI should power creativity — not replace it.

• The rise of video search and why TikTok is quietly becoming a rival to Google.

• TikTok Shop: do you need affiliates, creators, paid ads… or all three?

• The secret moat now? 👉 Doing the hard things your competitors won’t.

“Content is the game. The algorithms will do the delivery. Your only job is to get great at content.”

00:00 – Introductions across Portugal, Shanghai & London 04:00 – From music industry → Meta → TikTok Shop 09:45 – Live shopping: what’s working & what isn’t 16:30 – Why discount-led TikTok strategies are dangerous 22:10 – Content at scale: how brands should build it 28:00 – The role of AI — and where it shouldn’t be used 34:20 – Affiliates vs creators: who actually drives sales? 41:10 – TikTok as a search engine 46:30 – What Western brands can learn from China 52:00 – The principle that doesn’t change: be real, be useful

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts 🎧 Subscribe to Commerce Beyond Borders for global perspectives on the future of retail & commerce.

Palmstreet is building what they call the world’s online “Main Street”—and the engagement is wild. In this episode, Chen Li (Founder & CEO, Palmstreet) joins Renee and Chris to unpack the metrics behind their growth: shoppers spend an average of 2.5 hours per day on the app, first-year buyers make ~50–55 purchases, and a $26,000 plant sold live shows how trust plus logistics unlock high-ticket conversions.

We dig into the formula—entertainment + community + trust + operations—and how Palmstreet productized the “unsexy” bits (shipping, weather checks, protection) to turn livestreams into a dependable channel. Chen also shares which categories win, why repeat purchase frequency matters, and what’s next (hint: beauty is heating up).

• 2.5 hours/day average time spent per shopper

• ~50–55 purchases in year one (per shopper)

• 95% shipped / 5% local; typical U.S. shipping $8–$18

• Platform trust & logistics: even weather checks pre-ship

• $26,000 plant sold live—proof that confidence converts

• Category patterns: uniqueness, repeat purchase, and showmanship

• Why brands think livestream “doesn’t work” (and how to fix it)

• The origin story: from plant ID app to live shopping marketplace

• “Shop for the drop, stay for the vibes”: community as a growth engine

• What actually entertains in a live: hosts, education, and the hunt

• The operations layer that makes live shopping repeatable

• Winning categories now (plants, handmade, vintage) and next (beauty)

• Building trust fast if you’re a new brand (and when to borrow it via creators)

• The TikTok question: coexistence vs. competition

• Shipping reality in North America—and how it shapes category fit

• “On average, a shopper spends two and a half hours a day on Palmstreet.”

• “Our users make 50–55 purchases in their first year.”

• “We sold a $26,000 plant live.”

• “Live is entertainment first—but operations make it scalable.”

Palmstreet is the online Main Street for plants, handmade, vintage, and unique goods, connecting passionate buyers with charismatic sellers through live shopping.

Chen Li — Founder & CEO, Palmstreet

Renee Hartmann & Chris Baker, Commerce Beyond Borders