Growth Forum 2025: Integrating Growth Strategy, Psychology, and Mindfulness for the AI Era

On October 31, 2025, executives and strategists from across Thailand’s business community gathered at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok for "Growth Forum 2025: Rise Like a Phoenix." an event focused on shaping future growth strategy.

Organized by Harbour.Space Institute of Technology @UTCC, with Techsauce as an ecosystem partner, the afternoon event focused on addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing leaders today. The forum offered practical insights for navigating rapid digital transformation, decoding complex consumer psychology, and developing effective growth strategies.

The afternoon was packed with insightful workshops from world-class leaders, focusing on actionable strategies for innovation and leadership. The day's formal sessions later transitioned into an evening of networking, allowing attendees to continue their discussions and build new connections.

Highlight Session: Leveraging Consumer Psychology

Later in the afternoon, attendees gathered for a fascinating workshop with Gary van Broekhoven, an internationally acclaimed Consumer Psychologist. His session, "How Global Brands Are Leveraging Consumer Psychology to Gain an Unfair Advantage," kicked off by challenging a core assumption of the big-data era.

Van Broekhoven posed a compelling question: In a world with terabytes of customer data, why do so many product launches still fail? His answer was simple: businesses are experts on what customers do, but they are critically blind to the why—the deep, often irrational, human story behind a purchase.

Instead of more data, he offered a simpler, more powerful tool: genuine conversation. He introduced his actionable GRAMS framework, a model built on five key conversational blocks: Goal, Reality, Alternatives, Meaning, and Struggles.

He explained that this isn't a rigid survey but a flexible guide to understanding a person's true motivations. The session then shifted from theory to practice, as attendees paired up to test the framework themselves. The live exercise proved Van Broekhoven's central point: this guided, conversational method is a highly effective, low-cost tool for de-risking strategy. It functions by building the trust necessary to elicit deep customer insights that data alone cannot provide.

Highlight Session: Charting a Path Through the Chaos

In the session, "Building Tech Amidst Chaos," Sumeet Ahuja, Founder and CEO of Evoque Impact, set the stage by diagnosing the "chaos" leaders feel—a combination of rapid tech disruption, economic shifts, and deep-seated demographic changes.

He framed the central challenge for Thai leaders as a strategic choice: "Technology Creation vs. Technology Application." He argued that while it's tempting to chase the Silicon Valley model of creating new, fundamental tech, the more immediate and powerful path to prosperity lies in mastering the application of existing technologies to solve specific, local problems.

To illustrate this path, Ahuja introduced his concentric circle framework for scaling.

1. He advised leaders to begin at the local level, focusing intensely on applying technology to solve hyperlocal needs and build a proven, prosperous model.
2. From that strong foundation, the next step is regional, expanding that successful application into adjacent markets.
3. Only then, he argued, should leaders pursue a global strategy. At this stage, the game changes completely, demanding a new focus on creation and the ability to withstand the "no-mercy" validation of international markets.

Ahuja's key takeaway was for leaders to apply this framework to Thailand's unique strengths. He urged them to move beyond chasing trends and instead focus this "application-first" model on the industries where Thailand already has a powerful edge—such as logistics, healthcare, and high-value tourism—as the most practical path to building a sustainable tech economy.

Highlight Session: Mindfulness Leadership in the Age of AI

As the forum's final speaker, Dr. Nattavut Kulnides, Founder and CEO of ADGES, delivered a powerful closing session, "Mindfulness Leadership in the Age of AI." He grounded the day's focus on technology by addressing its often-overlooked human cost: the "cost of speed."

Sharing his own personal journey with burnout, Dr. Nattavut argued that the primary challenge of AI adoption isn't technical. He cited stark statistics that 70% of AI projects fail due to human factors, not faulty algorithms. The true bottleneck, he explained, is human reactivity, bias, and burnout.

His core message was that AI acts as a powerful "amplifier." A leader who is scattered, stressed, and reactive will simply use AI to make "fast mistakes at scale," creating efficient chaos. Therefore, he argued, the most critical investment leaders can make is not just in new tech, but in upgrading their own "human operating system."

He framed the solution as the need to balance Artificial Intelligence (AI) with "Awareness Intelligence (AQ)." This "AQ" is the leader's ability to remain present, clear, and intentional. Rather than just a wellness nice-to-have, he presented mindfulness as a core competency for modern leadership. He shared neuroscience-backed practices designed to help leaders shift from a state of short-term, reactive decision-making to a more strategic, conscious, and human-centric mindset—a mindset, he concluded, that is essential to truly harness the potential of AI without being consumed by it.

A Toolkit for Modern Leadership

As the formal sessions wrapped up and conversations spilled over into the evening networking reception, the connecting thread of the Growth Forum 2025 came into focus. The event had successfully integrated three critical, often separate, domains: high-level strategy, deep human insight, and the internal discipline of leadership,

The attendees, largely senior executives and business owners, left with more than just a set of new frameworks. The day's discussions provided a clear, integrated perspective: that sustainable growth is no longer just about having the right strategy, but about fostering the right awareness—both of the customer and of oneself.