REWIRING GROWTH & MARKETING STRATEGY – DOHA EDITION
C-suite leadership roundtable | DOHA, May 19, 2026
How can GCC marketers resume growth in a world that no longer plays by the old rules?
Consumer
What are they actually looking for—and what have they stopped valuing?
Brands
How does brand communication accelerate recovery and rebuild confidence?
Strategy
Where does marketing sit when growth is engineered between state and market?
For GCC marketers, the core question is no longer how to optimize a plan — it is how to adapt a plan that was built for a different world.
WHY DOHA
Doha sits at the intersection of sovereign-led economic strategy, private sector expansion and regional diversification— one of the few markets where state priorities and commercial ambition operate in the same room. That tension is exactly what this conversation is about.
THE ROUNDTABLE
RECOVERY MARKETING. How can brands adapt their marketing to a new economic landscape — and help rebuild confidence with consumers, global stakeholders and the state? A closed-door, Chatham House dialogue between 30–40 senior leaders from across the GCC, convened in Doha.
WHO'S IN THE ROOM
• Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors
• Chief Marketing Officers and Marketing Directors
• Sovereign-linked economic stakeholders
• Strategic transformation and investment leaders
Hosted By Communicate & Produced By Special Edition (SE)
AGENDA
09:00 – Arrivals & private welcome for invited CEOs, CMOs and sovereign stakeholders.
10:00 – Workshop: Avoiding Group Think. Led by Anand Vengurlekar (ex-IDEO, SONY, Samsung, LEGO; INSEAD. A Doha first.)
13:00 – Lunch. Curated networking;
14:30 – The Roundtable: Recovery Marketing— adapting brand communication to the new landscape.
17:30 – Cocktail & close. Off-record conversations.
WORKSHOP
In this workshop, we analyze a video recreation of the fateful go/no-go meeting between NASA managers and technical specialists. The footage exposes the severe communication breakdowns and misaligned priorities among different stakeholders. For marketing strategists, brand directors, and agency leaders, these team dynamics will feel painfully familiar to a typical campaign planning session.
Group think occurs when the desire for consensus overrides critical analysis, leading a group to agree on a flawed choice. This phenomenon is especially prevalent within close-knit teams that share a strong familial culture and lack objective external criteria.
The workshop concludes by providing actionable checklists for your strategy process. These frameworks help GCC marketers and leaders foster divergent thinking, eliminate blind consensus, and ensure every strategic choice rests on a sound, data-driven foundation.
Facilitated by Anand Vengurlekar, Strategic design thinking advisor to C-suites
• 20+ years at IDEO, SONY, Samsung & LEGO
• Former Chief of Communications & Branding, INSEAD
• Speaker at the arab luxury world, Top CEO Conference and Awards
