Portuguese and multinational companies sign up to the Lisbon Principles to prepare management in the AI era

Eighteen leading Portuguese and multinational companies, some of which are included in the Fortune Global 500 – such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Fujitsu, Sanofi, and Accenture, among others – signed the Lisbon Principles for Value Creation during the Management Summit 2025, which took place this week in Lisbon.

These are a set of values that guide business leaders to the challenges of the future, at a time when Artificial Intelligence redefines business and management functions.

The Lisbon Principles offer a practical solution to avoid becoming irrelevant through three basic principles:

Creating value for the client instead of pursuing immediate profits;
Autonomous skills networks instead of rigid top-down hierarchies;
Adaptive mentalities and interactions instead of mechanised processes.

“Companies that align management with sustainable value creation grow more, innovate faster, and keep their teams more motivated. Those who remain stuck in command and control models risk being left behind in the age of Artificial Intelligence,” said Hugo Lourenço, CEO of The Agile Thinkers and founder of the Management Summit.

Image supplied: Steve Denning, a former World Bank executive, points to positive things happening in Europe on innovation and attitudes to it, and said when talking to Portuguese CEOs he has sensed “optimism and a drive to move forward and not to hold things back”.