From Ideas to Impact: CIRQUEL at IESE’s EIC Day 2025 on the Art of Persuasion

Panelists: Manu, Victoria, Phuong (IESE), Anna, Miryam.

Persuasion sits at the heart of every ambitious idea - especially in innovation. Whether a founder is pitching to investors, aligning with partners, guiding a team through uncertainty, or communicating a new vision to the market, the ability to shape a message for different audiences is as critical as the idea itself. This theme was the foundation of this year’s “From Ideas to Impact – The Art of Persuasion” panel at IESE Business School’s EIC Day 2025, where our co-founder & CEO, Anna Warchalowska, was invited to speak alongside fellow innovators and policymakers.

IESE Business School - Nord Campus in Barcelona

The session brought together diverse perspectives: agri-tech founder Miryam Adni, music/psychology tech-driven entrepreneur Victoria Williamson, and Manu Reyes, Mayor of Castelldefels - each navigating persuasion in radically different environments. While their industries and roles vary, the challenges echoed each other: finding clarity in complexity, communicating with integrity, and ensuring that the mission behind the work doesn’t get lost as the message adapts. This honest exchange created a rare and meaningful space for collective learning.

From CIRQUEL’s side, Anna shared the everyday reality of building an AI-powered circular logistics infrastructure, a mission that requires constant communication across stakeholders who speak different “languages.” She discussed what it means to persuade a fashion brand to rethink returns as an asset, a logistics partner to integrate anomaly-detection workflows, or an investor to recognise circularity as a scalable, revenue-driven opportunity. As Anna described it: “Persuasion in a startup isn’t about convincing - it’s about translating value so each stakeholder can see their place in the future you’re building.”

Panel description

The day continued with an interactive IESE workshop, where faculty and participants examined each speaker’s case study, unpacking communication strategies, decision-making frameworks, and the nuances of influence in both public and private sectors. For CIRQUEL, this offered tangible insights into how we communicate our impact, frame our technology narrative, and articulate our value proposition within the broader circularity landscape. These reflections are especially important as we expand into new verticals and markets, and engage with partners who are shaping the future of sustainable logistics.

We are deeply grateful to Phuong Pham and the entire IESE EIC Department for organising yet another thoughtful and impeccably structured event. It’s a privilege for CIRQUEL to contribute to these conversations, share our journey with emerging talent, and continue strengthening our voice in spaces where innovation, purpose, and leadership intersect. We look forward to future collaborations with IESE and to bringing the lessons from this session into our ongoing mission to make reverse logistics circular, efficient, and intelligent.