Cross-sector, cross-culture, cross-boundary learning is alive and well. My second year at IMD continues to be filled with rich intellectual and creative stimulation. I worked with finance professor Arturo Bris in Advanced Strategic Management (ASM). In this intensive program, 42 participants from 27 countries in 23 industries each clarified how to deal most effectively with a significant business challenge. IMD professors shared innovative tools, frameworks and lenses to analyze unique dilemmas and the extraordinary group learned as much from each other.
I was in a panel discussion, Bottom Up Entrepreneurship for Democracy and Development, led by Iqbal Quadir, Director of MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, hosted by IMD’s Evian Group led by international political economy professor Jean-Pierre Lehman.
It was co-hosted by The Business Humanitarian Forum (BHF) and opened by its Director John King. Panelists were John Maresca, BHF President and Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace and IMD finance professor Salvatore Cantale. We engaged in discussion with 75 participants from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
IMD also hosted its annual CEO Roundtable, which this year was led by finance and governance professor Didier Cossin who heads one of IMD’s Global Centers on Governance and runs the High Performance Boards (HPB) program. CEOs from around the world engaged in a lively format of interactive table discussions following each crisp presentation on a different key governance issue.
Next week I will tape four 10-minute segments in a podcast series for our Corporate Learning Network (CLN) about my work on Highly Relational Engagement and how engaging the broadest spectrum of your internal and external stakeholders changes everything. See my Tomorrow’s Challenge (TC) piece on this work.
With all this and my participation in IMD customized partnership programs for several companies while continuing my research and writing, I haven’t had a dull moment yet. Whether you had the privilege to attend any of these IMD programs or not, I welcome your comments about executive education and/or any other reflections you have about IMD or the larger world.
