the use of deepfake technology to further improve public speaking abilities. “If you want to become a good presenter, you might watch, let’s say, Barack or Michelle Obama giving a wonderful speech and then try to imitate what they do. But what if we can use ourselves as the perfect role model? Wouldn’t a deepfake video of myself giving the perfect speech, just like Michelle Obama, promote self-efficacy? Because if I can see myself performing perfectly, I can already do it,” Schmid Mast hypothesises. There have been interesting results in this area, notes the HEC Lausanne dean, but she concedes that the concept could backfire among those who simply don’t like the way they look on video: “The research isn’t completely there yet, but I think there are possibilities,” she surmises. Furthering faculty leadership Schmid Mast’s enthusiasm for employing innovations in teaching is mirrored in her demeanour when speaking of her “quest” to boost leadership in higher education by facilitating the development of those who take on senior roles. “If you recruit from the professors within your faculty for the role of a dean or provost, for example, they will not usually have any management
experience or leadership training. We have some data on this and many say they would have loved to have undergone some sort of training before taking these positions, so I’m trying to establish that in Switzerland.” The school runs a popular and long-established healthcare concentration to its executive MBA (EMBA) that has grown steadily in popularity and now accounts for roughly half of all students on the programme. For Schmid Mast, this showcases how a sector can both recognise the value of leadership training and encourage practitioners to develop. “The demand in the healthcare sector for training is much more advanced than other sectors. So many people [enrol on the EMBA programme] because it has become something of a requirement to be promoted in their field, which, in a sense, is a stipulation the universities themselves don’t have,” she shares. Schmid Mast currently teaches leadership to cohorts of female professors who aspire to an institutional leadership role as part of a national-level initiative programme, known as the High Potential University Leaders Identity & Skills Training (HIT) programme. Two participants from each of the 10 participating universities are selected for the programme each year, but Schmid Mast thinks they
20 Business Impact • ISSUE 6 • 2025
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