As a leader you must focus on business today but also explore the business of tomorrow
a huge need from both young people wanting to change the world and the concept of globalisation, and from senior leaders who are switching towards a new mindset, which is putting both technology and sustainability at the centre of their thinking. Your background in the corporate world and your master’s focused on HR strategy. Having been involved in the world-class HR delivery at Ritz-Carlton, do you think there are lessons Business Schools need to learn in terms of delivering a customer-service focused experience to students and alumni? Absolutely! In our industry, there is often unnecessary debate around the way we view our main stakeholders: as students or customers? In my view they are both. In an exam they are definitely students but during the rest of their interactions with us, they are customers; we not only have to meet their expectations but anticipate them. To do that, the second most- important lesson I learned at the Ritz- Carlton is the concept of ‘lateral service’. When 900 guests on a cruise were arriving at the hotel at the same time, the entire team (general manager included) helped to offer a speed check-in. In exceptional situations such as this, there is no time to hire temporary staff; we all had to be ready to support each. These experiences, help to generate a clear sense of team spirit. At EADA, we have incorporated this concept of ‘lateral service’, and it has helped us to make the impossible possible
teams, organisations and society’ that sets the tone for everything else we do in the programme. We don’t have ‘an MBA’, we have a set of MBAs covering different needs in terms of language, seniority, and format. We offer a full-time MBA programme that gathers an incredible group of global talent from up to 25 different countries. We have a longstanding Executive MBA programme for senior local managers, a very flexible online MBA in partnership with the Open University of Catalonia for Spanish-speaking international managers, and a mind-blowing #LeadTech Global Executive MBA in partnership with Ecole des Ponts Business School, which has recently seen the graduation of its first cohort of ‘Leaders for a Tech World’. Returning to your own experience in international programmes and relations. the pandemic and climate agenda are putting increasing pressure on Business Schools to remain international, but in innovative ways. How will EADA ensure it maintains an international footprint? EADA has a clear mission: to be the place where businesspeople grow. We’ve been operating since 1957 and have always served the business community and contributed to its development by being on top of the corporate world’s needs. Our mission has transformed into our purpose – it’s what drives what we do and makes us so flexible and relevant in today’s society. Barcelona is one of
during the pandemic, when we have faced the unknown on a day-to-day basis.
You have vast experience in international programmes and MBA strategy. Our research shows that more than nine out of 10 Business School leaders think the MBA is set to change in the coming five years. How does the MBA look set to change in the short-to- medium term? The MBA is, and it will continue to be, the flagship programme for Business Schools – the question is around its form, size or style. We are aware of some full-time programmes that have closed their doors but, at the same time, many new doors have been opened: fully online programmes; courses developed through partnerships between different academic institutions; options in a corporate setting or at scale in alliance with an educational platform or in different specialised areas. My personal view is that in the short and medium term, this will only accelerate. Each institution will have to overcome its internal challenges in order to be able to generate their MBA/MBAs for the future. What differentiates the MBA programme at EADA? EADA has a set of different MBA programmes which all have one thing in common: our unique residential leadership development programme. It’s a journey to leading ‘yourself,
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