With a first day dedicated to understanding the basis of strategy, planning, and deep changes in both management and management education, a second day to combining excellence with relevance in both teaching and research, and the third day to putting in place and aligning the resources and competences needed to realize a stated mission, vision, and strategy, participants were able to:
- benchmark their own “guiding principles”, strategies, plans, and actions and lay out ways to modify these where needed;
- assess their own achievements with respect to both excellence and relevance;
- recognize where there are shortfalls in required resources and competences and develop plans to rectify these.
The end objective for participating teams was to identify and lay the groundwork for working further on a small number of strategic improvement initiatives, progressively narrowed down by each team as the workshop unfolded, as new insights were brought to the table, and as these were incorporated into their thinking and planning.
The workshop, aligned as it is with CEEMAN IQA-International Quality Accreditation principles and the CEEMAN Manifesto “Changing the Course of Management Development: Combining Excellence with Relevance” is also particularly helpful as preparation for CEEMAN IQA or any other international quality accreditation procedure.
Workshop leader Prof. Derek Abell, Founding President of ESMT-European School of Management and Technology, Germany, former dean of IMEDE (now IMD), Switzerland, summarized his reactions to the three-day intensive journey that he had shared with participants, as follows:
“Every time I do this, I think it gets better as the design and content get a work-over. The CEEMAN Manifesto, which I was responsible for a couple of years ago, has provided a catalyst, but the workshop goes beyond that in its scope. As the title of the Workshop suggests, we are getting closer to understanding what a great management school is likely to look like in the future, and to recognize what this might mean particularly in the kinds of rising and emerging markets which CEEMAN and its member schools serve. I believe the main take-home for both teams was that they have now a much more precise vision of what “Leading the Way in Management Education” implies and more ambition than ever to be among those who will step up to this mark.”
Participants say:
“I learned much more than I expected. After this workshop I have a whole vision of my organization and their needs / strategic assumptions, whereas before the workshop I focused mainly on my position and my duties.”
“It was great and helpful. In order to find the right answer, it is very important to formulate the right question. Derek knows how to do it.”
“It was a great opportunity to meet prof. Abell, exchange thoughts, ideas, see what our colleagues from the other university think but also reflect on how to evaluate our organization and strategy. I would recommend this workshop for all universities which are in process of CEEMAN accreditation.”
With flexibility of the online format, the dates of the future workshops can be adjusted to participants’ needs and time schedule. To learn more about the program or to register, please visit www.ceeman.org/leadingtheway.