Latest news with #executiveeducation
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Harvard Created Windfall From Bringing Executives Back to School
(Bloomberg) -- Harvard University is drawing an increasing share of its revenue from helping businesspeople beef up their résumés, giving America's oldest institution of higher learning a lifeline as it confronts its largest-ever crisis. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Boston's Dumpsters Overflow as Trash-Strike Summer Drags On Years before the Trump administration halted billions of dollars in federal funding over allegations of antisemitism, discrimination and a lack of differing viewpoints on campus, the wealthiest US university had been putting a greater emphasis on professional and executive education. Executives looking to step up their management skills or get up to speed on new technology have eagerly shelled out for expensive in-person and online courses at the storied university out of their own pockets, or with help from their employers. Those programs are now providing Harvard with revenue that's relatively insulated from US President Donald Trump's efforts to deprive Harvard of federal funds — and helping soften the blow as administrators watch expenses rise, endowment returns sag and donations drop. Overall, executive education and continuing education for nontraditional students delivered nearly $600 million last year, up from $155 million two decades ago, publicly available data from the university shows. Alumni of Harvard's undergraduate and graduate programs have sometimes scoffed at such programs, posting memes to social media implying that they lack Ivy League gravitas. (Along with executive education, Harvard also offers programs for lifelong learners and students seeking a nontraditional path to a degree). But putting the Harvard imprimatur on classes that let corporate managers burnish their bona fides and expand their networks is providing the embattled university with an important safety net at an uncertain time for US colleges and universities. The Trump administration has attempted to squeeze Harvard financially, including by freezing more than $2.6 billion in federal research funding and trying to end its tax-exempt status. It has also sought to bar enrollment of foreign students, who frequently pay full tuition. The university has been in talks with administration officials about a possible settlement, though the details and timing of a potential deal remain uncertain. The proceeds from continuing and executive education programs accounted for 9% of Harvard's $6.5 billion operating revenue base in 2024, its financial report shows. By comparison, federal research money accounted for 11%. The programs made up 42% of the school's net tuition and fee revenue in 2024, up from 26% in 2005. Harvard's nondegree courses range from short-term certificate programs to in-person, long-term training for executives and senior professionals. They can bring in anywhere from several hundred dollars to more than $10,000 per student. One multiyear Harvard Business School program can cost as much as $150,000. Harvard gives generous financial aid to many of its undergraduates. The tax law signed by Trump this month limits borrowing by graduate students. But many continuing and executive education students aren't reliant on loans or other federal assistance to pay their expenses. Companies can pick up the tab for employees, and in some cases veterans are eligible for tuition assistance under the GI Bill. Billionaire Backers Executive education has also lured funds from another core Harvard constituency: billionaires with their names adorning a building. Tata Hall is named in honor of Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, who died in 2024, and attended Harvard's Advanced Management Program, which prepares executives for leadership roles, in the 1970s. Tata Companies and other philanthropic entities gave Harvard Business School $50 million to construct the 150,000-square-foot building, which was completed in 2013. Brazilian Andre Esteves, cofounder and chairman of Brazil-based investment giant Banco BTG Pactual SA, and his wife funded the renovation of a residence hall for executive education bearing his name at Harvard Business School. Esteves, who didn't earn a degree from the school, has also financed scholarships for Brazilian students. Representatives for Tata and Esteves declined to comment. Executive education was the second-biggest source of revenue at Harvard Business School last year, bringing in $245 million. Online education fetched another $70 million. The business school has about 42,000 executive education students enrolled on the web, more than double the level in 2019. Harvard's professional education programs have a large and increasing number of international students. Roughly 70% of Harvard Business School's 12,000 executive education students hail from abroad — a big selling point for many who enroll. In May, Raoul-Gabreil Urma, the founder of an education-technology business who lives in the UK, finished a multiyear program with three on-campus components called 'Owner/President Management' that costs about $150,000. He also took a course that will prepare him to serve on corporate boards. 'It's lonely being a business owner and CEO,' Urma said. It's one of the only programs 'that brings a world-class international community together to learn together and share challenges.' Trump's efforts to keep Harvard from enrolling foreign students could upend that appeal. Yet the growing number of elite US colleges and universities offering executive education programs are banking on continued demand at home and abroad. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, the University of Virginia and other schools are marketing such programs online and on social media like LinkedIn. Virginia's Darden School of Business offers lifelong learning and executive education for individuals and organizations including the military and government agencies. Participants can stay at a new on-campus Kimpton hotel owned by the Darden School foundation. The school has also expanded in the Washington, DC, area to meet rising demand from working professionals. Columbia's business school offers a nine-to-12 month program for chief financial officers that can cost up to $30,000. MIT is creating a private, not-for-profit educational institution through a network of campuses around the US for in-person and digital classes. The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business created a campus in San Francisco in 2001 that now includes executive and other education. At Northwestern University, the Kellogg School of Management delivered about 350 continuing education programs to more than 22,000 participants in fiscal 2024, its highest demand ever. The Chicago-area school plans to aggressively invest in development of more, including a dozen new programs to market over the next six months, said Thomas O'Toole, associate dean for executive programs. To expand their global footprint, dozens of schools, including Wharton, Kellogg and Harvard Medical School, collaborate with a Singapore-based company called Emeritus Education for short courses, degree programs, executive and certificate programs. Expansion Plans Along with its business-school programs, Harvard offers executive and continuing education through its medical, law and public health schools, as well as the Kennedy School of Government. On its website, the Kennedy School describes dozens of executive programs, including a six-day, on-campus cybersecurity certificate program that costs $11,300 (an online version of the course is priced at $5,100). For years, the US government had paid Harvard for courses and other services in which senior employees, including military and defense officials, updated their credentials. Those payments peaked at about $4.4 million in fiscal year 2023, according to Bloomberg Government data. Harvard's US government contracts have been frozen amid Trump's efforts to clamp federal funds flowing to the university. In June, Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health tapped Rifat Atun, a physician and global health-systems expert, as a new vice dean for non-degree education and innovation. In that role, Atun will look to bring in more money through new certificate programs, short courses and executive education. Last year, Chan drew almost 60% of its revenue from federal research money, and it has been forced to make cuts as Trump tightens the spigots. To fill the gap, continuing education can bring in thousands of dollars for programs that run for less time than a traditional academic semester. For example, the school advertised on LinkedIn this summer for a five- to six-month online leadership program that cost $14,000 before any discounts. Atun has taught professional-education courses ranging from leadership classes for nurses to custom courses for employees of global drug and medical-device companies. 'This is an opportunity to rethink and expand, building on the strength of what is being provided and better understand the needs of current and potential customers and the segments we serve,' he said in an interview. Chan plans to grow its professional education efforts to Latin America and the Middle East, Atun said. Other parts of Harvard are also expanding their continuing-education menu. New offerings in the year that begins this fall at the Harvard Extension School include microcertificates in AI-related topics and new online graduate certificates that can be 'stacked' toward a master's degree. Continuing and executive education is expected to be more lucrative than other efforts the university has made to expand access to its academic offerings, such as an earlier experiment with free online courses for students who didn't earn credit or a degree. Online education was conceived as a free good, said Peter Bol, a Harvard professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and a former vice provost responsible for online learning. 'Obviously it was a money loser,' Bol said. 'Executive education was not.' --With assistance from Alexander McIntyre, Mathieu Benhamou and Tom Contiliano. (Corrects Andre Esteves title in 12th paragraph.) It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
IMI staff headcount shrank before sale to Business Post group
One of Ireland's oldest business schools, the Irish Management Institute (IMI) , trimmed its staff headcount by almost 20 per cent in the year before the Business Post group agreed to acquire the executive education provider from University College Cork (UCC). Newly filed accounts for the IMI show that losses at the Sandyford, south county Dublin-based institute, narrowed to just over €431,000 in the 12 months to September last from more than €1 million in the previous 12 months. The IMI reportedly issued protective notice to more than 30 staff in the summer of 2023, warning of potential redundancies. Staff numbers at the school subsequently shrank from 77 in 2023 to 63 in the year to September 2024, according to the latest filings, a reduction of more than 18 per cent. READ MORE Consequently, staff costs – including wages, salaries, social welfare contributions and pension costs – declined by almost 19 per cent to €4.66 million in the year. In a report attached to the accounts, the IMI's directors said the market for executive education remained challenging due to escalating direct and indirect costs. [ Business Post expected to move to Irish Management Institute (IMI) campus Opens in new window ] 'However, despite these challenges, the programme of turnaround activities, commenced in the prior year, has strengthened the company and significantly reduced the deficit for the year.' Accumulated losses of more than €5.2 million had built up at the company, which is limited by guarantee and has no share capital, by the end of September 2024, according to the accounts. The IMI's directors also noted that after the financial year end, they had signed non-binding 'heads of terms' related to the potential sale of the institute and its assets to a 'third party'. How the wealthy are buying up land to avoid inheritance tax Listen | 22:03 Enda O'Coineen's Business Post Group subsequently acquired the institute in a deal that was finalised in May. UCC will reportedly retain control of the sprawling 13-acre campus in suburban south county Dublin as part of the transaction. At the time of the deal, the Business Post Group said the addition of IMI would complement its existing portfolio and align with its 'House of Brands' vision to deliver content through experiences through 'insights' with and executive education. 'Our group of companies bring together the power of news reporting and insights as well as research – this will help to further inform IMI on the trends and emerging areas that leaders need to know and understand,' Mr O'Coineen said at the time. The Irish Times reported in May that staff at the newspaper had been told the news publisher's operations will likely move to the IMI campus when the lease on its offices on Merrion Road expires later this year.
Forbes
07-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Filling The Growth Leadership Skill Gap
Stephen Diorio The Next Generation of Growth Leaders Needs a Revenue Operations Curriculum and Skillset There's a gap in the curriculum at business schools in the science and management of revenue growth. For starters, the vast majority of business schools and executive education programs fail to include business development, sales management and leadership in their core curriculum. This issue is compounded by the failure to connect the disciplines of marketing, product management, finance and increasingly technology and analytics in a real world operational context towards the end of revenue and profit growth. Consequently, most business school curriculum, as currently constructed, fails to prepare students and executives to manage a growth digital, data-driven, and capital intensive team sport. This has become a problem as discipline of Revenue Operations has emerged as one of the fastest growing professions and executives with Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) and 'CXO' titles and a broad remit to manage the growth resources, assets, processes and functions become fixtures in the C suite. Why? Because Revenue Operations (or RevOps) is unique in the business world. It blends many traditional management disciplines taught in a siloed fashion - marketing, product management, sales, finance, IT – into a coherent system for managing company teams, assets, processes and system to generate more reliable, scalable and profitable revenue growth. Another problem is Revenue Operations is inconsistently defined. Its leaders can have many titles. The most familiar is the CRO. But as almost every business (over 90% of B2B businesses according to the book Revenue Operations) reconfigures their management systems to connect these functions on some meaningful way – all sorts of 'CXO' titles emerging. The can include Chief Operations, Commercial, Growth, Customer and Transformation officers. And many more. But these advances in modern growth engines – and the organizations, systems and analytics within them - are getting out in front of management science and skills required to run them. For example, the CRO role is expanding so fast that job postings for CRO will subsume the traditional VP of Sale and Marketing role in business. But to succeed as a CRO, sales leaders are going to need to understand Revenue Operations, according to Warren Zenna, the Founder of the CRO Collective. 'VPs of Sales have and will always play an important role on the revenue team, but the functionally-siloed sales leadership position is becoming antiquated,' says Zenna. 'But as commercial models evolve, companies need leaders who can drive alignment across marketing, sales, customer success. This makes RevOps a strategic competency underlying the CRO role.' The same goes for the dozen or more specialized functions that are now essential to run the modern revenue engine. 'Revenue Operations teams are full of very smart people who are brilliant in their own domain, such as marketing operations, sales training, territory and quota planning and CRM administration,' says Ashmi Pancholi, who has over a decade of experience leading RevOps teams at GE, Amazon, and Affirm. 'What holds many revenue teams back is that the individual players on those teams don't understand how those domains connect and work together to drive reliable, scalable and profitable growth,' adds Pancholi. The interconnected nature of growth, and the number of disciplines involved is why RevOps is fundamentally different than any other growth role out there, adds Matt Volm, the CEO of the RevOps Coop, a community of over 15,000 professionals in the field. 'RevOps spans over a dozen established but discrete roles and domains across the revenue team. For example, Marketing Ops just focuses on the marketing function, sales enablement just on training and developing new sales reps, CRM admins ensures the data around accounts, opportunities and buyers is correct and reliable.' What Matt Volm is referring to is the fact that the management of growth has expanded to over a dozen such domains, each with its own job function, association, skill set and technology stacks. They include the deal desk, bid and proposal management, CRM administration. the operations, training and enablement teams that support marketing, sales and customer success, data and financial analysts. 'In all it takes forty five different competencies to run the modern revenue engine,' adds Volm. 'Very few managers, leaders and professionals understand them all, much less how they connect to generate scalable, profitable, and reliable growth. And as of now, they don't teach that in business schools. They don't include that in job descriptions. And they certainly don't incentivize people to do all those things with legacy metrics.' THE MODERN REVENUE ENGINE The Revenue Operations Certification, Revenue Operations Associates This professional education 'gap' is leaving the next generation of growth leaders with key deficiencies in critical areas like financial acumen, strategic perspective, P&L fluency and change management. Those gaps are a big reason they struggle to communicate their value to leaders, gain cooperation with peers, and garner the budgets, investment, and resources they need to deliver value. To a large degree this is a vocabulary and community issue. 'RevOps people struggle because they don't speak the language of business everyone in the C suite and board room speaks,' says Steven Busby, CEO of Revenue Operations Associates. 'This is because they didn't get the same education, work in consulting or join an established tribe in the company ecosystem.' That is a problem Matt Volm and the thousands of Revenue Operations practitioners and leaders are looking to solve with peer to peer networking, best practices sharing and certification programs. 'I started RevOps Co-op to build relationships with people in RevOps and deliver value outside of technology solutions that support the revenue ecosystem to help them define their profession, excel at their jobs, make a bigger impact in their businesses and on their teams,' say Volm. 'Ultimately, our goal is to help RevOps professionals of every level, skill and focus to advance their careers and for the most ambitious become the next generation of growth leaders.' A starting point is to define what Revenue Operations is, which is a daunting task given the nascent nature of the role, the wide variety of skills and competencies involved and the many parts of the revenue engine they must understand, enable, and impact. 'The role of RevOps is to drive revenue effectively, reliably, and scalably by aligning people, process and technology,' says Volm. 'Revenue operations analysts, specialists, managers and leaders do this by understanding the complete revenue engine end-to-end. Whether you are one manager wearing dozens of hats, or a specialist on a team of one hundreds – this requires a holistic view is important because so much of what generates leads, sales, and customer experiences involves hand-offs that occur between systems and people and teams. According to Volm, Revenue Operations is a good career for smart people that like variety and hate the mundane. It's also a great way to generate value for the business by getting the most from the products, knowledge, systems and talent in a business. Unfortunately, given the nascent state of the function, in most businesses RevOps is related to the unsung hero, 'glue guy' role and does not receive the recognition or compensation commensurate with their contribution to firm revenues, profits and value growth. 'Being in RevOps today is like the utility player in baseball - one day you'll be asked to play second base, the next center field, the day after maybe just pinch hitting.,' says Volm, who talks with thousands of RevOps teams through his global professional events, forums, education, and certification platforms. 'All of that contributes to winning. Little of that shows up in the box score, or in KPI, incentives, and compensation in a business context.' This ambiguity of role, and business outcomes it creates puts RevOps professionals in a 'no mans land' where they are perceived as 'back office' operators who fix problems, keep the lights on and run critical pipeline reports and dashboards. This ambiguity can really hurt professionals in terms of career success, advancement and 'burnout'. Without a clear understanding of the role, the many 'gears' in the revenue engine, and how they connect and convert investment into revenue dollars – many RevOps professionals are relegated to the role of 'fix it gal' and 'data cleaner' and report generators rather than revenue and value creators. One factor leading to this ambiguity is the wide variety of people who go into Revenue Operations. The complex, interesting, and collaborative aspects of the job attracts professionals from many different backgrounds, roles, and circumstances into RevOps. 'Unlike legacy roles like Finance, Marketing and IT - most people in the RevOps community have unique and mixed backgrounds,' says Volm. 'Many have been lawyers, geologist, schoolteachers, and more. What they ultimately have in common is they get excited about facing new challenges daily and have a drive to learn new things. They're never bored with the same old thing day and day out -because RevOps is never the same from day-to-day and everything you work on is essential to the life blood of the business – generating revenues, profits and cash flow,' add Volm, who is a CPA by training. Finally, clearly defining the role of Revenue Operations is the key to getting it added to the curriculum at business schools. The problem is that without a recognized 'domain' to define it, educators will not make RevOps a part of the core business curriculum as they have with finance and marketing, and more recently supply chain and distribution management, according to Joël Le Bon is a Full Professor of Marketing and Sales at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and Executive Director of The Digital Business Development initiative. This lack of a clear consensus on what RevOps is, what it is not, what it entails, and the business outcomes is creates is a core issue facing the field. 'In a sense, Revenue Operations is to revenue growth what a curriculum is to education – it's a system that aligns purpose, development and scalable growth', says Le Bon who is one of the few business school professors in the world who teaches business development and sales as part of the core curriculum. One of the things Volm seeks to do is provide RevOps professionals with the role clarity and key skills they need to succeed. 'Most RevOps professionals are experts in their domain or the technology that support their role. And there's motivated software firms ready to teach the deep technical skills required in marketing, sales and customer success. The real missing skills fall into the areas of finance, strategy, change management and an overall business acumen about how the core growth functions (marketing, product, sales, customer success) work together in a business. 'Some of the most successful RevOps leaders I see are strategic,' says Volm. 'By that I mean they are good at separating day to day tactical tasks, keeping the lights on and fixing problems to focus time and resources on actions and investments that create scale and reliability. The best understand the 'cause and effect' implications of specific actions on other functions and the seller experience. Financial acumen and P&L fluency are key skills because most RevOps professionals really struggle to quantify, communicate the value they create with the leaders and peers who must commit funds, cooperation and effort to their endeavors. Leading change, even without a mandate or remit, is a critical skill because everything they do involves changing processes, procedures or company orthodoxy,' he adds. 'Overall, given the breadth and scope of the role, it takes a lot of business maturity to engage, educate and enable the key stakeholders in marketing, sales, product, IT and finance as peers and collaborators. That's difficult if you don't know the basics of their jobs, their key drivers and the specific ways your work connects to create growth. ' 'Revenue Operations to a large degree requires a 'CEO perspective' because it is fundamentally a team sport where the team that connects the most gears wins,' says Steven Busby, a ten year CEO who led the development of the RevOps Certification with Volm's team. 'Just because a RevOps professional is perceived as a back office contributor, when in fact they have perhaps the broadest span of control in the business other than the CEO.' Another issue is that the interdisciplinary, technology intensive and extremely dynamic nature of RevOps means teams need to learn different things very quickly. Financial Standards rarely change so a CPA exam will help a CFO throughout his or her career. But in RevOps, technologies emerge, functions merge and processes change so quickly that professionals cannot rely on a textbook or a single function skill. And when they wake up on Monday, their job and the behavior of the customer they serve, and the systems to engage them have likely changed. They need a different way to learn. So where can ambitious RevOps professionals go to get those skills? A primary way RevOps people learn is through peer to peer best practices sharing. 'Unlike the established domains of finance or product management which are taught in schools and relatively stable - RevOps people value peer interactions, best practice sharing and learning from subject matter experts in their domain,' says Volm. 'All of those things are provided through communities like RevOps Co-op. Communities lend themselves well to RevOps because revenue operators are typically small teams - sometimes teams of one – or highly specialized and poorly understood functions, like the Deal Desk, Territory Planning, CRM administration, Strategic Response Management, or Knowledgebase Management. So they don't have a huge peer group inside their company to go too or, until now, a certification they can take to become proficient. What they can do is all come together through the community things to learn from peers and mentors continuously gain new skills about emerging practices and now gain a credible certification that covers all forty-five of the competencies that are required to make the revenue engine run.' Volm recently partnered with leading practitioners, academics and experts in the field of Revenue Operations to create an industry standard Revenue Operations Certification. To Volm, an industry certification is critical for RevOps professionals to excel in their jobs, generate more impact, facilitate teamwork and advance their career – because it addresses the biggest things that hold them back. These are fundamental things like strategy, financial acumen, change management and the business maturity needed to engage, educate and enable the key stakeholders across product, marketing, sales, customer success and finance that all support the revenue cycle. 'I believe Revenue Operations is the most important job at every company on the face of the planet, because revenue is also the first and most important metric on any financial statement - and revenue generation is a team sport led by revenue operations' asserts Volm. 'But it will only become more critical with the introduction of AI because no role better suited to own AI initiatives that impact revenue then revenue operations.'
Gulf Business
07-06-2025
- Business
- Gulf Business
Executive education: Accenture's Abir Habbal on preparing AI-savvy leaders
Image: Supplied The AI revolution isn't coming — it's already here. But for most business leaders, bridging the gap between AI hype and actionable strategy remains a challenge. Enter the Generative AI Scholars Programme, a joint initiative by Accenture and Stanford University, now being rolled out across the Middle East. In this interview, Abir Habbal, Data and AI Strategy & Consulting lead at Accenture in the Middle East, explains what makes this programme more than just another executive course. From bite-sized modules grounded in Stanford's academic legacy to real-world applications tailored for the region's ambitious digital visions, this programme is designed to turn C-suite curiosity into capability. Habbal also shares why the UAE and Saudi Arabia are ideal launchpads, highlights the top misconceptions around AI adoption, and offers a glimpse into the real business impact already emerging from this new generation of AI-savvy leaders. In your view, what role can executive education like this play in accelerating the region's digital transformation — and what's still needed to close the gap between ambition and impact? Executive education programmes are instrumental in accelerating the Middle East's AI transformation by comprehensively equipping leaders for the AI era. They are crucial for building AI-literate leadership, empowering decision-makers across the GCC to not only understand AI's potential but also to strategically apply it within their organisations. This involves a fundamental shift in mindset: moving from viewing AI purely as an IT function to recognsing it as a catalyst for business model transformation and sustainable growth. By fostering AI fluency, these programmes bridge the communication gap between the c-suite and technical teams, enabling more productive dialogues and streamlined decision-making, which is vital for the region's ambitious national AI strategies. However, to fully close the gap between this ambition and tangible impact, several critical elements are still needed. Beyond leadership, there must be a broader investment in role-based AI training across all levels of the workforce, ensuring everyone understands how AI integrates into their daily tasks and contributes to organisational goals. Furthermore, the emphasis on responsible AI must be woven into the fabric of every initiative, with clear governance models addressing data privacy, bias, and transparency from inception, as this builds crucial trust for widespread adoption. Ultimately, sustained success hinges on a commitment to scaling what works, fostering a culture of continuous learning and experimentation, and aligning AI innovation directly with national economic diversification and digital transformation priorities across the region. There's growing awareness of AI across industries — but a notable gap when it comes to implementation. What are the most common misconceptions or barriers you see among business leaders trying to adopt AI? Despite high awareness, a significant gap exists between AI understanding and real-world implementation among business leaders. Accenture's research highlights that while 84 per cent of c-suite executives believe they must leverage AI to achieve their growth objectives, only 15 per cent feel their organization is truly ready to scale it. The most common misconceptions and barriers include: Uncertainty about where to start: The rapidly evolving AI landscape makes it challenging to differentiate hype from achievable business value. Lack of leadership alignment: If c-suite leaders (CIO, CFO, CHRO) don't operate from a shared understanding, AI initiatives often stall at the pilot stage. Organisational unreadiness: Many businesses lack the foundational data infrastructure, skilled talent, or robust governance frameworks needed for responsible AI scaling. As Accenture's research indicates, 70-80 per cent of AI initiatives never move beyond the pilot phase, and while many focus on technical capabilities, successful AI implementation is predominantly a people and process challenge. Misconception of AI as purely an IT initiative: Leaders often fail to see AI as a core strategic imperative for growth, innovation, and competitiveness, viewing it simply as a technological tool rather than a catalyst for business model transformation. Risk avoidance over responsible risk-taking: Concerns around ethics, trust, and governance, while valid, can lead to a paralysis of innovation if not balanced with a strategy of embracing innovation with built-in guardrails and responsible AI practices from day one. Lack of clarity on ROI: A significant barrier is establishing ROI on identified opportunities and making a business case for scaling initiatives, which are often perceived as more challenging than technical limitations Can you walk us through what makes this programme distinct from other executive education offerings — particularly in how it blends Stanford's academic insights with real-world application? The programme includes easily digestible, bite-sized modules, industry spotlights, case studies, and reflection activities, ensuring participants not only grasp complex concepts like technical fundamentals, foundation models, and prompt engineering but also develop the generative AI strategy and technology know-how for real-world application. This approach aims to spark reinvention agendas that can profoundly transform businesses, enabling leaders to drive innovation and navigate the digital economy effectively. Why was the Middle East chosen as the next region for the rollout of this programme, and how has the regional business landscape influenced its evolution or delivery? The Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia and the UAE have emerged as prime focus for the rollout of programmes like the Generative AI Scholars Program due to the country visions and their unparalleled ambition and strategic commitment to becoming global leaders in AI. This region is not merely adopting AI; it's actively leading its development and integration into national visions. Both nations are making substantial financial commitments to AI infrastructure, research centers, and digital ecosystems. This includes significant government-backed AI R&D funds, free zones offering incentives for AI businesses, and partnerships with global cloud technology organisations. The region is not just investing in technology but also in building a modern digital core, which Accenture sees as essential for continuous reinvention and for organisations to rapidly seize every opportunity presented by AI. Recognisng that technology adoption requires human capital, these nations are heavily investing in developing AI fluency across their workforces, from top leadership to technical teams. We are working with MCIT Saudi Arabia in an Accenture artificial intelligence training programme organised by the Accenture LearnVantage Academy. These programmes directly address human capital requirements by equipping senior officials and business leaders with the mindset and skills needed to lead with AI responsibly. As the programme moves from theory to action, what kind of real-world business outcomes are participants expected to achieve? Can you share any early examples from previous rollouts globally? The expected real-world business outcomes are centered on driving measurable value and competitive advantage. Accenture identifies these outcomes as broader and more strategic than just cost savings. Participants are expected to achieve: Enhanced decision-making: AI tools help leadership teams make faster, more informed decisions, leading to improved strategic agility. Increased employee productivity and empowerment: By leveraging AI, leaders can free up time for their teams to focus on high-impact work rather than being buried in manual analysis or reporting. This contributes to a positive human-AI relationship, which Accenture believes is a key priority for leaders. Tangible business impact: Strategies informed by AI insights are expected to translate into winning new business, improving customer satisfaction, and accelerating the launch of initiatives. Accenture's AI Achievers report indicates that 63 per cent of high-performing companies say they've already achieved measurable ROI from their AI investments within three years. Accelerated organistional agility: AI helps organisations react faster to market changes, or spot opportunities we would've missed before, fostering a state of continuous reinvention. Business model transformation: Rather than just incremental gains, organizations are expected to achieve step-change improvements in revenue, efficiency, and customer experience by integrating AI effectively, as leaders rethink how digital systems are designed, how people work, and how they create products and interact with customers. Innovation at scale: The programme aims to unlock creativity and accelerate progress, sector by sector, by empowering people to reimagine what's possible with AI.
Khaleej Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
MCA Academy and ISB collaborate to bring executive education to the UAE
MCA Academy is an initiative of MCA Gulf, dedicated to empowering professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in today's dynamic business environment with curated transformative learning experiences. The high-quality programmes are spread across five pillars — leadership development, entrepreneurial excellence, empowering women leaders, functional expertise, and driving sustainability. As part of the mission, MCA has partnered with one of India's top business schools, the Indian School of Business (ISB) to introduce their Executive Education to GCC. ISB Executive Education programme empowers participants to achieve their distinct professional and personal goals. Ranked #1 in India and #26 globally in the Financial Times Executive Education Custom Ranking 2024, ISB reinforces its position as a top choice for working professionals seeking to advance their careers. As part of the partnership, the inaugural event was held in Dubai. This occasion was graced by esteemed dignitaries, including Satish Sivan, consul-general of India to Dubai and the Northern Emirates; Mirza Al Sayegh, director of the Office of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and other distinguished C-suite business leaders. The event also featured an insightful Masterclass by Professor Vishal Karungulam of ISB, who highlighted how AI and emerging technologies can serve as game changers in driving organisational success, both now and in the future. S Venkatesh, managing partner of MCA, stated: "Our partnership with ISB Executive Education aligns with our mission to drive GCC growth through ISB's legacy of empowering leaders. Together, we aim to deliver high-impact training programmes that equip professionals with the skills and insights to succeed in a fast-changing world." Sunill Sood, executive director, Executive Education, ISB said: "We want to acknowledge the efforts of MCA in facilitating the dissemination of the latest, emerging and futuristic business concepts to the working professional community in the UAE. This augurs well for ISB as we strive to build leaders of tomorrow across the world." The MCA-ISB partnership aims to deliver high-impact training programmes that equip professionals with the skills and insights needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
