EFMD AC15: Tara Swart – Neuroscience for Leadership

At the 2015 Annual EFMD Conference in Brussels, Tara Swart gave an introduction to key concepts from neuroscience that can improve leadership and lead to high performance in teams and organisations. Ms Swart is a former medical doctor and has a PhD in Neuroscience. She is also CEO of The Unlimited Mind and a professor at MIT, Stanford and the University of Oxford. She began by telling the audience the neuroplasticity is one of the most exciting things to come out of research in the pas few years and hoped that at the end of the talk hoped that the brains of the audience would be transformed.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Closing remarks

Rather than do a traditional closing speech, Barbara Sporn began her closing address by asking the audience the one key question from the conference: could they pronounce “WU” properly?! She then thanked the team members of WU for their dedication and effort in setting up the conference as well as Diana Grote and Eric Cornuel of EFMD. Ms. Sporn went on to outline the difficulty in summarizing such a rich conference, adding that EFMD conferences are like stock taking exercises that give time for reflection on issues in management education. 

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EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Breakout sessions-B1 – Marketing of Business Schools in a Digital World

At the EFMD Annual Conference, Andrew Crisp, Director of CarringtonCrisp and Tracey Horn, Head of Communications and Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School, gave an excellent session on the various opportunities that digital marketing can offer to the promotion of business schools. Andrew began his talk stating that digital marketing gives school the chance to do more personal marketing. Just one advertisement can have hundreds of variations and be tweaked according to the response. It’s a completely different mind-set from having a single advert in one newspaper for one day. With personalisation also comes the need to differentiate, as well as to say something different from all the other business schools vying for a student’s attention and attendance.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary IV – MOOCs

At the EFMD Annual Conference 2014, Vivek Goel, Chief Academic Strategist, Coursera, kicked off the fourth Plenary by stating that the traditional university has many years to go and will never be replaced by online learning. He then went on to outline exactly what a MOOC is and how they can supplement teaching and learning.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary III – Financial Models for Educational Institutions

Thomas Estermann began by talking about trends in finance in higher education. According to Mr. Estermann, performance based funding is now widely used but there are different ideas on what exactly the performance should be. The number of Bachelor and Masters Students is very important, as is the number of international students. What happens if the indicators change, especially if more than 50% of funding comes from public funds? Usually the indicators remain stable and there is also a dialogue between the different actors before they are changed.

EFMD Annual Conference 2014: Plenary II – Music and Leadership Skills

AT the EFMD Annual Conference, Joshua Jampul interviewed Jan Vogler on how his experience as a musician and what music can teach us about leadership. Jan Vogler began by explaining that he didn’t study in a business school. However, music taught him from the age of seven that competence is the very start. Being the best at a piece of music will mean that you become the leader. 

EFMD conference 2014: Plenary I – Designing Learning Spaces

Deans, rectors and architects have a lot in common; all three have to lift heavy weights. Weight costs money and involves a lot of time and politics. The goal of learning is to get knowledge but you also need real world experience.Architecture can help this process but it cannot improve the intelligence of the students. We have to understand how we can help them learn more.

EFMD Annual Conference 2013: “Executive Education & Corporate Universities” by Philip Healy & David Jestaz

Corporate universities are increasingly becoming an option for global companies to maintain and enhance the talent within their organizations to be leaders, as well as provide an incentive for their employees to acquire further skills and other advancement opportunities.  In this year’s annual EFMD conference, Philip Healy, Regional Director of the Centre for Creative Leadership (Belgium), and David Jestaz, the Director of EDF Group’s Corporate University, discussed the trend of the corporate university as a form of executive education.

EFMD Annual Conference 2013: “Fasten Your Seatbelts” by David A. Wilson

David Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer of GMAC, presented a lecture at the EFMD 2013 Annual Conference titled “Fasten Your Seatbelts.”  Higher education is facing an uncertain environment with differing approaches in pedagogy and turbulent markets.  Wilson discussed the state of higher education now versus what it was like five years ago, and he gave his vision for higher education in the future.

EFMD Annual Conference 2013: “Does Management Education Create Impact?” by Eric Cornuel

At the opening address for the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) 2013 Annual Conference, Eric Cornuel, EFMD’s Director General and CEO, gave an inspiring introduction on the positive influence that management education has worldwide.