An intense week of Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) – IMD’s annual Singapore edition of its signature program – wrapped up with over 150 tired, but happy participants being presented their well-deserved certificates of participation. Gathering for farewell drinks under Singapore’s storming tropical sky, the truly global set of industry leaders from Australia to Norway and beyond came to Singapore to challenge their status quo and find new ways to approach their business challenges. IMD’s team of experts came ready to serve; a whirlwind of stats to make sense of, dilemmas to figure out, but most of all – beliefs to challenge.
An equally international group of professors came to the program eager to share IMD’s learning: the latest market trends, technologies and digital strategies. Some of the questions tackled were: What makes leaders tick? What tools are available today to better equip them to process information in the era of data overload? How can they make better-informed decisions, given they will ultimately have an impact on hundreds, or even thousands of lives?
Participants came to OWP’s week of full-immersion not only to better navigate today’s fast-changing business world, but also to gain insights into becoming more emotionally balanced and personally fulfilled as they lead their challenging executive lives.
Five days of knowledge-packed sessions drew insights from Prof. Goutam Challagalla– on renewing marketing strategies for the digitized world; Prof. Tawfik Jelassi – on how to lead in turbulent times of political and business disruption; what China’s innovation leaders have to teach the western world by Prof. Winter Nie; and Prof. Ben Bryant on the dissonance leadership finds itself in today and how addressing emotional intelligence is probably the best way out.
Several interesting learnings also from Arturo Bris, Professor of Finance, Director, IMD World Competitiveness Center, taking centre stage with the global launch of the World Talent Ranking showcasing through data how massive a priority it is for a country to invest in education to ensure its competitiveness.
Professor Bris also guided participants through blockchain’s adaptability for many industries beyond just financial markets. He revealed how it is the first real tangible solution to one of the more difficult problems of the digital world; how to transfer something of value from one person to another without middlemen having to make sure that the item is not copied or, in the case of money, spent more than once. Blockchain technology may still be relatively new but it can’t be ignored for the power it holds to transform every industry.
Among numerous other learnings, holding IMD’s signature program in Asia exposes participants from outside of the region to the reality of the paradigm shift of power toward to east: economic gravity has clearly centred towards Asia. The continent needs to tackle important problems to become truly prosperous and competitive, just as the west does, but today’s business leaders can no longer ignore the importance of the region and their interaction with companies, executives and colleagues from the region will only continue to grow.
In addition to OWP Singapore, IMD has a Southeast Asia Executive Learning Center in the Lion City, and runs a number of other open and custom programs regularly in the region.
