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On November 22, 2021, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and IESE Business School jointly kicked-off the High-Performance Board Member Program at WHU Campus Düsseldorf. It was the first module of a seven-day program which is offered in cooperation by two of the most renowned business schools in Europe.

19 C-level executives from various industries such as Software, Media, Engineering, Non-Profit, Healthcare Services, Consulting, Manufacturing & Production, and Energy experienced a vivid program mix of interactive lectures and networking opportunities. Professor Markus Rudolf, Dean of WHU, was delighted to welcome the executives during the formal dinner on the first day. “It is great to see that two of the best business schools in Europe joined their forces to offer such a high-caliber program for senior executives. It was great to welcome them at our campus in Düsseldorf coming from Portugal, Spain, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Germany. It makes me proud that we were able to welcome back some of our WHU alumni for the program,” said Professor Markus Rudolf.

During the first part of the program, which took three days, renowned faculty from IESE and WHU including Professor Marc Sachon (IESE), Professor Serden Özcan (WHU), Professor Govert Vroom (IESE), and Professor Martin Glaum (WHU) shared their knowledge on corporate boards, including insights on disruption, and financial reports. Furthermore, Dr. Christian Vocke (Baker & McKenzie) and Jürgen Steinemann (Supervisory Board, METRO AG), shared best practice insights during their guest lectures. Module two and three will take place at the respective IESE campuses in Munich and Barcelona in spring 2022.

The High-Performance Board Member Program is most suitable for executives currently serving on boards and next-generation leaders preparing to transition to a board role. It illustrates the main challenges and responsibilities of corporate boards while using examples taken from real-life scenarios. Additionally, the program offers an opportunity to discuss current challenges in strategic corporate management on an equal footing and in a protected space. It is meant to provide a highly practice-oriented approach and is the starting point of IESE’s and WHU’s fruitful cooperation.

10 years of social entrepreneurship, 7 years of successful partnership with over 46,000 purpose-driven responsible leaders: BOOKBRIDGE and WHU enable participants to start their own social enterprise.

Hands-on, practice orientated knowledge is always important in management education, but crucial for starting one’s own company: The General Management Plus Program of WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management offers participants the opportunity to co-create social enterprises in emerging markets like Sri Lanka, Cambodia or Mongolia. Since 2013, WHU has been cooperating with the social enterprise BOOKBRIDGE giving its executive education to participants. "Over the years, we have developed more than 600 leaders in GMP+ each of whom has impacted 77 colleagues on average. This means that we have already turned over 46,000 people into purpose-driven responsible leaders worldwide," says BOOKBRIDGE co-founder and WHU alumnus Carsten Rübsaamen and smiles. "We are thus changing entire organizations towards more innovation and value-based leadership.”

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Professor Dr. Jürgen Weigand is Academic Director WHU EMBA Program and the Center for Responsible Leadership at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. Having worked as a senior advisor for various international blue-chip companies, he is an expert in business strategy and conveys the necessary skills and knowledge to become a good leader. In this interview, he points out the most important qualities of a good leader, the influence of digitalization on leadership, and more.

What are the most important qualities of a good leader?

“Transitioning into a leadership role means having three key capabilities: The will, the skill and the integrity to lead. This may sound challenging, but there are both a lot of leadership knowledge and tools that you can learn to develop your authentic leadership style. Additionally, mastering leadership requires of self-reflection and feedback from others.”

Does Digitalization influence the role of General Manager?

“Yes, definitely. Let me mention two: First, disruptive innovation may change the ‘game’ in your industry, so General Managers will have to think more and more about how to sustain competitive advantage. Second, ways and speed of communication with all stakeholder change, which means that GM need to constantly reflect upon leadership and communication style.”

Can General Management be learned?

“In my over 20 years of experience in designing MBA and lifelong learning programs, I have observed that three broad areas of knowledge and skills are highly relevant: a) Business acumen – the ability to understand the financial side of your business, b) Strategy – the ability to formulate and execute strategic initiatives in your team or business unit and c) Leadership – the ability to motivate and guide teams. All this can be learned!”

The scope of duties of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) has expanded considerably in recent years. CIOs take on a broad range of responsibilities, and their leadership extends far beyond information and communications management in a company.

In light of these wide-reaching changes in the role of the CIO, the Executive Education branch of WHU, together with the specialized business magazine CIO, has developed a furthering education program that specifically develops the leadership competence and general management skills of IT managers. Supported by HP and the CIO Foundation, the "CIO Leadership Excellence Program" has successfully started as the first program of its kind in Germany. The participants comprise a total of 19 topnotch IT managers from different companies, including Henkel, Hilti and SMA Solar Technology.

The program is explicitly designed to allow the participants to analyze, structure, and address the strategic challenges of companies from the perspective of management and the business division, using a targeted set of approaches. Class content and teaching methods are specifically designed for the target group of executives: senior managers who already possess many years of professional and leadership experience and who can actively contribute their experience in class. The furthering education program places particular emphasis on a dynamic and competitive environment as well as on the opportunities and risk profiles of emerging economies.

The "CIO Leadership Excellence Program" consists of a total of three modules: a basis module with an emphasis on general management at the WHU campus in Vallendar as well as two international modules in India (Mumbai and Bangalore) and in China. Emerging markets form the special focus of the two international modules.

The innovative IT business magazine CIO brings together two things that belong together in the closely networked economy of the 21st century: IT and business. IT is increasingly coming into focus as companies set goals for the future. The reason: reducing costs, optimizing customer relationships, and increasing productivity are only possible with strategic, expedient use of new technologies. “CIO – IT Strategy for Managers” has been a member of IDG Business Media GmbH since October 2001. Since 1974 they have been the specialist for B2B communication in the German-speaking field of IT and technical communications.