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The importance of continuous leadership development is more pressing than ever, as companies are realizing that to thrive in today's ever-changing environment, they need to cultivate and further develop leadership skills and organizational abilities.

WHU not only stands for excellence in management education, we also strongly believe in the concept of lifelong learning. Hence, the WHU Executive Education department is constantly developing its portfolio so that we can support managers and executives at all career and experience levels.

In order to further optimize the Open Programs portfolio for the needs of experienced professionals, the WHU Executive Education department is proud to announce the launch of its newest program, the Management Acceleration Program. Designed for managers and executives with at least 5-8 years of leadership experience, this comprehensive program empowers experienced professionals to navigate complex business landscapes, drive growth, and achieve strategic goals.

"In today's rapidly evolving business environment, continuous leadership development is paramount. Our Management Acceleration Program addresses the unique challenges faced by experienced professionals, providing them with the tools and knowledge to thrive in their leadership roles."

- Dr. Rebecca Winkelmann, Managing Director Executive Education at WHU

The Management Acceleration Program is a flexible learning experience designed to meet the needs of experienced professionals. The content of the program is in line with the bestseller “Management Essentials” and offers experienced managers a broad spectrum of topics that are relevant to their day-to-day work:

• Advanced Leadership
• Crisis Leadership
• Financial Literacy
• Strategic Decision Making
• Strategy Execution for Organizational Growth

Participants can personalize their learning journey by choosing three of the five modules, ensuring that they gain the skills most relevant to their career aspirations.

The program combines theoretical frameworks with practical applications and includes interactive elements such as simulations, role-plays and case studies. Participants learn from renowned WHU faculty and industry experts, gaining valuable insights and real-world perspectives.

Further details on the Management Acceleration Program can be found on the program’s website.

Like any major technological innovation, technology can be used for good and bad purposes and can be used with good and bad intentions. That was the case when a finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deep fake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call.

In his article, “The Dark Side of Superhuman Persuasion: Why We Need Education on Generative AI,” Professor Dries Faems, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technological Transformation at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and leading expert in the field of AI, laid out the risks and threats of the new emerging technology.

Takeaways:

1. Advanced AI systems can potentially influence human behavior and decision-making to a much greater extent than humans can.
   
2. The GPT Builder application called the Election Persuader, showcases the ability of AI to tailor communications based on individual profiles and preferences, potentially influencing political decisions. The power of AI in crafting messages that resonate on a personal level could have significant implications for the future of advertising, campaigning, and even interpersonal communication.
   
3. Education is essential in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies. While regulation is necessary, it often lags behind technological innovation, making it difficult to manage the implications of AI globally.
   

Professor Faems writes that superhuman persuasion is the concept where advanced AI systems can significantly influence human decision-making by utilizing large datasets and algorithms to create highly personalized messages. This capability allows AI to connect with individuals on a deeply personal level, making it more effective than traditional human communication.

While Professor Faems adds that Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, discussed this as a potential risk in AI development, Professor Faems illustrates that the application called “Election Persuader” was created using GPT Builder. This chatbot can craft customized emails to voters, encouraging them to support a particular political party based on their interests and beliefs. The “Election Persuader” requires the user to upload a political party’s program and a LinkedIn profile to generate a persuasive email. This application demonstrates the potential of AI to tailor persuasive messages that can appeal to individuals’ specific preferences, even if they initially seem unlikely to support the cause.

The conversation on AI is often complex, and the importance of these issues highlight the need for a comprehensive approach. Following up on his article, we had a short interview with Professor Faems:

- Professor Faems, there are voters voting in elections all around the world this year, and we now know that AI is increasingly being used to manipulate voters with tailored content. How can the public and tech companies keep up with this?

Keeping up will be quite challenging as the technology is developing at exponential speed. Nevertheless, we should make sure that citizens are at least aware about what is happening to improve their ability to recognize the difference between content created by humans and content created by AI. In my opinion, educational institutions at all levels of the educational trajectory should start thinking about how they can prepare their students for these challenges.

- How transparent should technology companies be about their use of AI?

At the technological level, transparency is good but will not be sufficient. The problem is that technology companies themselves do not fully understand how these AI technologies exactly work. At the application level, companies should indeed be obliged to clearly disclose which AI technologies have been used for particular applications and how they are used.

What happens next?

While A.I. has taken a giant leap forward — and is evolving so rapidly that it is hard to keep up with the state of play. The big question remains, “How do we actually equip youth, our current generation and future today with AI skills and do it with diversity and inclusion?” and “How do we not leave people and students further behind when much remains unknown about the technology even as its development speeds ahead?”

Are you interested in learning more about AI and its potential to facilitate your daily work?

Save a spot in our bootcamp: Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT and Generative AI for Business Development, in which Professor Faems will give an introduction on how to write effective prompts, combine different AI tools, and develop agents to execute tasks in the context of specific use cases. Registration is open until June 7th, 2024.

Learn More About the Program

Sports business needs experts capable of rising to the challenges posed by the modern era. With the world of sports becoming more digital, international, and in need of future-proof strategies, three of Europe’s top business schools—WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Düsseldorf, Germany; the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden; and ESSEC Business School in Paris, France—have announced the European Sports Business Program (ESBP), a new business management executive education offering scheduled to debut on February 14, 2024, and to run until late-May. This program, the first of its kind, has been designed for professionals with a growth-oriented mindset and a strong interest in how the European sports industry functions at its very core.

The program comprises three distinct on-site, English-language modules, each taking place over the course of three days—and in three major cities across Europe. Under the supervision of Professor Sascha L. Schmidt (Director and Chairholder at WHU’s Center for Sports and Management), Professor Martin Carlsson-Wall (Director of the Center for Sports and Business at SSE), and Professor Karoline Strauss (ESSEC Sports Chair), participants will not only learn new skills. They will have a complete experience, gathering with like-minded future leaders and building a strong, international network of their peers. They will become proficient in state-of-the-art techniques for systematically analyzing and leveraging the future efficiently. And, finally, they will delve into the pivotal roles that leadership, purpose, and culture play in effectively managing change at sports organizations. “We aim to provide our participants with a forward-thinking perspective that prepares them to seize opportunities and manage risks in the changing sports industry,” said Professor Sascha L. Schmidt.

Further details on the European Sports Business Program can be found at the program’s website.

Executive Education at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, with a variety of cooperative open programs already globally recognized by the Financial Times (#15 in the 2022 Ranking), continues to diversify its portfolio. WHU knows that it is more important than ever for any executive to take a 360° view of their field of practice to prepare themselves for the future. A core part of that is paying mind to how an industry can and ultimately does evolve—and understanding the potential strategic changes that new technology may bring. To date, the world of sports has secured itself a connected future and earned the reputation of being an industry well ahead of the curve. On October 3, WHU Executive Education will debut the new Transformational Technologies: Applied Lessons from Sports course running as a part of the MIT xPRO series. This brand-new curriculum uses the sports industry as an example of where the world of business is headed.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA (USA) started offering their xPRO series of courses in 2016, seeking to combine a student’s business acumen with the technical expertise necessary for the future. In line with this approach, this new asynchronous course, developed together with WHU, is the first of its kind to center around the sports industry and how it has adopted new technology—including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and Web 3.0. Designed for business professionals across all industries, the program will show how technological breakthroughs could forever change the way business is conducted and enable participants to apply this freshly gained knowledge to their own professional lives.

Professor Sascha L. Schmidt, holder of the Sports and Management Chair at WHU, is spearheading the course and explained, “This is a chance for business professionals to learn more about today’s technology revolution—and how it affects both their private and professional environment.” Upon successfully completing the course, participants will receive an official certification from WHU and MIT xPRO.

Those interested in enrolling in the program can find more information on the official course website.

In November 2020, a group of 42 selected senior professionals came together in a virtual format to reflect upon their individual leadership challenges in times of a pandemic. The group of senior professionals attended inspiring sessions on crisis leadership to prepare them for events that could happen during their future time as a leader. In addition, participants were encouraged to reflect upon their personal as well as organizational resilience to cope successfully with unforeseen and stress-provoking events and change.

“I am thrilled to see that we created an intimate learning environment so that our participants had the opportunity to discuss their personal leadership challenges”, says Dr. Rebecca Winkelmann, Managing Director WHU Executive Education, who initiated the “Leading beyond the crisis” program. High-profile guest speakers from different industries complemented the academic and self-reflection sessions. They shed light upon the challenges of their corporations during the pandemic, and gave insight into innovative solutions. Participants appreciated the possibilities to personally interact during the seminar and to learn from each other in a fully virtual environment. A few of them share their personal learnings and take-aways:

“The topic and curriculum of the seminar could not have been timelier. What impressed me most was the seniority of the participants and the speed at which a mutual sense of trust was formed which, even in a fully virtual classroom, quickly fostered highly valuable discussions and peer-group connections.“

Armin Häberle, Head of Business Media Division & Managing Director „Die Stiftung“ Media GmbH

“Leading beyond the crisis Program” defined leadership differently with exchanges of real-life experiences and nowhere-to-be-found group works. Leadership during a time of crisis will never be easy, but I feel I will be able to understand the meaning, reason, and purpose better and more importantly, convey this understanding to my team.”

Ali Inal, IT Director of Enerjisa Üretim

“The Leading beyond the crisis Program successfully directed our awareness and understanding of resilience. What does resilience mean for me, my team, and the organization? How to handle the first signs of misbalance? The well-experienced coach Karsten Drath helped us gain a deeper understanding, and the exchange with peers in the online break-out groups was extremely valuable.

Friday and Saturday were filled with insights from industry speakers and consecutive deep dives into resilience. We later summarized that it was especially good to see that we were not the only ones with concerns, challenges, and questions on what this challenging time of Covid-19 is doing to us and our work lives. A lot of food for thought!”

Jutta Kaiser, Head of Retail Development - Strategy & Governance @ Customer Support at BMW AG