Driving Growth in Turbulent Times – Aalto Executive Summit in Singapore

23 August 2017

Aalto Executive Summit in Singapore, August 2017
Aalto Executive Summit in Singapore, August 2017

Reflection by Håkan Ericson, Managing Director, GU School of Executive Education

For the fifth year straight, Aalto Executive Summit is staged by Aalto Executive Education (Aalto EE) as an integral part of Aalto Executive MBA. The Aalto Executive MBA portfolio counts no less than seven different programmes in Finland, Poland, Iran, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea.

The annual summit, with its location alternating between Helsinki and Singapore, gathers senior executives from across the world for one week of intense academic studies, networking and socializing. The 2017 Aalto Executive Summit is right now taking place in Singapore, themed “Driving Growth in Turbulent Times”. 147 participants from 23 countries gain insights within a variety of topics, all of them united by one idea – providing practical advice that can be immediately applied.

Stimulating networking opportunities and exchange of ideas, the summit is open not only to Aalto EMBA and MBA participants and alumni, but also to Aalto’s executive education partners: ESADE (Spain), School of Business Economics and Law (Sweden) and GSOM (Russia). We are proud to now be part of this impressive community! The 2018 summit in late August will be open to all our Gothenburg EMBA participants and alumni (against a tuition fee, this year 1500€).

Make no mistake about the level of this training, it is academic Executive MBA level throughout: considerable amounts of pre-readings (HBR and other papers), pre-summit individual submissions, and post-summit assignments. Compulsory participation to the sessions running from 09:00 to 17:30-18:00 Monday-Friday.

As I write, Tuesday night local time, we have jointly covered a first day devoted to the challenges of strategy formulation and strategy execution, led by Dr. Rebecca Homkes of London Business School. She had massive amounts of recent research to draw on during this captivating day. Dr. Pekka Mattila of Aalto EE guided us through the second day, sharing theory, models and tools to address growth – and the leadership required to properly drive it.

Tomorrow, the summit will split into three tracks, for which all of us have made our selection. For my part, I will deep dive into “Customer Experience Management” for the next two days, together with Professor of Marketing Emma Macdonald, Cranfield School of Management, UK. My first hand choice, obviously.

Friday will see the end of the summit with a day entirely focusing on “Succeeding in the Digital Landscape”, understanding the digital business models and what digital transformation implies. Professor Joe Peppard of ESMT Berlin, Germany, will host us then. The next Aalto Executive Summit is slated for August 2018. To know more about participation and to apply, please get in touch with us at GU School of Executive Education.