Which is the best: INSEAD, OXFORD, HARVARD, or ISL?

“Something to Digest over the Weekend”

Executive development is widely regarded as a key to organisation success. Nowadays many boards set KPIs for their CEO with this in mind. Targets are set for the CEO’s own development as well as the senior team and up to 15% of the CEOs remuneration package is dependent on these targets being met.

The conundrum that follows is where to undertake the executive development – in the home country or in an Ivy League business school abroad?
The following mini-case offers some insights that may be worthwhile considering by boards and CEOs when they grapple with this question.

Recently I met with an ISL alumnus who ten years ago completed our SLP and then recently attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at INSEAD. This top exec was back in Auckland visiting his parents and reached out for a ‘catch-up’ meeting.

I myself attended INSEAD and completed the AMP back in 1990 when I was a young CEO in London. I recall going back to work with some big insights and cutting-edge concepts that added to my strategic leadership toolkit. In those days, it was all about striving for ‘competitive advantage’ at both the personal and organisational levels. Competitive advantage through ideas, networks, and a distinctive B-School brand.

It was in this context that I viewed this meeting as a great opportunity to hear how this high-flyer, who runs the global operations of a NY listed company, found his INSEAD experience and to learn how he compares and contrasts INSEAD with his ISL experience.

Our discussion over lunch went something along the following lines:

” So how did INSEAD go?”, I asked

“… the professors, campus, the other 100 participants in the class were amazing!”, was his response.”

“And what were the three BIG things you learned?” I asked

“First: I am an introvert and need to reach out much more.

“Second: As a detailed person, I need to ‘get out of the weeds’ and get up into the strategic level; restricting my information sources to the Economist, Financial Times, and Harvard Business Review.”

“Third: I learned that I need to invest time and effort to build strong, high trust relationships, not only with my boss but also with my boss’s boss.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t learn these lessons earlier when you were at Millbrook?”, I exclaimed.

“Yes I did Geoff, but we all need to learn things a few times before these insights eventually make sense and click”, he replied. “At Millbrook I gained confidence (overcoming the imposter syndrome), realising that I am just as good in my own way as other senior executives”.

“Do you know what my classmates at INSEAD learned Geoff? They learned what I learned at Millbrook, viz. that they are just as good as the rest.”

His insights came as a surprise given that the AMP at INSEAD covers the whole gambit of business management topics: accounting, finance, marketing, economics, and leadership. I personally recall going back to my office with a BIG insight around the power of ABC (activity based accounting). It follows that I had anticipated that he would have enthusiastically spouted out about some new big ideas around such things as digital, diagnostics and analytics.

During our lunch meeting, he mentioned that his INSEAD programme set back his firm around $70,000 and it begs the question “could he have gained those three insights cheaper and in much less time?”

The reality that learning is a life long development experience and not a one shot event. This high flyer will in due course come to realise that he has learned much more from INSEAD than he could ever imagine. That’s why when I get asked by our alumnus, “what should I do next?”, I always say do the AMP at INSEAD if you are looking to bolster your management skills, or get yourself off to Oxford or London Business School if you want to experience a different style of strategic leadership programme.

Right now the world is changing fast and the sun is moving from the old world (Europe and USA) to the new world, particularly the Asia/Pacific region. In this new world, “fast, nimble, and co-create” are three of the key success factors for winning at the world cup level.

Australia and New Zealand have always punched above their weight when it comes to sport, and rugby in particular. We have learned that polishing our skills is not enough and that we need to continuously reinvent our game if we are to stay out in front and remain the winners.

The bottom-line: what can we learn from this mini-case ….

1. USA, Europe and UK versus Asia Pacific: perhaps the old world, characterised by the narcissistic John Wayne style, can learn something about leadership and management from Asia Pacific when it comes to building a sustainable values based business that applies new forms of strategy, innovation, and leadership principles to attract and empower talent, and enable the organisation and its people to flourish.

2. Ivy League Brand: sending executives ad-hoc to an Ivy League B-School of choice (INSEAD, Oxford, LBS, Harvard, Stanford) does indeed add significant brand power to executives’ prestige and is an impressive CV filler. It also
raises senior execs’ confidence, learning that they are just as good as their international peers. For those who have previously attended a strategic leadership programme or MBA, it provides a useful refresher. The question is: who appropriates the benefits of this enhanced brand power – the individuals or their employer organisations?

3. A sequential, planned and integrated approach to executive development is the most effective way to develop a high performance senior leadership team and a high performance enterprise – at least cost: if all senior executives attend an experiential leadership development programme (such as the SLP/LP at ISL, Mt. Elisa or Centre for Creative Leadership), they would gain significantly in terms of a shared
experience, shared vocabulary, shared leadership framework, and shared digital toolkits, that allow for frank courageous conversations – resulting in enhanced group eQ and team performance. Similarly, the ISL | MBA or equivalent GM programmes at Mt Eliza, Ernst & Young (and most business schools in NZ and Australia) cost-effectively provide the need-to-know management knowledge, frameworks and skills to operate strategically with an across-the-organisation perspective.

4. In times of restricted budgets and time availability: the foundation blocks can be built cost effectively in NZ or Australia, as we have been saying for 15 years –

Food for thought…

IF YOU’VE BEEN TO MILLBROOK
YOU MIGHT BE READY FOR
INSEAD, OXFORD, LBS OR HARVARD...