EMBA Programs make their mark in so many ways by transforming the lives of students, who in turn contribute to the economy, their communities, and society at large. This year’s plenaries will help you continue to enhance the impact of your program and your impact as well.
Disruptive Innovation in the EMBA World and How to GROW
No matter where you turn in today's rapidly evolving business landscape, more and more you will find disruptive innovation at work. Emerging technologies are constantly shaking up industries, and the world of higher education is no exception.
This plenary session will help you better understand how disruptive innovation impacts the EMBA world and how to prepare for and embrace change. The journey will start by examining the emerging technologies most likely to disrupt the EMBA world in the short term. From artificial intelligence to virtual reality, many new technologies on the horizon offer the potential to fundamentally change how schools approach education.
Next, the session will take a closer look at how to spot disruption coming and how to adapt to it. The discussion will cover the importance of staying on top of industry trends and proactively identifying emerging technologies that could impact your school and program, as well as strategies for embracing disruption and turning it into an opportunity for growth.
And last, but not least, you’ll learn practical growth strategies that you can implement immediately. From building agile teams to fostering a culture of innovation, discover actionable steps that you can take to stay ahead of the curve and position your EMBA Program for success in the face of disruption.
About the speaker
It started with the image of a boarded-up Blockbuster video store – a timeless lesson that innovation never sleeps and the importance of staying ahead of the curve. Watching Netflix take down an industry giant catalyzed a passion in Henry Hays to motivate others to innovate.
Founder and Managing Partner for Henry Hays Consulting, Hays works with legacy businesses, helping them transform by developing radically different business models. He also shares his passion as a keynote speaker on disruptive innovation.
Before founding his company, Hays served as senior executive vice president for MPower Health, a Dallas-based healthcare company with a focus on delivering innovative value-based care. A founding member of the original sales organization that sold for a 35-times multiple in 2015, he previously worked as national sales director for Avanir Pharmaceuticals. When he left the biotech space, Hays founded and sold MatchPoint Connection, which was the first NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) app in the marketplace. He also co-founded DisruptREADY, a business intelligence firm that educates legacy businesses on emerging technologies.
When he's not on stage or working with a client, Hays spends time with his wife and three children in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that or he's struggling to break 80 on a golf course with a view.
AI-Powered Business Schools: Transforming the Business Education Landscape
The data from the latest Tomorrow’s MBA study positions artificial intelligence (AI) as the most sought-after topic for prospective students. As a result, integrating AI into the MBA curriculum emerges not as an option but a necessity in preparing future leaders for the technology-driven business world.
Inspired by the rapid advancements in technology such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, this plenary will explore the transformative potential of AI within business schools.
Current discussions in the business school community on AI's potential applications predominantly focus on enhancing the existing education model. These AI implementations, though significant, largely serve as additive elements rather than disruptive forces within the prevailing business model.
Yet, looking to the future, a more disruptive, digitally native model of business education appears - one fundamentally oriented around AI and supported by humans, rather than the other way around. This transformative approach could unlock unprecedented opportunities, enabling schools to deliver high-quality education to many students, managed by a lean team of staff. By embracing this model, the business school community opens itself to the vast potential of AI, paving the way for a revolution in executive and management education that goes beyond mere enhancement and moving toward a wholesale reinvention of the educational landscape.
The plenary will cover three models of the prevailing attitudes toward AI in business schools: Agnostic (status quo), Believer (enhanced), and Champion (AI-powered). It also will take a closer look at how Imperial College Business School is embracing digital transformation through human-AI collaboration in the key areas of research and intellectual leadership, teaching and experiential learning, and assessment and collaboration and how that investment helps the school offer a personalized, flexible, and high-quality education for the business leaders of tomorrow.
About the speaker
Director of the Innovation, Digital Education & Analytics (IDEA) Lab at Imperial College Business School, Sarah Grant, PhD, has pioneered new approaches in the field of educational technology and transformed the school’s digital education strategy. She has guided the lab to global recognition as a leader in digital learning innovation.
The driving force behind the IDEA Lab’s evolution, Grant has played an instrumental role in developing a robust portfolio of more than 200 high-quality online modules, including the flagship online Global MBA Program, ranked third in the world. Her hands-on approach, combined with her extensive expertise, has been instrumental in creating strategic alignment across the school's digital offerings. Notable projects include exploring innovative methodologies, such as the use of holographic technology to enhance human presence in virtual teaching and the design of an experimental study integrating immersive Virtual Reality into leadership and diversity education. She also focuses on human-AI collaboration to transform the design and delivery of business education, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
An influential thought leader within the field of digital education, Grant contributes to the educational research community. Her leadership extends globally, through the design and delivery of the EFMD’s annual Online Teaching Academy, which supports faculty worldwide in effectively teaching management education online. She also helms the novel EFMD online program, Future-Focused Education: Course Planning and Pedagogy in a Digital Age.
Her academic background includes a PhD in philosophy from the University of Otago. She is passionate about applying philosophical thinking to complex problems in education, particularly in understanding and navigating the ethical, pedagogical, and strategic implications of AI in the digital learning landscape.
Her deep knowledge of digital pedagogical innovation and her ability to envision and implement cutting-edge technologies, has shaped Imperial College Business School's digital education landscape, affirming its position as a global leader in the field.
Equipping the Next Generation of Leaders in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
Organizations continue to integrate artificial intelligence into work and society. Research points to the only way to harness the full economic potential of advanced technologies: Replacing the leadership systems we’ve inherited from the Industrial Revolution with a new leadership system better suited for leading and managing human-centered organizations in the 21st century.
This plenary session builds on Brian Evergreen’s new book, Autonomous Transformation, which the Next Big Idea Club selected as a “must-read.” Offering the historical and theoretical context for the trajectory of management science, the session explores what needs to change for leaders to harness the economic and societal potential of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.
The session also will introduce actionable steps educators can take to equip leaders for this leadership system, allowing their students to unlock previously unseen results and new levels of value creation, all the while rehumanizing work. Learn the insights and rigorous methodologies that will enable EMBA students to lead organizations of all sizes and across industries, cutting through the digital fog and adapting strategies and cultures to evolve from data-driven to reason-driven, equipped to leverage the full potential of people and technologies to acquire, retain, or expand market leadership.
Pre-sale Link: Autonomous Transformation: Creating a More Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
About the speaker
Brian Evergreen is best known for his work advising FORTUNE 500 executives on artificial intelligence strategy. Building on his experiences at Accenture, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft, Brian guest lectures at Purdue University and the Kellogg School of Management. A Senior Fellow in the Economy, Strategy, and Finance Center of The Conference Board, he shares the unconventional and innovative methods and frameworks that he developed leading and advising digital transformation initiatives at many of the world's most valuable companies.
Evergreen is the founder of The Profitable Good Company, a leadership advisory company that partners with and equips leaders to harness the economic and societal potential of technology by creating a more human future in the era of artificial intelligence.
Let's Grow the Pie
Business schools develop human capital, a subject area filled with disruptions, such as AI, globalization, economic turbulence, hybrid work, and political and legal influences, and not always a lot of equity. Nevertheless, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a proven talent strategy, outperforming many others at increasing market share, identifying new markets, and driving revenues. Ancillary opportunities naturally arise, including new verticals, business, and products, which provide economic opportunities that benefit everyone.
As EMBA Programs work to improve the talented people in their classrooms, learning to leverage difference becomes an essential strategy for growth, for both students and schools. EMBA Programs can serve as active learning labs to promote DEI as an essential human capital strategy, changing the way organizations show up in the marketplace and consumer lives. Embracing DEI also increases enrollment, improves community relations, and develops more satisfied alumni. This session will look at ways to prepare leaders and schools for greater success.
About the speaker
Leon A. Jackson, PhD, is first and foremost, the very proud father to Leon Jackson II and Kamran Jackson.
Jackson is founder and CEO of The Diversity in Leadership Program, an initiative to help close educational attainment gaps, wealth gaps, skills gaps, and opportunity gaps for marginalized groups with the aim of creating more inclusive ecosystems throughout the globe. The Diversity in Leadership Program succeeds in those aims through strategic partnerships with Butler University, Indiana University, Marian University, The University of Notre Dame, and Purdue University. Diversity in Leadership has helped partner schools increase enrollment at least 25 percent, and representation as much as 75 percent, with 56 percent of those who complete the program entering graduate programs and generating more than $3 million for partner schools.
The program also helps its participants advance their careers: Since its founding, 84 percent of participants have received promotions, with 17 reaching executive-level positions and four moving to CEO roles. The program’s first Ohio cohort launches August 2023, in collaboration with The Ohio State University, The University of Cincinnati, and Xavier University, with partnerships in Chicago, Los Angeles, Michigan, as well as Tennessee, on the horizon.
As Chancellor of Marian University’s St. Joseph’s College for the last two years, Jackson has increased total enrollment more than 450 percent and raised more than $3.5 million in student scholarships and support.
Jackson earned his PhD in workforce development and organizational leadership from The University of Nevada–Las Vegas. He received a master’s degree in workplace learning and performance, also from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, as well as an Executive MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Indiana State University.
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