I would like to kick off the 2012 Marketing Weblog, recalling a thought brought in by our Dean (Santiago Iñiguez) in the last Associate Professors Meeting of the IE Business School: The importance of raising multidisciplinary executives.
Those of you that have already studied at the IE, are aware that we try to do so: No matter what sort of field you are going to specialize o, we take take a twofold approach by teaching everybody all sort of enterprise areas (be it Finance, HR, Markeitng, Operations, IT, etc), and trying to cover case from different industries in every subject.
However, what Mr Iñiguez was referring to and I am actually trying to point out goes beyond that. Of course, it is essential to have a broad vision of all the areas of the company and be able to understand what are their keys. Moreover, it is also highly recommendable to understandable different drivers and business models from different industries in order to consider best practices for ours. But, this is just the first step. The next steps and what actually could be making the difference is the know-how and skills that your develop when managing something non-related to your business.
Let me give you two examples, to exemplify what I mean:
The first is one is somehow well-known: Steve Jobs. s you might be aware one of the first hits that Jobs put into practice was the introduction of new fonts usable with your PC. At that time it was somehow assumed that there was a standard writing for the PC and noone thought at that moment, that it could make sense to work with different options. So, how did Jobs come up with such an idea? Well, the idea came from the caligraphy classes that he took at College. He actually took them because he simply liked the subject and not because of any potential business use. But eventually, it helped him to view the reaility differently and come up with new disruptive approaches.
And the second one, which is unknown but eye-opening, is coming from a brazilian friend that was a monk from a yogi organization for many years. During those years as a monk he learned to meditate deeply, and developed a unusual ability for observing objectively with an incredible level of attention. My friend decided at some point to leave the monastery and resume his business career in Brazil. Where he has been amazingly successful in a multinational company doing research, thanks to his unique ability to observe customer behavior in the field.
These are just two examples, but I am sure that you can also think about similar ones, that should make ourselves reconsider what sort of managerial training you are getting and what should be your next step.
I am not saying that business training and refreshing is not important (actually it is to a big extent a conditio sine quanom for success), but a suggestion to go beyond strict business and open your mind. It will end up making personal and professional sense!
So, let me conclude with two questions for 2012: What are you going to to for your executive training in 2012? How are you are you going to open your mind?
THINK DIFFERENT!!!
Ignacio Gafo
PS: Needless to say that at IE Business School we are fully aware of this necessity and are actually incorporating humanities in most if not all our Programs and MBA. Take the IE Brown Executive MBA as a good example of what I mean.
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