EAE News
CEOx1Day: A challenge to boost the executive competences of EAE students
30 de October de 2020
Just as practice makes perfect, competence drives efficiency. In terms of training and enhancing professional skills, there are few activities as productive as challenges. EAE Business School and Odgers Berndtson, the international executive search firm, have worked together to organize the CEOx1Day challenge, designed to discover who has the talent to be a future leader, and give them the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a company director for a day.
On this occasion, held at the Barcelona campus, the challenge was led by the international headhunter, Jaime Ozores, and the Director of Digitization of a Spanish bank, Pol Navarro, who took charge of setting the parameters of the event. Formed of two sessions lasting two hours each, around fifteen EAE students of different profiles and professions took part in the challenge, giving a strong show of leadership and financial analysis.
“As well as being interesting, this challenge is an experience that, by showing how executives in a big company work and think, strengthens their professional training and networking with their colleagues and the professionals that take part in the sessions”.
Daniel Suárez
Student on the Master in Project Management
Challenge context and methodology:
Making decisions to invest in new businesses or to break into new markets
The Challenge started with a presentation by Pol Navarro, who explained the context and key decision that the candidates would be tackling as the focus of the CEOx1Day challenge:
Banks are continually exploring new opportunities for developing the products and services they offer through partnerships, investing in digital companies or acquiring complementary businesses in other regions.
How can we help CEOs decide whether to invest in digital businesses or in new markets?
“These events are really important because they give us the opportunity to learn from other perspectives and make business decisions from a strategic point of view”.
Víctor Hugo
Student del Master in Project Management
The Dynamic of the Challenge:
Executive committee simulation
After an overview of the decision that the candidates would have to make, Jaime Ozores then explained the two stages of the Challenge: the executive committee simulation and the vote.
Firstly, the executive committee stage consisted of a simulation in which the candidates took on the roles of the company’s directors in order to reach an agreement on the issue presented. To do so, each student had a specific role on the committee and had to help the team make a final decision based on the functions and objectives of the assigned role.
Vote and explanation of the decision
After the committee simulation and a long discussion of all the key points to be taken into consideration when working to reach a consensus, they had to make their final decision: whether to buy a digital business or invest in a new market. At this point, each student had to decide whether or not to support either option and explain the reasons behind their stance.
“These events are really interesting because there are lots of students with different points of views and careers, each with their own opinion and viewpoint of the problem, which enables them to feed off each other and generate a better result. Combining experience with education always helps, as they gain a different from vision from what they have been studying for a long time”.
Pol Navarro
Director of a Spanish Bank
Final Decision
For over an hour, the students had a constructive discussion, approaching the challenge from different perspectives and analysing the different variables that could affect the decision.
The variables that they analysed most included the current and future value of the digital business and the new market, the teams, the role of technology, the systems and the digital transformation digital throughout the process, among other aspects.
Gradually, under the supervision of Pol Navarro and Jaime Ozores, the participants clarified the issue and began taking clear stances based on the discussions and arguments put forward.
Pol Navarro asegura emphasized that “decisions are not an exact science. They have to be taken from the bottom up, evaluating all the aspects, such as the business, the clients, the operations, etc. Before making any decision, we have to understand the whole environment and capitalize fully on our relationships and external knowledge”.
After almost two full hours of work, the event came to an end and, one by one, the students left the classroom, discussing and chatting with each other about the issues raised.
“This event is the culmination of the whole learning process that these students undertake at EAE, as it is a completely practical part that also equips them with competences and skills that they can really use in the future careers as executives. That is not to mention the prize itself: the chance to be the right-hand man or woman of a CEO in a leading company for a day is a unique opportunity in terms of an experience of incalculable value”.
Jaime Ozores
International Headhunter, Partner and Director at Odgers Berndtson