USI goes digital with sustainable executive education

The Covid-19 pandemic has peaked and businesses all around the globe are looking to assess the damages and recover as quickly as possible. Nobody can reasonably know what the post-Covid world will look like, but economic recovery means that business decisions need to be made now and, more than ever; they require adequate skills and a certain mindset to be successful. This what the new USI Executive MBA aims at providing, with a revised curriculum defined by concepts fit to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

Roads to disruption

The leitmotif of the upcoming USI EMBA class, the tenth in the series, is digital transformation. In today’s data-driven economy, new technologies are developed and brought to the market relentlessly with machine learning and artificial intelligence features, calling for entrepreneurs and business executives to adopt new organisational approaches and skills, including innovative thinking and visionary mindsets.

In this regard, Professor Gianvito Lanzolla (Cass Business School and USI EMBA) says, “Many companies and managers think that digital transformation is about digital technology diffusion. They think they just need to equip with artificial intelligence and data analysis systems. They do not consider that those changes are also geopolitical; we can see them in consumer behaviour, in competition, in regulation. Digital transformation represents a real “BANG”. We are experiencing the fourth industrial revolution.”  

Sustainable approaches: transformational weekend

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced millions of people to quickly familiarise with modern digital tools to avoid being cut out of the workforce, employers are likely to learn from the experience and continue to expect flexibility from staff, including the use of digital communication technologies. The USI EMBA courses starting in September 2021 shall cater to the new needs of the business world. The program will consist of one course per month, delivered partly asynchronous including online interactions with faculty, and through a transformational weekend in the classroom. 

Ten times USI EMBA

Since the first cohort of participants joined the USI Lugano campus, in 2011, the number of successful USI EMBA graduates has grown to over 120, with individuals hailing from a half a dozen different countries and operating in a wide range of economic sectors, including pharma, IT, banking and finance, telecoms, transportation, tourism, retail, and even agribusiness. As USI EMBA Director Professor Gianluca Colombo says, “our programme appeals mainly to mid-career executives who understand that to make a career move it is essential to invest in learning new concepts that can then be applied in real life – like a key that unlocks a door to access new places. We are now heading towards the tenth disruptive edition”. www.emba.usi.ch