Executive MBA for digital leaders: HWZ launches EMBA Digital Leadership
HWZ Zurich University of Applied Sciences is launching the EMBA in Digital Leadership, a unique program for executives who wish to deepen their knowledge of digital technologies and new leadership approaches and develop a digital vision for their company. Numerous innovative and attractive features are setting a new standard for EMBA programs in Switzerland. The program is led by Sunnie J. Groeneveld and Manuel P. Nappo.
If you want to lead your company successfully through the digital transformation, you need new skills and leadership approaches. This includes a sound understanding of digital technologies and business models on the one hand, and the ability to inspire and empower employees for a digital vision on the other. In the new EMBA Digital Leadership, managers deal with topics such as data-based decision-making, platform economics, intrapreneurship and learn to operate in innovation ecosystems and work collaboratively with new stakeholders across industries. According to the press release, program directors Sunnie J. Groeneveld and Manuel P. Nappo have designed this EMBA program from the ground up in the same way they would like to attend it themselves.
Three pillars to becoming a digital leader
The EMBA Digital Leadership is based on the three pillars "Digital Business and Technology", "Digital Culture and Leadership" and "Digital Vision". In addition to imparting a sound understanding of digital technology, it focuses on the personal development and entrepreneurial and communication skills of participants. Innovative elements make this course a program that sets new standards in Switzerland:
- A conference organized at the HWZ in TEDx format. The students are accompanied by a rhetoric coach for several months and coached in their presentation skills.
- A Digital Startup Challenge. In this challenge, students develop a concrete idea for a digital product or service, a business plan and a prototype. They pitch their idea to a jury consisting of business angels and start-up experts with the chance of receiving start-up funding.
- To promote personal leadership skills and career planning, students can take advantage of personal career coaching throughout the program.
- During three study trips to Switzerland (ETH, EPFL and CERN), the USA (Harvard, Yale, MIT and selected technology companies in New York) and China (leading tech companies in Beijing and Shanghai), students visit leading innovation ecosystems.
- Graduates of the program have in-depth digital technology and business expertise. They also have the necessary methodological skills to implement a start-up idea in the digital sector as well as a comprehensive digital transformation in an existing organization.
"With her digital know-how, entrepreneurial experience and strong network with the innovation hotspots of Switzerland and the USA, Sunnie J. Groeneveld is the ideal co-director of the program," says Manuel P. Nappo, Head of the Institute for Digital Business at the HWZ.
Groeneveld founded the consulting firm Inspire 925, was the first managing director of the digitalswitzerland location initiative and now sits on the board of directors of three medium-sized Swiss companies in the IT, engineering and media sectors. She is also the author of the book "Inspired at Work" (Versus Verlag), was named one of the "Top 100 Women in Business" and was included in Forbes business magazine's "30 under 30" list for German-speaking countries. She has lived in the USA for several years, worked in Silicon Valley and New York and has a degree in economics from Yale University.
