Arrival in style or the anatomy of a perfect landing @ Nassau International

Landing at Key West International Airport with Piper Cherokee

An hour flying around Elliott Key and The Ocean Reef Club

The Age of Liquid innovation

Technology and the business world are encountering an unprecedented pace of transformations where information is at the centre and globalization sets the stage.

Previous models for innovation are starting to show their age, as they were not built for high-speed changes in business and technology, but for innovation that first had to come to a dominant design before they could move to a mature and economical viable stage.

This new tempo needs a new model for innovation that takes into account elements like dynamic value chain, dynamic information networks and business on demand. It has to account for innovation that doesn’t need a dominant design to be viable, but a dynamic ecosystem where many different technical designs can flourish and become viable, all at the same level of success in the same time frame.

The liquid innovation proposes a model that should hold true, depending on the form of the ecosystem and on the angle that is viewed. It’s an on demand model for global, online and on-demand business.

Are MBA’s fit for purpose?

During my research for my first assignment I came across some papers and a book debating about the best way to learn management skills and behaviours. One of the strongest opinions came from a distinguished professor of a Canadian University. The basic idea of his books is that MBA is the wrong way to train to the wrong people the wrong tricks. He argues that management being a skill can’t be learn in a classroom; instead it needs experience and training on the ground.

Although no body can dispute the fact that experience is necessary in any occupation or profession. Cognitive learning is essential to arm you with the tools and the methodology to understand better your work as a manager and how to improve it.

I disagree with this professor and with some of the published papers challenging the suitability of MBAs. I decided to embark in an MBA, because after 10 years of managerial experience I realized that fundamental frameworks for my career were missing. Because no matter how many courses of finances, accounting and project management you take, you still miss a holistic view and understanding of your work as a manager. Because you actually end up learning more from your class mates than from books and professors who act more as a facilitators than teachers. It is a lot of fun to go back to the University, enjoy the debates and challenge every well-established position or belief including the existence of the MBAs.

Oxford EMBA 2009/2010 First Module

The first module was amazing. Between the tremendous desire to get started with our MBA and the excitement to meet so many new people from so many corners of the globe; we didn’t notice that at the end of the module we had an assignment to complete. An ‘Oxford Style’ essay with five thousands words of a subject that no body agrees about: What do managers do.

Does any body know what managers do? I don’t; and I have been working as such for more than 8 years. It gets worse. When you start to sink your teeth into the recommended literature; you find that there are as many definitions of managers and leadership as scholars have tried to define it.

After skimming two books and studying fourteen white papers you have a revelation; this assignment will look great if you had six months to prepare it, but you have only a couple of weeks to read all literature, analyse it and finally write your essay. Against your will and your better judgment you need to make a crucial decision. Stop reading and start writing. Before I knew it I had more than six thousands words that was in a desperate need of cleaning, editing and finally cutting down to five thousands words as required by the assignment. The first draft is finished and you don’t like it. You want to start to write everything from scratch but you get a wake up call. The pre reading for the next module is already in your inbox and it looks massive. Time to submit your essay with your fingers crossed and with one hand covering your eyes. Done!!! Did I survive this one? Don’t know until the results come back, but I don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it as the next module is already here and it looks scary; Decision Science.