Executive MBA for digital leaders

Anyone who wants to successfully lead their company through the digital transformation needs new skills and leadership approaches. These include a sound understanding of digital technologies and business models on the one hand, and the ability to inspire and empower employees to embrace a digital vision on the other. In the new EMBA Digital Leadership, leaders address topics such as data-driven decision making, platform economics, intrapreneurship, and learn to operate in innovation ecosystems and work collaboratively with new stakeholders across industries. Program leaders Sunnie J. Groeneveld and Manuel P. Nappo designed this EMBA program from the ground up as 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 as well as the entrepreneurial and communicative skills of the participants. With innovative elements, the course aims to set new standards for digital leaders 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, 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 startup experts with the chance of receiving startup funding.
• To enhance personal leadership skills and career planning, students can take advantage of personal career coaching throughout the program.
• During three study tours in Switzerland (to ETH, EPFL and CERN), the US (Harvard, Yale, MIT and selected tech 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 possess the necessary methodological expertise to both implement a startup idea in the digital field and to implement a comprehensive digital transformation in an existing organization.

Study program management with great experience

"With her digital know-how, entrepreneurial experience and strong networking 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 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 by the business magazine Forbes on its "30 under 30" list for German-speaking countries. She has lived in the U.S. for several years, working in Silicon Valley and New York, and has a degree in economics from Yale University.

Compact, 16-month course of study

The first program starts in February 2020 and lasts three semesters (60 days of attendance, consisting of 16 block seminars of three to five days each, including 16 Saturdays). Participants must have a university degree, at least five years of study-relevant professional experience and at least three years of management experience. Tuition fees are CHF 55,000, including study trips to the USA and China (excluding airfare and expenses). Part of the program is a 360° assessment, which serves as an orientation tool for participants to reflect on their own values and abilities.

For more information www.fh-hwz.ch/embadl