Advanced Leadership Program in Houston, Texas 2022

Introduction

It is an incredibly exciting time to be a management professional and a leader in an institution. We have so many important yet unanswered questions to investigate. Not since the industrial revolution have we needed to fundamentally reconsider our traditional form of organizing (and the management technology we had developed and honed to support it). It can be argued that the pandemic has exposed a systemic weakness in the employer-employee relationship. Setting aside the hyperbole, we are amid a change in employees’ assumptions regarding the obligations of an employer. These changes are reframing employee experience and upending our assumptions about motivation, employee engagement, and the experience of workplace stress.

The purpose of this program is to explore the challenges facing the post-pandemic organization. We will discuss about what we know and what we do not know. We will explore the management implications of likely changes to organizations. Most importantly, we will explore opportunities to improve “you” as a manager as we “return to work”. 

The Future of the Organization

Our understanding of management and management practice is predicated on the presumption that organizations are largely traditional with most of the workforce residential. Our knowledge of the consequence of hybrid work or a workforce that has a larger percentage of virtual workers is immature and sparse. However, we do recognize the problems that will likely flow from a potentially reimagined organization. How do we maintain culture, promote inclusiveness, minimize the likelihood of bias, manage employee development, on-board new hires, incentivize residential vs. remote workers? The questions are potentially endless. The following represent the main topics we will discuss. There will be many opportunities to digress and discuss issues of immediate relevance to your experience. Please come ready to share your ideas, challenges, and solutions.

Course Content

Employee Experience and Well-Being in the Workplace

We will examine the topics of motivation, engagement and well-being in the post-pandemic workplace. We will attempt to identify the factors that make this moment in history somewhat different from the past and develop strategies to enhance employee experience when expectations have been reset by a disruptive event. The pandemic has reframed our view of stress in the workplace. We will examine the importance of understanding workplace stress and look for opportunities to mitigate the stressors people experience.

Employee Development and Performance Management

There is no greater responsibility in leadership than maintaining organizational continuity through thoughtful succession planning. Succession planning requires a strategic perspective on the future needs of the organization, a thorough and objective review of the capabilities of potential succession candidates, and the ability to identify developmental experiences that can stretch candidates into the future leaders the organization will require. In this topic, we will consider the primary ingredients in successful succession management. We will also examine the implications of changing strategic demands and organizational characteristics that may require rethinking candidate profiles and developmental paths. Further, we will examine the implications of new approaches to organizing for performance management, hiring and promotion, compensation, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).

Team Development (and Getting Hybrid Right)

Although virtual (and hybrid) teams have been around for decades, our knowledge of what contributes to their success is limited. We understand the challenges and have some evidence-based recommendations for practices that may improve both the effectiveness and the experience of members of virtual teams.

Leading by Leveraging Culture

Now, more than ever, organizational culture is a pressing concern for organizations. With shifting demands from employees and disrupted strategies, leaders must focus their attention on ensuring the organization develops and maintains a culture that simultaneously meets the needs of employees and strategy. In this topic, we will focus on the challenges of leading by leveraging culture. We will focus on understanding the complexities of culture and the identification of social norms that will support the organization’s and your team’s critical capabilities.

Framework for Creating a Data Driven Organization

The goal of this program is to give a high-level view of the potential uses and practices of modern data analysis in an organization. The goal is to familiarize the audience with key concepts so that leaders can focus on making decisions with data and use output from data analysis projects to improve business outcomes. This program focuses on leaders and decisions makers as consumers of data science projects to make better decisions within an organization.

Business Innovation

Innovation has become a mandate to ensure competitive advantage and profitability in today’s complex business environment. Businesses need to ensure that their employees have the right innovation capabilities to differentiate their organization in the marketplace. Individuals who aspire to have a successful career need to acquire tools that help them to contribute to business innovation. This program equips participants with cutting-edge knowledge on how to lead business innovation. In a highly interactive learning environment, we will combine scientifically proven approaches to innovation with actionable tools to accelerate the application of business innovation practices for participants and their respective organizations.

Global Economic Outlook

This session will focus on macroeconomic trends during these very turbulent times. The discussion will include details on the current global economy, highlighting trends impacting financial systems.

Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology in Practice

This session will provide the latest update on the cryptocurrency systems, impacts on financial systems and the marketplace, to include engagement with practitioners who are changing the face of global finance with new models and novel financial technologies.

Advanced Leadership Program faculty are award winning professors who teach the MBA and EMBA program at Rice Business and have extensive business consulting and research experience.

Peter Rodriguez is dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. He is also an economist and professor of strategic management and teaches classes on global macroeconomics and economic growth and development. He comes to Rice from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business where he was a professor, senior associate dean for MBA Programs and chief diversity officer.

Academics are an intellectually curious breed, but Peter’s goes well beyond his research interests of corruption, globalization, economic development, and social institutions. To start with, he has a self-described tinkerer’s mindset and would’ve been an engineer if he hadn’t been an economist. His fascination with social media is evident in his twitter, Instagram and snapchat accounts. He loves photography, both technically and artistically, and lately, drone photography. He is also a native Texan, hailing from Kilgore. With his family, Peter has enjoyed taking Houston by storm – sports teams, food and culture.

A recipient of numerous teaching awards from Princeton, Texas A&M and the University of Virginia, Peter taught short courses on global economics to the Canadian Heads of Ministries and as part of executive education teaching teams to the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy and to multinationals such as Rolls Royce, Harris Corporation, Lockton and AES. He has developed video and audio courses on globalization and growth for The Great Courses and served on the faculty of Semester at Sea.

Peter holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a B.S. in economics from Texas A&M University. He worked for several years as an associate in the Global Energy Group at JP Morgan Chase, here in Houston and in New York.

Professor Brent Smith, Ph.D. is currently Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education and Associate Professor of Management and Psychology for the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Prior to his current academic appointments, he has taught at the London Business School, Cornell University, University of California at Berkeley, Oxford University, and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad

He has conducted executive programs around the world for companies such as Shell, IBM, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, KPMG, ExxonMobil, BP, Lufthansa, DeBeers, Microsoft, El Paso Energy, Veritas, Dynegy, CGG Inc., Marathon Oil, Citibank, RedBull, Philip Morris International, NOV, Swedbank, Ulster Bank, RBS, and TOTAL. His teaching interests focus primarily on leadership and management development.

Alan Crane is an Associate Professor of Finance at Rice University’s Jones School of Business. He has degrees in economics, finance, and accounting and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the interaction between institutional investors and corporations with an emphasis on those investors’ impact on corporate financial policies and their performance evaluation. He has published academic articles in the top finance journals such as Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science. Alan has presented research a number of major universities and conferences in both the U.S. and internationally, and his research has appeared in the popular press in such places as CNBC and Bloomberg. Alan’s teaching focuses on corporate finance and in particular corporate investment policy and project valuation. He has won multiple teaching awards, at both Rice and University of Texas. Prior to joining academia, Alan worked in consulting, focusing on risk-management of energy trading organizations and on specialized valuation of midstream energy assets.

Jing Zhou is Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management, Organizational Behavior Area Coordinator, Director for Asian Management Research & Education, Director of Ph.D. Program at the Jones Graduate School of Business of Rice University. She has been elected to Fellow of Academy of Management, Fellow of American Psychological Association, Fellow of Association for Psychological Sciences, and Fellow of Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology.

A recent study ranked her among the top 1% most cited scholars in business and management worldwide.

Jing has taught leading innovation, negotiation, leadership, global leadership, micro foundations of managing the global firm, and organizational behavior at undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, and Ph.D. levels. Prior to joining the Jones School, she was an associate professor and Mays Faculty Fellow in the Management Department at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. She has received awards for her excellence in teaching.

Her research interests are leading innovation; contextual and personal factors that facilitate or inhibit creativity and innovation; creativity receiving; consequences of creativity; cross-cultural differences in antecedents and consequences of creativity; and creativity in entrepreneurship. Her systematic program of research has addressed central questions such as how organizational and contextual factors (e.g., leadership, supervisory behaviors, coworker behaviors, feedback, and human resource management practices) interact with personal factors (e.g., personality, values, goal orientation) to enhance or restrict individual and team creativity.

Manolo Sánchez is a director at Fannie Mae (FNM), Stewart Information Systems (STC) and BanCoppel (Mexico) after having served as chairman and CEO of BBVA Compass for 10 years. At Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, he teaches disruption in financial services with a focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Manolo is an advisor to several fintech and blockchain startups, including SpringLabs (blockchain-based credit and identity data), Securitize (blockchain digital securities platform), and Topl (supply blockchain focused on ethical and sustainable practices). During his 27-year banking career, Manolo worked in the US, Mexico, France and Spain, having served in executive roles in risk management, real estate, correspondent, community, corporate and investment banking.

During his tenure at BBVA Compass, Sánchez served as a director of the American Bankers Association, the Institute of International Bankers, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Financial Services Roundtable and BITS (the technology policy division of FSR). He currently serves on the board of the Center for Houston’s Future.

A graduate of Yale University, Sánchez earned master’s degrees in international relations from the London School of Economics and in advanced European economics from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

Sánchez has been recognized with Spain’s Order of Civil Merit, the 2017 Arrival Award for immigrant achievement from the University of Houston, the 2015 Hispanic Executive of the Year by the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Laredo Gateway Rotary Club’s 2014 Paul Harris Fellow award and was named 2011 Alabama Citizen of the Year.

Distinguished Speaker

Anil Shah is Chairperson, Lead Nepal Inc. an institution established to craft better leaders in a cross section of sectors. He was, till recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Nabil Bank Limited, a prominent financial institution in Nepal. was, till recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Nabil Bank Limited, a prominent financial institution in Nepal. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Mega Bank Ltd. He began his banking career in 1991-1992 when he joined Nepal Grindlays Bank which later converted to Standard Chartered Bank. He was the Head of the consumer bank and Chief Operating Officer in this Bank. Shah, studied at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University and at the George Washington University in the United States.

Course Brochure : ALP BROCHURE 2022