It was just after the summer of 2018 when our cohort met for the first time at Saïd Business School. The class of September 2018 came from all over the world and from every walk of life. There were doctors and lawyers, sportsmen and bankers. This eclectic bunch bonded immediately. We would share stories from our pasts and, through discourse, would ponder new ideas. We formed relationships for life, and all differences were welcomed.
I was enthralled by those who came with concrete goals from the programme. As I remember, there was a clever fellow who wanted to move into private equity, and this Executive MBA was the ticket for his transition train. And there was a philanthropically-minded colleague who chose to make it her mission to map out the labyrinth of life, and the programme was the perfect home to submerge in simplifying models of this complex world.
Perhaps I admired more those elusive characters who set up camp with an open mind towards their self-development; they had no preconceived notions or sense of urgency. They came simply to learn and discover. These strong men and women were not weighed down by heavy ideological armour.
The Executive MBA is a journey into the forest. It is an acquisition of knowledge and the abandonment of what we think we need to do. It is an exploration and re-imagination of ourselves and the world. It is a journey of awakening, and we emerge as a synthesis of what we were and what we have now learnt.
We now have intelligent tools to understand the world and, where we feel necessary, initiate change. We have so many more costumes to wear. We are better resourced to ask: what shall I become? And the possibilities are fluid, both now, and in our futures. We have knowledge that takes us beyond ourselves.
