Thriving amidst disruption with a Warwick Executive Diploma

The world which we are living in today is changing dramatically, and at a rapid speed. None of us can stand still or rely purely on our experience. The Executive Diplomas offered at Warwick Business School are designed to help people make sense of this new economy and its complexities.

How are we adding value?

In an environment where disrupters can appear overnight and destroy whole markets, there is a real and present danger of becoming irrelevant fast. The challenge for each one of us and indeed the organisations we work for, is to constantly expose our views and perspectives to fresh challenge, to re-frame how we make sense of our experience, and to infuse our thinking with new ideas. For individuals that can mean updating your own knowledge and skills. For organisations that means making sure you are positioned to be able to succeed in the face of fierce competition.

The hard question to ask personally is what value am I creating? Am I simply hanging on, or am I thriving in this new environment? As an organisation, are we creating new value for our customers and our shareholders?

It’s never too late to expand our knowledge and skills, it is vital across the generations. Most of us will be working to a greater age than ever before, so the education process is something we all need to embrace as a constant, ongoing scenario.

Uniting theory and practice

Working with a business school brings a number of benefits, such as accessing the latest research theories and insights, working with the faculty who are originating those ideas, meaning you are hearing those ideas directly from the people who are at the cutting-edge of thinking.

The psychologist Kurt Lewin famously said, ‘There’s nothing so practical as a good theory’. Sometimes we are a little bit afraid of the word ‘theory’, but a theory is really just a lens that allows us to examine and explore our experience and current organisational reality, and make sense of that in a way that means we can leverage it much more effectively as we go forward. Our faculty are extensively engaged with the real world of practice through their research, engaging with organisations collectively and individually on an on-going basis, sharing insights from a wide range of sectors and experiences with participants on our programmes.

The Warwick Executive Diplomas

Our Executive Diplomas are designed for a senior executive audience who are perhaps doing one of two things, both closely related. One is to address a specific challenge facing their business – a classic example would be digital disruption, something which is washing across most sectors and industries, but people are struggling to make sense of that and catch up.

The second trigger is to plug that capability and knowledge gap as an individual. As senior executives we all bring significant experience, but the pace of change is such that that experience can be rapidly made redundant. It is vitally important that we are constantly updating ourselves, and constantly reinventing our knowledge base.

These programmes are suited for people who want that deep immersion in a particular subject matter. For example, for executives who don’t feel they have the time for a fully-fledged MBA programme, the Diplomas provide a shorter, more focused and more applied alternative. However, there is a pathway for people to go on to study the Warwick MBA following a diploma if they wish.

All of the Diplomas are delivered at WBS’ London base at The Shard, over four four-day modules. A typical day involves interactive sessions in the classroom, alongside a lot of break-out work in small groups, and working on case-study material, providing a dynamic learning setting. Our faculty are highly skilled not just in communicating the ideas that they have, but also in engaging and surfacing the experience of people in the room. That co-creation of learning is a critical aspect.

The Diplomas will be delivered in the classroom in the first instance, however our online platform my.wbs will also play a very significant role. Coming on a programme should be thought of as entering a learning eco-system, one that provides access in person to globally recognised thought leaders, to a network of industry leaders and to a wealth of materials online, that can be tapped into, not just on the days that you’re present with us in London, but over the full duration of the year. My.wbs is the learning platform behind our Distance Learning MBA that has been ranked No.1 globally by the Financial Times for the last three years (Online MBA ranking 2020).