With a rapidly developing nation and Abu Dhabi's 2030 economic vision on the horizon the UAE is in need of a new kind of UAE national — those who can lead.
For this reason, at the request of the Abu Dhabi government, INSEAD Abu Dhabi custom-made a Masters in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MEL) programme to produce leaders with an enhanced ability to take on more entrepreneurial projects.
"This programme was about producing entrepreneurial leaders who can be given a mission and make it happen," said Phillip Anderson, INSEAD Alumni Fund Chair professor of Entrepreneurship. INSEAD's second tailor-made Masters programme will see its 17 participants, hand-picked from Abu Dhabi government departments, graduate this week at the inauguration of its new campus on Muroor road in the capital.
"The idea was that they come from different government departments so that lots of these departments now have an entrepreneurial role model seeded within them," said Anderson.
"We are an emerging country and we've had a lot of advances and developments and all this needs competent leaders to lead this change," said Hassan Ali Al Jafri, MEL participant and head of the planning and corporate performance section in the Abu Dhabi statistics centre.
"Leadership is an art and a science," he said. "This programme taught us about the science of leadership which was enlightening; because to change others we have to change ourselves first," he added.
Al Jafri said he feels it has now become his responsibility to continue learning. "Every day and in every situation to gain knowledge and participate in the change taking place in the country," he said.
The personal touch
For Mohammad Khalifa Al Mubarak, MEL participant and acting executive director of the shared services department at the Abu Dhabi department of economic development, the course even changed his leadership skills at home.
"Things take time to be absorbed by others but I was never focused on the emotional perspective of issues in the past," he said. However, after dealing with case studies where heightened emotions have a apparent impact on decision-making, he said: "During some of these lessons, I sometimes imagined I was dealing with my children and saw the reflection of how I deal with my family in the case studies… so there was definitely a cross-over between the two."
- Gulf News