About the Program
The Executive MBA program offered by the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences with support from our Partner, the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University is a truly special one. When you read the preceding sentence you cannot cast off an impression that myriads of other Executive MBA programs begin their description with claiming to be special and therefore there is hardly anything special in a program calling itself in such a way.
As a matter of fact, almost all people tend to name products of their creative endeavors special. In an overwhelming majority of cases, nothing special has been brought into being: intellectual clichés, mental inertia, parochialism of views, succumbing to emotions of greed, excessive pride or arrogance, convenient ignorance, lack of active curiosity or simple idleness have prevailed.
However, sometimes what has been claimed has held true. Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of relativity was really special (though, in all fairness, the name “special” meant that it is not general, i.e. applied only to inertial frames of reference, rather than it is extraordinary). Euclid’s deductive system of geometry was humbly named Elements but was tremendously special. Four equations of Maxwell look very simple, yet they encompass all electricity and magnetism (and optics!) in the most general way. Francisco Pizarro was just one of many conquistadors vying to get fortune, fame and status in newly discovered lands, but his achievements are indeed special whatever measure you apply: an illiterate Spanish adventurer with 177 soldiers triumphing over the Inca Empire which had six million inhabitants. Johann Sebastian Bach had 20 children and wrote 800 pieces of music many of which are considered works of a rare genius. Yet, during his lifetime and approximately one and a half century after his death, Bach was neglected as a composer (though Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven always profoundly appreciated him). Henry Ford did not invent interchangeable parts, division of labor or even the assembly line. All had been known before him. However, he applied them on an incredible scale and became the richest man of his time.
Usually Executive MBA programs are for businessmen with a serious carrier experience, taught part-time, and are supposed to allow the participants to share their views on given cases in group discussions. Our Executive MBA program does all the above but lays the stress on the following: we want you do discover which insights of yours are most worthy of the attention of others. In other words, we help you take a pause, look down into yourself, and find there what is worth bringing up as a milestone in your understanding of the world. Your discernment, awareness, intuition and perceptiveness are crucial in this endeavor. It is not true that only old age brings wisdom. Long before becoming old we feel moments when we are sure we have captured something significant in our understanding of what is going on around us in business. Our task is to assist you in making these moments matter.
There is, therefore, not that much special about curriculum. The special is the way we teach courses and run seminars. We do not want you to postpone till the time when you are a pensioner thinking about what is the most valuable insight that you have about business processes. We do not ask you to be superficial and tell us that for instance trust is very important for trade. We hope you would tell us that nothing is so important for shaping one’s character and her/his attitude to time; or that rich diversity in group discussions about business strategy is not a good thing after all, or that a major factor in spurring innovation is not having it flushed with money but availability of new markets.
A Business Insight paper that you would have to write at the end of your studies is a paper that should reflect such an insight of yours (or multiple insights). We intend to publish all the papers in one book so that you have a guarantee that you finish our program with one more publication. Finishing our program would give you satisfaction that you walk through life without neglecting what you recognize as the most significant that you have discerned in your life.
Our grandfathers tried to grasp the beauty and design of nature around us. With all that psychology, neuroscience, coaching, etc., we tend to focus on what is inside us. Some think we are wrong: we trade the richness of nature for frustrating and disappointing misery of our inner selves. At the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences and at our supporting Partner, the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University we believe that a true progress comes when we direct our gaze at both nature and soul. And this program comes quicker when we do not squander what our mind and heart tell us is valuable to us and other.
