Leading Thinking Firms, one of the flagship executive education programme of Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), held a high- powered one day workshop for the members of Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) and YPO gold chapters in Karachi, Pakistan on August 21, 2019.
Led by Dr. Asim Khwaja, co-founder and board member CERP, and Mr. Maroof A. Syed, President and CEO CERP, the workshop intended to bring an immersive and interactive experience for CEOs to learn how to use evidence to make strategic decisions. This course equips leaders and executives with the tools and skills necessary to solve their businesses’ pressing problems.
The two integral sessions of the workshop were “The Learning Organisations” and “Value of Data and Innovation”. Dr. Khwaja explained the concept of the learning organisation, where data and theory are combined to iteratively approach organisational challenges. Whereas Mr. Syed discussed the value of data and innovation by debunking the common misconception about the application of data in the real world. Additionally, he also explained and laid out the blueprint for success for a learning organisation. Both of the sessions were followed by group activities to effectively inculcate the learning outcomes of the session.
One of the key distinguishing aspects of the workshop was the experiential learning module conducted by Ms. Maha Rahman, Manager Analytics and Mr. Adeel Shafqat, Senior Programme Manager, Precision Agriculture for Development and a member of CERP Management. The module taught the top leadership and executives a hands-on approach to work with data in order to demonstrate key learnings.
Ms. Maria-Alkistis (Alki) Iliopoulou, Director Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, and a behavioural Innovation Strategist, was a guest speaker at the workshop. Her session focused on innovative organisational solutions and utilising behavioural economics, human-centred design and change management.
YPO is the premier global leadership organisation of more than 27,000 chief executives in over 130 countries. It is a global platform for them to engage, learn and grow where the members harness the knowledge, influence and trust of the world’s most influential and innovative business leaders to inspire business, personal, family and community impact.