Advanced Management Program: Taking a step back to see more clearly

At the end of 2010, Dr. Danielle Zandee was appointed as Professor of Sustainable Organizational Development at Nyenrode. For the past two years she has also been the program director for Nyenrode’s Advanced Management Program (AMP), now in its 23rd year. Danielle Zandee tells us about what participants on the program can expect.
 

Combination of business administration and personal leadership
The Advanced Management Program is an integral management program for top executives and self-employed business people. “It’s about leadership in larger organizations,” she says. “For example, it is for directors in the construction or healthcare sectors.” 
                                                                                                Danielle Zandee
 

“What makes this program special is the combination of business knowledge and a focus on personal leadership. We assume that everyone following the program is already effectively a leader and successful in their job. The participants in this program are no longer personally engaged in operational matters, but they do direct them. The program gives them the opportunity to reflect on the way in which they have led up to now and how they may wish to do so from now on.”
 

She continues: “What the AMP is about is going a step further in order to be able to still give inspiring leadership, but from a greater distance. For example, this concerns issues such as the work/leisure balance. How can I develop a vision of the direction I want to take? How can I let go of the reins? Here we are investigating how leaders can achieve more, sometimes for the same amount of energy and sometimes for less. How they can become more authentic in leadership, advancing beyond all the usual tricks and things they have learned on training courses.”
 

Motto
According to Zandee, “The program’s motto is ‘Taking a step back to see more clearly’. And after completing it, people agree that this is so. The program offers an environment where you can distance yourself from the hectic daily work and see the broader outlines and the wider context in which top managers work.”
 

“For example, in a module about philosophy through the ages, lectured by Professor Ronald Jeurissen, we openly reflect on our way of thinking and looking at things. Major issues are also raised in other ways: What direction do we want to take together in the organization? What role does leadership play in this? As well as focusing on leadership, the program increasingly combines the issue of stewardship (another of Nyenrode’s priorities) with considerable attention to the developments around sustainability.”
 

Sparring partners
She continues: “We give the participants the opportunity to introduce their own casuistry (case-based reasoning) and this can involve both personal and business issues. For example, is a certain merger or acquisition that they are planning a good idea? How do other participants view an exciting transition process that a student is engaged in? The program is therefore co-formed by the participants themselves and the more the participants put into it, the more they get out of it. The program gives them complete freedom in this.”
 

“For that reason, it is important that the participants are of the same level. They have to feel that they deal with the same kind of issues in their work,” says Zandee. “The program is also very interactive. The participants spar with the lecturers and with each other. In addition, they get an enormous amount of support from each other, not only in absorbing the business knowledge but also in the matter of how they can become genuinely inspiring leaders. It really is an arena of the mind!”
 

However, while the participants need to be at the same level, attention is given to bringing together a great variety of industries, personalities and study backgrounds. The intake interviews are therefore very important to the program. She gives a number of examples of cross-fertilization between participants in the AMP. “Last year, in the course of the marketing module, someone from the healthcare sector got a lot of input from a student with a marketing background in a major commercial company. They spoke at length about 
                   AMP22                            how marketing concepts can be made applicable to 
                                                        the healthcare sector. Another example was somebody who leads in a highly participational way in the healthcare sector. This person challenged another student who leads his own company in a rigid and very direct manner and they were able to spar positively with each other.”
 

Link to practice
The program utilizes a team of lecturers and coaches. This consists of a regular core and the lecturers are usually professors at Nyenrode. There are also guest speakers from the world of business who constantly refresh the link with day to day reality. That is typical of Nyenrode’s approach, Zandee finds. Despite that, the AMP does not give participants any concrete, operational tips that they can start using immediately. “For example, we don’t get involved in strategic planning. A good example is the finance module. This is not about improving the participants’ calculation skills; instead, Professor Kalun Tsé points out to them the type of questions that they should be putting to their CFO. Also, thongs such as what do they have to watch out for when making investment decisions and how should they finance certain transactions?”
 

If it is desirable, other Nyenrode experts can be called in during the program. Zandee explains: “Last year we had four participants from different disciplines of the construction industry in the program. During our discussions, we found that they were all very interested in the theme of sustainability. In the AMP, we had the flexibility to be able to invite Anke van Hal, the professor of sustainable building, to come along and join the discussion.  If possible,                      AMP22 in Nyenrode's rosarium
I try to facilitate discussions of this type.”
  
Nevertheless, we don’t only do things in a cognitive way in the Advanced Management
Program, says Zandee. “For example, when it comes to inspiring leadership, we also use theatrical techniques."
 

Lifelong learning education
“As already stated, participants in the Advanced Management Program are top managers of larger organizations and self-employed business people. Their average age is about forty and these are people who still have a career ahead of them in the organization. Frequently, they have also previously followed a variety of training courses and so have little need to take any more. Such participants do not need a degree at this stage of their career, but they are interested in new ways of thinking and looking at things, and they also want to update their business knowledge. Finally, expanding your network is another important aspect of the AMP,” concludes Dr. Zandee. 
 

In its executive education programs, Nyenrode puts the concept of lifelong learning education into practice. In that structure, the AMP has a logical place with, on the one hand, the Leadership Development Program and the Strategic Leadership Program for managers who are generally somewhat younger and have not yet reached top management levels. On the other hand, it also fits in with the New Board Program for Executive and Supervisory Board members.


More information about the Advanced Management Program