Publication database

What are the skills needed to lead a digital transformation today & how can leaders avoid digital transformation traps? This chapter brings forward an actionable route to making digital transformation work.

View the book “Grasselli, N. (Ed.) (2023). The future of executive education. Learning leadership in a digital age” here.

Why we cry at movies and what Hollywood can teach us about transferring our skills from the stage to the camera”. Tips for effective virtual communication in the “new normal” by using the ABC of virtual emotional intelligence:
A: Authorize emotion;
B: Be aware of the tacit;
C: Care and be compassionate.

View the book “Grasselli, N. (Ed.) (2023). The future of executive education. Learning leadership in a digital age” here.

How to achieve ownership among program participants and their sponsors – and why doing so can lead to better program outcomes.

View the book “Grasselli, N. (Ed.) (2023). The future of executive education. Learning leadership in a digital age” here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the executive education industry, prompting a major transformation in program delivery. This article examines ESMT Berlin's successful adaptation to remote learning and the lessons learned from the experience. Through the case study of the "Enter the Eurozone" program, the article addresses common assumptions about online learning and presents strategies to enhance engagement and knowledge retention. Networking and peer-to-peer learning were prioritized. The article emphasizes the importance of small-group interactions and gradual integration of non-task related conversations to build trust and foster meaningful relationships. Contrary to the belief that scalability sacrifices customization, the article showcases how online learning can offer a higher degree of individualization. ESMT's approach involved providing a general framework and encouraging participants to apply it to their specific business challenges. In conclusion, the article highlights the positive outcomes of remote learning when supported by a dedicated team of professionals who prioritize learner outcomes and embrace lifelong learning.

View the book “Grasselli, N. (Ed.) (2023). The future of executive education. Learning leadership in a digital age” here.

Digital transformation, accelerated by the COVID pandemic, resulted in major changes for the executive classroom. We had to reinvent, digitalize, redesign, and reframe ways of learning for leaders. In many cases the changes needed to be implemented from one day to the other.
This bookazine, a professional book with the look-and-feel of a magazine, brings together executive education faculty, practitioners, and learning specialists to depict tried and tested practices of learning for leaders. The changing learning needs of modern leaders in combination with the diverse expertise of the authors represent a fascinating set of practice examples which advance the future of executive education.
The result is a collection of inspiring and innovative learning practices that is of keen interest to executive education faculty and specialists, leadership development experts, as well as learners who will shape and be shaped by future executive education programs.

How are team dynamics affected by our evermore global and virtualized business context? This innovative, escape-room-styled game, christened in 2019 (rather prophetically) “The Virus” pits executives against imagined cyber criminals. In just 30 minutes, the players must work together and pool their resources to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in order to stop the cyber attack. The catch? Not everyone is in the same room. Unlike most classic team building challenges, the game does not grant players the luxury of all looking at the same visual or numerical data. Instead, the executives are split into three teams (or “local offices”), each receiving different parts of the puzzle via the in-game app. To succeed, the players must rise to the challenge of sharing this rich contextual information via videoconferencing only. “The Virus” reveals lessons learned for virtual and hybrid collaboration..

View the book “Grasselli, N. (Ed.) (2023). The future of executive education. Learning leadership in a digital age” here.

This paper develops a new method to study how workers’ career and wage profiles are shaped by internal labor markets (ILM) and job hierarchies in firms. We tackle the conceptual challenge of organizing jobs within firms into hierarchy levels by proposing a data-driven ranking method based on observed worker flows between occupations within firms. We apply our method to linked employer–employee data from Norway that record fine-grained occupational codes and track contract changes within firms. Our findings confirm existing evidence that is primarily based on case studies for single firms. We expand on this by documenting substantial heterogeneity in the structure and hierarchy of ILMs across a broad range of large firms. Our findings on wage and promotion dynamics in ILMs are consistent with models of careers in organizations.