Articles
What Do You Need to Know as a New Board Member? Professor Pedro Parada Shares His Advice
Anu Haapala
Board of Directors
Advanced Strategy Program for Executives and Board Professionals
Board of Directors is a high-level director and executive program with a truly global and strategic perspective for executives and non-executives.
The program will develop executives' and board members' abilities to evaluate a company's strategy in a constantly changing business environment. The focus is on strengthening the boards' capability to direct the company. Participation in the program requires a commitment to evolving as a team member in order to make personal board performance more effective.
The Board of Directors program provides you with a view of the global economy, current trends and their impact on organizations, and how strategies are built. Tools are provided for assessing an organization's strategy from a board and executive perspective, together with new insights on building a board with dynamics that will facilitate smart decision-making.
After the program, you have enhanced your ability to
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contribute to the success of your organization as a board member,
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assess the strategy of the organization,
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understand and contribute to the dynamics of the board in a positive manner to make the best possible decisions as a board, and
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support the CEO and the executive board.
The program has received excellent customer feedback. The overall impression of the program is 5.2 / 6.0.
'The ability to act as a strategic board member' was rated the key competence developed during the program.
The 6-month online process after the deep dive module provides the participants long-term impact and support for strategy work.
Benefits
The Board of Directors program offers ways for board professionals and top-level executives to develop a global mindset to sense and interpret transformation in the global economy. It strengthens your strategic view on how to capture competitive advantage and sustainable value in the constantly changing business environment and the ability to direct company strategy. The program supports company performance when developing more effective board dynamics and cultivating participant’s global and agile mindset.
Offers you new frameworks to develop a truly global mindset
Strengthens your strategic thinking in the global market place
Provides you with the tools to give high performance on the board you serve on or when working closely with the board
For
The Board of Directors program is designed for people with experience in, or aspirations towards, working on a board as well as for executives working closely with the board.
- Board members in publicly held and privately owned companies seeking growth
- Executives preparing to serve on a board
- Executives working closely with boards
Contents and Schedule
Program structure
3-day Module
Intensive face-to-face session with faculty, keynote speakers, and peers
Post-module Period 6 Months: Online Process for Deeper Impact
Online process for long-term impact and support to the strategy work
Program Closing
Online event with keynote and discussions. Sharing insights and take-aways from the program.
The program is designed to provide support to participants' strategy work and personal development as strategic board members. The online process 6 months after the module days builds on the topics and frameworks provided during the contact days. The process includes monthly self-study material and one 1.5-hour online session with peers and expert faculty. The program closing event will summarize the process and look toward the future through an insightful keynote session and discussions for shared learning.
Modules
Instructors
Pekka Mattila
Pekka Mattila is Associate Professor at the Aalto University School of Business.
He works frequently with European, Asian, African, and North American executive audiences on themes of strategic management, business model innovation, leadership, top team dynamics, leading change and transformation, organizational culture, and strategic marketing. During the period 2011-2021, he served as the Managing Director and Associate Dean of Aalto University Executive Education.
In addition to his academic activities Mattila has conducted an active business career. He has served or currently serves as the Chairman of the Board or as a Member of the Board at a number of innovative companies in media, banking, ecommerce, technology, edtech, invest-in, construction, as well as food and beverage industries. Moreover, he serves as a Member of the Board of The Finnish National Gallery.
Mattila holds a doctorate (D.Sc. 2006) and a master’s degree (M.Sc. 2003) in sociology at the University of Helsinki and an Executive MBA (2010) at London Business School. Over the years, he has frequently visited several prestigious European and Asian universities teaching management, organizational behaviour, marketing, and sociology.
Mattila has authored several managerial books on leadership, change, and transformation as well as strategic marketing and sales. His consulting, training, and coaching career started in 2003, and his corporate clients comprise over 480 Nordic and international companies, entrepreneurial ventures as well as prominent public sector institutions and NGOs.
Pedro Parada Balderrama
Pedro Parada is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy and International Business at Católica Lisbon.
Parada has been researching and teaching strategy for 25 years. Before starting in his current role in Lisbon, he worked for years at Esade Business School in Barcelona and Georgetown University in Washington DC. Moreover, he has been training board members in both Madrid and Helsinki, and he is one of the instructors in Aalto University Executive Education’s (Aalto EE) Board of Directors program.
Dr. Parada has taught as Visiting Professor at HEC School of Management in Paris and SDA Bocconi in Milan for several years. In addition, he has coordinated and taught courses within the International Electives offered by Babson College. Dr. Parada has also taught for and collaborated with private companies in a wide variety of industries. He has written articles, case studies, and book chapters in English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Chinese, and Portuguese.
Pedro Parada holds a Ph.D. in Management, a Master's in Public Policy and Management, and an undergraduate degree in Economics.
Matti Suominen
Matti Suominen is Professor of Finance at Aalto University School of Business. He specializes in information economics in financial markets, market microstructure and corporate finance.
Suominen has previously worked as a consultant at the European Corporate Finance Practice of McKinsey & Co. and as a Chief Dealer in the Options and Futures Markets in Finland. From 1997 until 2006 he was in the full time faculty at INSEAD, working first as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor of Finance. Although already also at the Aalto University, between 2006 and 2015 he has continued to work with INSEAD as an Adjunct Professor of Finance or as a Visiting Professor of Finance.
Suominen is actively involved in management consulting to financial institutions and executive education. He has taught in the MBA, PhD and executive education programs. He has also taught in several company specific programs worldwide.
Matti Suominen did his PhD in Financial Economics in 1997 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has also worked as a Visiting Associate Professor at Wharton.
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