Executive Education
AMP Munich Makes Its Mark

The intellectual framework, flexible structure and mind-opening curriculum were three highlights cited by members of the inaugural class of the Advanced Management Program that was offered in Munich for the first time this year. IESE continues to increase its offerings to German-speaking regions, with another AMP Munich in the pipeline and the launch of a new club on campus.

The inaugural class of the Advanced Management Program (AMP), offered in Munich for the first time, graduated in June of this year, marking a new milestone in IESE’s international expansion. The Munich AMP joins the ranks of other AMPs offered in Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Cairo, as well as the Madrid and Barcelona campuses.

IESE’s decision to bring the AMP to Munich was in recognition of the strategic importance of German-speaking regions in the world of business and commerce. “IESE is fully aware of Germany’s importance to the development of Europe, and Munich’s vital role as a center of business activity for Germany and the surrounding central European region. With the recent expansion of the E.U. to the east, Munich is very much in the geographic heart of the new Europe,” explained Dean Jordi Canals at the program’s launch.

The AMP Munich Class of 2005 comprised top executives and CEOs from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries, representing diverse sectors of central European industry. Participants attended opening and closing week-long modules in Barcelona, with 7 intervening one-day sessions spread over three months and held in Munich at the Siemens conference center located in the heart of the city.

For this article, we caught up with three AMP participants during their final week of the Munich program, and asked them what the AMP had done for them.

We also talked to Leonhard Graf von Harrach, an IESE MBA student who leads the German Business Club, catering to the needs of the growing number of German-speaking people on campus. Developments such as these underscore IESE’s commitment to facilitate cross-cultural interaction and business networking between generations and across borders.
An Intellectual Framework

As a former executive with Citibank in Germany, Mexico and the U.S., Alexander Mettenheimer had previously benefited from company training programs: for instance, he was once part of a team who stepped back from the company in order to study one particular problem in-depth, then reported back on his findings, making specific recommendations to the board.

Now, in his current role as CEO of Merck Finck Bank, “I don’t have that kind of backup, so the IESE AMP affords me the opportunity to evaluate what I’ve done, in the light of current knowledge about management styles, and gives me access to wider thinking on product management, how to manage IT, how to deal with particular situations, and so on,” he said.

Mettenheimer cited one particular talk on competitive strategy, which helped him to define and write down the hierarchy of decisions that he must take in his field of private banking. He also appreciated Prof. Pedro Nueno’s session on managing a turnaround, which gave him an agenda-setting tool for what to do in bad weather. One of the case studies – the primary learning tool of all IESE programs – yielded a “very attractive and interesting” business idea that “I thought I could take and apply to, or include in, our own offerings as a value-added service.”

IESE’s international perspective and global mindset was an important factor for Mettenheimer in accessing a wider base of knowledge. Though he deals primarily with domestic clients, he noted that, “In an increasingly open society, we have clients with interests outside of Germany, so we need to consider what it means for our German clients if they live in Spain or Italy, for example, in terms of estate planning and in the other kinds of banking services that we are able to offer them.”

The program structure worked out very well for him. Being based in Munich helped, he said, as he was able to bike to the Siemens conference center. He appreciated IESE’s decision to establish a presence in Germany: “35 percent of the European Union’s GDP is produced in Germany – it’s the largest single market for managers in Europe,” he said.

All of the participants were split into mixed working groups. Mettenheimer’s included a senior civil servant, an entrepreneur, a banker and a company director. Apart from the close contacts and networking that these groups cultivated, he valued “understanding how other people think and how others perceived me.”
“What I found most helpful was the intellectual framework that the AMP gave me,” he said. “The AMP discusses instruments that the manager can use to deal with particular situations, like a toolbox, which you need to apply to your own business in ways that are relevant. With this intellectual framework, you then instinctively know how to position your product in different contexts. I think that’s wonderful.”

Flexibility Was Key

The structure and location of the AMP was the main reason that Martina Mösche chose IESE. “Many big business schools are running programs like this, but none offered as good a format, which would enable me to continue with work on a daily basis. Also, other schools may run executive education programs, but they are based in their own home locations. IESE was the only program actually going to Germany.”

Mösche was one of only two women on the program, which she said was “nothing different from my usual work” as a divisional vice president at Siemens Automotive, where she has worked for the past 20 years. “I cannot actually judge whether teams behave differently with or without women, because I only work with men.”

The second most important benefit of the AMP for her was the networking. Mösche said she was able to bounce some new ideas off her fellow participants, get enthused and help make her mind up about some steps that she should take.

Her breakthrough moment happened during the last module in Barcelona. “I was looking at one of the case studies using my usual measures, and according to my criteria, I would have killed this case! Based on the business proposal, I never would have given this venture the capital that it eventually received and went on to develop a successful business. When I saw the outcome of this case, I thought that maybe this was currently one of the problems in Germany: we are not willing to take enough risks. This is especially true in big successful German companies – they are reluctant to do anything that might endanger their current position.”

Mösche said she took away “a whole list of personal insights” that were useful to her. However, having been fired up by the AMP, one challenge articulated by both her and Mettenheimer was: how would they translate their enthusiasm to their colleagues back home and help them in leveraging abstract knowledge?

Mösche offered her plan: “I can’t change all of Siemens, but I can try to effect change in those areas over which I have some responsibility and control. I have already been doing this throughout the program, by changing the way I behave, in ways that others notice and that make a difference. I have also invited some IESE professors to lead some company sessions and to share some case studies, in order to try to filter the knowledge that I have gained through other levels of the organization.”

A Program That Broadens Horizons

Like Martina Mösche, “I had several breakthrough moments,” said Kurt Dollhofer, managing director of Schleifring, a manufacturer of electric rotary joints and components for specialized high-tech equipment ranging from air traffic control radars to medical equipment.

Dollhofer’s company is representative of the many small to medium-sized German companies that are highly specialized leaders in their field.

In just 20 years, Schleifring has grown from nothing to becoming so successful that it recently commanded an unheard-of majority stake (51% share) in a joint venture with General Electric, the major U.S. player. “This shows that they need our product,” he said.

He said he had benefited greatly from the team interactions on the AMP: “This meant a lot to me. All of us became friends. All of us are from such different companies and institutions, yet we all face similar problems and situations. In between our AMP sessions in Munich, we continued to meet up regularly. One day I invited everyone to my company in Munich. If I have a problem, I know I would be able to call upon my AMP colleagues for help. This aspect of the program has been very positive for me.”

Another positive aspect of the program is that he’s finally taking a vacation. “Until the AMP, I hadn’t taken one day off from work in five years, not even to take a vacation. But having to take some time out for the modules taught me a lot about delegation, and at the end of the AMP, I am even taking a two-week holiday! So, this was something else I learned on the program – that maybe I need to take more care of myself.”

Central to all business education at IESE is a belief that business leaders can have a profound impact on people and society through their professionalism, integrity and spirit of service, and emphasis is put on the human and ethical values indispensable to personal growth, corporate sustainability and social responsibility. Dollhofer thought this was one part of the AMP that could be capitalized on.

“Profit is important, but I think what should be in front of profit is the idea of creating something positive for society. I have a picture in my office of a Chinese mandarin surveying a big wide open garden spread out below him, and he’s smiling and saying, ‘All this is mine.’ And then you see sitting on a bench below him is a gardener, and he’s smiling too, because he knows that he created it. To me, this illustrates what business should ultimately be about: it’s the shareholders, the employees, the customers and the various other stakeholders – all of them get something out of it,” he explained.

Dollhofer said he had already been taking certain points from the AMP – about organizational behavior, competitive strategy, negotiation, as well as various lessons learned from business cases – and implementing them in meetings.

“Normally, you work in a small channel,” he said, cupping his hands tightly around his eyes like blinkers. “Now I have a wider view on the whole business world,” he continued, moving his hands away from his face and spreading his arms out wide. “The AMP has opened many things for me.”

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