By Tuck Executive Education
16 February 2024
Today’s leaders are operating in an increasingly complex business environment that requires an enterprise-wide mindset and the ability to develop strategy, innovate, and lead change across global organizations. Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business understands this imperative. Our Advanced Management Program (AMP) Tuck Executive Education’s signature program for senior leaders, is a catalyst for executives who seek to expand their strategic horizons. The program provides participants with the frameworks and practical experiences they need to identify and resolve the most challenging problems their organizations face—in the Tuck School's unparalleled learning environment. We spoke with three recent Tuck AMP alumni to learn more about their career journeys and how AMP transformed them.
“During times of transformation, the ability to effectively communicate and inspire a team to navigate these challenges, get to safe passage and success—this is just as important as the strategy that you undertake,” says Karen Asadourian, vice president of automotive engineering at Sensata.
The Tuck AMP is not just an educational experience—it's a pivotal career milestone that has empowered these leaders to reimagine their roles and redefine their organizations. As we explore their insights, we invite you to consider how the AMP could mark a turning point in your own leadership journey.
Mark your calendars: the next session of AMP will take place from July 14 – 26, 2024 in beautiful Hanover, NH—a uniquely immersive location that offers participants the time and space to reflect on their leadership and organizational goals.
Discover Part I of this series.
Karen Asadourian AMP'23
VP of Automotive Engineering, Sensata
Hometown: Birmingham, MI
“During times of transformation, the ability to effectively communicate and inspire a team to navigate these challenges, get to safe passage and success—this is just as important as the strategy that you undertake.”
ON THE TUCK EXPERIENCE
This was a great program for me since it had been many years since I graduated with my MBA. It was an opportunity to sharpen my skills and leadership toolbox. The program benefited from a diverse cohort who brought their unique experiences and broad perspectives. The engagement with my peers was really impactful. This is a group of amazing leaders who help support, challenge, and inspire you to develop.
MY MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN (MAP)
My MAP evolved significantly over the two-week program as I learned and integrated concepts shared both by the instructors and my peers. This helped me realize why the problem was important to solve and broadened my perspective, enabling me to adopt a more thoughtful problem-solving approach.
HOW AMP IMPACTED MY LEADERSHIP STYLE
The AMP program exposed me to content and topics that I’ll certainly leverage in my current role. The program also provided a great reminder of the importance of “softer skills” which become critically important as you progress as a leader. Although these concepts were not necessarily new, the sessions really highlighted and helped me further develop these skills. For example, I am in the automotive industry, which is undergoing the most profound disruption of our lifetime. During times of transformation, the ability to effectively communicate and inspire a team to navigate these challenges, get to safe passage and success—this is just as important as the strategy that you undertake.
MY ADVICE FOR SENIOR LEADERS
The Tuck AMP program is an amazing opportunity to further develop yourself as a leader. The content is very relevant and when combined with great instructors, you have a program that provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your leadership skills and enable your career development. As leaders, we are only as good as how we can best serve our teams, customers, and partners. Taking the time away may seem like you are not focused on the job, but in fact investing this time makes you even better at your job and is in service to your teams.
Willy Booker AMP'23
Head of School, Burke Mountain Academy
Hometown: East Burke, VT
“You return to work not with a bunch of theoretical strategic concepts floating around in your mind, but with a concrete action plan for leading your organization forward.”
ON THE TUCK EXPERIENCE
The Tuck AMP experience far exceeded my expectations. The quality of the instruction from the Tuck faculty and the interaction with the AMP cohort had a significant impact on me. The value of gaining exposure to world-class thought leaders, combined with the discipline of routinely bringing the focus back to implementation, made the experience very valuable.
MY MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN (MAP)
My MAP action plan evolved significantly over the two-week program and again in the first weeks of reintegration at work. The concepts brought forward in the AMP program helped clarify and focus my attention on the few initiatives that matter the most. The thoughtful progression of the AMP courses helped bring prioritization to my action plan as I reflected on all that I had learned following the program.
HOW AMP IMPACTED MY LEADERSHIP STYLE
There are times in every leader’s career when the constant stream of urgent but non-strategic issues starts to drown out focus on longer-term strategic thinking that can drive organizations forward. Post-Covid, this was certainly true for me. The AMP program helped me regain my focus on the longer-term initiatives that will make our organization successful in the long run. The Tuck faculty have a wonderful way of reminding AMP participants that returning to work should be intentional and that you have an opportunity to change the way that you work and lead. I embraced this challenge, and it has been transformational.
MY ADVICE FOR PROSPECTIVE SENIOR LEADERS
The two-week immersive Tuck AMP experience can be transformational. The quality of the instruction is hard to overstate, and the program is constructed in such a way that the important conceptual work is balanced with time allocated to working out how to implement the ideas into your own work. As a result, you return to work not with a bunch of theoretical strategic concepts floating around in your mind but with a concrete action plan for leading your organization forward.
Odrek M. Rwabwogo AMP'23
Board Member, Tomosi; Chair, Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports & Industrial Devt.
Hometown: Kampala, Uganda
“The ability to change our world starts with widening our lens and getting exposure to the most modern tools of business and public leadership that Tuck offers.”
ON THE TUCK EXPERIENCE
Tuck showed me that it is riskier to keep the status quo than to build the necessary change that shifts the course of an organization, a country, society, and an individual. It had the biggest impact on my thinking about the big problems of the world and how to solve these from my little corner in Uganda and Africa. It taught me how the modern world thinks and what should concern leaders of today and tomorrow and how to approach solutions of a different kind in a developing country. The Three-Box Solution and ecosystem-thinking still ring daily in my head, and I am deploying these tools for my community, country, and institutions.
MY MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN (MAP)
My MAP has been evolving from thinking I need many people to make a change, to focusing on a few who I can reach and teach and who will help spread the gospel of change for my society. I began teaching the principles I learned at Tuck, including teamwork exercises, to Tomosi, our company, and at the exports committee, and to young entrepreneurs in Uganda.
HOW AMP IMPACTED MY LEADERSHIP STYLE
I carry the MAP in my work bag and check regularly how I am doing on the four leadership challenges. My meetings and interactions with my team and the public are becoming intentional and disciplined. I still fail to keep some of the promises I made to myself, but it is a work in progress.
MY ADVICE FOR PROSPECTIVE SENIOR LEADERS
I would tell leaders that the ability to change our world starts with widening our lens and getting exposure to the most modern tools of business and public leadership that Tuck offers. Recently, I took a photo in a studio in Nairobi, Kenya, which is run by a photographer called Bobby Pall. The photo is an expression of the indomitable spirit that leaders need to build by seeing the world differently. To a Western and North American viewer of a picture of a child tending a herd of goats in a dry season, it evokes feelings of help and aid. To me, that picture says, ‘If I can keep the little herd through the landscape and the dust with grit and resilience, I can save tomorrow’s society with the lessons packed in what appears as adversity but is an opportunity to grow.’
Learn more about the Advanced Management Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
