CustomExecEd

Upskilling Employees in Finance

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 20:37:05 +0000

Upskilling Employees in Finance Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/12/2023 - 14:37

Leeds and Gates partner on a custom finance program.

Shaun Davies, associate professor of finance at the Leeds School of Business, customized and delivered curriculum for Gates' custom finance program.

Many people who work with capital projects and R&D may not have a background in finance. It was one of the reasons why Gates, a leading manufacturer of application-specific power transmission and fluid power solutions chose the Leeds School of Business to develop a customized finance program. Leeds worked with the Gates Global Mobility team on designing a custom program for their engineers and other technology professionals with limited formal finance training.

“It is important for us to increase education around financial concepts for our engineering and technology team,” said Todd Sellden, director of business and product development for Gates Global Mobility. “It was an easy decision to partner with the leading university in Colorado to offer this program to our team.”

The program delivered earlier this fall aimed to help bridge the gap between engineering and finance, empowering participants to make informed financial decisions and communicate more effectively with their finance colleagues.

Shaun Davies, associate professor of finance at the Leeds School of Business and research director of the Burridge Center for Finance, customized and delivered the program curriculum. The program focused on four modules: financial statement analysis, time value of money, capital budgeting, and risk and return. Each module gave participants the knowledge and skills to analyze financial information, make informed decisions and assess project feasibility.

Over two days, the engineers and other technology professionals applied their practical experience in this immersive workshop to better understand financial concepts, such as working capital, terminal value and cash flow. Davies was able to make complex financial topics more accessible and in an easy-to-follow format. Participants appreciated his engagement, enthusiasm and willingness to delve into real-life scenarios the team encounters.

“In my role, I find myself needing to justify CAPEX spending and interacting with colleagues in the finance group. The overview we received will help me speak their language a little better,” said one of the participants in the program.

Leeds is a trusted partner in creating specific customized programs that help companies and their employees master new competencies and enhance leadership skills. You can visit our website to learn more about other custom programs we have run with other organizations.

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Banking on the Next Generation of Leaders

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 23:57:00 +0000

Banking on the Next Generation of Leaders Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/03/2023 - 17:57

The Graduate School of Banking Colorado partners with Leeds on a custom executive leadership program

This summer, �鶹ӰԺ welcomed the Graduate School of Banking Colorado (GSBC) back to CU �鶹ӰԺ for its Annual School Session, a three-year curriculum with two-weeks of instruction each year. The curriculum is designed for seasoned banking professionals to increase their knowledge of banking, develop as leaders, learn how to effect change and think strategically about bank management.

In addition to the school session, alumni of the program are also invited back each year to campus to reflect on the education and receive new instruction during the three-day Community Bankers Summit at Leeds. For the past two years, Leeds has partnered with GSBC to offer an exclusive executive leadership certificate to GSBC alumni, complete with a digital credential. This program utilizes curriculum from the Leeds executive leadership program in tandem with GSBC to build on leadership concepts delivered annually during the annual school session.

GSBC provides keynote speakers and brings in educators and consultants to discuss key banking issues affecting the industry, including representatives from federal regulatory agencies.

“Partnering with Leeds allows for the opportunity for continued professional development for our alumni,” said Josie Bunch, GSBC’s vice president of strategy and experience. “This program complements and elevates our curriculum in leadership from the school sessions as we prepare our alumni for taking the next step in refining their leadership journey.”

Each year, the summit is made up of more than 50 professionals and graduates from the Annual School Session, current and rising bank leaders with a commitment to leadership and pride in continuing education to effect change in their careers.

“GSBC and Leeds share a commitment to creating pathways for developing leaders,” said Leeds Professor Russell Cropanzano. “Providing our expertise in areas of leadership like crisis management, ethical climate and diversity management is a great way to enhance the existing leadership curriculum provided for banking professionals.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ has hosted GSBC on campus since 1950 when the Colorado Bankers Association and the �鶹ӰԺ Board of Regents co-sponsored the organization and operation. GSBC is one of only six organizations of its kind in the country, and for the past 70 years, GSBC brings around 600 banking professionals to campus every year from more than 40 states across the country. To date, the community graduates around 170 professionals each year and has over 8,000 graduates since its founding.

Why Leeds Executive Education at Leeds

The Graduate School of Banking Colorado partners with Leeds on a custom executive leadership program

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Climate Action is a Collaborative Effort

Anonymous — Wed, 31 May 2023 21:40:46 +0000

Climate Action is a Collaborative Effort Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/31/2023 - 15:40

Businesses of all sizes are waking up to the need to consider the risks and opportunities presented by climate change. With the pending regulatory requirement to report on emissions, many are now beginning to grapple with the climate crisis. Often the first step is to seek some formal education to inform their efforts.

For companies getting started in this space, it can be helpful to belong to a network of like-minded businesses committed to addressing climate change. The Climate Collaborative is one such group. Staff at the Climate Collaborative had the opportunity to take the recently launched Climate Action for Business course offered by the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business in the fall.

“We seek to bring forward resources and tools that can support our community in deepening their climate action. Partnering with a top business school providing information on climate action was a great way to provide additional educational opportunities for our community”

Courtney Pineau, Executive Director of the Climate Collaborative

The team at Leeds applied their experience with the natural products industry to create a custom program for the Climate Collaborative that was relevant to their industry as committed companies and stakeholders worked on creating climate action plans.

"We seek to bring forward resources and tools that can support our community in deepening their climate action. Partnering with a top business school providing information on climate action was a great way to provide additional educational opportunities for our community,” said Courtney Pineau, Executive Director of the Climate Collaborative.

Over two half-days, 17 passionate and forward-thinking participants from around the U.S. engaged in interactive lectures and breakout discussions. Students (all working professionals) learned about measuring emissions, setting targets for reduction, reporting to stakeholders, and more, all leading to the creation of a company climate action plan.

As part of the process, students took part in a climate simulation role play exercise. This simulation allows users to explore the impact that dozens of policy changes—such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices—have on global average temperature.

Not only were the attendees equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to drive positive environmental impact, but they also expanded their networks of sustainability-oriented professionals. The course was taught under the guidance of distinguished faculty Jeff York and Pete Dignan from the Leeds School of Business.

Program participant Sonja Gabrielsen from Planet FWD said “I appreciated the suggestions on increasing engagement both internally at my company and externally with customers. Having information like this - that shows ROI on climate action work like measuring corporate GHG emissions - helps justify budget and employee time to do this.”

The Leeds School of Business and the Climate Collaborative remain steadfast in their dedication to empowering businesses to tackle the urgent challenges posed by climate change. This partnership serves as a testament to the transformative power of collaboration and the potential for businesses to become agents of positive change in the fight against climate change.

In addition to custom program offerings in Climate Action for Business, the Leeds School of Business also offers open enrollment sessions, with the next one taking place August 22-23, 2023 with applications now open.

Why Leeds Climate Action for Business

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Deming Center Offers Dose of Innovation for the ‘Startup Nation’

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:26:06 +0000

Deming Center Offers Dose of Innovation for the ‘Startup Nation’ Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/15/2022 - 10:26

Entrepreneurship experts visited Israel to help scientists and researchers to recognize breakthrough ideas. 

Experts from Leeds' Deming Center for Entrepreneurship visited the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, to help researchers and scientists better understand the business applications of breakthrough discoveries. From left, Brad Werner, Sharon Fireman and Erick Mueller at the Weizmann workshop. Below right are scenes from workshop sessions being led by Mueller and Fireman.

If you’re in business, the word “entrepreneurship” has many associations—founders, startups, visionaries, people who look at problems differently and find solutions in improbable places.

If you are more technically oriented, “entrepreneurship” may not be in your vocabulary at all.

And for Erick Mueller, executive director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, that’s a problem, because technical professionals are often responsible for the kinds of innovations that can be game-changers in business.

“Teaching scientists and researchers how to better recognize and evaluate ideas from an entrepreneurship lens offers huge potential for positive impact—whether that’s a breakthrough medicine, a cure to a horrible disease or better security protocols to keep kids safe online,” Mueller said.

That’s what brought the Deming Center to the Weizmann Institute of Science for a workshop in entrepreneurial thinking for staff scientists at the Rehovot, Israel, research university.

MORE: Inside Deming's Rural Entrepreneurship Workshop series

“Bringing that innovation and entrepreneurship lens to scientists is maybe not the first community that comes to mind when thinking of our workshop participants,” said Mueller, who designed the Idea to Action with his Deming Center colleague, Brad Werner. “But there’s so much potential for these researchers to create impact that truly changes the world for the better.”

High potential for impactful business activity

Mueller and Werner were tasked with teaching the career researchers at Weizmann’s BINA unit—short for Bridge-Innovate-Nurture-Advance—the business side of the life-altering discoveries they already make, hoping these scientists will become more adept at recognizing the big ideas that can impact humanity, and developing them into life-changing applications.

With its high ratio of entrepreneurs and venture capital in proportion to the population, Israel is known in the tech world as “the startup nation,” making it an ideal environment to plant the CU Deming flag and offer scientists ways to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and realize their technological potential.

“From my experience, I know ventures have the highest chance of success when you have a talented group of business as well as technical leaders,” Mueller says. “You can’t have a successful venture without those two disciplines. The cross-disciplinary nature of business creation always results in a greater chance of success.”

“Teaching scientists and researchers how to better recognize and evaluate ideas from an entrepreneurship lens offers huge potential for positive impact.”

Erick Mueller, executive director, Deming Center for Entrepreneurship

Weizmann is mentioned alongside schools like Harvard and MIT when it comes to research, but the workshop “aimed to shift our focus from the basic science that we do in the lab towards understanding how to take our unique idea and turn it into a product,” said Gili Ben Nissan, an associate staff scientist in Weizmann’s biomolecular sciences department. “We learned the various aspects of commercialization, and we were inspired to fly with our imagination to higher grounds and realize that if we have a good idea and the ambition to make a difference, it is possible.”

That’s exactly what Sharon Fireman, who heads BINA’s translational research and innovation unit, was looking for in partnering with Deming. BINA, she said, wants to “assist the staff scientists in expanding their knowledge in this field, expose them to basic concepts in the industry and enable them to create a network that allows collaborating on new innovative projects.”

At Deming, that’s all in a day’s work.

“Entrepreneurship is a mindset, not just a job description,” Mueller said. “By definition, entrepreneurship is solving problems in the world and empowering people to have a great life.”

Why Leeds Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Leeds Centers of Excellence

The Deming Center brought its expertise to scientists and researchers who don't always recognize the commercial applications of their important discoveries.

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