Practical CEO

NEW ECONOMIC SCHOOL
Masters in Finance
PRACTICAL CEO AND LEADERSHIP
January-February 2015
Stuart Lawson
[email protected]
Course description
This course will give the students an opportunity to understand the role and responsibilities of a
CEO from the perspective of someone who has been in that role several times. It will examine the
environmental context and how it influences leadership styles. Particular emphasis will be
placed on crisis management; how to spot an impending crisis, its scope and nature;
development and execution of an action plan and the tools to ensure appropriate leadership
traits are employed. Developing the theme of leadership, students will be given a personal
perspective on the crucibles of leadership and their relevance to the development of the
characteristics of leadership. All elements of this class will be taught from the practical
experience of the lecturer who has had a 35-year banking career including 12 years as crisis
manager in four countries.
Grading
The course grade will be based on two individual home assignments (20%), two cases (20%),
and closed-book final exam (60%). Active class participation may add up to 5% bonus points
(note that quality rather than quantity of your interventions will count).
The cases must be prepared in groups of 3-4 people. Work on the case involves preliminary
group discussion, writing a case report answering given questions, and being ready to present
your solution in the class with slides. The case report should contain problem statement
(including relevant information from the case), analysis (assumptions, arguments, computations,
optimal and alternative solutions), and conclusions (summary of your logic and
recommendations). It should be written as executive report to your superior; the maximum
length is 3 pages (all tables and supporting data can be put into a separate appendix). The report
must be based on information contained in the case and your own analysis, not on someone
else’s solutions that may be available at the web (I will check those to ensure there are no
similarities). It should be submitted by the beginning of the class discussing the case. Each case
contributes 10% to the total points for the grade. If someone is not ready to discuss the case in the
class, he or she receives zero points for a given case.
The final exam is closed-book consisting of two parts: (i) questions that require short specific
answers, and (ii) practical problems that require deeper analysis. To pass the course, one should
score at least 30% for the exam.
NEW ECONOMIC SCHOOL
Masters in Finance
Course intended schedule and contents
Class
1
Topic
Reading
Introducing the role of the CEO. Scope of responsibilities,
what is expected of him by whom? What does he expect
from whom?
The context of leadership. How does it impact the leader?
The importance of reading the environment and in
attempting to predict the development of macro and micro
factors that will impact the business.
Harvard business review
R0504D: Seven
transformations of Leadership,
David Rooke, William Torbert
Emotional intelligence, the role of charisma and the
chemistry of leadership.
2
Crisis management. What are the normal reactions, what
tactics separate the winners from the losers? Importance
of learning lessons from a crisis.
Mini case; the Kenyan coup 1982
3
Leadership, skills and characteristics. Detailed review of
some of the core skills.
4
Role of crucibles in the development of characteristics.
Successful failure, how to benefit not suffer from failures
[Harvard business school.9389-054 notes on
management of crisis
Ivey, 9B04C021
Communicating in a crisis
HBR Crucibles of leadership ,
Warren Bennis, Robert
Thomas.
Harvard business school, 9410-028. Life stories of recent
M BA’s
Description of course methodology
The students are expected to effectively prepare to each class by doing pre-reading of the
assigned materials. Before each class, I will send you information about the upcoming class:
required and optional readings, questions for self-preparation (what you should learn before the
class), home assignments and cases.
Sample tasks for course evaluation
Course materials
Required textbooks and materials
1. Crucibles of leadership, How to learn from experience to become a great leader’
Robert Thomas , Amazon
,
NEW ECONOMIC SCHOOL
Masters in Finance
Academic integrity policy
Cheating, plagiarism, and any other violations of academic ethics at NES are not tolerated.

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