The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a threat to our physical health, it can also affect our emotional and mental well-being because of the stress, anxiety, and fear caused by being overwhelmed when faced with adversity, according to Desiree Carlson Sanromán, psychotherapist and executive coach.
This expert discussed the issue with Jaime García Narro, associate dean of Executive Education at EGADE Business School, as a part of the webinar “Transitioning through uncertainty - life after COVID-19”.
Carlson Sanromán said that visualizing adversity in four dimensions is helpful in developing or strengthening our resilience:
How much control do I have over the situation?
How much impact does this situation have on me, or vice versa?
What is the scope of this situation on a personal level and a collective level?
How long can this situation last?
According to her, by conducting a self-reflection exercise based on these questions, we can come up with useful answers to get more clarity on how to face and overcome adversity.
“Rather than focusing on what we do, it is more important to focus on how we are dealing with this,” she said.
This webinar is part of EGADE Business School's webinar series: “Rising to the challenge: Leadership in the face of COVID-19”.
EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey participated in the 2020 edition of CentreCourt, an admissions festival featuring the top MBA programs in the world.
This year the annual event organized by Poets&Quants, the leading global online publication for business education news, evolved into a virtual format due to the COVID-19 contingency and brought together 33 prestigious business schools who were able to interact with more than 3,000 candidates from over 75 countries through digital lectures, panel discussions, interviews, and chat rooms.
Ignacio de la Vega, dean at EGADE Business School and the Undergraduate Business School at Tec de Monterrey, had a keynote conference with John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants, in which they discussed business education trends from a post-pandemic perspective.
“The future of business education was already on the table years ago; COVID-19 is only accelerating our industry's transformation. We need to be bold and innovative to remain relevant,” said de la Vega.
Meanwhile, Jaime Martínez Bowness, director of the EGADE Business School campus in Mexico City, participated in a career development panel with representatives from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School and McCombs School of Business, led by Matt Symonds, an author and correspondent for Forbes, the BBC, and The Economist.
“Innovation, digital disruption, and entrepreneurship are at the core of our programs. Now more than ever, companies expect more from our students, especially in sectors that involve digital transformation,” said Martínez.
Eric Porras, national director of EGADE Business School's MBA programs, also participated in an admissions panel with colleagues from Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management, and McCombs School of Business, which led as well by Symonds.
“We are looking for candidates who are aligned with our mission, omnipreneurial leaders who are capable of creating shared value and transforming society,” said Porras.
In addition, Jorge Luis Torres Aguilar, who is both president at FedEx Express Mexico as well as at the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham), and who was awarded as Influential Leader of the Class of 2020 by AACSB International, was interviewed about his experience as an OneMBA graduate from EGADE Business School.
"One of the highlights of OneMBA is its global perspective. The program allows you to live a truly global experience through a series of residencies around the world," he said.
EGADE Business School, the only academic institution from Latin America that was invited to participate, shared information on its MBA program portfolio, interacting with candidates through apps such as Whoa and Zoom.
Some of the other schools in attendance were Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the MIT Sloan School of Management, UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business, HEC Paris and London Business School.
International academic leaders discussed the perspectives that business schools have on the pandemic during the webinar “Shaping the Future of Global Business Education in a Post-COVID-19 World”, hosted by EGADE Business School.
Juan Freire, associate academic dean of the Undergraduate Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, argued that academic institutions should move more towards digital educational models, and redirect their academic programs to solve relevant problems.
“There is a widespread belief that this crisis will transform almost everything in the next few years or decades. As business schools, we must show our ability to respond effectively to this new normal. If we can do that, we will have credibility in the future,” he said.
On the other hand, John A. Quelch, dean of the Miami Herbert Business School, indicated that instead of just migrating their programs to digital format or innovating in technological resources, business schools will have to adapt the content of their programs.
“On many levels, we're still going to need that face-to-face interaction, to build trust,” he said.
This webinar from the series “Rising to the challenge: Leadership in the face of COVID-19”, which is organized by EGADE Business School, was led by Juan Enciso, director of the Global OneMBA and MBA in Global Business & Strategy programs.
As a response to a world that is undergoing constant changes, in which leaders require upskilling or reskilling tools that fit their environment and meet their short-term goals, EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey has launched a new platform called Alternative Learning.
This innovative initiative offers exceptional learning experiences adapted to the 21st-century digital environment through a portfolio of dynamic, flexible, and agile programs aimed at life-long professional development:
EGADE Capsules are videos, presented by the EGADE Business School faculty, that provide users with the opportunity to solve their doubts and questions about the business world through concise and open-access content on subjects such as business management, entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing.
MicroMasters are massive online programs, delivered in collaboration with edX and open to the public. Each MicroMaster consists of six MOOCs, through which participants accelerate their professional growth by gaining access to exclusive content. Later on, the MicroMasters certificate can be part of the participants' first steps towards earning a full master's degree. Currently, there are two available courses in this category, both offered in Spanish:
Habilidades profesionales: negociación y liderazgo.
Emprendimiento e innovación.
Live Online is a real-time digital learning platform, with specialized courses focused on strengthening skills within contemporary business topics such as service management, digital marketing, circular economy, data analysis, digital finance, and digital transformation.
BootCamps are immersive, intensive, hands-on training programs that focus on exploring core innovation areas. These Bootcamps can be taken either in an onsite or a fully online format on innovative platforms.
Laura Zapata, an academic associate dean at EGADE Business School, noted that Alternative Learning helps business leaders, executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs take a proactive approach to their development and maintain a strategic advantage in the face of global trends.
“Through this platform, with accessible courses for everyone and at an affordable cost, participants will be able to learn using the cutting-edge techniques that distinguish EGADE Business School and to get in touch with our community of leaders,” added Julien Depauw, head of Educational Innovation at EGADE Business School.
Click here to explore Alternative Learning’s portfolio.
An MBA graduate from EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, is manufacturing protective masks with 3D-printing technology in Guadalajara and distributing them at production cost to help the medical staff that treats COVID-19 patients in Mexico.
This product was named Hope's Mask 00, in order to convey optimism and hope for overcoming the coronavirus crisis. It is a mask made from polylactic acid (PLA), which consists of three pieces, including six interchangeable N95 filters, and can be reused after proper cleaning.
“We have delivered more than 1,000 masks and are already developing Hope's Mask 01, with many improvements, including a far more comfortable fit for shifts that last more than eight hours, frontal lighting, eye protection, and more economical filters with better filtration levels than the N95,” said Yoku Sashida Mendez.
The EXATEC-EGADE member manufactures these masks at Soluciones Kenko, a company focused on the development of new technologies for the health sector, where he serves as CEO and co-founded with his CTO, Daniel Aragón Han, also a Tec graduate.
In response to the COVID-19 contingency, Sashida Mendez said that they transformed their production setup to achieve 100% operational capacity for the production of Hope's Masks.
“Our mission is to innovate so that we can improve and save lives. Regardless of what happens, we are always looking to fulfill our purpose as a company. We saw a problem that was so big that, from the beginning, our approach was simply to act with our assets. The goal was very simple: to equip, as much as possible, our health professionals to take care of those who care for us,” he said.
Sashida Mendez and Aragon Han were featured in “The Top 30 Business Promises 2020”, a list published by Forbes Mexico in its latest February issue, for the creation of their gadget: ECGlove.
A lesson that the current COVID-19 crisis has passed on to companies is that they need to be proactive rather than reactive, according to Ernesto Amorós, national director of doctoral programs at EGADE Business School.
“We are aware that no one expected this, it was not anticipated, and many of the things we are doing as an organization is reacting to the situation. Now, we need to be far more proactive and, above all, to systematically plan our innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives,” he said.
Amorós participated with other experts in the webinar “ Seizing opportunities and solving challenges through corporate entrepreneurship”, from the series “Rising to the challenge: Leadership in the face of COVID-19”.
Fernando Moya, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at EGADE Business School, noted that the maxim of “innovate or die” will be indisputable in a post-pandemic world.
“We have to approach innovation and entrepreneurship as a process that is every bit as important as finance, marketing, IT or human resources within the organization, so we can find new ways to deliver value to customers,” he said.
In addition, José Enrique Alba Escamilla, head of Tec de Monterrey's Innovative Entrepreneurship Area in Mexico City, presented the Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship Portfolio (PIEC for its acronym in Spanish), which brings together the programs and platforms offered by the institution to support and develop the competitiveness of large organizations through closed and open innovation, as well as entrepreneurship and intra-entrepreneurship.
“Now, more than ever, corporate entrepreneurship is a vital vehicle for triggering innovation and driving competitiveness in organizations,” he said.
Supporting entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as governance models that promote reflecting on the purpose of business, is what Salvador Alva, president of Tec de Monterrey, and Ignacio de la Vega, dean of EGADE Business School and the Undergraduate Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, suggested as part of the National Conference for Economic Recovery organized by the Business Coordinating Council (CCE for its initials in Spanish).
At the roundtable entitled "Recovery in the medium and long term", coordinated by Coparmex, Alva pointed out that entrepreneurship creates jobs, wealth, and, therefore, social and economic welfare.
"In Mexico, we don't have an entrepreneur-friendly environment. We must digitize the processes faced by an entrepreneur," he said.
El emprendimiento genera empleos, riqueza, y por ende, bienestar social y económico. En México no tenemos un entorno amigable para emprender. Debemos digitalizar los procesos a los que se enfrenta un emprendedor: Salvador Alva Gómez (@Salvador) #AvanzandoJuntosYEnPazpic.twitter.com/4vLpLItPrr
Meanwhile, De la Vega agreed on the need to promote digitalization and competitiveness programs to support entrepreneurs, in order to contribute to diversity, job creation, collective wealth, and innovation in the country.
"The public and private sectors must push forward an urgent reindustrialization plan; an agile plan with high impact, aimed at designing opportunities for Mexico in a post-COVID-19 scenario and at securing the country in the economic, commercial and financial spheres," he added.
The dean discussed the creation of a "recovery trust", made up of contributions from the banking system and the pension system in the form of stock certificates, to channel financing to SMEs with better financial conditions, in order to preserve their viability and jobs.
"It is estimated that at least half of the 4 million SMEs in Mexico will be in danger of bankruptcy by early fall," he noted.
In addition, he called for a national pact to reduce income tax by 50% during the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, capped at 10 million pesos, as fiscal measure to support medium-sized companies that meet their tax payments.
Sin diálogo, sin colaboración, entre todos, no existe un México con potencia de futuro. Debemos salvaguardar a México para que haya una recuperación firme y prolongada que no profundice los males que ya hoy nos aquejan: @Ignaveg#AvanzandoJuntosYEnPazpic.twitter.com/tkybmRSSFp
Alva and De la Vega participated in a round table moderated by Gustavo de Hoyos, national president of Coparmex, which also included interventions by legislators, officials, academics and business people, such as Josefina Vázquez Mota, Margarita Zavala, Enrique de la Madrid, Jorge Castañeda, Rocío Abreu González, Claudio X. González, Javier Corral, Vanessa Rubio, and Luis Carlos Ugalde, among others.
The National Conference for Economic Recovery was organized by the CCE with the aim of building, through a total of 11 roundtables, a national agreement between the federal government and the private sector to address the COVID-19 crisis in Mexico.
Once the COVID-19 contingency is over, our country will see the emergence of a new generation of business leaders who are more socially aware, according to Carlos Salazar Lomelín, president of Mexico's Business Coordination Council (also known as CCE).
Salazar Lomelín, who is also Chairman of the Board of the Undergraduate Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, said that Mexico must prioritize economic growth in order to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic.
Salazar Lomelín presented the webinar “The company's perspective and the leader: challenges and opportunities of COVID-19” as part of the series “Rising to the challenge: Leadership in the face of COVID-19”, along with Ignacio de la Vega, dean of EGADE Business School and the Undergraduate Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey.
The head of the CCE stressed that to accelerate the country's recovery process it is essential to foster private investment in large infrastructure projects, as this will result in a high rate of employment and improved value chains.
“The economic crisis that is already wreaking havoc, is different from those experienced in previous years because it is the first time in history that a society has purposefully triggered an economic crisis, to get out of a health crisis. Thus, the main advantages we have now is that we are not in an inflationary situation and there are adequate fiscal policies to get out of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, De la Vega said that in the face of this challenging scenario, entrepreneurs must choose to adjust their style of leadership, in which, more than simply pursuing greater profits, they must take into account that companies are made up of people and that each action they take will have a collateral effect on them, hence the importance of implementing Conscious Leadership.
Both speakers concluded that this crisis is an opportunity to grow as a society, reinvent the country's economy and transform business leadership by placing the greater good at its core.
