AIM’s Top Management Program focuses on innovation

MANILA, Philippines - Behavioral economics and finance have proven that people are less rational than we think when it comes to making decisions, shared Ricardo A. Lim, dean of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). And this irrationality plays a big role in how products are conceptualized, packaged, and priced. Hence, customization becomes a key concept in global business — to address particular market needs and specific target niches.

Such innovative subjects opened doors for training institutions like the AIM, the premier graduate school of business and management in Asia, to innovate to address a global economy with changing values.  “Even by simply talking, learning occurs,” Lim shares. Concepts are not just lectured but are delivered creatively through group peer dynamics, learner-centered discussions, and insight sharing where experts offer fresh perspectives instead of solutions or even options to solve age-old problems.

Ricardo A. Lim, dean of the Institute, is the former associate dean of the W. Sycip Graduate School of Business and editor-in-chief of The Asian Manager. He specializes in information technology and management communication and earned his doctorate from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

“Learners are challenged to look at things in fresh ways; CEOs must innovative so that competitors have to catch up,” adds Lim as he describes how AIM’s Top Management Program (TMP) is unique among other programs.

Going back to your roots and to how your market thinks and decides, will give you the edge in coming up with a new product or on how to manage well your organization, says Dean Lim.  “To come up with fresh perspectives, a CEO has to go back to his or her own values — to rediscover how one would have fun and do the things you love in the first place.”

TMP focuses on how today’s top business leaders can apply two innovative trends in 21st century management. First is consequential leadership — or the ability to creatively design, effectively lead, and assertively implement change to make significant positive difference in the future performance of their organizations. Second is lifelong learning — or the ability to monitor, understand, and learn from the global landscape to transform efficiently these implications into action plans.

Participants will go back to their companies enriched with an expanded perspective as well as a deeper and broader appreciation of the complexities, challenges, and opportunities inherent in the global economy. And these are brought about by having experienced three days of structured interactions with thought leaders and peers representing a cross-section of the world’s multicultural business landscape. In the end, each one of them is more capable to make significant and consequential changes to their respective organizations.

Lim will be joined by AIM’s core graduate school faculty to facilitate these sessions. This elite pool of experts include: Federico M. Macaranas, who specializes in globalization, economics, and leadership, is the first Filipino to be invited by Nobel laureates to join a Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs; Ma Nieves R. Confesor, former dean of the Institute and specializes in public policy and planning and administration, has been a consultant for the WB, ILO, ASEAN, and ADB; Milagros D. Lagrosa, who specializes in human development, leadership, and group-centered learning methodologies, is on the core faculty of the Washington Sycip GSB; and Antonio Ma C. Perez, who directs AIM’s Management Development Program, is on the core faculty of the Executive Education and Lifelong Learning Center.

The 2012 Top Management Program (TMP) has created courses that doesn’t only bring together a multicultural group of learners but also recognized the challenges that CEOs face.  AIM’s TMP 2012 is anchored on Innovative and Value-Based Leadership and will be held from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, 2012, in Bangkok, Thailand.