In order to maximise the opportunity for interaction and reflection, the programme is condensed into five intensive days and is set in fully residential, secluded surroundings.

Awareness

Follow the path from the outside world of the corporation to the inner world of the top executive

• The top executive’s job today, viewed from the outside
• Leadership in uncertain times
• Assessing one’s own top management paradigm
• Managing contention, short-term changes vs long-term transformation: top-level practices

Vision

Envision tomorrow’s managers, organisations and global economy

• Alternative models of the business-society interface
• The global corporation and its critics: coping with critics from outside and developing a dialogue integrated into strategic logics
• Investing another world vision, another paradigm and imagining its implications
• Corporate governance and its future

Imagination

Be bold and creative but selective

• The role of imagination in strategic thinking
• Size of pie and not only share of pie
• Beyond confrontation: learning from our contradictions, managing “dualities”
• Alternative competitive logics

Responsibility

Redefine what it means to be a CEO (different CEO vs. better CEO)

• Delivering high performance
• Developing organisational capital and executive talent
• Accountability and responsibility - where to start and where to stop?
• The corporation and the common good: implications for corporate leaders  

Action

Commit to the discipline to act

• The implementation challenge
• Re-invention and the relevance of ‘practical’ theories for action
• Articulating commitment and engaging with coaches for follow-through

Rather than simply transferring knowledge or developing skills, AVIRA aims to increase executives’ capacity to master the complexity of the CEO’s job in the context of an ever-changing global environment. As a result, the emphasis during the five days is on the individual as the substance and vehicle of his or her own learning. As you might expect, the approach is non-traditional, raising questions and challenging alternative answers through a variety of interactive methods including: roundtable discussions, team work, panel discussions and interpersonal peer exchanges.