Reflections on a Transformational Experience.

In mid 2019 I received confirmation that I had been accepted onto Harvard Business School’s acclaimed General Management Program (GMP). Filled with joy and apprehension I mentally prepared myself for what was going to be an intense experience. I wondered who I was going to meet and would my high need for achievement allow me to tune out the omnipresent demands from the day job. A concentrated 16-week program awaited me. 

My cohort was nothing short of a remarkable collection of leaders from around the world- 104 people from over 40 countries, representing an impressive mix of industries and backgrounds. The infamous case-study method of teaching saw us having to dissect over 100 cases- 1000’s of pages of text, numbers and exhibits, where you are forced to take a position on behalf of the case protagonist- risks and opportunities were identified and the tables were turned…What would you do and why? Can you defend your position? What do you believe the impact will be? The inquiry to diagnosis to recommendation generating cycle was relentless. Then, we were told what actually happened and what frameworks, models and notions provide a way to think through for future scenarios in our own workplace to make sense of how the world works.

The topics we covered as a group were diverse:  Innovation, Finance, Accounting, Strategy, Marketing, Globalization, Leadership and others. The net impact of my personal experience transcends these subject areas which were significantly accentuated by the events of 2020: the Covid-19 pandemic and the social and political pandemics- topics which were impressively incorporated into the work and led to the final module of the GMP being delayed and switching to an online version, after a 5-month delay. The 16-week experience turned into a year long one. 

The everlasting perspectives from GMP show up for me in 3 distinct areas: 

What I learned about the world: 

Life is unpredictable, human life is fragile, society often gets forced to take a time out and reset down to focus on the most basic of human needs: physical and mental health. Leadership vacuums exist everywhere in life, those voids can be filled but you have to be willing, courageous and embrace unpredictability.

What I learned about the workplace:

How does your firm define value and how is it created? Are you afraid to fail, are you willing to experiment and innovate to delight your customers and create more value? How do you know if you are truly innovating and are truly winning? Does your company place equal emphasis on what to start doing vs. being disciplined in stopping doing things? 

What I learned about myself:

How do people experience me and how do people experience themselves when they are with me? The importance of leading with the heart, leaving egos to one side to deliver impact, and crucially, leadership can essentially be distilled down to 2 fundamentals: character and competence. A true 360 degree assessment and a 360 degree transformation.

 I have always enjoyed the process of learning and attending this incredible program has reminded me that there is always something to learn and always something to improve on.

The quality of teaching was incredible. The frequency of cold calls in class, the pace, breadth and depth of challenge was remarkable. The world class faculty taught with conviction, leveraging their unrivalled experiences and insight to turn our traditional thinking upside down. Every class was like taking a dose of super nutrients.  

By far the largest highlight was forging relationships with my cohort. These relationships were built on extremely long days and nights fueled with laughter, disagreements, challenges, debate and frustration but crucially free from the competitiveness of our day jobs. We all relearned the power of diversity in thinking, backgrounds, race, religion and leadership styles- but we were ultimately united in our care for each other and our desire to learn. To think, I have lifelong friends in all parts of the world is a gift, one which I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

My parents were born in rural Pakistan, where having a refrigerator and a steady supply of power was a gift. Working with their hands was the way to survive and provide, immigrating to another country was the ambition they had. The lottery of life made that a reality for them. When my father was raising me and my siblings, he was unrelenting in his desire for us all to be educated- so we did not have to earn a living by using our hands but our minds, a privilege he missed out on. My father passed away at a young age, when I was only 21, and there is nothing more I would have liked this week than have called him on completing my studies and tell him (before pinching myself), ‘dad, your boy just graduated from Harvard’. Dad- this is for you.