After being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 3rd Esade Alumni Annual Conference in the Americas took place on 30th April. Miami was the city chosen to host this opportunity to connect and share at the most emblematic international event of the year, organised to provide a venue for reflecting on the paradigms for the new decade.
Several panel discussions were held throughout the day, featuring expert professionals from various industries who discussed the major challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The panellists analysed the new paradigms that need to be considered in their respective organisations and industries.
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To kick off the proceedings, Iván Bofarull (Lic&MBA ‘97), Director of Innovation at Esade, gave a talk entitled “Moonshot Thinking: Embracing Disruption to Transform Your Business”. According to Bofarull, moonshot thinking is aimed at finding disruptive solutions to impossible challenges. True innovation within companies enables exponential growth, which can only be made possible by rebooting the operating system – i.e. by changing the way the company works and thinks. As Bofarull explained, it is possible to adopt a truly entrepreneurial mindset thanks to moonshot thinking, a mental model that prioritises exponential improvements over incremental ones. The expert stressed the need to learn from the successes and failures of different companies and to design a systematic model of disruptive innovation for your company, based on anticipation, launch and landing.
“At a conference like this one, it is important to share ideas and perspectives,” noted Bofarull. “Innovation is about seeing something that others don’t see; to do that, you need to connect with other people.”
Koldo Echebarria, Director General of Esade, Iñaki Ocaña (Lic&MBA ‘06/ DARH ‘12), Director of Global Relations and Careers at Esade Alumni, and Pedro Galván (Lic&MBA ‘98), President of the Esade Alumni Miami Chapter, were also in Miami to discuss a few points regarding Esade’s future strategy and the power of the community. Francisco Javier Garzón Morales, Trade Commissioner of Spain, was also in attendance.
As Koldo Echebarria noted, in today’s changing world, education and technology applied to education are more valuable than ever, and this is why Esade is committed to offering a hybrid online and offline educational portfolio that applies various technological resources. “I don’t think management can be understood without technology,” he commented.
During his remarks, Iñaki Ocaña underscored the importance of the annual conference, noting that it allows us to activate an open, diverse community that shares values and an identity:
“It is an active community because wherever you are, you can always find a member who is willing to help you. The contribution of mutual value is fundamental.”
According to Pedro Galván, the conference shows that Miami is the most important gateway to the Americas from Europe. He also highlighted Esade Alumni’s ability to share knowledge from many industries in order to maximise synergies.
“At the Miami Chapter, our goal is to become the largest club in the Americas in order to help Esade graduates from elsewhere in the world to get their bearings here,” noted Galván.
To deepen the analysis of current challenges, the event featured two panel discussions on challenges that organisations expect to face in the future. Participants included Juan Antonio Nieto Martín, Chief Operating Officer for the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America at the Dufry Group; media executive Laura Tapias; Pablo Sánchez-Cabrera, Country Manager for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico at Air Europa; Alexandra Valentín, Vice President of J.P. Morgan Private Bank; Joan Bertrán, Global Head of Commercial Real Estate and Hotels at Banco Sabadell; Sergio Martínez, Global CEO of Sanitas International Europe and Asia; Marcos Pérez Salvador, CEO and General Manager of ¡HOLA!TV; and José Antonio Ortega Carrero, CEO of Prisa Media America.
The conference ended with networking cocktails to encourage relationship-building among alumni.
