Changing mindset is the key to strategic thinking

Ateneo Professor on Entrepreneurship

AGSB, Makati City Philippines | October 27 2013October 27, 2013



I was a witness to another defense of a strategic paper, the capstone of the MBA student requirements for graduation.  The defender is a finance person of a power company;  and she kept on answering that she does not know this development on external environment because she is the finance person and what is preventing her from thinking strategically is that perception and mindset that she can look at the company business from the standpoint of a finance person.  And when asked on technical matters, she would not know how to answer.

Because of this, she was not up to date on the following:  renewable energy, the state of black technology vs green technology abroad and their effect on the P n L. This looks demanding and exacting but I think a graduate student must be a this level.

I noticed also that while the business is not responsive to the environment, the senior executives of their company as well as the student just looks at the preservation of the company and not focusing on innovating and bringing it up par to world standards, making this more competitive.  They are in the survival mode.