Leadership in Times of Crisis

In October, against the backdrop of heightened tension in the North, the Technion held an international online student conference on “Leadership in Times of Crisis.” The conference was initiated by a group of MBA students – Tohar Daniel, Rotem Spier, Gal Forkosh, and Noa Seidenwar – together with Prof. Miriam Erez, associate dean of the MBA Program. The conference was held as part of a partnership between the Technion’s Davidson MBA Program and GNAM – a global network of business established by Yale School of Management, connecting MBA students in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences at the Technion with their peers at leading universities worldwide.

Prof. Erez, an Israel Prize laureate, has led the GNAM (Global Network for Advanced Management) program at the Technion since its inception in 2016. “As part of the program, students from 14 business schools come to the Technion, and some of our MBA students spend a week at one of these schools,” she said. “This year, Technion students did travel abroad, but the event scheduled to take place at the Technion in March 2024 was postponed due to the war. Our MBA students worked hard to organize an event at the Technion that would showcase the best of Israel during a time of crisis. This initiative was theirs, and they led the organization and guest speakers.”

Screenshot from the conference

The Technion conference took place online this year from October 13-18, with 43 students from 14 business schools participating. Lecturers from the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences and other Technion faculties participated, including Nobel laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman, alongside guest speakers and leading figures in Israel’s industry. Notable participants included Technion graduate and entrepreneur Eyal Waldman; Ofer Doron, who leads the Beresheet spacecraft initiative; Paralympic athlete Moran Samuel; Paris Paralympics gold medal winner Uri Lahav, co-founder of Outbrain and founder of a logistical support project for evacuees in Eilat; and Amichai Bar-Nir, the outgoing CEO of Top-Gum in Sderot, which specializes in dietary supplements.

Screenshot from the conference

Among the faculty lecturers, Dr. Noa Zychlinski presented her research on hybrid hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Ido Erev spoke about decision-making during crises, Dr. Shelly Lev-Koren discussed multicultural virtual teams (and facilitated the teamwork with each team composed of students from different countries), and Prof. Erez lectured on managing organizations in times of crisis. Dr. Zohar Rubinstein from Tel Aviv University and his son Eran Rubinstein, who earned his MBA from the Technion, spoke on national resilience – their field of expertise.

The participant group was highly diverse, including the director of Data Science at Mastercard in Utah, USA, a senior manager at Mercedes-Benz, a veterinarian from Chile, and a health manager from an ambulance company in Australia. During the conference, students worked in mixed teams as consulting firms, providing solutions for handling crises in various organizations facing challenges. Prof. Erez stated, “It was impressive and moving to see Technion MBA students working with students from Yale University in the United States and GNAM business schools in Turkey, Ireland, England, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, India, Hong Kong, China, and Australia – focused on a shared purpose and leaving politics aside. In the concluding session, we received much praise from the international students, and again I want to emphasize the central role our students played in initiating, organizing, and leading this important event, as well as the excellent logistical and organizational support provided by the administrative staff of the MBA Program, the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, and the Faculty Computer Center.”