Leadership does not belong to a particular domain or faculty. It is something that can be nurtured in people who are team players and are ready to be accountable and responsible. And no one realises this better than Dina Domett, Director of Executive Leadership Programmes at the London Business School.
Returning to LBS has been a constant theme in her career. She first joined LBS in 2002 for two years and then in 2004 for two more and now has come back in 2012. She has to her credit the initiation and running of two very successful executive MBA programmes (EMBA), one at the Dubai campus of the LBS in 2007 and another with their partners at the Columbia Business School in 2001.
Both programmes have raised the bar on the content of such courses. In Dubai, leaders from the business community from diversified cultural backgrounds have signed up for the course which has only grown richer in content, faculty and student composition since it started six years ago.
She was in Dubai for founding of the programme six years ago and happy to return to review her work. She spoke to Education about the essence of leadership and the soul of the EMBA programme.
You have been a linguist, historian, even a puppeteer and then moved to the world of Business Administration. How do these fit into your personality?
My experiences at Yale University and Connecticut and Boston Colleges were actually classic LBS school study steeped in different cultures. The Puppet business that I initiated with my sister Donna at school in Yale, was my attempt at being creative and commercial.
As members of the high school club, we needed to demonstrate that we were well-rounded and were future business leaders. My sister and I would make the puppets and sell these. This was our first brush with capitalism. Later, at Yale and Harvard, I revived puppet-making and used it as a teaching aid. I needed to loosen up the class and help people find their voice through the puppets. This became a sort of a theme. And it did help. I recall there was this student, a shy American football player. He was insecure alongside his classmates. I used the puppets to help him shed his inhibitions and find his voice.
Tell us about London Business School’s EMBA in Dubai and what led to your alignment with it.
Tell us about London Business School’s EMBA in Dubai and what led to your alignment with it.
My experiences have helped me understand the essence of true leadership and helped me launch a series of MBA and EMBA programmes at the Columbia Business School and later at the London Business School. When I joined as Associate Dean of the MBA programme at Columbia Business School in 1996, I was able to successfully work towards starting the EMBA Global — the dual MBA programme with London Business school in 2001. Later, I joined LBS to set up the Dubai EMBA programme. I love LBS from the time I joined it earlier in 2004. I also have a strong affinity to Dubai.
LBS is a forward-thinking place and a great global brand. 85 per cent of the students at our London campus and 45 per cent faculty is from outside UK.
Going global was a big thing for us when we launched our Dubai campus in 2007. In 2002, LBS dean, Laura Tyson, contacted me and I joined as director of special projects to launch the EMBA in Dubai in 2004 and by 2007, the programme was up and running.
In many ways, London Business School (LBS) reminds me a lot of Dubai — young ambition and we were a practical business school. There is always a risk on the horizon in the corporate world. We had to give students a chance to give them an exposure of the real situation. Dubai is a global city — perfect for students to think about this region.
The LBS EMBA in Dubai is roughly the same curriculum as in London with admissions in Spring and Autumn. When we started in 2007 in Dubai, we initially had 50 students in Dubai. Since the last six years, nearly 700 students have graduated in our Dubai programme.
Our programme has the same course as London but with a local spin. We have classes once a month and also invite about five guest speakers. It is a two-year course. The first year is spent doing the core course and the next in completing the electives. Students can take upto 8 electives and we have some very innovative electives to offer. Students can also finish the programme earlier.
There are only three occasions when you have to be at the London campus — once at the time of signing up for the course, a couple of months later to recalibrate students from both campuses with each other and finally close to graduation time. The degrees that are given are no different from each other.
Since leadership is at the core of your programme, what according to you is the true essence of a leader?
A true leader is someone who is willing to give back and connects with the wider community. A leader needs to be resilient and manage disappointments, ambiguity and have the ability to guide others especially when the way ahead looks dark.
A great leader is consistent and reliable and is someone you can tap for advice any moment. At our EMBA course here, we have had the opportunity to admit some fine leaders from the Dubai Business community — Shaikha Hamda Al Thani, Muna Al Gurg, Gary Ghanimeh.
There are a lot of women in the group and at LBS, we care about developing women leaders. We are glad that this is happening naturally and organically with the course here.
What is the make-up of the student body at the EMBA course in Dubai?
There has been a healthy diversity in our group with a strong group of Emiratis, Britons, Lebanese and Asians. So far nearly 700 have graduated in our EMBA programme and we are here to stay. Over the next two seasons, we expect nearly a 100 students of which 20 per cent are women. It is heartening to have a strong contingent of Saudi women in our group.
How much of success in academics and career in a student’s life can be attributed to leadership and how much to other factors such as wealth, intelligence and good luck?
I think our EMBA is a great equaliser. It challenges people regardless of their background. You can have all the wealth and good luck, but you need to nurture true leadership qualities irrespective of your background. We have prominent CEOs and business leaders and also regular corporate people at our course.
Our vision is to have a profound impact in how business is done globally. The course is a great leveller, we work closely with candidates from the point of application through to the admission process. We tell them what they can expect from us and give them an opportunity to connect with the staff and alumni.
Do you think cultural diversity and one’s emotional quotient makes a difference to the manner in which you approach an MBA?
I think all countries have certain national characters and when representatives of those countries join our course here, they lend a rich cultural diversity and spirit of entrepreneurship to the course.
The best thing about this programme is that we attract a diverse group of people from both genders from this region and we are able to connect the expat community with the Emiratis. The Dubai programme is quite lively, entrepreneurial and realistic owing to the diverse backgrounds of the students who enrich the programme.
In an ever-changing business environment, what is the one constant you believe will remain so?
Reliance. And the ability to connect with other people. If you are not going to do this you cannot succeed.
