Strong leadership vital for success
Nasa award winner cites Apollo missions
Dubai: Strong leadership skills and a pioneering spirit are the essential backbone to successful institutions, governments or movements said, Professor Farouk Al Baz, recipient of the Nasa Apollo Achievement Award yesterday.
He spoke at the inauguration of the Hamdan Bin Mohammad e-University (HBMeU) 2011 Annual congress.
Al Baz used examples of his work on the Apollo space missions from 1963 to 1972 as examples of strong and consequently successful leadership.
"The Apollo space missions are a very good example of successful leadership in the world," said Al Baz. "A goal was set to be achieved within a specific timeframe of a decade, which was to send humans to the moon and bring them back safely."
He added that such a precise vision consequently resulted in the union of thinkers such as scientists and technical experts who came together to achieve an end goal.
"To set an objective with a deadline and get everyone working towards it is the basis of great management," said Al Baz.
Accept change
He addressed 10 key points he views as essential for leadership, amongst which he stressed was of grave importance, is the acceptance of change.
"To keep things stagnant for 30 years is a grave disaster we [the Arab world] need to take risks and do things we don't know the outcome of," he said.
"The world is changing and passive systems and countries are dying today as if they are sick."
As a show of innovative leadership HBMeU launched the International Consortium for Teaching and Learning Centres (ICTLC), to encourage scholarly research amongst international e-universities.
ICTLC is essentially an online platform that brings together the likes of HBMeU and UKs Open University for knowledge and resource sharing. The aim of ICTLC is to improve the quality of teaching and learning of its member institutions.
"ICTLC is one of the most important steps we've taken towards strengthening collaborative efforts towards realizing our shared vision in the field of education," said Dr Mansour Al Awar, Chancellor of HMBeU.
