Farhan Tahir

Why did you choose to pursue your EMBA in Digital Transformation at DeGroote?

I was looking for a growth opportunity that aligned my technical expertise with leadership and management competencies. The EMBA in Digital Transformation offered me the unique opportunity to do just that. Digital Transformation is an all-encompassing system that impacts systems, processes, workflow, and culture. I wanted an overarching view of how technology is embedded within business processes to drive change. I chose DeGroote because of the exclusiveness of the program. I believe that my technical background is well-complemented by this EMBA, as it allows a reimagination of an organization’s growth strategy, realigning it with technological advancements, driving sustainable change, and empowering people to innovate with technology.

Looking back at your experience, what were the top 3 highlights of the program from your perspective?

The first element of any successful program is its people. I had the opportunity to team up with industry leaders that bring their own ideas and experiences to the program, allowing for a holistic approach at combining theory and practice. I enjoyed interacting with the faculty, learning from them and my peers, building life-long relationships, and the continued support that I received from my professors and colleagues.

Secondly, I learnt about and was able to use strategic frameworks that help solve the bigger challenges of innovation, creativity and sustainability in modern organizations. Learning about them taught me how these can be adapted to solve any business problem.

Finally, company visits were a big highlight of the program, allowing for an alignment of theoretical concepts with real world people and scenarios, allowing us to develop situations in simulated environments that can work in real life as well.

How has the DeGroote EMBA prepared you as leader?

Leadership is the innate ability to make decisions and garner support for them that would propel organizations forward. In order to do that, leaders need to be able to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders, use organizational human capital for innovative problem solving, getting people to work to their optimum levels of performance, being financially literate, among other things. The EMBA modules and their assessments revolved around the same issues, providing an opportunity to ‘walk the leadership talk’ in a safe, informed environment that provided feedback for course correction where required. I have developed aspects like critical thinking, decision making and people management, which I may have been doing earlier as well, but I now have the background theoretical knowledge to support my actions, which increases my confidence.  Furthermore, a challenging aspect of the program was balancing the academic requirements with other aspects of life, such as balancing work, family and social, and this has built a lot of resilience in my personality which I believe is critical for effective leadership. Moreover, the reflective exercises compelled me to look at my own natural tendencies towards the different leadership styles and behaviors and develop a better understanding of which style I aligned more naturally with and educate myself further to use it appropriately.

As a graduate of the program, how has the DeGroote EMBA impacted your career?

Deciding to take on an EMBA was a challenge for me as I believed leadership and management was significantly different from technical subjects. However, the most significant aspect of this learning was that not only are the modules and content of the EMBA program relevant for all leadership competencies regardless of the type of organization, but also that several of these flow into and help develop and refine areas of personal development as well. The confidence that I gained by studying for the EMBA has spilled over into my professional and personal lives, opening me up to different experiences. These include educating myself on things that I do not understand, enabling me to take on challenges that I earlier thought was too much, and identifying my personal and professional life path. Since graduating I have joined a large Insurtech organization running their transformation to public cloud as well as their Digital products. Stepping outside of my comfort zone may have started with the EMBA enrollment, but it is a way of life for me now, opening new horizons for me every day. Every day is a good day to try something new!!