Oxford Advanced Management

and Leadership Programme

Set a new leadership trajectory
Executive Education at Oxford Saïd
 Contents

Introduction

Overview

The learning journey

Oxford Double Prism Model

Key programme outcomes

Benefits

The Oxford experience

Who teaches on the programme?

Is the programme right for you?

Programme impact

Join our global network

Apply now
 ‘Welcome to the Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme (OAMLP),
Saïd Business School’s flagship development programme for senior leaders.

If you are thinking about applying, you are probably more than aware of the breadth and
complexity of challenges facing the world – from climate change and inequality to cybersecurity
and the future of work. You know how those challenges might impact your organisation, and
you probably already have plans or proposals for how your organisation could respond.

But you want to do more than just react to external circumstances. You want to lead
an organisation that is adaptable and far-sighted, turning today’s and tomorrow’s
challenges into powerful opportunities. Driving sustainable profitable growth
performance and returning shareholder value is critical to you. Governments and
public sector bodies must achieve major impact for the societies they serve.

OAMLP will help you do just that. Grounded in your current leadership experience, it
uses the Oxford Double Prism Leadership Development Model to guide you through
an intense process during which your leadership challenge and experience are carefully
deconstructed, reflected on, strengthened and reconstructed. You will leave with a fully
defined and actionable new leadership initiative, together with a personal ‘Leadership
Playbook’, containing tools and strategies that can set both you and your organisation on
a path to enhanced performance and societal impact built around an explicit purpose.’

Dr Andrew White
Programme Director
Associate Dean for Executive Education and Corporate Relations

Back to contents
 Overview

Lead Quick facts

for impact and growth

Duration: 3 weeks
Prepare
for changes
Location: Oxford
Create prosperity
and empower innovators,
problem-solvers, big-thinkers
Years of the programme: 35+

Shape a positive future Class size: 35–40

for you, your organisation, and society

Countries represented: 25

Industry sectors: 20

FT Executive Education
Ranking 2019
Open Programmes #1 in the UK
for 5 consecutive years

Back to contents
 The learning journey
Pre-programme
A 1-2-1 interview with the Programme Director to discuss your leadership initiative and to explore how the
programme can assist you in achieving this. This is supported by executive psychometric and 360 feedback analysis.
Week one
Module 1:
Your proposed leadership initiative
Your leadership initiative placed
in today’s business, societal, and
geopolitical contexts. Setting the
trajectory to enhanced performance
Module 2:
21st-century challenges
Insights from cutting-edge research
and new perspectives on how
leaders make sense of, and thrive
through, rapid political, social,
and economic change. Key topics
include: trust in the digital economy;
the impact of global events; and the
climate emergency.
Module 3:
Scenarios
Developing and using scenarios
to systematically explore the
potential impact of the 21st century
challenges for organisations and
your leadership initiative.
Week two
Module 4:
Your organisation’s purpose
Working through a detailed analysis
of the purpose of your organisation
and the strategic choices it
compels; resolving paradoxes
between purpose and performance
to combine doing the right thing for
society with long-term commercial
success.
Module 5:
Your organisation’s performance
challenge
Translating purpose into
performance through topics such
as leading digital transformation,
financing large-scale investments,
strategic negotiations, sustaining
competitive advantage and superior
performance; and diversification
and sustainable growth.
Week three
Module 6:
Your leadership initiative redesigned
Examining successful execution,
including adaptive leadership,
presence and mindset. Bringing
everything together to finalise
your ‘Leadership Playbook’ of
personalised, contextualised,
and fully stress-tested strategies;
consolidating your learning and
using it as a springboard for
innovative thinking, with action
plans that will take your new
leadership initiative forward.
Post-programme
Participants leave the programme
with a tangible Leadership Playbook
ready to put into action. A follow-
up coaching session further
consolidates learning. Participants
are also invited to join the Oxford
Business Alumni Network.
Back to contents
 Oxford Double Prism Model

Deconstruction Reconstruction
Self-reflection Renewed focus

Your proposed leadership initiative

21s t cen tury challen
ges
Sc enarios
Your o
rganis a
tion’s p
Your urp os e
organ
is a tio
n’s p e
Your r form
lea d anc e
ersh c halle
ip in
i tia t
ive r
nge
Leadership
edes
igne
d Playbook
➤ Leadership ➤ Explicit purpose
challenges ➤ Impact
➤ Experience ➤ Performance:
to date Executive Sustainable
➤ Executive long-term growth
coaching
assessment tools

The structure of OAMLP is based on the Oxford Double Prism Leadership Development Model, which has
been designed to help you refocus your own leadership and stimulate a bold new strategic direction for your
organisation.

The OAMLP learning environment is highly collaborative. You will engage with leading academics and expert
speakers who will offer a wide range of different perspectives on today’s leadership challenges. More
importantly, you will discuss, debate, and test your responses to them with your fellow participants – leaders
from around the world, representing a diverse mix of public and private sector organisations, and NGOs.
Back to contents
 Key programme outcomes

You will leave the programme with:

Leadership Playbook
A tangible and personalised ‘Leadership Playbook’ – a
tangible take-away that brings together everything that
you have learnt and reflected on during the programme,
and also contains a specific action plan for you
and your organisation that you can start
to put into practice immediately.

Purpose
A clear articulation of your
organisation’s purpose, how it
aligns with your own values, how
Impact
Confidence in your own leadership
style and impact through your
ability to navigate complexity, make
the right decisions and transcend
the paradoxes of purpose and
performance.

Insights
Insights about some of the key 21st
century challenges and the use of
scenarios to explore how the future
context of your organisation may
evolve and what this means for
your leadership initiative (which by
default is aimed at the future).
it benefits society, and how it can
influence and support key strategic
Network
decisions. A new, high-quality network of
peers in diverse organisations and
industries around the world.
Performance
The knowledge, tools, and
frameworks that will help you
and your organisation to thrive
in responding to 21st century
challenges.
Back to contents
 … and how you will achieve them
Reflect on and apply the findings of academic research
Our faculty members will introduce you to the latest research findings and
thought-leadership from Saïd Business School and across the University.
The research-based sessions in the programme hold up a mirror to
practice, with in-depth analysis of the complex models and processes that
underlie business challenges and success.

Share your experiences

The highly diverse nature of the participant group provides you with
insights into a wide range of different contexts, sectors, cultures, and
experiences. A selective application process ensures that the cohort is
balanced and that everyone participating in the programme is of a suitable
level of seniority. Being able to share and discuss your leadership initiative
(and leadership experiences more generally) with your fellow participants
will give you new perspectives and new ideas.

Discuss your learning with a coach

There are regular individual coaching sessions, based on the Oxford tutorial
model, for you to fully assimilate the ideas being discussed and apply them
to your own leadership initiative.

Learn from the insights of expert practitioners

The convening power of Oxford means that the programme is able to
attract inspirational speakers from all over the world who are willing to share
details of their own leadership experience and organisational challenges.

Engage with new activities

From working with others to developing scenarios in unfamiliar sectors to
spotting the leadership development lessons in Shakespeare’s Henry V
and participating in an Oxford Union debate, OAMLP features a number
of sessions that are designed to surprise you and open up new ways of
seeing the world and your leadership opportunities.

Back to contents
 ‘The programme challenges
you on every level’
‘I was looking for something more meaningful, something more
impactful, something that I could actually take and implement
in my everyday work. And in OAMLP I found it.

What I enjoyed most was the balance of classroom learning, the

way in which the lessons were actually set up, the way we were able
to bring in our creative sides to whatever we had learnt, and of
course the interaction with everyone else in the class. You’re sitting
beside people who are industry leaders, people that come from all
geographies, and people that have a deep understanding of their area
of expertise.

The programme challenges you on every level. There is not a day you
are not thinking about how you can actually change and implement
what you have learnt.’

Lizelle Padayachee
Divisional Head Banking & Insurance Supervision,
South African Reserve Bank

Back to contents
 Benefits

OAMLP for you

At the heart of your experience of OAMLP is the

personal development journey that you take as an
individual leader.

Leadership happens in a context, which is why we

devote time to understanding that context – particularly
considering your organisation, industry sector, and the
wider society in which you operate. But the programme
structure and teaching is designed to ensure that you
make the connections between the context and your
own leadership style and values.

Key to this are the individual coaching sessions, based

on the Oxford tutorial model. These are all about giving
you time to reflect on issues that are important to you.
You set the agenda and your tutor, through careful
listening and questioning, helps you to tease out the
root tensions and complexities of that issue, see it in a
different light, and decide how to move forward with it.

The insights you develop are often expanded and

refined through discussions with the wider participant
group including live participant case studies. The
intense nature of the programme and the collaborative
exercises mean that participants develop meaningful
relationships, very quickly, with the rest of the cohort.
You will leave not just with a valuable business
network, but with a group of friends for life.

Back to contents
Benefits

OAMLP for your organisation

The main benefit your organisation will derive from

OAMLP will be your return with the skills, new thinking
and enthusiasm required to set a fresh trajectory.

Most importantly, you will have spent time reflecting on

your organisation’s context, purpose and how to align
these with business strategy – including the markets
you are in, the way you develop your people, how you
contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,
and how you position yourself to prepare for seismic
changes in the future.

You will have the confidence to challenge the status

quo in your industry, to confront and work with critics,
and to make bold decisions about what you will stop
doing as well as about what you will start to do. This
will open up space for innovation and sustainable
growth to deliver long-term prosperity.

The diversity of thought you encounter on the

programme will encourage you to think beyond the
boundaries of your organisation or geography and
develop innovative ways to support future success.

Through you and the contacts you make on the

programme, your organisation will have unparalled
access to a global business community.

Back to contents
 Benefits

OAMLP for society

OAMLP contributes to developing a generation

of leaders who run successful organisations that
create value for people, societies, and the planet.

Through its diverse participant and alumni body,

OAMLP fosters increased communication and
collaboration between sectors, countries,
and regions.

By helping organisations become more

forward-looking, aware, and adaptive, OAMLP
improves responses to external and internal crises.

Back to contents
The Oxford experience
Oxford is one of the world’s leading research
universities, with a vast global network of connections
with businesses and international institutions. Yet it
still has the sense of being a retreat. You come here to
refresh your thinking and explore new directions. As
an OAMLP participant you have three weeks in which
all you have to do is concentrate on your learning: take
in new knowledge, reflect on it, test your conclusions,
and hone them into an action plan.

You will enjoy many typical Oxford experiences,

including programme dinners in historic Oxford colleges
and other activities embracing the rich cultural and
intellectual flavours of the city. There will be a chance
to try punting, and to walk in the countryside around
Oxford. You can take time for reflection and enjoy
visiting Oxford’s historic museums and libraries. The
programme also includes the chance to participate in an
exclusive OAMLP debate at the world-famous Oxford
Union.

But most of all, the OAMLP is a safe environment

in which you can ask questions and try out new
ideas, listening to feedback from faculty and other
participants, and benefiting from their inspirational
support and experience.

Back to contents
 Who teaches on the programme?

Core faculty include:

Programme
Directors

Andrew White
Michael Smets
Associate Dean for Executive
Professor of Management
Education and Corporate Relations

Sue Dopson
Rhodes Trust Professor of
Marc Ventresca
Associate Professor
Organisational Behaviour, Deputy
of Strategic Management
Dean of Saïd Business School

Trudi Lang
Rachel Botsman
Senior Fellow in Management
Trust Fellow
Practice

and

Back to contents
 Is the programme right for you?
• You are a senior leader You will be learning alongside people
at or near the top of your with roles including:
organisation and you have
held a senior role for at least
ten years Chief Executive Officer
• You are working within Member of the board
public and private sector
organisations, or NGOs Business or function head
• You are curious, motivated,
Managing Director
searching for solutions to
the challenges facing your
Executive Director
organisation and business and Senior Political Leader
society more generally
Senior Government Official
• You are ready and eager for
change – for yourself and Country Head
your organisation
Regional Director
• You want to take stock of your
own career, decide where you
want to go next, and shape
a lasting legacy

• You want to transform your

organisation in terms of how
it operates and what it delivers

Back to contents
 Programme impact
Stephen Gould, Managing Director, Everards Brewery, ‘Everards is a company with a purpose that gives us
attended OAMLP in 2014. huge agility and licence for change,’ said Stephen.
‘It enables us to build trusted relationships for the
During the programme Stephen was particularly struck long term that can drive performance for the future.’
by the conversations on purpose: ‘One of the major
ideas that I took away from the programme was that an Stephen himself was publicly recognised as one of
organisation needs to have a very clear sense of what it 50 Kind Leaders in November 2019, in a list compiled
is, who it is, and the impacts that it makes on society,’ by the Women of the Future Programme for World
he said. ‘This is not just for the sake of contributing to Kindness Day.
society in a charitable or not-for-profit sort of way, but a
way of marrying and integrating commercial and social
gain ... So the journey that Everards is undertaking is
about asking: “what is our fundamental purpose? Why
do we exist today? What interactions can we make
tomorrow that strengthen our business commercially
but also strengthen our societal impact?”’

After the programme, he had a further series of

conversations with faculty members at Oxford Saïd
and introduced them to the owners and executive
committee, proposing a new axis for the business –
with a purpose to build relationships with business
owners and communities. This has led them into
projects which further integrate Everards into its local
community and develop environmentally friendly
spaces. It has such a great emotional appeal that
Everards has overtaken the average performance of Watch a video about the Everards story and how
other brewers in the field. their renewed sense of purpose is contributing to local
communities and their own bottom line.

Back to contents
 Join our global network

By completing this programme you will

be eligible to join the Oxford Business
Alumni (OBA) Network.

With over 22,500 members in 150 countries,

the network is an excellent opportunity to make
connections in your city and sector.

Other benefits include:

• Joining your regional OBA Chapter and/or

connecting with the OBA Ambassador in your city

• Membership of the OBA LinkedIn group and OBA

Community to connect with others online

• Invitations to academic, networking, and social

events in Oxford and your home country

• Subscription to the monthly e-newsletter

• Access to the OBA website, and other

news, resources, and research from
the University

Back to contents
Apply now

Visit www.sbs.oxford.edu/oamlp to apply online

or to request a Word application form.

To discuss any aspect of the programme,

or your specific learning needs, contact:

Charles Blythe
charles.blythe@sbs.ox.ac.uk
M +44 (0)7702 819045

Back to contents
Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford blends the best of new and old. We are a vibrant and
innovative business school, but yet deeply embedded in an 800-year-old world-class university. We create
programmes and ideas that have global impact. We educate people for successful business careers, and as a
community seek to tackle world-scale problems. We deliver cutting-edge programmes and ground-breaking
research that transform individuals, organisations, business practice, and society. We seek to be a world-class
business school community, embedded in a world-class university, tackling world-scale problems.

Saïd Business School

University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
United Kingdom All information is correct at the time of
going to press. Please check our website
for the most up-to-date information.

www.sbs.oxford.edu © 2021 SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL

Back to contents