18OCT 2013

VOL.24
Japan

Professor Iyengar of Columbia Business School Trains Future Leaders

Sheena Iyengar, Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School training future Otsuka leaders at Human Resource Development Institute in Tokushima

A leading expert on management engages a group of future leaders of Otsuka to think critically on "art of decision making and leadership". Professor Sheena Iyengar of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School, challenged about two dozen future directors at Human Resource Development Institute in Tokushima on how to lead better in a global company in the 21st century.

Professor Iyengar launched the Global Leadership Matrix (GLeaM) at Columbia Business School in 2011 and has been working tirelessly to advance and promote understanding of leadership in a global context.

Click here to get a taste of what the training session is like

Professor Iyengar is an inspiration to many people who have seen her speak at TED. Born in Toronto, Canada, her parents were originally from Delhi, India. In early 70's, her family moved to New York and then to New Jersey by the end of that decade.

When Professor Iyengar was three years old, she was diagnosed with a rare form of retinis pigmentosa, an inherited disease of retinal degeneration. And when she was around 12 years old, she had lost her ability to read and in her teens she had totally lost her vision and could only perceive light. With that type of tenacity of exceeding what the world expected of someone without sight and hopefulness, she achieved academic excellence through blazing her own path. As a teacher who knows more heartache than perhaps most, she imparts wisdom through her academic excellence as well as her personal experiences.

Students carrying out exercises with team mates as instructed by Professor Sheena Iyengar

The collaboration of Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Columbia Business School is one that strives to inspire Otsuka's employees. It is a year-long program where future leaders meet every month. Otsuka taps into the resources of GLeaM's interdisciplinary team from Columbia's Business School, Sociology Department, and Psychology Department, where they are developing a range of innovative research and information sharing initiatives that will serve the interests of academics, organizations, and people across the globe.

The training program is aimed at employees in management who have been with Otsuka for more than 15 years to gain hands on training on social capital networking that has a big impact on decision making.