Al Akhawayn University’s Executive Education Center, in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and The Leadership Development Institute, hosted last Friday the first annual leadership conference at Casablanca’s prestigious venue “Casablanca Technopark.” The theme of the conference revolved around “Developing Leaders in a Developing Country.”
The aim of this leadership conference is to promote a leadership hub for sharing best practices on leadership and disseminate leadership skills that effectively impact business communities in Morocco. The conference participants were mainly business managers from different cultural backgrounds and corporations.
The president of the George Washington Academy, Dr. Deborah MacArthur, an expert in Change Management and the founder of Global-lights, the Lighthouse for Moroccan leaders, delivered the opening address and spoke of the impact of Morocco’s specific culture on leadership. She reported the results of a ground breaking research called GLOBE that analyzes in depth how “Morocco’s culture and its impact on leadership effectiveness” stand in contrast to 64 other cultures. She highlighted the importance for leaders to understand the other’s cultures.
Dr. Duncan Rinehart, leadership professor at Al Akhawayn University and founder of The Leadership Development Institute, challenged the audience’s perception of a top-down leader by introducing a new model that dates back to 5th Century BC, a model called “Servant Leadership.”
Dr. Wafa El Garah, Dean of the School of Business Administration at Al Akhawayn University and keynote speaker, closed the conference by presenting findings of Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great,” who spent the past 20 years analyzing how companies are able to sustain superlative performance.
The conference also saw a series of breakout and discussion forums on different topics including servant leadership, aligning leadership actions with overall expectations, and developing leaders at the university moderated by leadership advocates.
In the spirit of leadership, the conference provided space for business managers to develop their leadership skills, network, as well as to reflect on their own style of leadership.
It is worth pointing out that the aforementioned center opened back in 2000, through a unique partnership with AmCham, in order to provide an environment for Moroccan business leaders to immerse themselves in the US business practices.
Ms. Imane Lamine reported for The Moroccan Times.
