Making the case that there is a quantifiable and predictable pattern to the seeming chaos of the global marketplace, renowned Dr. Mark Esposito shares his findings in further detail in the IE Exponential Learning High Impact Online Program titled Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Disruption which is a joint project between IE Business School and The Financial Times. The rapidly changing world will create abundant opportunity as well as widespread disruption. The winds of change are in the air, and professionals across all contemporary fields and sectors can sense this phenomenon. Participating in the Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Disruption HiOP can help you navigate this new world. As a taste of what you’ll experience in this HiOP, we’re going to break down the framework that wraps up the first module in the five-week program.

Certain large-scale systems and events can be comprehended and predicted as intertwined. The global marketplace can be analyzed as if it were a machine with numerous moving parts that are evolving simultaneously, propelling business, government, and societal behavior as well as decision-making. Professor Esposito and Terence Tse’s DRIVE framework highlights how the future could unfold through five processes. Professor Esposito has taught at both IE and Harvard Business School. Dr. Esposito, alongside co-author Professor Terence Tse, wrote Understanding How the Future Unfolds: Using DRIVE to Harness the Power of Today’s Megatrends. Terence Tse is a professor of finance at ESCP Europe and the Head of Competitiveness Studies at i7 Institute for Innovation and Competitiveness. This text is an immense asset to any aspiring leader. Professor Esposito and Professor Tse’s book can serve as supplementary material to the HiOP course, providing readers with new insight and analysis of the connections between several factors that make up the titular acronym.

How is the acronym DRIVE?

Demographic and social changes
Resource scarcity
Inequalities
Volatility, complexity, and scale
Enterprising dynamics

What does the DRIVE framework give you?

Savvy and contemporary executives with a working knowledge of these concepts and their relationships with each other can better predict the changing circumstances of the global market to adapt to them seamlessly. By studying the potential outcomes, executives can prepare their enterprises for worlds where automation and robotization are ubiquitous, or scenarios where customers spend their disposable income on necessities that have become scarce. Esposito challenges his readers and students to contemplate numerous scenarios and to plan for them all, emphasizing preparedness and informed decision making. For example, what will happen to your enterprise when, as a result of increasing inequality between generations, younger customers can no longer afford your goods and services? How can you tailor your business model to meet the needs of the increased consumer population of growing urban centers? How will your business adapt to China and the Middle East’s ascension to the forefront of global economics? These variables have created a new globalization of lucrative opportunity as well as unexpected volatility. Antiquated traditional models can no longer predict the future. For this reason, leaders must pursue new strategies and forms of problem-solving.

Students of the Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Disruption HiOP will benefit from the wealth of knowledge and resources that comes with The Financial Times | IE Business School Corporate Learning Alliance. If you have even the slightest reservation about your current marketplace strategies being adaptable to changing circumstances, participation in this course can grant you the agency and empowerment to rise to the occasion when the time comes.

Eager for more DRIVE Framework?

If you are ready to take on a leadership role in a VUCA world, Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Disruption, a HiOP created with the Financial Times | IE Business School Corporate Learning Alliance, can get you there. You can learn more by downloading a copy of our informational prospectus. If you’re ready to join our next intake, get started on your application.