Why this program?
A future-proof business model requires choices you are willing to organize today.
Sustainability is on the agenda in many organizations. But once it comes to choices, investments, and direction, complexity increases quickly. Many leaders know change is necessary, yet experience how paralyzing it can be when it is unclear where to begin, especially with so many stakeholders and competing interests. That paralysis arises because this is not about a single initiative, but about strategic choices that touch the foundation: your strategy, your portfolio, and how you organize decision-making and accountability. You must perform today while simultaneously building tomorrow’s business model. The EMBA Module Building Sustainable Businesses helps you make that complexity manageable. You will learn to analyze transition challenges systemically, make trade-offs explicit, and steer innovation under uncertainty — including exnovation: consciously phasing out what no longer fits. You will translate choices into strategy, portfolio, and governance, and design an initial credible route toward a sustainable and economically robust business model.
The Executive Master of Business Administration, of which this program is a part, is rated 9.3/10.0. Curious about this full program? Find out more here.
What you develop in this program?
The value for your organization lies in the quality of decisions and the speed at which conversations translate into direction. You will bring back a more substantiated innovation strategy, with explicit trade-offs and a more realistic path to execution.
- Sustainable innovation in the context of major transitions is a wicked problem: complex, full of real trade offs, and without a standard playbook. In this program, you develop the insight and the ability to steer so you can still choose direction.
- You build a clear view of how major transitions are reshaping the innovation landscape, and why many pathways ultimately point toward circularity.
- You learn to navigate turbulence and uncertainty, and how scarcity, system dynamics, and transitions shape what works in innovation strategy.
- You develop a systemic way of analyzing challenges so you can make complexity manageable and choose trade offs explicitly.
- You sharpen your innovation compass for established organizations, handling disruption from outside and organizing your innovation ecosystem.
- You gain control over shifts that affect your business model, such as analog to digital and product to service, and what those shifts require from portfolio and investment decisions.
- You make governance concrete by organizing decision making and accountability so innovation does not stall in intent or scattered initiatives.
- You work with Creating Shared Value as a lens for value creation that makes both economic and societal sense, and learn how to translate it into steering.
- You see how marketing management accelerates innovation, from value proposition and adoption to scaling in market and value chain.
- You build sharpness in two movements that belong together: accelerating innovation and exnovation, deliberately phasing out activities that no longer fit.
- You learn alongside the EMBA participant group, expand your network, and test your choices with peers facing the same dilemmas.
What will the program benefit your organization?
The value for your organization lies in the quality of decisions and the speed at which conversations translate into direction. You will bring back a more substantiated innovation strategy, with explicit trade-offs and a more realistic path to execution.
- Sharper insight into vulnerability to disruption and where circularity creates opportunities and risks
- More concrete and productive strategic discussions about investments, portfolio, and priorities
- Space for renewal because phase-out decisions become discussable and manageable
- A first step toward a sustainable and economically robust business model, with a pathway that fits your specific context
Why choose TIAS School for Business & Society?
De TIAS experience of Bas van Vugt
“One of the reasons I chose TIAS is their strong combination of business and society. You can’t lead an organization from a purely business perspective anymore. Especially in roles that increasingly need to look at business through a social lens in the interest of the greater good, this takes a different kind of leadership. How do you achieve success for businesses, both large and small, and operationalize that around major transition themes? These kinds of questions really shine through in the Executive MBA at TIAS.”
Bas van Vugt Executive Director, Rabo Investments
Learn at TIAS
Do you want to create more impact on your organization and on society?
- Tailor your training and learning path to your learning needs and organizational issues
- Learn a lot and quickly through frequent interaction
- Get in when you want and learn at your own pace, both online and on-site
- Get the most out of yourself and your available time through individual attention, personal contact and small group discussions.
We are a business school with an unparalleled level of personal contact, so that every participant benefits from individual attention. From one-on-one mentoring to small group discussions, we prioritize personalized interactions, fostering a unique and enriching learning experience tailored to each participant's needs and current organizational issues.