Last June, Nova School of Business & Economics (Nova SBE) welcomed CEOs and company managers to participate in “Paradigm Shift” – an intensive program from Nova SBE Executive Education, Nova SBE Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

The global paradigm change encourages companies to initiate sustainable organizational processes that have social impact. To tackle this, the Nova SBE Executive Education, the Nova SBE Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation created an intensive program to inspire Portuguese company leaders to begin or continue this journey and share strategies to deal with the challenges they encounter.

Over three different modules, the program tackles how the shift from a profit maximization model to a hybrid model of both sustainability and profit creates tensions and paradoxes. Consequently, key themes were the mechanisms and tools for progress and managing entrepreneurial performance vis-à-vis society’s progress.

Principle speakers included internationally renowned scholars Wendy Smith and Steven Mezias, alongside the Dean of Nova SBE, Daniel Traça, and Professors Miguel Pina e Cunha, Catherine da Silveira, Ricardo Zózimo, Milton de Sousa, Pedro Neves, and Emanuel Gomes, and guest speakers António Miguel and Vasco Grilo.

Four months after the initial “Paradigm Shift,” participants are having individual sessions to maximize the impact of this training, and to discuss how each representative can carry out these new strategies and in their own company or organization.

This was the first session of an intensive and comprehensive program that analyses and discusses the most pressing leadership issues of today.