Eurobank had the opportunity to host in Athens, for one week (8 – 15 May) a group of students οf the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program of Harvard Business School, as part of Harvard’s required FIELD (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development) Immersion course. Eurobank was one of 171 FIELD Immersion Project Partners spanning 15 cities across 15 states. Αll together, the Project Partners hosted more than 1,000 Harvard Business School students during the program.
“We are pleased to be working with Harvard Business School to provide students with a real-world learning experience in actual business conditions in our premises in Athens” said Andreas Athanassopoulos, Eurobank’s Deputy CEO, Group Chief Transformation Officer, Digital & Retail. “We had an extremely productive cooperation with the group of students, and we believe that they were able to expand on their contextual and cultural intelligence in a way that would not be possible through a simple classroom discussion alone. We greatly appreciated the ideas and opinions they shared with us during implementing the Project. We had the opportunity to get interesting input from highly competent partners.”.
The FIELD Immersion is a course designed to strengthen and develop students’ ability to manage and operate effectively in a variety of business contexts. Eurobank executives had been working with the team remotely in the months leading up to their arrival. While here, the students worked in Eurobank’s Innovation Center, the specialized Unit that fosters new business ideas design. They were supported by the Bank’s design thinking experts experiencing firsthand how to design innovative financial services, pitched their ideas to the leadership team, conducted field research with consumers around Athens and presented their final recommendations to the Bank’s Management. The purpose of this immersive experience is to provide students with the opportunity to ’learn by doing’ through the challenge of introducing a new product, service, or customer experience for their Partner company. This requires students to also focus on building contextual intelligence and team effectiveness skills while delivering value in an unfamiliar context.
Harvard acknowledges that achieving this important learning experience would not have been possible without the partner organizations.
“We are extremely grateful to Eurobank and all the FIELD Immersion Project Partners organizations for all they do on behalf of our students” said Carrie Elkins, Professor of Business Administration and Faculty Chair for the FIELD Immersion. “The students benefit immeasurably from this experience, and we hope the partner organizations do as well.”.
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Mr Andreas Athanassopoulos, Eurobank’s Deputy CEO, Group Chief Transformation Officer, Digital & Retail among the students οf the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program of Harvard Business School