Focusing on customer outcomes and innovation is a mindset. It has driven Heike Wagner’s thinking throughout her global career in industries such as telecommunications, higher education, automotive, and retail. Heike has held several leadership roles in innovation, advisory, and go-to-market functions and has employed that mindset in each leadership role she has taken on, including as division head in strategic procurement in retail, her C-Suite customer executive advisory roles at IBM and SAP, and as customer officer to the Global Head of Customer First.
After studying in Germany, the United Kingdom, and China many years ago, Wagner sought a fresh perspective on customer outcomes and innovation from leading researchers. That’s when she turned to MIT Sloan Executive Education, where she saw great potential for learning about the pressing business-related topics that intrigued her.
“We are living in a world of constant change, and MIT prepares you for that with the latest thought leadership, concepts, and tools you can bring back to work and apply to tackle the business problems companies face today,” says Wagner, who is now a senior director in customer success at SAP. She started her journey with MIT in 2019 when she was a director for customer innovation in the Office of the Chief Innovation Officer at SAP America. “Starting my ACE journey with the Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation was the perfect fit for me. The professors at MIT are used to work with the C-Suite and business executives. They come with a wealth of knowledge and share the latest research insights in a way that allows transferring the learnings into different business areas and industries.”
After completing the first course, Corporate Innovation: Strategies for Leveraging Ecosystems, and connecting with current MIT students, Wagner got excited about her education journey with MIT and decided to complete MIT’s Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation. “It was a fantastic entry into the MIT Executive Education program and got me excited to learn more,” she explains. “The quality of the content and the insights about innovation-driven entrepreneurship, experimental innovation loops, and how to lead innovation in an ecosystem are very applicable to the challenges I am tackling in my global role at SAP.” What’s more, she adds, “The beauty of the ACE program is that I can customize my journey based on my personal learning goals”.
To get the most out of the program while being in a full-time job, Wagner deliberately took time in between each course. “I went through the program over the course of two years. I wanted to reflect on the acquired knowledge and apply the concepts at work” says Wagner, a German native who moved to the United States a couple of years ago. She ended up completing courses in all three executive education tracks offered by MIT Sloan and received her ACE in 2021. ”The program at MIT has helped me in so many ways to grow professionally and personally. It is an intense and very collaborative program. I even took my learnings back to my students at the university where I teach international business and digitalization in supply chain management and logistics.”
Beyond the Basics
Wagner’s first introduction to MIT was through SAP’s participation in the institution’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), a membership-based program that allows large organizations to form long-term partnerships with the MIT’s research and startup communities. As global lead of the ILP program at SAP at this time, Wagner orchestrated customized MIT workshops, met faculty members, attended conferences, and more. The self-described lifelong learner, who has an MBA in Management and International Business, was so impressed that she decided to look at MIT’s Executive Education to gain new insights into topics beyond technology, of which she already had a very good grasp thanks to her long consulting career with companies like IBM and SAP. What she received went well beyond the basics when it came to strategy, innovation, and leadership.
"We are living in a world of constant change, and MIT prepares you for that with the latest thought leadership, concepts, and tools you can bring back to work and apply to tackle the business problems companies face today."
“Every course allowed me to look at common challenges from new, different perspectives,” Wagner emphasizes. For instance, Implementing Enterprise-Wide Transformation was the first live course she took on MIT’s Cambridge campus in 2019. “Given the fast-paced environment we are living in, transformation is a constant companion, and having tools at hand to proactively navigate change and the tensions that come with it becomes a competitive advantage for firms.” While Wagner practiced topics such as change management as senior managing consultant at IBM and industry value advisor to the C-Suite at SAP, she left MIT with a fresh viewpoint on it. She observes, “The group work gives you many new ideas because people from different backgrounds and countries look at business problems in various ways and bring their experiences to the table.”
Wagner had similar experiences with in-person courses like Understanding Global Markets: Macroeconomics for Executives and Creating High Velocity Organizations. And while she had enough courses to complete her certificate in Strategy and Innovation, she was encouraged to keep going with the aim of achieving the ACE. When the COVID pandemic halted her ability to travel to Boston for courses, she moved into the live online environment seamlessly in 2020 and 2021 and added a host of additional courses to her list, including Strategies for Sustainable Business, Interpersonal Communication: Strategies for Executives, and Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World. She says, “Even though the courses I chose were different, they complemented each other and provided the tools to make a real impact on businesses and the society.”
New Perspectives and a Journey of Self-Reflection
“The course Leading Successful Transitions in a Digitally Driven World was very much about learning about yourself, what I did not expect when I chose the course,” Wagner says. “Hal Gregersen and Roger Lehman went on a journey of self-reflection with leadership assessments and group coaching with us. In my view, people are the most important asset of a company, and this course focuses on the human aspects of transformations. You learn how to change the way you interact with and listen to people. I always thought I was a good listener, but there’s a difference between listening and active listening. You just see things with different eyes when you come out of this course. It makes the experience so special and, at the same time, very deep and transformational.”
“There are too many things to mention that stand out in the MIT program,” Wagner says. “There are three that I’d like to highlight. First, learning from the best thought leaders at MIT and getting access to research insights that are important to thrive as an organization was a treat I will always cherish and that will continue to help me in my professional career. Second, expanding my international network and meeting (other) accomplished people from across the world and learning from each other was inspiring and is an invaluable asset of this program. It is not just about building your network. I’ve really made friends over the course of the program. Third, the frameworks and tools we got access to are applicable to many organizational and strategic business settings and help you look at challenges and opportunities from a difference stance.”
As Wagner moved strategically from one class to the next to complete her ACE, she also moved into a new position at SAP, transitioning from her role as director and customer officer to her global senior director role in customer success. And she attributes that opportunity in part to her experience with MIT Executive Education. “This kind of learning experience really impacts you when it comes to how you think about your own career and how you want to develop it,” she concludes. “And it certainly prepared me for what comes next.”
Learn more about MIT Sloan Executive Certificates.