“You see the world from where you sit, so you have to change where you sit,” says Friedrich Menz, senior supervisor for Hays Learning Center in Mannheim, Germany. “That’s what MIT Sloan Executive Education did for me. It changed my seat. It elevated my position and made me more knowledgeable about digital processes. I can grasp certain concepts better from this position, and that’s really important right now in the job that I’m doing.”
In fact, digital transformation is a key component of Menz’s role at Hays Learning Center, which trains new and current consultants and staff for Hays, a global leader in specialist recruitment and workforce solutions. Menz’s department oversees the training and education of thousands of newly hired individuals annually across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria—one of the largest regions served by the company. And in recent years, the learning center has instituted a major digital transformation initiative, which encouraged Menz to look for continuing education opportunities that would provide him with new insights into the digital arena. In January of 2021, he began a somewhat unexpected journey with MIT Sloan Executive Education, which led to him earning his Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation in December of 2021.
“I did not plan to get an Executive Certificate, but that’s how great things start,” he says, noting that he only intended to register for one class: Organizational Design for Digital Transformation. He chose MIT Sloan not only because of his personal connection to the Cambridge area (his mother is American and met his father at UMass Amherst), but also because he recognized that the institution would offer so much more than other continuing education options.
"Digital transformation plays such an important role today, and everything I learned at MIT Sloan was so thought provoking. Nothing has expanded my horizon in regards to digital change and transformation as much as this experience"
“I think traditional business schools lack the information I needed about digital skills,” he observes. “They teach you accounting, marketing, and other things, but their curricula are still very much based around the original MBA core skills. I needed to learn more about digital topics, including AI. That’s incredibly important because that is what is expected of me now in my current position.”
Taking the Deep Dive
After completing his first course, Menz went on to complete Digital Learning Strategy, Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy, and Accelerating Digital Transformation with Algorithmic Business Thinking. Each class offered him an in-depth look at the course topic and gave him the type of knowledge he needed to apply the information to his own work situations.
“I really needed that digital focus, and I like the deep dive. Also, the courses gave me frameworks that I could apply right away. Of course, while it’s applicable knowledge, it’s really up to you to process it and think about what it means to you. You have to find a way to customize it to your issues and what you are doing,” he says. “I was able to begin designing a new learning strategy for the learning center thanks to the Digital Learning Strategy course, and Algorithmic Business Thinking showed me how to look at a problem, break it down into pieces, and start small to begin solving it. I also was able look at modern leadership in light of today’s digital changes. Overall, the courses allowed me to peek behind the curtain of digital change and think differently about the future and the opportunities that lie ahead.”
Looking to the Future
Recently, Menz made a presentation to his entire company, with more than 1,000 people in attendance. The lecture focused on digital change and the speed at which it is happening, as well as what that means for Hays. “We need to move away from basic knowledge transfer with our training and move towards competency building. It’s not about offering a single source of wisdom at the center of the room; we have to make sure we train people so they’re able to change and really develop competency in this digital world,” he notes. “I took that away from my MIT Sloan experience and was able to share it with my company. We are now focused on what digitization really means.”
Today, Menz continues to use the knowledge that he collected over his one-year experience with MIT Sloan Executive Education. “I think about how work will change—about technology and how it affects the way we work and collaborate,” he concludes. “Digital transformation plays such an important role today, and everything I learned at MIT Sloan was so thought provoking. Nothing has expanded my horizon in regards to digital change and transformation as much as this experience.”
Learn more about MIT Sloan Executive Certificates.