The Client: Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB)
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) is a northern European financial services group headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 1856 by André Oscar Wallenberg, SEB is an influential force in the region’s economic stability. Many of the globally successful companies headquartered in the Nordic region have had a long-term relationship with SEB.
In recent years, a range of market factors, from global financial volatility to significant advancements in fintech to increasing consumer demands—has compelled financial companies to adopt new technologies and rapidly evolve their business models and services to create value for their customers.
“Our strategy was to grow and transform, but we realized that we did not have enough knowledge around the impact of transformative technologies,” said Kristina Bixo, Head of Learning and Development at SEB. “We needed to understand how to stay relevant in this competitive environment, which is not only within the financial industry, but also expanding to service providers where there will be an ecosystem of what we call ‘the open banking space’ for providing banking as a service in the future.”
The search for ways to meet these challenges brought SEB to MIT Sloan Executive Education as part of a larger internal program called the Wallenberg Institute, which has been developing the bank’s high-potential executives for decades. The first Wallenberg-MIT collaboration took place in August 2017.
The week-long immersive experience at MIT occurs during the middle of the program, which means that the participants have had a chance to get to know each other and to establish collaborative working relationships. While the MIT module was focused specifically on innovation at first, the scope of topics has expanded from year to year. “Innovation is key, but the learning has to be in the context of what’s happening within the bank and in the industry,” explained Peter Myhrström, Senior Learning Advisor and Program Director. The program design now includes sessions on transformative leadership, strategy and innovation, and cultural and organizational change.
“We wanted to inspire our executives and say, ‘hey, we have looked around the world and we have chosen the number one in this area’.”
“Corporate innovation is very different from the ‘move fast and break things’ or ‘fail fast’ type of Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurship over pizza,” emphasized Philip Budden, Senior Lecturer in Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy (TIES) at MIT Sloan, and the program’s Faculty Director. “When you are trying to do innovation authentically in a large corporation, you still need to adapt to the technologies that are out there, but you also have many more resources and means to engage your ecosystem to take advantage of the capabilities you may not have or not want to build internally.”
Participants arrive at MIT with ideas for their action learning projects that would create additional value for the bank. Action learning is a hallmark of MIT Sloan teaching. “At the end of the day, we're enablers in this system,” said Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management, Professor of Organization Studies, and the Founder of the MIT Leadership Center. “They come in with the strategic imperatives, with the things that are most important to change at the bank. They're the ones who are driving the actual change process. We help them to do it better by creating high-performing X-teams.”
The Wallenberg Institute is a highly prestigious internal program that has seen most of the bank’s top leadership at some point in their careers. The shared experience over the course of the program, the knowledge gained, and capabilities built in the MIT-inspired action learning projects bring alignment and cohesion to the ranks of people who are the future of the bank’s continued success.
At the same time, the learning experience was designed to offer individual participants what they needed most. “They get new perspectives, and by the new perspectives they get new knowledge that they can transfer into applied competence in their daily works as managers. But it's a different thing for different participants, depending on where they sit in the organization and where their challenges lie,” noted Myhrström. In his view, the MIT module served as a lens through which research-based knowledge was applied to immediate business challenges. “I think that was very helpful for them in developing as leaders. To use the theory, to see and understand where they are as leaders, as people but also in the context of their business environment,” he pointed out.
Svante Hedin, Group CIO, appreciated learning the concept of a “capability trap,” a theory that elaborates on the pitfalls of short-term optimization versus long-term strategic thinking and the implications of that in terms of investing in the future. In his role, the ability to recognize the difference and the possibilities inherent in a long-term strategy is especially useful. He also emphasized the importance of learning about organizational culture. “That has definitely made a difference in the bank,” he said. “I think we have a very well-functioning senior management team, which shares a lot of values and principles in terms of how you work with inclusion and empathy as a leader to try to drive change in a sustainable and meaningful way.”
Sonata Gutauskaitė-Bubnelienė, CEO at SEB Lithuania, commended on the caliber of the faculty, which made a lasting impression. “It was a feeling of being in the heart of the research, of the discussions, where the newest trends and methodology are created. And the possibility to listen and to discuss this content with the book authors themselves is something that really inspires.”
For Ahto Nirgi, Head of Compliance for Life and Investment Management Divisions, the most important takeaways came from Professor Nelson Repenning on evolving corporate culture and the ability to see the competitive landscape from that perspective; Professor Fiona Murray on innovation and inclusion; Professor Keri Pearlson’s presentations on cybersecurity; and inspiring discussions about the challenges inherent in measuring real impact from corporate sustainability initiatives by Roberto Rigobon.
Maria Rimbäck, Head of Corporate Finance Sweden, appreciated the learning simulation exercise at MIT that brought emphasis and clarity to external and internal stakeholder management, addressed tactics on when and how to approach certain decision makers (formal and informal) as well as questioning existing group dynamics.
For Mads Krumhardt, CEO at SEB Kort Bank AB, it was a “personal step change.” He recalls coming to MIT, expecting to meet the brightest minds in their fields. “They brought true value and insights, and it wasn’t only viewpoints, it's backed by data and studies and science. And if you accept that and let that guide you, taking into consideration your own perspective, then you can actually make a step change in your personal leadership style. I wanted to share my learnings with the rest of the management team in order to have a bigger impact on the business.”
MIT’s international reputation for innovation brought SEB to campus initially, but it was the design and delivery of the education experience that solidified the relationship. The thoughtful and seamless integration of MIT insights into the larger Wallenberg Institute program was key, according to Myhrström. “Participants get personal access to world class faculty in their different areas of expertise and research, but the personal connection that we have with MIT is really, really important. The professors understand and really connect to the program material before and after the MIT module.”
To ensure that the MIT week is as rewarding as possible for the participants, MIT Sloan program designers and the program sponsors at SEB work together throughout the year, setting and adjusting learning objectives in response to the bank’s business goals and the banking industry landscape. This well-informed perspective enables MIT faculty to deliver the education experience that the participants need to feel confident in their ability to lead the bank into the future and for the long term. “The program encourages the participants to be open minded toward new thoughts and perspectives, even a bit daring to let some of the old thinking go,” said Kristina Servaitė-Bobrovič, Learning and Development Partner at SEB and the program’s manager. “Being at MIT creates a sense of urgency to really take action here and now. Part of the experience here is an invitation to explore more and to be comfortable with change.”
MIT’s action learning approach allows participants to implement what they’ve learned immediately. “Because we do so much action learning, we have procedures and processes in place to help the client to actually move ahead. We give them tools, checklists, frameworks that facilitate the client's ability to move ahead, then they create these innovative ideas for the company,” said Ancona.
“I know that projects from the program have been tested, adjusted, and adopted by the organization,” reported Servaitė-Bobrovič. “It’s beautiful to see that it's been born at MIT and then taken into the organization to live on.”