Turning Business Education on its Head (from Business Week)

BusinessWeek offers a story this week on the 180 Academy for executives, located in Copenhagen. "The program isn't anything like business school, where students focus largely on areas of their expertise. And that's the point. Conventional business education leads executives to build on their strengths—improving profit margins, boosting efficiency, and benchmarking the best practices of rivals. This school aims to teach midcareer executives something many think is unteachable: how to be innovative."

The Danish government is committed to fostering innovation as a necessary condition for competing in an increasingly globalized economy. "The academy is the latest in a series of initiatives from the country cited by a World Economic Forum report in March as the top nation for innovation leadership and government policy. It's an unusual national strategy that shows how seriously national officials are taking the power of innovation and creative thinking. (Britain also has a national program, Designing Demand (BusinessWeek.com, 10/3/2007), intended to foster innovation within small business.)"

Read the full BusinessWeek story here.