GCA Executive Program
The Mini-MBA for General Counsel
Dates for next edition will follow soon
Boardrooms need smart GCs/CLOs who also have the leadership skills to make things happen. Combining legal excellence with business sense and leadership development (creativity, communication, cooperation, networking etc) will make you stand out.
One intensive week you will never forget
The GCA Executive Program is the foundation on which the entire General Counsel Academy is based. For a full week, you and a group of up to 22 other GCs/CLOs will dive into an intensive learning experience at the highest possible level in the field of Business Management and the Future of General Counsel.
You will not only learn from the most prominent Professors and Experts, but also from the experiences and ideas of your improving peers. Without exception, it gives participants a boost of confidence to function even better and with more pleasure at C-level. Last but not least: we pay a lot of attention to creating a pleasant and confidential setting where diversity, integrity, mutual respect, transparency and relativity come first. You will get a lifelong, valuable network.
The program
After arrival, we will kick off with an extensive introduction session in which we will explore your learning goals and personal developments and those of the other participants. During this session, moderated by Prof. Dr. Hans van Oosterhout, we would like each of you to answer a number of questions that will help the program to cater your needs. What do you bring to the table and what does the GCA Executive Program bring you? Moreover, this way you get to know the other participants well in an informal and informative way.
Subsequently, you will create and build your own learning goals and personal development. How we do that, we will not comment on for now, but again and again it provides the participating General Counsel with surprising insights that will be very useful throughout the Program. This first day ends with a relaxed, but very special form of collaboration.
This session will
- sharpen your learning goals and personal developments;
- help you to identify and overcome your key obstacles and challenges to succeed in times of uncertainty and change;
- ensure you that you get to know your fellow participants in an open and trusted atmosphere.
C-Suite Level Strategic Analysis & Business Model Innovation
by Prof. Dr. Pursey Heugens
As the General Counsel function evolves from the traditional role of Chief Legal Affairs towards the contemporary roles of trusted advisor, board secretary, or even member of the executive board, a better understanding of the corporation’s strategy and organizational design becomes a decisive factor for the GC’s effectiveness. This module both delivers the tools you need for this chief executive (c-suite) level strategic analysis, and engages in a scenario-style exercise that will enable you to identify, justify, and take control of the GC’s mandate in contemporary organizations.
You will explore core topics such as:
- Business model analysis and innovation
- First mover advantages and disadvantages
- Competitive strategy and industry structure
- Blue ocean strategy and industry transformation
- Generic strategies and the benefits of focus
- Portfolio analysis and selection
- Organisational Design
Key benefits
- Become a better conversation partner and advisor to c-suite decision-makers.
- Better understand the bi-directional influence between law and strategy.
- Develop a vision of the General Counsel as a strategic change agent.
- Understand how organizational design can help your legal department.
- Strategy in times of crisis.
During this day, we will explore questions of corporate governance, corporate ownership, and stakeholder management as an integral and essential part of a corporate strategy. Key to this perspective is to understand how the ownership and governance structure of the firm view define the ‘rules of the game’ within which firms can secure, develop, and exploit their resources and business models, in order to create and appropriate value, as well as when and how these rules of the game will need to be revised to unleash value creation and appropriation going forward.
The most important experiential objective of the day will be for you to think and communicate more strategically about some of the core activities that you are involved in as the General Counsel (GC), and develop a perspective on how to complement your existing role as the chief legal expert or manager in the firm with the capability to become a strategic discussion partner for the firm’s c-suite decision-makers.
You will explore the following questions:
- How to understand corporate governance, ownership, and stakeholder management from the perspective of corporate strategy.
- How to develop an ownership and governance strategy as a necessary and integral part of the corporate strategy of the firm.
- How to complement the disciplinary expertise of the GC with a more strategic understanding of GC core activities.
- How to position the GC in order to secure a more strategic role in the management of your firm.
- How to position the GC in times of crisis.
Key benefits
- Understand how and why corporate governance, ownership and stakeholder management are essential and necessary ingredients of a corporate strategy.
- Learn to think and communicate strategically about corporate governance, ownership, and stakeholder management as necessary ingredients of a corporate strategy.
- Discover how the General Counsel may complement his/her disciplinary expertise with a more strategic way of thinking in order to become an all-round discussion partner for the firm’s c-suite decision-makers.
A positive reputation reduces transaction costs substantially (attracting new employees, loans from banks and government support). Managing reputation was in the past the sole responsibility of the communication department. That is no longer the case and other specialists (General Counsel, HR and Risk) have taken co-ownership in protecting the firm from future reputation damage and even more important building a long-lasting reputation that evokes competitive advantage with all stakeholders the firm depends upon.
Key benefits
Reputation Management is an important topic in the GCA Executive Program. Prof. Van Riel will focus in a one-day session on the following topics:
- Case studies showing the importance of reputation and the different roles the GC and the CCO have in managing reputation dominated challenges.
- An overview of the academic backgrounds and the practical rules of the game in reputation management.
- Examples of recent discussions at Board Level that impact your company’s reputation: Board Remuneration, Dividend Distributions and Corporate Restructuring.
General Counsel, as never before, now need to think strategically. Although their departments do not generally have profit motives, they are under great pressure to be more business-like: to cut their internal and external legal costs, to work more efficiently, to justify their existence in commercial terms, to embrace technology and different methods of sourcing legal work, to show that their set-up is preferable to alternative suppliers and to operate in a world of unforeseen challenges and crises.
On top of their conventional legal services, General Counsel are increasingly also asked to be legal risk managers – to anticipate and avoid all sorts of legal (including regulatory) risks. They are expected to put a fence at the top of the cliff as well as an ambulance at the bottom.
And yet, they have limited resources. Accordingly, they must plan for the long term, prioritize, and ensure that they are bringing value. In other words, they need to formulate their own strategies and take the future and technology seriously.
This session will
- explain relevant trends in the legal industry;
- outline the strategic challenges and practical solutions facing General Counsel of the future;
- offer practical guidance on the formulation of a strategy for in-house legal departments;
- explain the current and future impact of technology;
- discuss alternative suppliers of legal services.
One of the defining features of the GC function is his or her relationship to the leadership of the organisation, in particular to the CEO and the Top Management Team. In order to be effective, the GC has to understand what drives the C-suite, in particular, the CEO, and his or her need to manage relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, all with differing needs. The main concern of the TMT is to deliver sustainable growth and high performance, and this module will look at what drives employee engagement, performance and successful change in organisations. It will also enable the GC to be a more inspiring leader of his or her own team. This module delivers practical insights based research involving 120 CEO’s, 5000 senior managers and 8000 employees.
You will explore:
- The demands on leaders in a changing world – and what drives their behaviours.
- Why employee engagement is crucial to high performance and governance.
- The leadership behaviours that best inspire employees.
- Why leaders are obsessed with culture, purpose and values.
- What you need to do to be more inspiring yourself.
Key benefits
- The impact of good Leadership in times of crisis.
- Improve the performance of your own team.
- Understand why and how leadership matters for organisational performance.
- Become a more effective conversation partner and trusted advisor to C-suite decision-makers.
Time to introduce some GCA Alumni
Diversity is one of our core values. All GCs are welcome. Some GCA Alumni are happy to share their GCA experiences with you.
Practical information
- Upcoming GCA Executive Program: Dates for next edition will follow soon
- Registration is ongoing.
- Throughout the whole week the language of instruction is English.
Admission fee
We believe in all-in fees. The tuition fee amounts to € 13,500.- (ex VAT) and includes all lessons, all teaching materials, all overnight stays in private rooms, all food (breakfasts, lunches, dinners and bites during all breaks) and even all drinks during the week (incl wine/beer etc, but except liquors).
Het Roode Koper
The GCA Executive Program of January 2025 will be held in one of the finest Hotel-Estates in The Netherlands called ‘Het Roode Koper’ in the midst of the beautiful National Park ‘De Veluwe’ with a great hospitality allowing you to fully focus on the Program.
