“Learning Alliance”: Joining forces in the cause of knowledge

Alba and SEV (the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises) presented their joint initiative “Learning Alliance” aiming to empower SEV business community with cutting-edge knowledge and contemporary skills and competencies

A full house of journalists, distinguished entrepreneurs and academics attended on Tuesday, February 19, the much-awaited Press Conference announcing Alba and SEV’s joint initiative “Learning Alliance” and the newly founded SEV Center of Excellence in Creative Leadership at Alba. Speeches were delivered by SEV Executive Vice Chairman and Alba Board Member Mr. Konstantinos Bitsios, Alba Dean and Professor of International Business and Strategy, Dr. Konstantinos Axarloglou, and Director of the SEV Center of Excellence and Professor, Dr. Charalampos Mainemelis, followed by remarks from Mr. Marco Veremis, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Upstream and President at SEN/JA Greece. The discussion was coordinated by Mr. Dimitris Vergados.

As it was pointed out, this joint initiative is a blend arising from Alba’s academic excellence and SEV’s role and strategy for the development and productive growth of businesses by way of continuous education and training; moreover generation and dissemination of new and relevant knowledge about the modern organization and the management of businesses in times of rapid change will help achieve the above goal.

“Learning Alliance” is a 3-year-long project aiming to further develop human resources skills through a series of educational activities. The project is addressed to all levels of hierarchy, covers the full range of Greek enterprises and includes a portfolio of actions designed exclusively for SEV’s corporate members. More specifically, it will focus on the following areas:

• Hosting at Alba, SEV senior leaders as guest speakers in various academic courses in order to create a context through which the business community will share experiences and transfer corporate knowledge to students.
• Scholarships for Alba Academic Programs sponsored by SEV.
• Executive training seminars and programs, designed and delivered by Alba, exclusively for SEV corporate members.
• Part of “Learning Alliance” is also the SEV Center of Excellence in Creative Leadership, established and operating at Alba since July 2018. The mission of the Center of Excellence in Creative Leadership, the first of its kind in an educational institution in Greece, is to advance the generation and dissemination of cutting-edge knowledge about creative forms of leading in the third and fourth decades of the 21st century, spread the values and practices of creative leadership domestically and globally, and, ultimately, empower creative leadership as the main factor in entrepreneurship development in Greece.

Mr. Konstantinos Bitsios, SEV Executive Vice Chairman and Alba Board Member, explained stressed that: “The dissemination of new knowledge in the field of contemporary management is a vital element for the evolution, survival and growth of Greek entrepreneurship.

“The skills and competencies that Greek business executives need to be successful in today's –and all the more so in tomorrow's– world of global competition, require appropriate adjustments. SEV’s co-operation with internationally recognized Alba aims exactly in this: To properly equip our executives and tomorrow’s leaders with the necessary tools and practices – mainly with the right way of thinking that responds to the challenges and demands of a changing production model, based on extroversion and innovation, as well as the on inevitable digital transformation that radically changes the ways in which we work and produce."

"At SEV, with the help of Alba, we aspire contribute in changing an era. Prepare our enterprises and co-shape the present and the future on modern terms. For us, investing in human capital is the only safe and reliable investment for businesses and societies wishing to have a future. "

Alba’s Dean Dr. Konstantinos Axarloglou pointed out that “In the era of Digital Transformation, where rapid technological developments overturn unexpectedly business sectors, business models, and the way we work and communicate, we are challenged to face new complex economic and social phenomena never seen before. We therefore need to constantly learn and adapt to new unprecedented situations and conditions. SEV and Alba are joining forces in an ‘alliance of knowledge’, creating a new ‘knowledge ecosystem’ to help executives and the business community learn and successfully manage these new business challenges. […] This Alba and SEV synergy, consistent with their common mission to support the business community, contributes to the development and extroversion of this business community as the main pillar in the improvement of economy and society.”

The Director of the SEV Center of Excellence, Dr. Charalampos Mainemelis, noted that: "Technological innovation, the digital economy and globalization are rapidly changing the nature and content of work internationally. In the near future, cultivating creativity in the work environment will be an integral part of the mission of the organizational leader. The aim of the SEV Center of Excellence in Creative Leadership is to promote the generation and dissemination of pioneering knowledge about creative forms of leadership in modern organizations. Through the combination of high-quality academic research and communication, the Center will disseminate the values, skills and practices of creative leadership in Greece. "

In his closing comments Mr. Marco Veremis, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Upstream and President at SEN/JA Greece mentioned: “the importance of creativity in modern entrepreneurship, the flexibility it promotes, and the need to operate within new types of structures amidst a rapidly changing world of work, goes through the increased cooperation between the agents of knowledge and those of entrepreneurship.”