Alumni of World Leaders and MBA Croatia

Introduction

MBA Croatia always had a clear set of parameters that were telling its members where the organization was heading. However, several years ago, we clearly defined our mission, vision and values and put it on the big board.

Our mission is “To inspire in creating better and more advanced society”. 

Our vision is “Alumni of World Leaders”.

Our values are:

• Ethics, integrity and responsibility
• Excellence
• Knowledge and curiosity
• Diligence
• Diversity

MBA Croatia Vision

Although each of our defined guidances deserves explanation and analysis, our vision is something we decided to focus on this time. 

Our vision states that we aspire to be community of world leaders.

But what does that mean? 

What does “world leaders” mean in terms of MBA Croatia?

Google “World Leaders”

In today’s world, by the way we live and learn and research, if we want to know something, what do we do? We do a “Google search”. And if we do Google search for the phrase “world leaders”, one of the first pictures Google returns is the picture marked as Picture 2 below. 

Furthermore, some of the first search results refer to articles on famous heads of large and powerful states.

MBA Croatia Values and How We Measure Them

At MBA Croatia we want to propagate, promote, as well as live our values. We want to live our values while fulfilling our mission: to inspire in creating better and more advanced society.

But we also want to have some measures of how we are doing. We want to measure whether we have come closer to fulfilling our mission.

 

Lecture from Professor Arturo Bris

Few months ago, we were honored to host professor Arturo Bris as our lecturer. He was presenting us “The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking”. This ranking evaluates the competitiveness of each economy and society. At MBA Croatia we want to inspire in creating better society. Hence, we tend to value these rankings as something relevant for our mission. The rankings in 2021 were topped by Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and Singapore. 

Now if we go back to the Picture 2 and to what Google returned for a search “world leaders” – we see some discrepancy in leadership in competitiveness rankings and what we see in the picture. We do not see any of the societies presented by the leaders in the picture among top 5 rankings.

We could relate these ranking to our value of excellence and our mission in general. As we believe more competitive societies are more advanced and better.

Other Indices and “Google Picture”

GDP per Capita (PPP)

If we look at some other indices that we believe reflect our values and are taken somewhat in common in interpreting advancement of societies, we could look at the GDP per Capita list. This list is again not topped by societies that leaders on the picture represent.

Of course, no set of any indices will give us determined answer and completely clear picture of what most advanced society is, but some indications and conclusions need to be made. 

Global Innovation Index

If we look at the Global Innovation Index, it is again topped by Switzerland and Sweden. This time US and UK are also highly positioned.

We believe innovation is a result of curiosity and knowledge, hence we can relate this index to our values knowledge and curiosity.

Corruption Perception Index

We value ethics and integrity at MBA Croatia. Hence, we look at the Corruption Perception Index. We believe that the more ethics and integrity are present in some society that such society will be more transparent and reduce corruption. And we hold that so will further lead to better and more advanced society. Afterall, GDP and CPI are very correlated (one unit of increase in CPI leads to 1.7% increase in GDP).

If we look at CPI rankings, only one society led by a leader from Picture 2 makes the top 10 list.

Happiness Report

How about happiness rankings?

It is topped by Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands.

Same pattern appears again.

Measure of Leadership?

If we look at the list of societies that are topping most of these indices that we believe correlate to our values, we see that Google did not serve us well in describing what “world leaders” are.

It is not that we want to display world leadership in terms and framework given by Google. We do think of leadership in much broader sense. But using the framework bestowed upon us by Google, let’s explore what would “world leadership” be in that sense.

We see that looking at the societies topping the list, among others, Switzerland strikes out.

If Swiss are topping the lists, how come Mr. Parmelin (President of Switzerland) did not make it to be in that picture given by Google? Perhaps because he is not the leader of that society in the sense the others on the picture are leaders of their societies. The others on the picture are famous, well known, news are filled by their statements daily. Even as individuals they hold a lot of power in their roles. Some of them even personally have significant power. On the other hand, Switzerland does not have such head of state or government that would correspond to the leaders in the Picture 2.

People Taking Responsibility

Let’s distill phrase “world leaders” further by relating to “Google framework”. If we now look at the Picture 9, we see an assembly of Canton of Glarus in Switzerland. At MBA Croatia we do not want to engage in any discussion on politics or on political system. However, we will merely be using the initial “Google Framework” bestowed upon us in order to relate what phrase “world leaders” means in terms of MBA Croatia. Referencing initial google search result.

What we see on the Picture 9 is large number of people; one could say “regular, everyday people”. They are participating in something on that picture. They are actually voting on something. But even more important what they are doing is: they are taking responsibility. Each of them was given the power to learn, to educate themselves about some issue, to vote, to take action and then be responsible for that action and consequences.

World Leaders at MBA Croatia

So, at MBA Croatia, we take that world leaders are people who are taking responsibility. And our vision is to be a community of such people.

People who are actively participating in inspiring creation of better and more advanced society. By their words, by their actions and by all they are doing. 

Responsibility is one of the key values at MBA Croatia. 

Responsibility to live MBA Croatia values and drive the inspiration towards better and more advanced society.

That is what “Alumni of World Leaders” means at MBA Croatia.

                                                   Krešimir Profaca, MBA Croatia President 2021