Executive Education

Description
Technical professionals are a breed apart. Many of them consider autonomy more important than upward mobility. Because their goals and incentives are different, so are the management challenges they present.

Drawing on the wealth of research and industry experience of faculty and leading practitioners, Managing Technical Professionals and Organizations explores proven, practical, and innovative strategies for maximizing the contribution of technical professionals. This intensive program focuses on individual contributors and members of project teams, including cross-functional teams, and examines how to work effectively with "prima donnas" and independent spirits. Participants will learn principles and strategies of crucial importance to any organization where R&D, engineering, and/or computer-related technologies lie at the core of the business.

Managing Technical Professionals and Organizations explores seven critical topics:

• transferring technology between and within organizations
• developing effective reward and incentive systems for technical professionals
• creating a highly motivating work environment
• managing and leading creative individual contributors
• maximizing the technical productivity and vitality of teams
• creating the most effective physical structure for supporting innovation
• organizing for innovative product development

The Participant Team
Managing Technical Professionals and Organizations has been strategically designed for executives who manage technical professionals. Past participants have included CIOs, chief technologists, directors of R&D and engineering, engineering and manufacturing vice presidents, corporate strategists, head scientists, project managers, systems information managers, product development managers, and other key members of technical management.

Faculty
Thomas J. Allen, Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management Emeritus and former deputy dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, specializes in organizational psychology and management. His long-term research targets the aerospace and pharmaceutical industries, principally project management.

Ralph Katz, Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University's College of Business, has conducted extensive management research, education, and consulting on technology-based innovation, with an emphasis on managing and motivating technical professionals, high performing groups, and project teams.