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Dubai /Â WAM
A delegation from the UAE Government Leaders Programme visited the offices of General Electric (GE), one of the world’s leading digital industry companies, as part of an educational tour of the United States, organised for 60 participants of the Programme.
Welcoming the delegates, Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, shared his vision on the role of leaders in achieving efficiency and increasing productivity. He also explained the importance of developing the skills to shape the future and overcome challenges. He said institutions must adopt innovative approaches and excellence ideas to become competitive and attain leadership at the global level.
Apart from the visit to GE, the international tour of the UAE Government Leaders Programme included visits to the College of Business at the University of Oxford and a number of British government institutions during which the participants met international experts in the field of leadership and entrepreneurship. A series of activities were organised as part of the tour to share experiments in innovative practices and enhance the leadership skills of the participants in line with the UAE Vision 2021.
HessaEssaBuhumaid, Assistant Director General for Government Services and Leadership at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and The Future, said: “The tour to international organisations such as GE, the College of Business at University of Oxford and a number of leading global institutions reflects the keenness of the UAE Government Leaders Programme to offer opportunities to the participants of the Programme to gain knowledge on the best practices in leadership and share experiences with global institutions.”
“The Programme provides the best training courses to government leaders, and develops training tools through the exchange of experiences,” Hessa added.
During the tour, participants were given a briefing on the experiences of GE in the field of leadership, especially in view of its status as one of the most leading companies in future technologies development worldwide. They also received training on creative thinking and principals of leadership, and participated in workshops led by Bill Ruh, Chief Digital Officer, GE, and CEO GE Digital.
The participants were introduced to new perspectives in entrepreneurship and leadership development environment. As part of the tour, the delegation also visited GE’s Leadership Development Center in New York and the research centre of the company. The tour was organised under a memorandum of understanding between UAE Government Leaders Programme and GE to enhance knowledge and skills of participants through an integrated training programme.
The UAE Government Leaders Programme also organised in cooperation with University of Oxford a tour to the UK to equip the participants with the tools to monitor and analyse global trends, and identify future opportunities and challenges in creating innovative solutions. The tour to the UK included visits to major academic institutions and innovation and future foreseeing centres such as University of Oxford, the British Parliament, BMW factory, Symantec, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The delegation also met leaders and senior figures of the British government, and officials of elite institutions related to the field of future foreseeing, economic development and innovation, including the Dean of Business School at the University of Oxford.
They visited the Institute of Open Data in London, which provides data and information to government agencies around the world to turn them into smart applications useful in areas such as education, transportation, healthcare and finance. They also toured the government British Institute to learn about its experiences in the field of future foreseeing and governance as well as its approach to recruitment, and visited the Laboratory of the British Ministers Council to understand innovation ideas in policy-making.
In the presence of an evaluation committee consisting of the management of the UAE Government Leadership Programme and a group from the College of Business at the University of Oxford, the participants introduced their projects aimed at identifying the best opportunities in business development and implementing entrepreneurship principles in government institutions.