Dusty; first Sri Lankan EMC graduate at INSEAD

Dusty Alahakoon receiving his masters from (from left): Dean of Research Professor Ziv Carmon, EMC Program Directors – Professor Roger Lehman, Professor Michael Jarrett and Professor Erik Van de Loo at the Claude & Tuulikki Janssen Auditorium at INSEAD Campus Singapore 

Dusty at the INSEAD bookshop just before the graduation 

 EMCCC Wave 26 – class of 2017-19 at the graduation ceremony

Dusty Alahakoon is the first Sri Lankan to be selected and graduate from the world-renowned ‘Executive Masters for Coaching & Consulting for Change (EMC)’ at INSEAD Campus. After a two-year study period, Dusty received his master’s degree at a graduation ceremony held at INSEAD Singapore Campus on 28 September. Having already completed his MBA years ago the EMC is Dusty’s second master’s degree. 

The Executive Masters for Coaching & Consulting for Change or known as EMCCC or EMC now, is a two-year master’s program at INSEAD Campus that is primarily focused on creating change agents. INSEAD has been consistently ranked among the top 3 business schools in the world. 

Speaking on being the first Sri Lankan to be selected to this world-renowned program, Dusty said, “Today the world is about technology and people, these two go hand in hand and I realised I needed to re-skill and up-skill myself in the area of change management. I think change has always been there, but the pace of change that we experience today is what many cannot deal with. I did my MBA in 1999-2002 period; I realised that is pretty much outdated today. EMC at INSEAD was my choice to make me relevant again for the next few years and help companies transform through this digital era. Today when you look at the pace of change, I think it’s important to re-skill and up-skill ourselves every now and then. Enrolling in a masters or an executive developing program is a wonderful way to re-skill and up-skill yourself, and be relevant.” 

He went on to say, “This program is all about transforming self and organisations. I had to travel to Singapore every two months for four-five days and it was an amazing experience. I’m thankful to Heineken and my regional boss Kenneth, who allowed me to take time off to attend INSEAD. I had 36 in my class, belonging to 21 nationalities coming from all over the world, with an average age of 43 years. This carefully constructed class was a super learning space as most of them had diverse experience and wanted to become change agents in the new world.” 

The experienced program directors, professors Erik Van de Loo, Roger Lehman and Michael Jarrett bring the program alive with other world-class internal and external faculty members. INSEAD provides a rich, world-class and intense learning experience whether you select to be a part of EMC at Fontainebleau or Singapore Campus. The program is a reflective journey that covers, building foundations, internal perspectives, family systems, leadership dynamics, groups and teams, organisational change, human behaviour and finally transformation perspectives.

The program has three practicums that cover executive exchange (where you travel to another country and observe someone), organisational diagnostics and designing or conducting an organisational change intervention. Finally, the master’s thesis helps participants to explore these concepts in real life. The program is designed to create change agents at board level to help people and organisational transformation.  Dusty’s master’s thesis titled ‘Shadows of the past; are they angels or demons?’ focused on first time CEOs and the impact of previous CEOs on the incumbent. Many newcomer CEOs found their previous CEOs as dark shadows who left negative legacies and at times the boards did not fully understand successful CEO transitions. This study was triggered by a Harvard Business Review (HBR) research that claimed almost one third of first time CEOs fail during the first 18 months, for different reasons. Dusty’s study revealed that, first time CEOs who had an external coach, found it somewhat easier to navigate and cope with the political-culture and other newcomer issues, while most struggling CEOs claimed they could benefit from a coach to deal with these newcomer issues.

Commenting on the relevance of this program, Dusty mentioned, “For many corporates change comes as a shock. The competitive advantages they once enjoyed can disappear unless they rewire themselves quickly. Today board and senior management composition is changing with digital and change experts who could guide strategy from a digital and change management angle. In reality, major initiatives and investments require robust change management programs if they are to be successful. This EMC program helped me to understand the extent and intensity of change needed and why many change programs fail, as there is a lag between change and transition. Change and transition is delicate and sensitive, and one needs to be trained to handle that.”

Elaborating on this further, Dusty said, “First at board level, they need to anticipate change and start the transformation process early. What I learnt is that change starts with you, first you need to transform, then help others change. The change has to be initiated and supported at board level, but unfortunately some are still hanging on to old beliefs. Some boards are still in the comfort zone or fear zone and rarely cross over to the learning zone! Board members themselves may need coaching to accept change and become the new change agents. I feel there is a need at board level to see strategy in a new perspective integrating commerce (sales and marketing), supply chain, finance and people from a digital lens supported by a credible transformation plan and the INSEAD EMC addresses the change perspective very well.  

Dusty is currently the managing director of Heineken Lanka, the non-executive Chairman of NEXT Campus and a non-executive director at Pepper Cube Consultants. He is a corporate trainer, speaker at forums and a lecturer for masters programs specialising in strategy, leadership and change.