Co-director, Leadership and Public Policy (Executive Education)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
 

Welcome to Leadership and Public Policy (LAPP) Executive Education at HKUST.

Senior executives in governments, businesses and non-profit institutions are often expected to make high-quality decisions under conditions of complexity and uncertainty, and usually with incomplete information. While relying on their instincts and their organizations’ rules and routines may work well in stable, predictable contexts, these mental shortcuts often lead to misdiagnoses and poor decisions in unfamiliar and unpredictable settings.

Our executive education programs are designed to meet the needs of future leaders in government, business and non-profit organizations to tackle the most pressing policy challenges of our times. We aim to equip senior officials with the knowledge and know-how to thrive in an environment that is often described as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Our programs seek to provide critical insights on innovative policy solutions and implementation strategies in dealing with their multi-faceted and interconnected policy challenges.

A distinctive feature of our programs is the emphasis on comparative and international perspectives. We bring together a world-class faculty, including not only faculty members from HKUST, University of Oxford, Stanford University, National University of Singapore (NUS) and other leading universities, but also thought leaders and seasoned practitioners from Hong Kong and the rest of Asia. This diverse and international faculty provide participants with multiple perspectives to make sense of the complexity they face. By integrating theory and practice, we help them achieve a deeper understanding of how they can be more effective managers and leaders.

Our programs also focus on critical thinking and evidence-based approaches to policy issues in the development of public leadership and policy capacity of individuals and organizations serving the public. Our programs on “Enhancing Public Value through Policy Development”, “Communicating Policy in an Age of Contestation”, and “Using Big Data to Create Public Value” aim to equip leaders with the policy acumen, analytic frameworks, and strategic thinking to address their policy challenges and opportunities holistically.

With the ever increasing demands from citizens and businesses for public organizations to be effective, professional development in leadership and policy capacity is critical for the future success of senior executives and the organizations they serve. We are therefore happy to work with individual public agencies to develop customized programs to address their training needs.