UNYP/CVUT Entrepreneurship Lecture Series: MBA Professor Sotiris Karagiannis presented seminar Leading Diversity

On Friday, November 22, 2013, Sotiris Karagiannis, UNYP MBA professor and corporate trainer, provided the November UNYP/CVUT/Inovacentrum entrepreneurship lab lecture.  

Sotiris’ talk began with definitions of diversity, measurement issues, misplaced assumptions, management issues, and the benefits surrounding a diverse working environment.  Sotiris brings in his training a blend of industry experience with hands-on approaches that put the trainees in the leading role. He facilitates rather than lectures and ensures trainees feel motivated to participate and engage in activities from the very beginning.  It is this energy that he brought to our monthly lecture series.

His presentation was peppered with interesting anecdotes about the successes and failures in the realm of diversity management.  Correctly managing diversity encourages and promotes creativity, as the heterogeneity of a group allows the members to produce better solutions to problems by employing a higher level of critical analysis.  The diversity itself also tends to attract the very talent needed by an organization.  Research has shown that a diverse working environment also drives more economic growth, captures greater market share, reduces employee turnover cost, and leverages a company’s full potential.

Specific examples of cultural sensitivity were also relayed, including proximics, negotiation techniques, response to hierarchical structures, as well as many others.  These were presented in an interactive fashion, with a good deal of audience participation and inclusion.  The lecture ended with a question and answer session.

UNYP, CVUT, and Innovacentrum thanks Sotiris Karagiannis for his time and energy in bringing us his ideas in the Entrepreneurship Lab.  The video for this talk can be found on the UNYP MBA Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UU0iBmor30&feature=em-upload_owner