Driven to Lead
Executives take the driver’s seat in first-of-its-kind partnership between Texas McCombs and Circuit of The Americas.
In today’s fast-paced business world, executives need to think and act quickly, decisively and efficiently, just like a race car driver doing 212 mph just inches from the wheels of a competitor. That’s the thinking behind a new partnership between Texas McCombs and Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.
Following this past weekend’s Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix race at COTA in Austin, the University of Texas McCombs School of Business is announcing a new Executive Education program: Winning! What Auto Racing Teaches Us About Success in Business. It will start in February and applications will open soon.
“I’m either going to scare the heck out of you or excite the heck out of you,” says Don Ruse, an assistant professor of instruction at McCombs and director of Winning! “I hope it’s the latter.”
The four-day leadership accelerator program — the first of its kind at a U.S. university — will take business leaders interested in new approaches for driving success at their companies to the COTA track where they will, in fact, sit in the driver’s seat. Guided by industry professionals, participants will take part in racing simulations, a pit-stop challenge, and, ultimately, driving at speed beside an instructor in an exotic race car. Think Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari.
Ruse has frequented racetracks since he was 7 and has long dreamed of launching a leadership program like Winning! His 40 years in business and working for 58 companies in 15 industries across five continents has convinced him that now’s the time.
“We’re living in a period of time that’s extremely volatile and uncertain as well as complex and ambiguous,” Ruse says. “What that requires us to do is move with a level of speed and adaptability and resilience that, in my 40 years, I’ve never seen required.”
The philosophy behind the program is: Winning in professional auto racing and in business requires leaders to execute their plans flawlessly. That means being able to harmoniously align strategy, organization and talent. “That agility and adaptability is a critical competency companies need, and we can learn a lot from auto racing on those two areas alone,” Ruse says.
The participant experience is central to the program. Hands-on learning has a way of sticking, especially when the experience is as adrenaline-producing, emotionally riveting and unusual as this, says Ruse, who has been around the track himself more than a few times.
Gaylen Paulson, McCombs associate dean and executive director of Texas Executive Education, says Winning! will give leaders a unique opportunity to learn from several of McCombs’ world-class faculty members, including Ruse. “Don Ruse is a boundary spanner, bringing great business and faculty experience, along with a passion for racing. And, his enthusiasm is contagious. You can’t help but get excited about what he’s built with the Winning! program.”
Paulson says the program, which will be capped at 20 participants, is for business executives who want to up their game. “We can learn some really great things by looking at people who are performing at the highest levels, perhaps especially if it’s outside our own industry or area of expertise. Winning! does just that, looking at the amazing competitive landscape of the USGP and its teams,” he says.
Tuition is $25,000 per student and will cover the expense of on-track driving in an exotic supercar, pit-stop challenge, racing simulations, on-campus learning, lodging, meals, and access to specialized equipment and services.
