Fostering Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Continuous Learning in MBA Education!
In this interview, we explore how Joachim Goetz, a respected educator at Porto Business School, infuses MBA education with creativity.
Q1: Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became involved in teaching Porto Business School MBA courses?
Absolutely! I am a driven corporate innovation magnet with a track record of turning innovative ideas into business impact by collaborating with entrepreneurial minds at the nexus of innovation, technology, and strategy. I have twenty years of professional experience under my belt, primarily in the software development industry, in roles focused on innovation and venture building. Fifteen of those years were spent in international leadership and executive roles.
I am particularly passionate when working strategically as an organizational designer who establishes or runs innovation units, or when working programmatically as an ecosystem or venture builder, supporting intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs hands-on in building and scaling their ventures.
Currently, I am heading all technology and innovation topics for SAP's open innovation arm, while also supporting active entrepreneurs as a seed investor and future entrepreneurs as an adjunct professor. My professional journey has taken me across 60 countries, immersing myself in diverse cultures and perspectives.
Having resided in Asia for seven years (including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore) and the Americas for seven years (including São Paulo, Palo Alto, and New York), I am now operating out of Europe with a global scope. My academic background is equally diverse, with bachelor’s degrees in business administration and informatics, and master's degrees in strategic design and quantitative research, complemented by an Executive MBA.
My journey into teaching at Porto Business School MBA courses began when I was invited to join the faculty in 2020, with my first class on Digital Innovation starting in early 2021. At that time, I had already accumulated four years of adjunct teaching experience at another ranked business school in Spain.
Ever since I started teaching, it has become a second passion of mine, stemming from my desire to give back the learnings and insights I've had the immense pleasure of collecting throughout my professional career, and perhaps help shape the perspective of future leaders around innovation and entrepreneurship - as I truly believe that these topics, especially in the field of sustainability, will reshape our society to come. What might have helped me get the invitation was that I am fluent in four languages - including Portuguese. Something I don’t tell the students right away.. I let them figure it out; so please don’t tell the new cohorts!
Being a professor at Porto Business School fills me with immense gratitude. It's an honor to be part of such an esteemed faculty team, and I am committed to upholding the level of quality set by my accomplished peers. It's a challenging goal, but one that I am dedicated to pursuing with all my passion and expertise.
Q2: What do you find most rewarding about teaching MBA students?
There are many things that make teaching MBA students a fun but also challenging endeavor. Let me highlight the two aspects that I think really stand out, and are the key reasons I focus my teaching towards (E)MBA-level students.
The first one is that MBA students choose to be there. It’s not mandatory like primary school, or expected like a bachelor's degree. Doing an MBA is a voluntary choice and a great indicator of an intense hunger to learn. This hunger becomes a sponge for my teaching. As long as I manage to engage the student in an interactive, inclusive, and appreciative manner, the classroom fills up with bright smiles and "aha" moments.
The second aspect is that MBA students have work experience in their backpack. Our conversations are not just theoretical, but linked with the real world the students live in. Classes are enriched through work examples from all industries and, given PBS's international setup, also from various geographies. This also enables a more fruitful conversation among students, as our learnings can work differently in different contexts.
Understanding and reflecting on these differences can help students better navigate ambiguous contexts throughout their careers. There is seldom one simple or sole truth. This means they really can grasp the meaning of "it depends". This makes every class unique and also makes every class a learning experience for me. When they grow, I grow.
Q3: What advice would you give to MBA Students aspiring entrepreneurs looking to navigate the challenges of starting their own ventures?
It’s a very simple answer: passion for solving your problem. The road of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur is hard, very hard. So, you must truly fall in love with the problem you are solving, so that you keep going through all the hardships, especially the ones you don’t even know yet. Let me emphasize that I am not talking about how you solve the problem, but the actual problem or problem space.
Your solution changes over time, while the problem is the constant you are fighting for. These so-called pivots are a good thing, and you should be humble enough to understand that your current solution might have to evolve and be open to it. Only with a real passion for solving the problem can you do this, not with a mindset that your solution needs to work.
There is a beautiful story from Jensen Huang (founder of NVIDIA) who recently said that if he knew what he would have to go through, he probably wouldn’t do it again (Full interview: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/jensen-huang). Passion to solve the problem is what keeps you going.
Q4: In your opinion, what role does continuous learning and education, as MBA Programs play in fostering innovation and entrepreneurial success?
Honestly, we are living in crazy times, and being prepared is always better than falling behind. An MBA not only expands one's mind but also equips everyone with a toolset for navigating their professional journey and career. This is already a step ahead compared to those not pursuing an MBA - one of the key reasons why students choose to challenge themselves with an MBA: to get ahead and to improve themselves - however they interpret success for themselves.
Now, if we specifically look at innovation and entrepreneurial success, any MBA provides a strong knowledge foundation to kick-start and network with like-minded peers who may later become partners in crime. What I think is particularly relevant for MBAs at PBS is that they go far beyond this foundation.
Of course, they include traditional topics like strategy, finance, or marketing, but they also specifically embrace the need for innovation and entrepreneurship. PBS constantly challenges itself to be not just programmatic but avant-garde. One of my first classes at PBS was on digital innovation, at a time when most business schools still viewed technology as a back-office topic through technology management.
Additionally, we introduced an entirely new class called Entrepreneurial Mindset just last year, setting the stage for an entrepreneurial track where students can develop their own startup alongside their studies with dedicated entrepreneurial support. Yes, it starts with students working on their ideas and testing them in the real world for real feedback.
PBS is not just about delivering a curriculum for what is required now, but about consciously crafting a curriculum that helps students prepare for the future.
