Building an organization from scratch and making it an immense success, especially in the education sector, is a strenuous task that requires sheer determination and effort. Few entrepreneurs succeed in being the forerunners of change in the education sector. One such notable educational leader who has gained great recognition in this field is Dr. Eythor Ivar Jonsson, President of Akademias, with his thought leadership and passion-driven strategies.
Dr. Eythor has been actively involved in the entrepreneurial world throughout his life. He has founded think tanks, accelerators, incubators, investment programs, training programs, and developed clusters and ecosystems centered around innovation and entrepreneurship. With his expertise in business development and corporate governance models, Dr. Eythor has contributed to hundreds of companies in varying capacities—sometimes as the primary entrepreneur, and sometimes as a facilitator and adviser.
Dr. Eythor is an alumna of the prestigious Brunell University and studied business education, with a double Cand. Oecon specialization in Finance and Marketing at the University of Iceland, an MSc. in International Business at Aarhus Business School in Denmark and the University of Iceland, an Advanced Management Degree (AMP), Advanced Degree in Consultancy and Research (AdipC) and a Doctorate Degree in Corporate Governance at Brunell University-Henley Business School.
During a virtual conversation with Education Insights, the visionary leader provided us with an overview of his professional journey and highlighted some of the major achievements of his business, Akademias.
The Initial Years of the Incredible Leader’s Journey
Born and raised in Iceland, Eythor has also resided in Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. During his learning experience, he focused on four areas of expertise: corporate governance, education, strategy and management, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Since then, he has taught at nine different universities in Europe and Asia, but for the longest period in Denmark’s Copenhagen Business School.
For the past two decades, Dr. Eythor has spent most of his time teaching MBA programs and business accelerators. He brings result-oriented courses with a practical approach. The question was always what they could do after the modules, not just what they knew. He always found it interesting what is possible to create within focused modules with a dash of urgency. Eythor learned a lot about accelerators and has developed seven diverse types of accelerators with varied goals, approaches, and areas of concentration. The sense of urgency to create a venture is a remarkably interesting challenge that can be facilitated and disrupted with the right process.
The Inspiration behind the Inception
Dr. Eythor, co-created Akademias, in 2020, just before the COVID-19 epidemic. Initially the objective was to establish a company that would help adults continue to learn throughout their lives, with a focus on technology and business. While many universities strive to be all-inclusive, Dr. Eythor’s experience working in academic institutions taught him that this was not truly their market. Adults with work experience who are aiming to upskill or reskill are looking for different content, methodology, and purpose than most universities can offer.
According to his thesis, there was room to improve the MBA program to create something more appropriate for individuals with career aspirations and a growth mindset. Eythor found a business partner who was a marketing guru who could help develop the brand and marketing funnels for this solution. The idea was framed around the theory of the resource-based view of the firm that is often traced back to Edith Penrose, where organizations are a bundle of capabilities and resources. Then organizations need to continuously train and attract talent to build the organization and develop dynamic capabilities to become a learning organization. The tagline of Akademias represents this view: education for the opportunities of the future.
The Primary Hurdles in Establishing Akademias
Building a learning institution presented its biggest challenge: credibility and trust. The majority of the market’s rivals were universities that provided executive education. Dr. Eythor did not have the university stamp; they did. How could they convince the market that attending an institution that taught subjects most people only connected with universities would be worthwhile?
So, Dr. Eythor and his team conducted a branding exercise, identified the thought leaders and trailblazers in their teaching disciplines, and established credibility through real-world experiences. Thanks, of its success, Akademias’ education now revolves around selecting the most deserving students and compelling local cases to include in lesson plans.
The Upcoming Trends in Executive Education
The Akademias team initially focused on integrating technology into every course, through innovative teaching strategies or applications that could facilitate work in a special field. Since then, AI has taken off with OpenAI and similar solutions. Executive education will have to embrace technology while at the same time teaching executives about the limitations and biases within technology. The counter-revolution will be the human approach to business and learning. Nowadays, providing any learning resource online is easy but this is usually not an effective approach for developing critical, creative, and empathetic thinking skills.
Adaptability to the Latest Industry Evolutions
Though the team initially didn’t realize it, starting right before the COVID-19 pandemic has helped significantly. They learned very quickly to become agile. Their biggest strength is how quickly they can create innovative solutions based on societal and technological advancements. The team aims to stay close to the customers to help them navigate the new reality.
The Key Driving Force Behind Akademia’s Success in Executive Education
Akademia’s mantra is education for future opportunities, which helps the team decide what to offer. They don’t want to teach and train the skills and capabilities of the past, but the future and value creation for the customers within that context. They have succeeded in building a reputation among consumers, who feel confident in their ability to improve both their personal and professional lives. It is a different mindset than that of their competitors, and their agility and network mean that they can more easily tailor the skill and competence development of individuals, teams, and organizations than most. The learners’ time and experience are working with them since they are receiving fantastic feedback on how they are approaching teaching, the content and context, and the overall structure and framing of the educational program. It is vastly different from what others are offering.
Achievements and Milestones to be Proud of
Akademias has received great market response over the years, and progressively evolved into an organizational solution. Recently, they started to design online learning solutions for organizations, both with their library of online courses and innovative learning solutions like games, simulators, and challenges. In 2023, the institution also had enough hybrid executive courses to create a new Executive MBA program that was different from most programs as it provided amazing modern business professionals with freedom and fantastic networking opportunities.
Planning for a Flourishing Future Ahead
Akademias was created as an experiment in a very small market. The initial premise was that developing a successful enterprise with this educational objective would be practically impossible. But it proved to be incorrect; it was feasible. Dr. Eythor and his colleagues are exploring growth into bigger markets where they can collaborate with other organizations and academic institutions as partners and jointly develop their solutions in new markets with similar wants and requirements, where education can open up possibilities for the future.
A Word of Wisdom for Future Entrepreneurs
Advising all the blooming entrepreneurs, Dr. Eythor said, “Always start with exploring the industry, not just the idea. Industries have quite different success rates and returns on investment. It is very risky to move into an industry that has historically had low rates of return; the time of the entrepreneur could be better spent in other industries. Choose a venue that you have lived at and loved. My third piece of advice is to always find a business model that works; without it, everything else will become much harder!”
