A dual strategy for resilience: A panel and dinner with NSW alumni (students and alumni only)

Join our New South Wales Alumni Chapter for an engaging evening featuring a panel discussion and Q&A with Professor Geoff Martin and Associate Professor David Keith. The event will conclude with a shared dinner alongside Online MBA students, as part of the MBA Summit.

This session will explore a dual strategy for true resilience: Building external political and social capital while simultaneously cultivating the internal organisational capabilities needed to escape the 'capability trap', enhance performance and endure any economic cycle. Here's what to expect on the night:

5:00pm: Arrival

5.30pm – 6.30pm: Presentation, panel discussion and Q&A with Prof Geoff Martin and Assoc Prof David Keith

6.30pm – 7.30pm: Networking session with alumni and Online MBA students

7.30pm – 9.00pm: Dinner with alumni and Online MBA students

Please register by Friday, 8 August 2025. Due to venue capacity, attendance is limited to 30 participants. The event is for Melbourne Business School alumni and students only.

Building Resilience Beyond the Balance Sheet 

By Professor of Strategy Geoff Martin

Businesses often build balance sheets that ensure they can make opportunistic deals through the cycle, and in particular, during crises. Political and social capital can also be accumulated to offer similar buffers that create resilience during crises. We will discuss strategy as a tool for clarifying and communicating the challenge of building stakeholder relationships that enhance performance through economic cycles.

Escaping the Capability Trap

By Associate Professor of Strategy David Keith

Short-term pressures frequently lead firms to under-invest in organisational capabilities, undermining long-term performance and leaving employees burned out. This ‘capability trap’ also makes firms vulnerable to volatility in the operating environment such as AI, trade/tariffs, working from home, and climate risks. Here we will discuss the dynamics of organisational capabilities and what firms can do in response - creating and sustaining process improvement that drives performance and enhances agility.

We’re deeply grateful to the MBS New South Wales Alumni Chapter led by Selwyn D'Souza (Chapter President), Andrew Wilson, and Michael Diamond for their initiative in organising the upcoming panel discussion and Q&A.

Please note that while the panel and Q&A are independently organised by the NSW Alumni Chapter, the dinner component is hosted by Melbourne Business School Limited as part of the MBA Summit in Sydney.