As the founder and CEO of Janover Ventures, a commercial real estate capital markets advisory firm based in Miami, Blake Janover understands that technology and digital innovation are transforming the finance industry. Committed to learning as much as he can about fintech to drive his company's success, he attended the Executive Education program Leveraging Fintech Innovation to Grow and Compete at Harvard Business School (HBS). In this interview, he discusses why he enrolled, what he learned, and how it has changed him as a leader.
As the leader of a growing fintech company, I saw Leveraging Fintech Innovation to Grow and Compete as an opportunity to immerse myself in a program offered by one of the world's leading business schools, surrounded by high-achieving peers. It was a very logical choice as we strive to position our firm at the forefront of our industry. We embrace change and have curated an environment that fosters curiosity, so the program aligned perfectly with our culture and values.
This was a powerful learning experience. It was enlightening to take part in open conversations and debates around case studies where there's no binary answer, to be guided by an elite group of professors with on-the-ground experience who spend their lives working through these challenges in and out of academia, and to interact with a group of high-performance leaders from diverse companies within a niche industry. The entire experience was a pleasant surprise.
I learned that the industry is not just diverse operationally: There is also a wide range of perspectives from the leadership of financial companies across the board. Incumbents want to expand their moats, disruptors hope to disrupt or shift industries, but everyone wants to win. The answers to all of our questions as leaders involve factors that transcend the implementation of new technologies and SOPs and become extremely cultural at their core.
The faculty guided our debates and discussions thoughtfully while continuously contributing innovative approaches and frameworks for addressing challenges and opportunities.
The program offered a new context for evaluating disruptive technologies, as well as an alternate point of view that we'll use as we face change and strategy internally in the future.
Strap in! Be prepared to disconnect from your day-to-day business responsibilities, read a lot, and immerse yourself in conversations to take advantage of insights from peers, professors, and industry leaders. This is a dynamic environment where education, networking, conversation, and exploration come together.
