Raphael H Cohen

Turning caterpillars into agile and… passionate butterflies

Prof. Raphael H Cohen is a keynote speaker and an expert in professional agility, “weapons of mass innovation” and in the levers for maximizing team engagement. As business angel and intrapreneur, he has already mentored more than 250 intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial projects exploiting real innovation opportunities in many industries.

He has conceived the IpOp Model, which is presented in his book “Concevoir et lancer un projet” (2016 and previously 2006) that has been a bestseller since its first publication. It has been published in Spanish (“Oportunidades Ganadoras”) and in English “Winning Opportunities, proven tools for converting your projects into success… without a business plan”). The IpOp Model that is taught in executive education seminars and MBA programs empowers entrepreneurs as well as intrapreneurs to identify, analyze and seize opportunities that bring competitive advantages to their company. He has also developed the fair and caring leadership with its corresponding tools to maximize employees’ engagement. In large organizations, Raphael’s tools boost innovation, entrepreneurial behavior, selling effectiveness, business development as well as employees’ commitment.

Because of his extensive experience in innovation Raphael has been actively engaged in designing a new set of ISO standards for managing innovation. As convenor of WG 3 for TC 279 he has been responsible for several years for coordinating the contribution or all international experts committed to develop ISO standards for tools and methods to support innovation (in particular the upcoming ISO 50503 on innovation partnerships).

Raphael H also designed and runs Agility Boosters / MicroMBA MB executive education programs customized to stimulate the agility and intrapreneurial behavior of middle and upper management in large companies such as Nestlé, Microsoft, banks as well as public sector organizations such as university hospitals. Since participants must produce find and exploit real opportunities, their projects generate measurable profits exceeding by far the cost of the training programs. This profit generating approach represents a paradigm shift in executive education.

MicroMBAs MB are the corporate version of the first four CREATE courses of Entrepreneurship for engineers and scientists in Switzerland (at both University of Geneva and EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) that Raphael has designed and run until 2002, when he started the AgilityBooster/MicroMBA MB programs.

He is currently the Academic codirector of the DAS in Entrepreneurial Leadership (= 2nd year of the eMBA) of the University of Geneva (postgraduate Diploma of Executive Education), which he launched in 2001. He has also been the MBA European Academic Program Director of the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Phoenix, Arizona), where he holds the title of clinical professor. He is also the only non-French member of scientific committee of Institut du Management, the French Post corporate university teaching management.

As serial entrepreneur, active CEO and business angel, Raphael H Cohen brings his hands-on experience in his lecturing and consulting activities providing training, mentoring and management services to senior executives, bankers, directors and entrepreneurs. He has been serving on the board of directors of several companies, including one Swiss bank for 27 years, and is a regular contributor to several business publications.

He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics in 1982 while managing an international group of companies. His diversified working experience on 3 continents and in many industries led him to develop expertise in innovation, leadership, strategy, business development, management, negotiation, sales, HR, coaching and mentoring, financial engineering, legal affairs (international taxation, licensing, real estate, M&A, etc.), asset management, turning-around businesses, interim and crisis management.