Maurice Stassen has always been fascinated by how things work. As a child, he took his toys apart, much to his parents’ chagrin. In his teenage years, he started tinkering with his family’s appliances, eager to understand the circuitry.
And that curiosity never stopped. Stassen earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands before beginning his more than 20-year engineering career, first at global technology giant Philips. He’s developed algorithms for wireless communication, helped build the first internet-connected household appliances, and worked on a wearable smartwatch that measures your blood rate and provides health advice.
“These days, everything is connected to the internet, but this started at some moment in time, and that’s where I contributed,” Stassen says. “This was also my first experience where I learned that you could make things technically work, but more is needed to make it a commercial success.”
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DOWNLOAD NOWWith each new experience, Stassen progressed, transitioning from a research scientist and project manager to a systems architect. As a systems architect, he worked on the first artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled steam iron with a camera embedded that detects the fabric you’re ironing and automatically adjusts its settings.
“That was my first AI experience,” Stassen says. “This was all before the big AI craze.”
He moved from consumer electronics to the healthcare domain and started working on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scanners’ computer infrastructure to improve how fast they generated images in hospitals. He describes his projects’ variety as “getting a new toy [he] could open up,” or a “buffet” that lets him sample different technologies and engineering areas. He eventually wanted to tackle a new challenge: management.
Stassen is currently the director of systems architecture and strategy at a global logistics automation company, mostly known for its baggage handling systems at airports and warehousing technologies for leading e-commerce brands.
“I came from the medical field into this area, which was very different,” Stassen says. “Suddenly, the world didn’t make sense anymore. Things that appeared logical to me weren’t. There were the usual barriers like silos, the fear of change or wrong decisions, and miscommunication. But I discovered many instances where options and decisions should be obvious but weren’t on a management level. I wanted to better understand how this could be, and not based on opinions.”
Stassen wanted facts, theory, and real-world examples from other companies. He found Harvard Business School Online and decided to pursue a Learning Track by taking three entrepreneurship and innovation courses within 18 months.
“I wanted some tools to help me explain my learnings from the past in a way they’re understood and can be accepted,” Stassen says.
His first course, Design Thinking and Innovation, provided exactly that. Stassen describes it as “a kind of reverse university,” where he learned the theory behind the innovation development he and his colleagues had put into practice and the names of the creative problem-solving tools he used without realizing it.
From there, he took Negotiation Mastery, where he learned about the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA)—the range in a negotiation where two or more parties can find common ground.
“The challenge is to find the win-win,” Stassen says. “If managers in corporate companies would learn and apply what [HBS Professor Mike Wheeler] taught me, I think innovations and change in corporations would go so much smoother. I encourage all managers to take this course.”
He finished his Learning Track by completing Launching Tech Ventures, which gave him “new insights on how to organize innovation.” He tested his new knowledge of how to approach startups by attending a startup networking event and asking questions from an investor’s perspective.
“This is something I want to encourage all learners to do,” Stassen says. “Don’t think that if you do a course, you’re done. The real learning starts when you apply the knowledge.”
Stassen didn’t stop learning after earning his Certificate of Specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He enrolled in Disruptive Strategy and recently finished the first offering of one of HBS Online’s newest courses, Winning with Digital Platforms.
“Disruptive Strategy was exactly what I needed to find myself ready for the next step in my management journey,” Stassen says. “I was lucky to have worked with all kinds of disruptions—like wireless communications, platforms, and AI—but in order to make the right decisions, I depend on a clear company strategy. This helped me figure out the gaps in the strategy and, more importantly, its deployment.”
Disruptive Strategy asks learners to write a final paper reflecting on how they plan to apply what they learned tomorrow, next week, or over the next year. Stassen says that’s when everything came together for him. He wrote the paper using an example from his own company and scheduled a meeting with one of its executives to discuss whether his ideas about where the market was headed were on the right track. His colleague gave him the confirmation he needed.
“HBS Online is an enabler,” Stassen says, encouraging other engineers to develop business skills. “If you’re really passionate and energized about your idea, you want to bring it to the market. That doesn’t mean you need to become a one-person army, but you do need to have the skills and learn to speak the language of business—that’s a key asset. I see it as building this bridge. Since technology gets more complicated, being able to build this bridge is in great demand all the time.”
It’s evident that Stassen’s thirst for exploration never left him. He’s since traveled to more than 70 countries with his wife and dived into geocaching, an outdoor activity in which you use a GPS device to hide and find containers, or geocaches, around the world.
“Don’t be afraid to do many different things and see what makes you tick,” Stassen says, reminiscing on the toys he took apart as a child. “It’s not being afraid to say, ‘I have no clue how this works, but I’ll find out.’ Some people fear saying this out loud, ‘I don’t understand this.’ To me, that’s just the beginning of an exciting journey.”
Are you interested in starting your own business journey? Explore HBS Online’s entrepreneurship and innovation courses. Not sure which course is the right fit? Download our free flowchart to determine the program best suited to your career level and goals.
