16.03.2026Aksana Hinder, CAS in Leadership

Aksana Hinder, 46, lives with her family in Unterägeri. She has many years of experience in strategic procurement and global IT category management. For over ten years, she has been responsible for extensive IT and professional services portfolios in international organizations, operating at the intersection of procurement, technology, and management. A central focus of her work lies in managing complex supplier landscapes, establishing effective governance structures, and helping to shape strategic procurement decisions.

What she finds particularly appealing about her current role is the leadership aspect of strategic procurement. Today, procurement decisions have a direct impact on technology strategies, risk management, and collaboration with global partners. In this environment, she is particularly motivated to reconcile differing interests, develop strategic solutions, and build long-term, sustainable supplier relationships.

To balance her professional life, she enjoys exploring economic and political issues, learning about longevity, and staying active. The CAS in Leadership, which she completed while working, has opened up new perspectives for her and equipped her with effective tools to lead her team competently and with clear direction.

Like most people, I initially experienced leadership from a passive perspective. I began quite early on to analyze the various behavioral patterns I encountered in order to better understand them. In doing so, I quickly realized the enormous range of experiences one encounters in everyday life. This led me to develop a desire to delve deeper into the various aspects of leadership and to understand why certain approaches work while others do not.

My employer selected me for an employee development program. As part of this, I was able to choose a continuing education course. It quickly became clear to me that I wanted to focus on the topic of leadership. After doing some research, I found that the University of Zurich offered the best and most practical program, which is why I applied for the CAS in Leadership.

My goal was to take away many approaches from the CAS that I could apply in my own work. That’s why it was important to me to gain as deep an insight as possible into each topic during the courses. I therefore structured the individual modules of the program so that the content closely aligned with my experience and needs. Looking back, this approach has been very rewarding for me, as it allowed me to consistently see the direct practical relevance to my work.

Three topics from the CAS in Leadership particularly appealed to me: leadership, crisis management, and strategic negotiation.

The Leadership module helped me refine my understanding of leadership: Sustainable performance is achieved where appreciation is put into practice and employees are empowered to take on responsibility.

In the Crisis Competence module, I focused on the importance of psychological safety and a culture of learning from mistakes. Teams can only remain effective under pressure if problems can be addressed openly.

For my current role in strategic procurement, the material on Strategic Negotiations was particularly practical — especially the in-depth coverage of BATNA, ZOPA, and approaches from negotiation engineering.

The CAS program has sharpened my leadership perspective and helped me develop it in a methodologically sound way.

Yes, I was actually able to apply what I learned right away. Especially when different interests clash, you often see in practice that tried-and-true leadership approaches are “thrown out the window” right from the start. When you’re confronted with this in your daily work while the impressions from the CAS are still fresh in your mind, it becomes very clear that something is going completely wrong.

That immediately brings to mind the fields of Change Management and Crisis Competence. I see a growing need for these areas, especially in the current environment, as many traditional approaches quickly reach their limits and cannot fully meet the specific requirements. I also want to delve deeper into Strategic Negotiation in the future, as this is an area in which I already have a strong personal interest.

The CAS has significantly expanded my personal toolkit. Of course, I’ve already learned and applied a great deal throughout my career so far. The content of the CAS has opened up many new perspectives for me, which will help me both improve the approaches I’m already familiar with and implement new ones. After completing the CAS, I feel much more confident in my ability to lead employees successfully over the long term.

There are many moments that have stayed with me. Group work was always an excellent opportunity to reinforce and discuss what we had just learned together. In this context, you benefit immensely from the wide range of knowledge and expertise that your fellow students bring to the table. And as an added bonus, group work also allows you to quickly expand your personal network.

I found the scheduling of the individual CAS sessions to be very efficient. As a rule, the teaching blocks were held consecutively on Fridays and Saturdays, allowing participants to delve deeply into a topic without distractions. This also makes coordinating with employers much easier, as it ultimately results in a manageable number of days when one cannot be in the office. Another very positive aspect was the highly cooperative and supportive organization of the CAS by the program administration. Questions and concerns were always addressed very quickly in the participants’ best interest. Just as it should be.

The biggest challenge? Two Saturdays early in the year immediately come to mind—it was dark and cold. When you have to muster the energy to head out early in the morning after a grueling workweek, you find yourself wishing you could just stay in bed. And there were also a few Sunday afternoons when I had to finish my reflection journal — I would have preferred to spend that time on other activities. But looking back, those feelings fade quickly once you realize everything you’ve gained from the CAS.

Yes, I would definitely recommend this training program. I think participants should already be familiar with various leadership styles — or even have applied them themselves — so that they can fully benefit from the opportunity for practical reflection.

(Find here more information about the CAS in Leadership.)