Oxford Saïd Business School introduces a cyber resilience elective within its MBA programme
Cybersecurity is about leadership, decision-making, and recognizing how quickly a digital threat can become a real-world business problem. Oxford’s Saïd Business School gets this. That’s why they’ve launched a cyber resilience elective in their MBA programme, backed by Sygnia, a global cybersecurity firm with serious credentials. The goal is simple: help the next generation of business leaders make smarter calls during a crisis.
Executives today have to make high-stakes decisions, often under pressure. But most leaders haven’t been trained to deal with the live dynamics of a cyber attack. That’s what this course targets. The collaboration between Oxford and Sygnia offers not just lectures, but high-pressure simulations, realistic crisis scenarios designed to sharpen leadership instinct, resilience, and confidence when systems are under attack and confusion is high.
This isn’t theory for theory’s sake. It’s about preparing leaders to turn cybersecurity into a strategic advantage. Not just protecting infrastructure, but anticipating the risks tied to every major transformation, digital, operational, or geopolitical. In a world where cyber threats are escalating, this kind of training is necessary.
The course is built on research by Oxford Saïd’s Professor Michael Smets and Dr. Manuel Hepfer. They studied CEOs and found something most leaders already suspect: many executives feel out of their depth when it comes to cybersecurity. Especially when it’s go-time and the stakes are high. If you want to lead, you can’t delegate that discomfort. You have to own it.
The smart leaders will use this kind of programme to close the gap, not just in their knowledge, but in their organization’s strategy. That’s what prepares you to not just survive disruption, but to come out ahead.
The new elective is a strategic response to the intensifying global cyber threat landscape
Cybersecurity threats are scaling up, faster, smarter, and more coordinated than ever. As companies digitize, automate, and integrate AI into daily operations, they’re exposed in ways most leadership teams aren’t prepared for. This course at Oxford Saïd is responding to that trend directly.
Nation-states are testing infrastructure. Cybercriminal groups are evolving. AI is changing the speed and complexity of attacks. Cybersecurity has already expanded beyond the IT department. It’s a boardroom issue. Leaders have to be fully aware of how systems can fail, not because of bad code, but because of blind decisions made without the right context or training. A cyber attack doesn’t wait for someone to finish a report or escalate up the chain. It calls for fast, accurate leadership.
Oxford and Sygnia understand this isn’t about making leaders into technicians. It’s about giving them operational clarity when everything’s uncertain. That’s why the course includes a full-immersion simulation, a live-fire test of your mindset under pressure. That training builds decision-making capacity under the kinds of conditions that destroy unprepared organizations.
Chris Crummey, Sygnia’s Global Director of Executive and Board Cyber Services, put it well. He sees this as a bold move to shift cyber resilience to the center of business strategy. He emphasized how the live simulation gives future executives the tools to lead decisively when attacks are underway, where every second counts and hesitation costs.
Tomer Amir from Google Cloud, who’s joining the course as a guest speaker, pointed out something else worth listening to. This kind of training is what he wishes he had earlier in his own career. He recognizes that learning leadership under real digital pressure, especially now it’s fundamental. That’s the tone of the course: practical, advanced, and built for how business challenges now actually play out.
Cybersecurity is a fundamental business imperative rather than an optional add-on
Cybersecurity isn’t a technical detail that executives can afford to ignore. It’s core to business continuity, brand trust, and operational stability. If it fails, everything else becomes noise. That’s the reality leaders are increasingly facing, especially as threat actors push harder and aim higher, from private companies to national infrastructure. It makes sense that Oxford’s MBA programme is placing cyber resilience in the leadership spotlight. The timing is right.
Recent high-profile breaches have made it clear: no sector is too established, and no brand is too trusted to be immune. Retail giants like Marks and Spencer and the Co-op have already been hit. These aren’t isolated incidents. They point to a broader systemic risk that boards and executives must get directly involved in managing. Delegating the responsibility won’t work anymore. Leaders need to engage, understand the risks in plain terms, and build strategies around mitigation and rapid recovery.
This increasing pressure is also being recognized at the national level. Speaking at the CyberUK conference, Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, framed it decisively. His message was clear: these incidents are not harmless or superficial. They’re serious. Government, the public sector, and businesses across the board must treat cybersecurity as a national and organizational necessity. The line between security and operations is gone.
That’s the context in which Oxford’s cyber resilience course takes on more significance. It’s not about providing execs with more knowledge for the sake of credentials. It’s about making sure the leaders of tomorrow, whether in private enterprise or public service, can respond when it matters and design systems that can adapt under pressure. Cyber isn’t a risk you react to after the damage. It’s a core capability that you integrate early, sustain over time, and monitor constantly.
Leaders who understand this will drive transformation with clarity and resilience. Those who don’t will be disrupted by forces they weren’t prepared to navigate. Decisions being made today about how companies and governments approach cybersecurity will define who leads in tomorrow’s market.
Key highlights
- Train leaders for cyber crisis readiness: Oxford Saïd’s MBA now integrates cyber resilience to address C-suite gaps in crisis decision-making. Leaders should invest in similar training to prepare teams for high-stakes digital incidents.
- Prioritize cyber as a strategic function: With threats from AI-driven attacks and geopolitical shifts rising, cybersecurity must move beyond IT. Executives should embed cyber resilience into enterprise-wide business strategy.
- Treat cybersecurity as a non-negotiable obligation: With real-world breaches escalating, security is now fundamental to operational stability. Decision-makers must treat cyber as a core responsibility, on par with finance or compliance.
