I’m Ahmad W. Hijazi – a professor, builder, and storyteller working at the intersections of business, tech, education, and culture, and trying to turn those into practical maps. On paper I hold a DBA/PhD in Business Studies and an MSc in Research from IE (Madrid/Spain), an MBA from Oxford, and a Bachelor in Engineering from the American University of Beirut. In practice, that just means I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time thinking about how ideas become markets, products, cultures, and identities.
Before finding partial refuge – more like a tent – in academia, I spent years steering strategy and innovation across companies and startups, managing business units and launching digital products, and helping build web and mobile applications used by hundreds of thousands of people. I’ve worked in Sales, Business Development, Product Management, Research & Design, and General Management. These days I split my time between teaching, running programs, and working with teams on innovation, education, and digital systems… all while treating classrooms, organizations, and startups as living systems.
This website is the front door to a long-term Master Plan: a connected ecosystem of books, courses, talks, apps, and simulations that all orbit one big question – What Now? In more words: how can we think more clearly, act more wisely, and create more courageously in a noisy world? At its core sits The Atlas of Worldly Wisdom, built on ideas like AIC (Awareness–Intent–Creativeness), approximate thinking, and Cultural Resource Sets: my attempt to integrate complexity into the understanding of collective variables (plurality) and the birth of the (surprisingly) amazing.
Around the Atlas you’ll find projects like Fuzzy on the Dark Side (on approximate thinking), The Prometheus Shot series (deep dives into creativity and great work), interconnected story worlds such as The Mask is the World (Cultural Symbols), Passing Clouds (Identity & Creativity), other novels and short stories, and many web and mobile systems – simulations, games, and tools that let you test these ideas in practice. Some of these projects live as courses and training programs, some as books, some as apps and games, and some as talks and keynotes.
However you arrive here – through The Atlas, a book or story, a Prometheus episode, or one of the apps and simulations – you’re stepping into the same project: an open invitation to explore how the helix (Knowledge-Will-Action / Awareness-Intent-Creativeness) can upgrade the way you understand the world, make decisions, and design your work (life).
Education: Courses & Training Seminars
Alongside my research, writing, and apps, I’ve developed a set of original courses and frameworks that try to do one thing well: combine academic rigor with real-world messiness. I like building bridges between business, philosophy, cognitive science, cultural studies, and complexity, then stress-testing those bridges with actual people, projects, and markets.
Over the years I’ve delivered university courses and executive seminars on markets, management, research, digital media, cultural and creative industries, and creativity/innovation. Always open and experimental: we use simulations, meta-learning, discussions, and practical applications.
Some novel seminar ideas include courses on:
- Applying Innovation: Creativity, Groups, and Systems
- Sales Management & Negotiation
- The Marketing Management simulation (based on MSIM)
- Approximate Thinking; Based on “Fuzzy on the Dark Side”:
- How leaders decide and innovate when the map is incomplete
- Great Work in a Noisy World, based on The Atlas of Worldly Wisdom
- A course about the integration of knowledge, planning, and transforming work
- The Edge of Knowledge (ongoing)
- A set of theoretical foundations behind the Atlas
- Pioneers & Great Work (ongoing)
- An application of the Atlas to real historical cases.
I’ve also advised many institutions on improving the educational outcomes and overall efficiency and throughput of their offerings, by re-configuring course contents, delivery, and evaluation.
To discuss a talk on the above topics, a potential cooperation on a seminar/course, or any talk related to creativeness, the Atlas of Worldly Wisdom, approximate thinking, or other fields, please reach out through this form:
Projects: Innovation | Digital | Marketing | Branding
Through 111, my studio for innovation and creative systems, I work with companies, startups, and institutions to turn ideas into working realities. We use values-based frameworks (The Triple Helix, approximate thinking, cultural resources, …) to design initiatives, brands, and experiences that actually fit their markets and communities.
On the digital side, I’ve helped teams design and build web and mobile systems – from education platforms and gamified learning tools to customer-facing apps – that improve engagement and make complex journeys feel intuitive. On the business side, I support partners with strategy and brand consulting, localization, training seminars, and research projects around markets, innovation, culture, and creativity, often in collaboration with global agencies and regional organizations.
If you’re working on an innovative initiative or startup with web or mobile components—especially in education, culture, or gamified experiences (including education-related or marketing-related gamification, or even crypto experiments)—and you’d like help planning or implementing it, please reach out for a conversation about potential cooperation.
Alternatively, if you are interested in creating new forms (music, film, graphic novels, games, products, …) based on any of the stories, talks, concepts, games, or ideas here, I’d love to hear from you!
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