The changing face of the Executive MBA

The changing face of Executive MBA

Traditionally, the Executive MBA – the MBA programme aimed at more experienced professionals and managers than its conventional equivalent – has been regarded as a vehicle for corporate high fliers to learn the leadership skills necessary for a move to the boardroom or the partnership table.

The school makes much of its connection to what it calls the Cambridge ‘ecosystem’, the 900-odd high-tech firms operating within 50 miles of the city centre that provides Judge EMBAs with seminars, networking sessions and access to business angels and potential partners.

Students then take the entrepreneurial learning back to work with team consulting projects with the likes of Saatchi and Saatchi, Disney, or even the NHS designed to have an immediate impact and bring fresh thinking to old business problems.

Single global marketplace

Other executive MBA programmes are specifically focused on developing the skills, cultural sensitivity and contacts needed to operate in what is increasingly becoming a single, global marketplace.

One of the leading exponents of this is the OneMBA, which brings together the resources of a coalition of top business schools from the US, Mexico, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. Participants attend classes every four to six weeks at their ‘home’ university as well as four global ‘residencies’.

Keith Mahoney, who graduated from the OneMBA Class of 2008, says: “I wanted a genuinely global programme, and taking US professors and students and offering the same courses overseas just does not qualify. For me, that is just a field trip. I wanted to hear local professors and executives describe what it is like to do business in Europe, Asia and Latin America. That learning is invaluable.”

EMBA boot camp

Elsewhere, the shift in emphasis has led to the teaching of leadership in more imaginative, if not downright, quirky ways.

One of Europe’s highest ranked schools, HEC Paris, now offers EMBA students the opportunity to take part in a no-holds barred ‘boot camp’ run by instructors from the French navy’s elite commando unit.

For one participant, AT&T vice president, Nicolas Lemoine, it is an experience he is unlikely to forget in a hurry.

“They really put us through our paces. Getting us to crawl through sewer pipes, kayak at sea at night, learn unarmed combat techniques, undertake hikes in the pitch dark without maps or compasses – you name it, they threw it at us. By the end of the course we were all so tired that we were just dropping to the floor and passing out.”

Though such training might sound like a nightmare for many senior professionals, Lemoine insists the experience was a lot of fun and more importantly provided valuable lessons, both personally and professionally.

“It taught me what I am capable of when I am really pushed and that my physical and mental limits are a lot more robust than I thought. It also brought home just how important teamwork can be. What we were able to achieve as a group under very difficult conditions was much more than any individual could have.”

Shakespearian touch

Less adventurous EMBA candidates might prefer the approach of Warwick Business School in the UK, which puts its students into the hands of actors and theatre directors, rather than the military.

The CAPITAL Centre, a joint venture with the Royal Shakespeare Company, uses theatre workshop techniques to promote better use of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, the soft skills that are so important in business such as teamwork, sociability, self-esteem, and self-management.

Dr Nicholas Monk of the centre admits that for some students being asked to act out a concept like leadership can be something of a challenge.

“Because this is so different to what they are used to we always have some participants who think we are just messing around,” he says. “But then we will also have others who say that this was precisely why they came to business school in the first place – to look at things in a different way. About 10 percent will hate it and another 10 percent feel ambivalent to it but the rest really benefit from the experience.”

Thinking outside the box

Across the Atlantic at the Desautels Faculty of Canada’s McGill University, Dr Nancy Adler uses painting rather than theatre to get students thinking ‘outside the box’.

A highly-respected and widely-collected artist herself, Adler encourages unorthodox approaches to commercial problems by introducing business professionals to revolutionary art movements such as cubism and encouraging them to look at the world from a very different perspective.

“Of course art doesn’t serve up answers to specific business problems on a plate,” she says. “But what it can do is get you to step back, reflect and come up with your own solutions, solutions that are often beyond the constraints of accepted practice.”

And if you really want your EMBA to help you with work-life balance, you will need to head further south to the executive MBA at New York’s Fordham University.

Taking the view business education needs to address much holistic needs than the ability to read a balance sheet or manage a marketing campaign, the University includes a ‘Wellness Program’ in the course designed to ‘enhance body, mind and soul’. Participants can therefore expect to supplement finance and management classes with sessions on yoga, meditation, nutrition and self-awareness.

Not just developing your inner leader, but perhaps your inner yogi too.

Matt Symonds is founder of SymondsGSB and author of the business school guide, “Getting the MBA Admissions Edge”. You can follow more of his business education coverage on Twitter and on his blog.