Why the EMBA is a smart investment

After the Ferrari and the  Rolex, is an Executive  MBA (EMBA) the  final accessory for  the person who has  everything? While a standard MBA has  always called for students to have deep  pockets, a sympathetic bank manager or  even more supportive families, the cost  of the executive version has traditionally  been covered by a candidate’s employer.  But over the past few years, more and  more EMBA participants have chosen to  take on the financial burden themselves,  either because of corporate cost-cutting or  the career freedom that paying direct gives  them once the programme is over.

Most of these individuals still fit the  standard EMBA profile – experienced  managers and professionals looking for  a leg-up to the board or partnership.  However, with others the reasons for  deciding to stump up fees well in excess  of €40,000 are altogether less clear. Which  prompts questions about whether the  EMBA has become yet another accessory  for the wealthy, alongside the cars, the  baubles and the apartment in Mayfair or  the 16th Arrondissement.

At first sight one might wonder why  Rena Sindi, for example, should bother  investing a sizeable chunk of time and  cash in studying for an Executive MBA at  Cambridge University’s Judge Business  School. As the daughter of Nemir Kirdar,  the billionaire founder of investment  firm Investcorp, she used to be one of  Manhattan’s ‘beautiful people’, later  assuming a similar role at the heart  of London’s social scene.

As someone who is certainly no  stranger to the finer things in life, and  with a thriving business promoting the  launches of luxury goods, what could  possibly motivate Sindi to return to long  hours poring over books and sitting in  lecture theatres? Never content to be a  ‘lady who lunches’, she has always run  her own businesses, first in New York  and now in London. But while confident about her softer skills, Sindi felt that she needed to  sharpen her grasp of the numbers if she wanted  to take a business to the next level. “The Judge  EMBA allowed me to do this, even though I have  no real background in accounting and finance,” she  explains.“And its one-weekend-per-month approach  works much better for me than having to commit to  large blocks of time, as I have two children that I want  to be around as much as possible.”

Given that Kathy Magliato is one of the world’s top  female heart surgeons and a published author, the  casual observer might also ask what possible reason  she might have for taking on the extra commitment  of an EMBA programme. But this is exactly what  she did when she joined the class at UCLA Anderson  in California while pregnant with her  second child. For Magliato, the motivation  was to add a business perspective to her  skillset. “It’s been like a springboard for  the mind,” she says.” I approach problems  differently now and I honestly think  it’s changed my life.”

It’s a view mirrored by Alan Cohen,  who was mayor of Ithaca in New York  state before opting for the discipline of  formal business training and international  exposure, taking an Executive MBA at one  of the highly rated schools, HEC Paris.

“The programme has opened my eyes  to new possibilities, and given me the  broader perspective to be able to operate  on a truly global stage,” he says.

Of course, the quality of life isn’t just  measured by financial considerations or  professional achievement. For Jim Perry  – vice president of Affordable Care, a  nationwide dental practice based in North  Carolina – it’s family, and particularly his  three young daughters, who come first.  But that hasn’t stopped him taking the  OneMBA executive programme run jointly  by schools in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, the  Netherlands and Hong Kong.

“I’m up at four every morning to study  before going to the office, which means  I’m pretty tired all the time and just don’t  have the time that I used to have to spend  with the girls,” he says. “In effect I’ve had  to put my life on hold for a couple of  years, but I’m convinced that it’s the right  decision. If I’m going to achieve what  I think I’m capable of, then I need the  knowledge, experience and contacts this  programme will give me. And that’s not  for me, it’s for my family, so the long-term  gain is worth the short-term pain.”

SHARING THE  REWARDS

Everyone had reason to celebrate when the winner of the  Zayed Future Energy Prize, supported by CNBC, was named

The old phrase “everyone’s  a winner” – beloved by  award-ceremony hosts  – was actually true at the  2011 Zayed Future Energy  Prize (ZFEP). Scooping the  $1.5m award, the Danish  wind-turbine behemoth Vestas generated  gasps by announcing that the world’s  largest renewable energy prize pot would  not be cashed in Denmark. On taking  to the podium to collect the award from  the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh  Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vestas  chief executive Ditlev Engel declared  that the money would be distributed in a  number of directions.

Half the prize money, said Engel, will  go to WindMade, a new NGO created  by Vestas and including such partners  as the UN Global Compact, WWF,  the Global Wind Energy Council and  PricewaterhouseCoopers. The remainder  of the cash prize was donated to Vestas’  fellow [non-financially rewarded] finalists.

So while the runners-up – Amory B  Lovins, the sustainable-development  guru and founder of the Rocky Mountain  Institute, and the clean-energy investor  E+Co – each received $350,000, much-  needed funds will also go to three other  parties: Bunker Roy’s Barefoot College,  created to train women in rural areas  to install solar energy, First Solar, a  nascent US firm, and Terry Tamminen,  the policy virtuoso at Seventh Generation  Advisors and the real environmental  power behind former Governor of  California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“We quickly agreed that we should  seize this opportunity to extend the  impact of the prize through redistributing  the cash, otherwise none of these  outstanding colleagues would have been  rewarded financially,” Engel explained. “I  thought it would be both a strong signal  and very useful, too. I did attach one  firm condition, though: they must spend  the money to support their own further  development within renewable energy.”

The gesture was immediately  applauded by ZFEP director general  Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who said: “This  exemplifies that Vestas understands the  vision and mission of the prize.”

In its third year, ZFEP received 391  official submissions (a 30% increase on  last year) and 959 third-party nominations  from 69 countries. The award’s panel  of judges, helmed by the chair of the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change, Rajendra Kumar Pachauri,  featured luminaries such as Ólafur Ragnar  Grímsson (President of Iceland), Khaled  Irani (Jordan’s minister of energy and  mineral resources), Lord Foster (founder  of Foster & Partners), Lord Browne  (managing director of Riverside Holdings),  and Susan Hockfield (president of the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

“Vestas clearly stood out for a number  of reasons, and most importantly, for  dynamically changing wind-energy  technology, something that requires  imagination, vision and dedication,”  says Pachauri. “Innovation doesn’t come  about through a flash in the pan – it  is something that requires enormous   perseverance, clarity of purpose, efforts  and resources.”

This year’s ZFEP was very much about  rewarding long-term achievement rather  than emergent potential. Since baking  its first turbine blade in “someone’s  oven” more than 30 years ago, Vestas has  pursued a future where wind power forms  part of a mainstream energy triumvirate  with oil and gas. Last year the company’s  turnover stood at a healthy €6.6bn,  despite harsh global markets, and today  more than 41,000 Vestas onshore and  offshore turbines, in 65 countries and five  continents, generate 60 million MWh  of energy each year. In 2009 alone, the  turbines it produced and shipped saved  163 million tonnes of CO2 from entering  the atmosphere – enough, it claims,  to more than offset the United Arab  Emirates’ 2006 emissions.

Engel says Vestas is constantly looking  to break new ground. For example, he  says its cost-effective new V112-3.0MW  turbine unlocks previously inaccessible  wind resources by efficiently tapping into  low and medium wind-speed sites. At  locations with an average wind speed of  7m/s, the V112-3.0MW produces power  at an average cost 2% lower than a typical  wind turbine on the market. At 8m/s, that  saving rises to 4% below average.

Vestas has also used its leadership to  further the progress of the industry at  every opportunity, whether it is through  advising on legislation in Ghana, the  Netherlands and Jordan, or by sharing  its wind-training solutions with the  world at large, an initiative that has so far  reached 70,000 external pupils, volunteers,  policymakers and other influences.