Why An EMBA is Worth the Investment

The EMBA remains an instrument of choice for both applicants and employers, ensuring personal and professional development and enhanced corporate performance.

Targeted at senior managers and younger executives on a fast-track managerial career, the Executive MBA has been the growth area of management education in recent years. Until 2008, demand had consistently risen and a number of business schools have launched, or are in the process of launching, new programs: Cambridge Judge, Georgetown/ESADE, George Washington, HEC, Hong Kong University/Columbia/London Business School, SKOLKOVO, Swiss Finance Institute, Thunderbird, to name but a few. With alliances or strategic academic partnerships, business schools are catering to an increasingly savvy, demanding and internationally mobile audience.

Sustained demand

Current economic turmoil has had a direct effect on executive programs due to expected training budget cuts and decreasing corporate sponsorship. However, the smartest corporations will continue to invest in in-house talent to foster innovative thinking and, most importantly, leadership and decisionmaking skills. Such skills are vital to effectively, and efficiently, manage in complex and unstable environments. EMBA professors stress the importance of acquiring the ‘helicopter view’ - learning to see things in the larger perspective.

As a result, programs have a stronger focus on CSR and ethical business practices, innovation and strategy, as well as leadership and soft skills. Rebecca Brown, MBA Marketing Manager at Ashridge Business School says: “Our latest intake contains over 80% company sponsored participants, so there still seems to be a strong case for the value an EMBA can bring during crunch times. It may be seen as a cost-effective means of benefiting from ongoing ‘consultancy’.” Other programs have seen a sharp rise in interest from entrepreneurs or small and medium enterprise (SME) executives. Hannelore Forssbohm, Program Manager of the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA believes that an EMBA is a sound investment, now more than ever.

“Applicants want to be prepared for new job challenges and imminent changes,” she says. If anything, the quality of candidates is on the rise, as in tough economic times, only the most serious and motivated candidates will jump over the financial hurdles to see their EMBA project through.

In effect, the benefits of an EMBA program are felt immediately as participants continue to work full time and focus on their careers, bringing back new skills and knowledge that they put to use as they go through the program. Moreover, case-studies and group work often require participants to share and collectively reflect on personal experiences. This means that a problem is analysed from different angles, with the eyes of executives from diverse industries, functions and cultures. As Arnold Longboy, Director of Executive Education and Student Recruitment at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Europe) says: “It’s like having 87 free consultants looking at a problem – not to mention the expert professors!”

The smartest executives will use the recession as a chance for introspection and reassessment of their careers as well as the general direction their lives are taking. “The credit crunch will force everyone to really focus on reinventing themselves and this, in and of itself, will make all prospective and current students more well-rounded and in the end more employable. The goal of each program should be to allow each participant to think in an entirely new way in regard to business opportunities, markets, value, strategy and innovation,” says Fordham’s Francis Petit, Assistant Dean and Director of Executive Programs.

Back to basics part 1 – EMBA what, how, when?

The Executive MBA is a fully-fledged MBA program for experienced managers who are either already in top positions in their organizations or aspiring top managers. Most EMBA programs require participants to have a minimum of five to six years of managerial experience; EMBA classes often have age ranges of 30 – 50+ years. The rich diversity of crossfunctional and cross-industry experience in the classroom, in addition to the expert professors, are key benefits of EMBA programs. Participants gain insight from the wide and varied experience of their classmates, not to mention the invaluable networking opportunities.

Executive MBA programs are designed to fit the needs and schedules of working professionals; they are not part time programs, but rather intense programs compressed into reduced time-frames. Course delivery formats vary, so it is essential for candidates to anticipate how they will manage their absences, putting into place support systems, both at work and at home. Delegation is key as is getting buy-in from one’s company, colleagues and family. This support is vital to an individual’s success in an EMBA program and will ultimately help alleviate the stress generated from an intense schedule. All program recruiters emphasize the necessity of a sound support foundation, especially for women. Many programs have special women’s mentoring groups encouraging women to discuss the EMBA experience before embarking on a program. “We’ve found that it’s useful to connect female applicants with current female participants who are in a similar situation, so they can discuss the pros and cons of enrolling on an EMBA whilst juggling work and family commitments,” says Rachel Waites, Associate Director of Corporate and Student Recruitment, University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Europe). Women participants often report that it is particularly helpful to know that other women have successfully faced the EMBA challenge, whilst caring for their families and being just as active on the career front. Knowing that someone has been through such a demanding effort - and survived - puts everything into perspective, making that highly sought after EMBA qualification seem more achievable.

Global programs are en vogue, with an increasing number of dual/joint programs delivering courses in week-long modular segments. This is expected to attract participants from both a regional and international level, adding to diversity and international exposure. Gustavo Vasconcellos, Finance, Treasure and Planning Manager at Drogaria Araujo S.A. in Brazil was a participant of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School’s modular EMBA. “While living in Brazil, Emory’s modular EMBA best fit my needs. The group online discussion during the distance learning part of the modular format made me feel as if I were in the classroom. I was impressed at how I was able to finish my MBA in a top-ranked school living so far away.“

As more and more EMBA participants cross frontiers, online tutorials, groupware, simulations and virtual group assignments all play an important role in the learning model. Participants benefit from top-of-the-scale online platforms that they use not only to prepare courses, follow e-modules or participate in online discussions, but also to keep in touch with each other and program staff. At IESE Business School, a large proportion of participants on the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program are living in a country that is not their country of origin. Brook Hardwick, Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing for the IESE GEMBA program says: “For them, technology is crucial to enable them to work remotely very quickly, and extrapolate the EMBA model into their professional lives.”

EMBA participants from non-business backgrounds greatly benefit from pre-EMBA modules that introduce them to the different core courses, whilst others find it useful to refresh their memories on certain subjects. In this way, the class discussions are rich and focus more on real in-company challenges that participants face on a daily basis – a fundamental difference to full time MBA programs that by definition have younger, less experienced participants.

Back to basics part 2 – why EMBA?

What is the driver that has sustained the demand for the Executive MBA? After all, the program requires a considerable investment of time and money from both employer and employee. For IESE Business School’s EMBA alumna Ana Paula Reis, General Manager at Selplus, a company specialising in sales management services, the impact of the program was felt immediately. “I am amazed at how much I learnt in the first week alone. It has changed my view on business and the way I look at the world. I’m making some changes to my company as a result. It is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had – seriously.”

Participants walk away from each class with immediately applicable skills and knowledge, as well as a holistic approach to understanding and solving business problems. Professionals and experts from other industry sectors also gain from the general management skills reaped from the EMBA experience. As Dr Patricia Geller, EMEA Development Manager for Abbott GMBH explains: “Coming from medicine and natural science, the program helped me to get the theoretical background to match my responsibilities as a manager in an international biotech company. The heterogeneous international class and professors broadened my view of cultural aspects in business and helped me to develop personally.”

Health professionals, public sector executives, as well as participants from NGOs, SMEs, family-run businesses and entrepreneurs are adding to the diversity of today’s EMBA classrooms, enriching the cohort experience. More and more EMBA programs are also trying to attract women by modifying course delivery, for example. HEC Executive MBA in Paris illustrates one such initiative by developing a special format specifically designed to accommodate the “Executive Mum”: classes meet one day per week and online learning plays an important role over the 18-month program. Bernadette Conraths, Director of the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA, says the school is looking into creating a family option for the program’s weekend modules. Spouses and children will be able to accompany participants, driving the family buy-in component even further by giving them the opportunity to become a part of the EMBA experience.

Class experience and networking opportunities also play an important role for EMBA participants. Alumni continue to benefit from the networks they forge years after graduation, some even going as far as setting up companies or working on business ventures together. As Kellogg-WHU alumni Pierre-Yves Rahari, VP, Head of Shareholder Services, PIMCO Europe Ltd, puts it: “As an alumni, you continue to receive the benefits of the Kellogg alumni network for a lifetime. I feel that the network has really opened doors for me.” At ESCP Europe, alumni can sign up for post-MBA electives to continue to refresh and improve their management skills throughout their entire professional life and make contacts with current participants.

For the majority of Executive MBA participants, the intense schedule is just part of the trade-off that sees them able to earn more and move ahead, without interrupting their careers. Behind the growing level of selffunding lies the fact that career development and financial returns can be significant.

The Executive MBA Council’s latest survey results show that students’ salaries rose from US$117,617 to US$144,361 upon completion of the program (23%). Meanwhile, 39% of graduating EMBA participants are expecting a promotion, whilst 43% actually received a promotion during the program. So it seems that as long as there are individuals seeking to invest in themselves, redesign their careers, confront their limits and push their boundaries, the EMBA is here to stay, crisis or no crisis.