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Executive MBA on the rise

MBA News Barbara Barkhausen / 11-22-2010

Not even ten years ago the Executive MBA (EMBA) world was quite different from today. Multi-school, multi-campus programs were rare, their development even endangered when - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 - travelling on international routes became less desirable. Despite those poor beginnings the EMBA programs have grown strongly ever since. The Financial Times reports that between 2001 and 2010 the number of courses in its league table has doubled, from 50 in the original classification to 100 in 2010.

Nowadays it is those multi-campus programs and studying at more than one business school in different countries that are in rising demand. The 2010 Financial Times rating for Executive MBAs has ranked several of those programs highly (see ranking below).

The Executive MBA Programme

Executive MBA programs aim at managers who want to develop their career further. They are similar to traditional MBAs but differ in their schedules, rigidity of curriculum and networking opportunities. Executive MBA students take most classes with the same set of students to be able to establish business contacts with managers at different career levels and from different companies.

The Wall Street Journal Survey 2010 underlined the importance of networking as 35% of the participants said their top reason to do an EMBA was to switch careers or industries. Only 29% said they were seeking a promotion within their current company. Originally, the latter reason has been the main motivation for attending an EMBA programme.

Differences between a "normal" MBA and an EMBA

1.      Experience needed: An EMBA targets managers that have been in a supervising role for at least 5 to 10 years. Participants are therefore older and more experienced.

2.      More restricted schedule: As the participants are mostly working in managing positions, classes take normally place on weekends and fridays.

3.      Corporate Tuition Support: If a company sees enough benefit, it might sponsor a manager's EMBA. This is an important factor as EMBAs can be significantly more expensive than traditional MBA programs.

Top Schools for EMBA programs

In the following list MBA Channel compares the EMBA rankings of the top 10 Executive Programs listed in Business Week, Financial Times and the Wallstreet Journal. Highlighted are the two top performers mentioned in all three publications.

Ranking	Business Week	Financial Times	Wallstreet Journal
1	Northwestern University (Kellogg), USA	Joint programme from: Northwestern University (Kellogg), USA Hong Kong UST Business School, China	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), USA
2	University of Chicago (Booth), USA	Joint programme from: Columbia Business School, USA London Business School, U.K.	Washington University (Olin), USA
3	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), USA	Trium - joint programme from: HEC Paris, France LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), U.K. New York University (Stern), USA	Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA
4	Columbia Business School, USA	Insead, France / Singapore / U.A.E.	University of Southern California (Marshall), USA
5	University of Southern California (Marshall), USA	University of Chicago (Booth), USA	Northwestern University (Kellogg), USA
6	IE Business School, Spain	London Business School, U.K.	University of Notre Dame (Mendoza), USA
7	University of Michigan (Ross), USA	IE Business School, Spain	New York University (Stern), USA
8	UCLA, USA	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), USA	Johnson Cornell University, USA
9	Southern Methodist University (Cox), USA	Duke University (Fuqua), USA	Columbia Business School, USA
10	Duke University (Fuqua), USA	Chinese University of Hong Kong, China	UNC Kenan-Flagler, USA