Executive MBA - Program Features

Is This Program Right for Me?

We approach executive business education with the conviction that leadership can be taught, and the experience to know how to do it. Our EMBA is focused on the things that matter to those ascending to senior leadership roles. Students learn from an enterprise-wide perspective, approaching critical disciplines—like strategy, finance, marketing, and accounting—from a leadership vantage point as tools for driving success. Faculty present these functional areas as supporting leadership activities. And students examine how the assets created in—and the products and services designed by—these fields enable leadership teams throughout an organization to function most effectively.

The EMBA classroom experience is a challenging and energizing one. Participants arrive with an average of 15 years' professional experience, and the Weatherhead model of classroom interaction allows faculty and students to share their knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, projects assigned across courses and disciplines enable students to apply what they have learned in their work environment to their scholastic undertakings.

The Weatherhead Executive MBA program is organized around four elements:

• Developing leadership skills at the levels of self, team, organization, and society
• The sociopolitical structures in which leadership is most needed—including government, the world economy, and the rapidly changing realm of technology.
• The language of business, with a special focus on how it is spoken in the boardroom.
• Achieving change in organizations by leading design-oriented teams.

These four pieces fit together to create a leadership package that the student executive cultivates in preparation for a more responsible and influential position in an existing organization, or to build a dynamic new one. Together, these skills help leaders act with confidence and decisiveness in the face of uncertainty.

Executive Coaching Component

Weatherhead's EMBA emphasizes a unique, personalized approach to learning, with a focus on self-awareness as the key to becoming an effective leader. Each candidate is assigned an executive coach who helps students take full advantage of their academic experience while providing guidance as they develop as individuals and leaders.

Application Project

Long a trademark of the Weatherhead EMBA program, the Application Project has been refreshed with a twist: It now integrates design practices in management education. Each student will spend a semester exploring his or her organization for a "design opportunity"—an opportunity to create value by deploying resources and capabilities in new ways. Students will assume leadership responsibility and, with the support of a team of peers in the program, execute a design project that generates return for the organization.

By choosing a project that presents a significant revenue-generating or cost-saving opportunity, past students have found that the financial return on the Application Project exceeded the cost of EMBA tuition 85% of the time.

International Study Experience

Every summer, the EMBA cohort travels abroad for ten days of immersive, hands-on learning guided by Weatherhead faculty and international professionals. Both in an academic setting and in the field, students gain a global perspective on fundamental business issues in the region selected for that year's Study Experience.