Executives at the top of their careers must stay in step with the market’s most important currency-information. Whether it’s updating business knowledge, understanding the latest market trends, gaining perspectives on innovation, or implementing new ideas, executive training remains the best source of new and insightful information.
And today executive education has evolved to include an arsenal that reaches way ?beyond teaching processes. The hard nuts-and-bolts skills such as accounting and finance remain a prominent feature of most programs, but what sets schools apart today is how these skills are taught. Cultivating leadership, strengthening ethics, and developing acumen is fast becoming the new standard as more companies are focusing on the development of human capital.
“[We believe] core values such as integrity, the ability to lead people, to foster diversity, and to build confidence are vital to success as a leader and critical to success at Aetna,” says Leslie Ashford, head of executive education at Aetna Inc. “It’s answering the question: How do you engage people and lead them to ‘success'”
Today’s schools offer a wide range of concentrations-and flexibility featuring a mixture of open enrollment and customized programs. Open enrollment programs maintain the traditional classroom, requiring participants to be on-site for classes, while other schools create customized programs for companies that hire them to train ?employees in-house.
“In the last few years, the emphasis has been on teaching company managers how to deal with their specific issues and problems,” says Carol Newcomb, executive director of ?executive education for the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. “We focus on ?under-standing the companies’ markets, challenges, and opportunities first and then, based on this knowledge, design a program that will address the competencies [that] managers need to be successful.”
Our list presents 10 of the most exciting and innovative programs available.
Machelle MacAdory
Positioning Herself for Leadership
“There has been a shift, and anyone out in the job market sees it,” Machelle MacAdory says. “You need to be technically sound in any job. But leadership and ingenuity wrapped around the technical skills are now the price of entry.” MacAdory, a 20-year veteran of the auto industry, is the vice president of human resources and administrative services at Chrysler Financial in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Throughout her career, she has been diligent about keeping abreast of the changes in her industry.
When MacAdory attended the 10-day training program for HR executives at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Management, the field of human resources was undergoing considerable structural change. A field that had traditionally viewed its role as transactional, mediating between management and the talent it employs, was transforming into the role of a business-consulting partner, working to achieve the organization’s objectives.
“All my experience had been in the automotive industry, and I wanted to go [where] there was a true focus on the discipline of HR,” she explains. “U of M has a great relationship with the auto industry and I thought it would be a great tie-in to get some real practical experience.”
She adds that being an alum of the school or having an M.B.A. held little value or influence in being considered to attend the program: “It was more about your experience than the degree you brought to the table.”For MacAdory, the most important element of the program was learning with a group of students that represented a vast array of perspectives. “The broader the diversity of backgrounds and experiences and types of companies, the more you have an opportunity to learn how things are done or not done at other companies,” she explains. “You’re gathering information to take your professional contribution to the next level.”
Another significant benefit of the training was that MacAdory could be at the forefront of innovations in her field instead of learning by trial and error on the job. She was prepared to face the transition from transactions-based human resources to a more consulting-based business model.
Last October, MacAdory attended a global managers program at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. This program gathers executives from around the world to discuss the dynamics of managing multinational companies. As companies continue to flatten their organizational models, the greatest evidence of an executive’s professional value is the ability to partner with functional areas of the enterprise to bridge people, processes, technology, and information to develop performance that reaches the organization’s objectives.
“The world of business is so rapidly evolving from day to day,” she says. “What we now look for is leadership and the ability to manage through chaos and ambiguity.”
Ron Grant
Refining His Business Skills
Ron Grant had launched several businesses before starting ?Starpoint Investments L.L.C., the company he now owns in Atlanta. A Wharton M.B.A. grad, Grant updates his masters with executive courses he’s taken at the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, and the University of Chicago. “Because business school gives you a broad foundation in several different areas,” offers Grant, “you’ve got to go back to take what I call niche-specific courses to refine your skills in a ?subject area.”
A believer in the tenet that education is an investment, Grant has taken more than six training courses since acquiring his M.B.A. in 2005. These courses include studies in mergers and ?acquisitions and finance management at Wharton, and a management certificate and executive development program at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. “Once you’ve gotten that education or skill set, it will never lose its value because you’ve learned a new technique and way of thinking [to add to] your war chest as you deal in the business world. If you’re going to play the game, it’s good to have the same insider knowledge that [others] have. If you have the same skill set, it levels the playing field.”
At Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, Grant took classes in the basics of options, futures and derivatives, finance for ?executives, and fundamentals of investing. Grant says he chose the school because of its international emphasis and its Chicago location, which draws a globally diverse crowd as an
important commodities market center. “You want to be among your peers coming from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean,” says Grant. “[Their] ideas can only broaden your knowledge base and you develop a [worldview].”This class also gave Grant immediate insight to the options and futures market, he remarks, which had an immediate impact on his bottom line.
“When I came back, I was able to fine-tune my [commodities] trading. When you don’t know something, it takes you a longer time to grasp what’s going on. I was [taking] the long way to get from point A to point B,” he says. “My trades are more profitable now because I have a better understanding of the inner workings of the futures market. Before, I would put on a trade that was not a necessary trade. Now I can go in and put a trade that will be a more profitable trade.”
Grant’s sights are set on the Chicago Executive I?nstitute being held next month at the school. The last three courses he’s taken at the school will count as electives in the program, composed of six one-week sessions taken over the course of 12 months.
“Being away from the office for a week or two actually clears your head and gives you an opportunity to look at something with new eyes. One of the things about the Graduate School of
Business is being able to put into play Day 1 when you return to your organization.”
| COST | DATES | CONTACT | PROGRAM | SCHOOL | DESCRIPTION |
| University of California Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management | Entertainment and Media Executive Program | Five-day program for managers and executives in music, film, gaming, Internet, and television addressing convergence and the creation of effective business models | $6,250 | June 17–20 | www.execed. anderson. ucla.edu (310) 825-2001 |
| University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business | Implementing Innovation and Change | For the upper-level and mid-level executive overseeing people, processes, or technology—three areas that are always in flux | $7,250 | Sept. 22–26 | (312) 464-8722 www.chicago exec.net |
| Columbia University, Graduate School of Business | Pricing to Win: Strategy and Tactics | Four-day program designed for mid-level and upper-level executives in product management, marketing, and sales to address effective pricing strategies that measure customers’ behavior toward products | 6,000 | May 6–9 Sept. 23–26 | $ (212) 854-3395 www.gsb. columbia .edu/ execeed |
| University of Virginia, Darden School of Business | Leading Organic Growth: Growing a Business From Within | Explores new ways of thinking, behaving, and leading; companies are encouraged to send groups of up to five participants | $6,900 | March 30–April 4 Sept. 21–26 | (877) 833-3974 (434) 924-3000 www.darden.edu |
| The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business | Lean Training Manager Certificate Program | Ideal programs for mid- to top-level executives, participants complete a non-consecutive; four-week training and mentoring program as well as a certification exam | $15,000 | March 3–7 | (614) 292-8574 fisher.osu.edu/ programs/ executive education |
| Harvard University, Harvard Business School | Achieving Breakthrough Service | For executives in the service, retail, and manufacturing industries, this course looks at how to create a service-oriented organization; preference is given to groups from the same firm | $10,500 | Nov. 9–14 | (800) HBS-5577 (617-495-6555) www.exed@hbs.edu |
| Howard University Continuing Education | Simultaneous Interpretation Certificate Program | Trains multilingual executives to serve as corporate and government interpreters: participants must be at least bilingual | Feb. 26–May 26 on Tuesdays and Thursdays | $4,400 | (301) 608-4112 www.con-ed.howard.edu |
| Rice University, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management | Rice-Ernst & Young Certificate of Management in Energy | Courses specific to the energy industry from petroleum to renewable energy and a menu of electives tackling cross-cultural negotiation for global executives | $11,595 | Jan. 23–May 8 | (713) 348-4323 www.jonesgsm.rice.edu |
| Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management | The Soul of Leadership | For senior-level executives, this three-day course provides a framework for understanding the leader as the soul of an organization | May 21–23 Oct. 1–3 | $3,500 | (847)467-7000 www. kellogg. northwestern.edu/ execed |
| Stanford University, Graduate School of Business | Executive Program for Women Leaders | Program confronts the issues of team effectiveness, social networks, and influence, among others | May 12–16 | $8,700 | (650) 723-3341www.gsb. stanford.edu.exed |