The majority of EMBA graduates agreed that the degree makes a significant impact on their career graph.
Executive MBA aims at providing business professionals with the skills and knowledge to succeed in ever-changing business markets and to identify and grab opportunities anywhere in the world.
EMBA enables professionals to navigate cultural differences, evolve with changing business environments, and adapt rapidly to the shifting needs of global business.
- How does an EMBA help up-skill working professionals?
An Executive MBA (EMBA) is a generalist management qualification that has the goal to develop strong comprehensive managerial competence. The sole purpose is to provide a manifesto of knowledge, skills, and competencies to help craft future leaders.
Intertwined with all this are both career acceleration and career reshaping; the ability to speed up a manager’s career trajectory as well as grab the transforming career opportunities as they come along.
For example, moving from a Corporate career in the Private Sector to starting up a business venture and then scaling it up to a substantial size. Of course, everyone’s context and career are different but the inherent generalist nature of an EMBA should enable a value-adding career no matter what a person does and whom he/she works for.
- What is the scope for EMBA in India and abroad?
The EMBA remains a very popular master qualification in India as well as globally. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has seen a move to Online learning and students have been requesting a learning platform that mimics being in the physical classroom.
For those Business Schools who have been able to ‘deliver’ in this regard, the future looks bright.
- How is EMBA different from an MBA course? Advantages of EMBA
Within the EMBA the emphasis is upon the ‘E’ i.e. Executive and Engagement. EMBA students bring many years of work experience in the interactive classroom and learn from each other as well as Faculty.
More generally, learning takes place within a very applied context and assessments including projects can be employer/ organization specific. Within an EMBA there is an emphasis upon the ‘big three’ courses of Leadership, Strategy, and Change Management.
- How an EMBA professional benefit the employer?
The student’s employer will benefit in many ways. Firstly, from having an ‘enhanced’ human resource given that the student will be able to continually transfer the newly developed knowledge, skills, and competencies back to the workplace.
Secondly, the organization will benefit from the generalist approach students now bring when analyzing business problems and recommending solutions. Thirdly, the applied assessments including projects may be organization-specific and could deliver both quantitative and qualitative value.
Fourthly, the student may take up more senior Leadership positions within the organization and therefore will be of on-going strategic value.
- Top three skills that candidates garner through the course which can be implemented in their jobs.
It would be wrong to think of an EMBA as delivering just a top 3 skills. Rather it is an all-round master’s degree and professional development course over 18-24 months. However, as you have put me on the ‘spot’, I would like to highlight the following as being particularly important:
Strategic Thinking: This is the ability to think outside the box and question the existing business surmise about say an organization’s business model. This incorporates learning to ask the right question(s).
For instance, how might block-chain technology and the IoT derange the industry where an organization currently competes?
Business Acumen: Leadership is about making judgment calls and business decisions often within contexts where there are much ambiguity and uncertainty. Consequently, probabilities may need to be calculated about different strategic options and their likelihood of success.
Leaders must use a mix of facts based analysis and intuition when making big bet strategic conclusions. This is where having an EMBA definitely helps.
Cross-Functional Problem Solving: A generalist manager must wear many ‘hats’ when determining a decision. These different ‘hats’ include Accounting, Finance, Marketing, HR, and Strategy.
Therefore, students become more effective in stakeholder engagement. This will also help important strategic choices to be made quicker and more effectively.
The author Dr. Gary Stockport is Dean EMBA and Professor Strategy at SP Jain School of Global Management. He is based at the Dubai campus.
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