Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Professor Bettina Bchel and former IMD Research Fellow, Don Antunes (October, 2007)
IMD Chemin de Bellerive 23 PO Box 915, CH-1001 Lausanne Switzerland Tel: +41 21 618 01 11 Fax: +41 21 618 07 07 info@imd.ch http://www.imd.ch
Companies are increasingly recognizing executive education as a crucial tool for developing their managers, the underlying assumption being that it can improve managerial decisionmaking by creating and transmitting knowledge, which in turn has a positive impact on company performance. Collaboration with outsiders such as business schools, consultants, coaches and trainers has the potential to impact organizational performance but needs to be wisely employed. To ensure success, leading executive education providers have to meet high expectations and need to excel in faculty recruitment and development, in the design of programs as well as in the creation of cutting-edge research that can be used to support the delivery. To be a competitive player in this arena, a provider needs to produce real-world impact for those involved. Four themes emerged from a recent series of interviews recently conducted with individuals representing companies (Allianz Group, Hitachi Group and Tetra Pak) with extensive experience in executive education, as well as leading business schools and consulting firms venturing into the executive education arena (Wharton, Columbia, McKinsey, Mercer Consulting and Monitor Executive Education). The purpose of these interviews was to capture the views of users and providers on the Executive Education landscape.
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An increase in the motivation level of executives was also raised as another reason for using executive education. After attending a program, executives may be more energized to return to work with new ideas. In addition, by meeting people they do not normally interact with, executives can expand and revitalize their personal business networks. Social network researchers have long argued that the density of executives networks and their ability to act as a bridge to others outside the department or organization have a direct influence on individual, and over time, company performance.
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Professor Bchel is Director of the Strategic Leadership for Women (SL) and the Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) programs.
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RELATED PROGRAMS
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