Going global – a new breed of executive MBA

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BY Matt Symonds

The world’s top full-time MBA programs have enjoyed several years of rising applicant numbers, fuelled by the struggling economy and strong international demand, notably from Asia. But with an improving global jobs market, many schools are now seeing a fall in full-time MBA applications. However, what may be bad news for one part of the business school portfolio, is likely to be good news for another.

With no need to sacrifice your job, the Executive MBA is looking like a sound investment for seasoned managers with an eye on a place in the C-suite. The most recent survey conducted by the Executive MBA Council reported a 3 per cent increase in enquiries on the previous year. Despite one or two notable exceptions (the Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB are yet to offer an EMBA course) it appears that schools around the world have been taking note, and placing international expansion and global business practice at the top of the executive agenda.

Trium, a Global Executive MBA programme run jointly by NYU-Stern school, HEC Paris and the London School of Economics, is celebrating its tenth anniversary by adding a second cohort in 2012. “We are now expanding this program because both the need and the value of having a global perspective have increased in the intervening decade,” explains Bernard Ramanantsoa, Dean of HEC Paris. “The program integrates international economic, political and social policy into the business curriculum, which are aspects often neglected in traditional business curricula yet are widely accepted as critical to successful global business.”

More companies are also turning to business schools to help develop managers who can lead teams in a global business environment, and consider programs such as OneMBA, a partnership of five leading schools on four continents, as part of their institutional training platform. For Craig James, a Global Controls Advisor at ExxonMobil, the Global Management and Leadership course on the OneMBA program, helped strengthen his cultural awareness, and enabled him to more effectively manage global work teams.  “I took what I learned on the weekends and applied it on Monday mornings.  My OneMBA global study team was a mirror image of my global team at work.”



Another benefit of the modular delivery format favored by the new wave of executive MBA programs is that distance from the campus is no longer an issue. The University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School recently launched its own EMBA and is already welcoming students from far beyond its UK location. The program brings students together once a month, supported by a virtual learning platform, and has meant that students in the first class include a VP from the Walt Disney Company, who makes the monthly commute from Los Angeles.

At first glance therefore it may appear that the global learning initiative has been seized by European schools. Spanish school IESE has recently announced a new EMBA programme based in Sao Paulo, to help develop executives across Latin America. The London Business School now offers it’s Global EMBA in both London and Dubai, as well as a joint programme with the Columbia Business School and Hong Kong University, while rival school INSEAD has further expanded its global footprint, adding an Abu Dhabi campus to existing EMBA options in Fontainebleau and Singapore. In addition to Trium, French Grande Ecole, HEC Paris offers no less than five locations for their executive MBA, in Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, St. Petersburg and Doha in Qatar. The school ensures that all participants follow the same core curriculum and receive the same fundamental content, regardless of where they enrol. Pierre Dussauge, academic director of the EMBA, says the benefit of this is clear. “Our aim is to build a strong participant network across all five locations. If a participant is based in France, but completes a module in China, Russia or Qatar, he or she will be able to build a network of peers around the world.”

But US business schools are determined not to be left behind. The Darden school at the University of Virginia launches its GEMBA in August this year with a clear aim to bring students to the five key markets they feel will figure most prominently in shaping business in the coming century: China, India, Brazil, the US and Europe. Maureen Wellen, Assistant Dean of the Global EMBA Programme at Darden confirms that the program was driven by clear demand from the market, “We asked a lot of people around the world and there was definitely an appetite for the school’s expertise globally – especially from people who were unable to come to Darden for the two-year residential program. Also, it’s clear that students in both the US and abroad want to attain a level of global literacy that most traditional programs simply cannot offer.”

The school’s dean, Bob Bruner, adds to this sentiment. He recently chaired a report by the AACSB accrediting body entitled The Globalisation of Management Education, which suggested that the trend for global programmes is only going to continue on an upward curve. He says, “Business schools have been slow to react to the growing importance executives place on international experience. The rate of globalisation is only going to increase and it will be a disruptive force for which many more managers need to prepare.”

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What Great Entrepreneurs Have In Common?

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By Drew Hansen Prime Movers

Image via Wikipedia What does it take to be a great artist?

Richard Russo evokes this question near the end of his 2007 novel, Bridge of Sighs. In it, he chronicles Lou Lynch, Jr. (Lucy) and his friend Bobby Marconi, who grew up together in a small town in upstate New York. The two friends couldn’t be more different. In sixty years, Lucy has never left his hometown, but Bobby on the other hand, leaves as soon as he graduates high school, fleeing Thomaston never to return. He eventually becomes a world-famous artist and lives the rest of his life in Venice. After Bobby passes away, a reporter interviews Lucy to learn more about his friend’s childhood.

On Saturdays, the two friends took turns surfing in the back of Lou Sr.’s milk truck. The thrill came when the truck, turning unexpectedly, caused one or the other to lose his balance and crash into the side.  Unlike Lucy, who braced himself before turns, Bobby let go and even shut his eyes. In Lucy’s words, “Bobby wanted what was coming down the road to be a surprise, even if it meant he got hurt.”

In my previous post, I explained that entrepreneurs are similar to artists because they’re outsiders. In my opinion, Bobby’s behavior represents a willingness to be vulnerable, another trait that entrepreneurs and artists have in common.



Anthony Tjan, founder of the VC firm Cue Ball, calls vulnerability the defining trait of great entrepreneurs. He describes it this way:

Active vulnerability comes from engaging in a contemplated risk that considers and hopes for the payoff, financial or otherwise, that will be worth the effort. Active vulnerability is in essence proactive and informed risk-taking.

I describe entrepreneurial vulnerability differently.

An entrepreneur’s work, like that of an artist, is a form of self-expression. When painting, an artist injects her canvas with her beliefs and values — knowingly or unknowingly — and the completed painting becomes an extension of herself. Likewise, when an entrepreneur founds a company, she imbues it with her opinion of how the world ought to be. It, too, springs from her deepest yearnings, making it unique and personal. There is no guarantee that the audience or market will accept her work. Vulnerability, then, is the willingness to reveal one’s true self and risk misunderstanding, ridicule, and even rejection.

At the core of human experience is a longing to be accepted. Some people, to satisfy this innate desire, conform to the norms around them, but in the process, compromise a part of themselves. Other people, the misfits, resist the temptation to fit in and remain true to themselves. As exhausting and demoralizing as it can be, the misfits’ willingness to defy norms gives life its nuance and beauty.

Dan Pallotta explains where this strength comes from:

To embrace the misfit in oneself is to be vulnerable. It is to forsake the easy acceptance that comes with fitting in and to instead be fortified by a kind of love, really. A love of life, a love of wonder, and, ultimately, a sustaining love for oneself. Far from egoism, that love for oneself is a measure of one’s love for others, for humanity. And it is only from love that great ideas can be born.

The greatest artists, entrepreneurs, and leaders don’t seek acceptance. Instead, their love and compassion fuel a yearning to make a ding in the universe and persevere despite rejection.

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Form rather than substance, government functions!

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Cut the frills, make it simple

On The Beat By WONG CHUN WAI, Sunday Star

Form rather than substance seems to be our hallmark when it comes to government functions.

I CAN never understand why government agencies have to spend huge amounts of money on uniforms every time they launch a campaign. They seem to love having the attire and the VIP invited to open the function is also asked to wear it.

Normally short-sleeved shirts or T-shirts, the uniforms often feature some logos and if the function is a dinner, silk batik attire is also thrown in. A cap or a beret, which seems to be fashionable now, is added.

I am not sure if the uniforms are meant to symbolise single-mindedness or unity to meet some objectives or if it is just a need to use up the budget.

It’s understandable if these uniforms are meant to be used again and again but, unfortunately for taxpayers, they tend to be made specifically for one occasion.

In some cases, more money is spent to engage an event management company to stage a dramatic or theatrical launch which would probably last only 10 minutes.

Then there would be the customary presentation of a token of appreciation, which everyone seems to receive. Sometimes even the organiser himself gets a gift.

At one point, there was a suggestion that local fruits should replace the tacky pewter or metal plaque tokens but the idea never caught on. So, the VIP receives the memento which would most probably end up in a dusty corner of the office.



And in true Malaysian hospitality, refreshment is then served, and this sometimes ends with a buffet meal.
Even those arrested during the Bersih 2.0 demonstration recently were treated to a buffet. Only in Malaysia. Presumably, Malaysians expect a buffet during any event.

Most public functions start around 10am and end shortly before lunch, which means that after having our famous jamuan teh, we then all go for another round of food, this time lunch.

If the function begins at 3pm, it should end before 5pm with a jamuan teh. By the time we all get home, it’s already time for dinner.

And don’t forget the door gift which you receive with a “Thank you for coming and we hope to see you again soon” as you leave the hall. It has become so common that no civil servant would want to put a stop to such waste of money.

It isn’t just about money but also the loss of productivity as meetings have to be held to organise such functions. There would be endless hours chasing after the aide of a VIP to confirm his attendance and, of course, the entire staff of a ministry or agency would be held up as they have to make up the crowd.

I guess it will be difficult to convince our government officials to keep the functions simple and short. Form rather than substance seems to matter more, unfortunately.

It does not matter if it is a Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat event. Both seem to have the same mind-set and wastage.

So it came as no surprise when the Sultan of Selangor, known for his no-frills principle, snubbed a Yayasan Selangor event to commemorate its 40th anniversary last year. The bill for the celebration ran up to RM996,472 for the entire event, with RM387,232 allocated for lunch, which then had to be cancelled. Another RM200,000 was allocated for souvenirs and clothes. Uniforms, presumably.

Malaysians are sure such wastage is not just confined to Selangor but that it also occurs in other states, and the amount spent could be even more.

Not too long ago, when the issue of preventing wastage cropped up, there were suggestions that government agencies should stop holding their functions in expensive hotels. Well, the bad news is that lobbying from the hotels was so strong, the government finally dropped the idea altogether.

Many hotels were alarmed as their revenue would be hit if the local sector – meaning the government – did not hold their meetings and functions in their premises.

And what many civil servants will not tell us is that for such out-of-base, meaning out of their offices, seminars, retreats, brainstorming or whatever excuse for an event one can think up, allowances also need to be paid for those attending them.

We long for the day when politicians would just walk straight into the hall (why the need for a holding room?); a short opening remark is made by the host; the speech (not a lecture please); the VIP to declare the event opened without performing any gimmick; and for the VIP to then leave the place after the customary handshakes. Everyone should then just go back to work.

Just one gentle reminder to the VIP before we end this week’s column: Could you please be punctual for the function? We are busy people, too. And thank you so much for coming, it’s an honour, Yang Berhormat.