Executive MBA, Is It Worth It?

With passing time, the Executive MBA has gained a lot of popularity, both from corporate employees and employers. A majority view the degree as a critical business investment. Meanwhile, many companies are beginning to track the benefits of the programs as part of a larger strategy to manage talent.

According to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal, a full 64% of respondents said sponsoring or allowing employees to attend E.M.B.A. programs was a way to retain talent. And many employers get a quick return on investment. One-quarter of the companies surveyed said they see tangible results immediately from employers who are stronger managers and leaders after completing an E.M.B.A.; another quarter of companies said they see results within a year.

Why do employers prefer Executive MBA?

It is true that all types of companies today are hoarding in fresh MBA graduates from numerous institutions. At the same time, they are all warming up for the executive degree. Companies encourage their high-potential employees, who are typically young and can easily meet criteria for full-time M.B.A. programs, to keep working for their company and to earn a business degree later in an executive program.

“We don’t want them to go away for two years,” says Leif Meneke, a vice president of human-resources development at Deutsche Bank. A major reason why companies are ready to sponsor the Executive MBA program is that they want to retain their talent and they fear they might lose their employees if they move on to attend a two-year full-time program.

Many Executive MBA programs now want employees to continue working and at the same time, take a few days off each month to attend lectures. This proves beneficial to both employees and employers.

Also, there are companies who believe that by allowing employees to mingle with top-flight professors and classmates from a wide range of industries and functions, the MBA degree on the whole provides a varied perspective which is needed in this era of change.

According to The Wall Street Journal’s corporate survey, the following are the most wanted skills an Executive MBA should address:

1. Strategic thinking and planning

2. Ability to work across different domains

3. Ability to drive results

4. General leadership

5. Core financial understanding

Since the students in these Executive MBA programs come with a lot of experience in their hands, they are able to relate to many real-world business issues in a much better way. Even schools have won additional praise from companies for bringing real and current business issues into the classroom.

The reason why this program is growing in popularity each year is because successful Executive MBA graduates strongly support these programs and as they climb the ladder, they encourage other to pursue the same.

According to the WSJ survey, the following are some schools that performed the best job of imparting immediately applicable skills according to students (arranged alphabetically):

1. Columbia University

2. Columbia-London Business School (Global Program)

3. Cornell University (Johnson)

4. Northwestern University (Kellogg)

5. University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)

6. university of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

7. University of Southern California (Marshall)

Conclusion

If you are among those who have a considerable amount of work experience and want to improve their business expertise, an Executive MBA is definitely more worth than quitting your job and pursuing a full-time program. A foreign MBA does not come cheap. Hence, it can’t get any better if your company is ready to sponsor.