Wendy Lai, executive programme manager at the Asia-Pacific Institute of the School of Business at Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: 'If programmes are open to the public, it's difficult to address the needs of each particular participant. Some concerns are more important to some groups than to others.'

According to Michael Pitfield, international business director at the Henley Management College, the trend began about 10 years ago. 'Custom programmes meet the specific needs of increasingly sophisticated clients for executive development built in partnership between the school and the company to meet specific objectives related to business strategy,' Mr Pitfield said.

Henley's custom programmes are taught by experts in their respective fields. Participants can gain access to the latest research and the most contemporary ideas.

Mary Mok Tam May-yee, director of executive programmes in Asia at the Richard Ivey School of Business, said there was a trend towards customised and consortium programmes in recent years. She cited various advantages, including their ability to accelerate the development of leadership talent when compared with programmes that accepted all comers.

Combining five to eight companies could 'generate both scale and scope benefits'.

Ms Mok said: 'Partner companies share in the costs of programme design, materials, course delivery and administration. Through close links with other leading firms, participants are exposed to practices and innovative ideas from a range of companies.

'By limiting the size of the consortium, each company has an important voice in design, development and evaluation ... As five or six companies send small groups of participants [usually five to eight people], the consortium provides many of the in-house networking and shared learning advantages of custom programmes.'

Market response was highly encouraging. 'We are also seeing an increasing trend in new customers and repeat customers requesting customised programmes,' she said.

'Companies are keen to invest in custom programmes tailored to company issues, industry dynamics and competitive strategy. Custom programmes pay off when critical masses of people within a company, with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, share similar concepts, frameworks, terminologies, knowledge and approaches to tackling business challenges.'

There are downsides. One is that a large group of people are absent from the office at the same time. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. An important one is cost.

The School of Continuing Education's Business Research Centre at the Hong Kong Baptist University has had customised executive development programmes for four years.

Participants are drawn locally and from the mainland. They usually run 30 to 48 hours and can be completed in three months.

Acting centre director Vivienne Luk said: 'If you have a group of people, we can tailor a course to your needs.'