EMBAs gaining popularity in globalising world

Ginn Fung: What insights did you gain about EMBA programmes from your latest Student Exit Benchmarking Survey?

Michael Desiderio: One of the things we like to mention when we’re talking about EMBAs is who is sitting in the classroom. It’s something that differentiates an EMBA from other MBA programmes. Full-time MBA students are usually much younger than EMBA students, and have less work experience. The professor at the front of the room is still important, but so is the sharing that goes on among the folks in the class. The people in the classroom are part of what makes an EMBA valuable. There are also some statistics concerning salaries in the survey.  On average, people get a 16.8 per cent raise after taking the course. That doesn’t mean everybody is getting a raise, as it’s an average salary increase taken from 2,300 students. It speaks to the value of the degree.

GF: What is the benefit of studying for an EMBA?

MD: Put the salary increases and promotions aside for a moment. They are tangible, but there is also something bigger, which is the result of bring together anything from 40 to 60 people. When you go into an EMBA programme, you are often in a very diverse group. We put marketing executives, executives from non-profits, technology executives, publishers, all in the same room. We immerse them in an environment and hand them a business case to work through together. Our alumni have told us this is not something you can do anywhere else. It has an extreme value. At the other end of the spectrum, some programmes are hyper-focused on a specific market. For instance, there is a programme in the US that’s fully focused on the wine industry.  These kind of programmes work because some people are looking for something in a very narrow niche.