In preparation for research that I am conducting on executive education, I have spoken to a large number of business schools over the last couple of months. I am happily surprised with the kinds of learning they are offering and the strategic nature of the work they are doing with their clients.
No longer pure open-enrollment, research-based education that is facilitated by “know-it-all” professors and supported with case studies from the 1980’s; these schools are rethinking their approach to highly effective learning to meet the needs and expectations of their corporate clients. As stated by the executive director of executive education at Northeastern University College of Business, “Business schools must learn to walk a fine line between having the research in their back pocket and then using that to be helpful to a company… Buyers are getting more sophisticated, requiring universities to become more like consultants.”
At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Chicago Executive Institute is a six week program that spans a one year period. Unlike the legacy model designed as a one-size-fits-all lock-step approach that takes everyone through the same curriculum, this program is created with a modular design. As described by the schools executive director of executive education, “The speed of business is rapid and people have diverse needs and diverse backgrounds. To compensate for these differences, three of the six weeks are core content and three are elective.” With this design, a CFO, for example, does not spend time on remedial finance courses. Instead he/she may elect courses that are focused on things like operations, marketing and leadership.
Indiana University’s Kelley Executive Partners (KEP) offers high tech solutions to learning. The kinds of technology that they use include Second Life, Google Apps, Google Groups, Twitter, YouTube, GPS, iPod Touches, handheld video cameras and alternate reality games. For example, a consumer marketing company needed help to understand how to best market to a demographic that is 14 to 25 years in age. In addition to achieving this business objective, they also wanted to reinvigorate collaborative practices as a work team. KEP developed an alternate reality game where the plot lines are possible, but not true. The game engaged the students in fictional story, blogs, twitter, GPS, iPod, Skype and other modalities that were necessary to accomplish the goals of the game. The participants were using the technology to learn about the technology which enabled them to achieve two outcomes:
Too see an example of Second Life by KEP, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-9YuiGp0M
At the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler the focus is on experiential learning. Their goal is to take executives out of what they would typically expect and out of their comfort zone. For example, they created a program focused on driving a culture of innovation. As part of the participants’ experience, teams were brought to meet with companies outside of their industry. They spent time with these other large organizations that have been highly successful at creating a culture of innovation to learn about how they do it. Following these meetings, a facilitated debrief session is conducted with the teams to share the learning and how to apply it in their own industry and company.
We will be publishing an in-depth report on executive education and the business school market in late Q4. Stay tuned…