The executive MBA is a master in business administration for full-time employees who prefer to continue working and graduate within two years. It also offers the employer immediate benefits. Survey results show little understanding or appreciation of this practical form of graduate business education.
The executive MBA one of the fastest growing options in professional development. In the past five years an average of five new EMBA programs have been launched annually by schools including Cornell University, Columbia University and the London School of Economics and enrolment continues to rise.
According to the Executive MBA Council, a non-profit organization serving university-based executive MBA programs, approximately 5,000 full-time working professionals graduate each year from the 200 EMBA programs throughout the world. However, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, these graduates represent only 5% of MBAs conferred annually The EMBA is still overshadowed by traditional MBA programs despite its wide appeal to various disciplines and the practical hands on training it provides.
A recent survey by EMBA World, an organization for employees and employers on understanding the business school option, reveals confusion about the education, its value and the benefits it offers to companies. Here, we’ll try to rectify these misunderstandings.
Value of the EMBA for employers
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First, you achieve an immediate return on any investment as your employee brings to the workplace training in management, marketing and finance best practices; organizational behavior; leadership; and strategy. Second, the EMBA is designed to accommodate full-time employees while avoiding disruption both in the workplace and at home. The education and training also presents a phenomenal recruitment and retention benefit.
Educational and professional benefits of the executive MBA
- Corporate sponsorship can be used to recognize and reward exceptional performance and serve as a potent recruitment and retention tool.
- Using EMBA sponsorship as a reward, senior managers can create competition to motivate employees.
- The EMBA can be used as a tiebreaker when evaluating key employees and determining the appropriate career path.
- The Executive MBA is the most rigorous MBA an individual can earn. A senior level corporate officer must ask, “How is the competition grooming mid managers for the senior level? Are competitors sponsoring candidates for Executive MBAs and if so, am I being left behind?”
- The education creates networking opportunities that the savvy employer can treat as a recruitment pool for access to the best and brightest.
James Cecere, a graduate of Duke University Global Executive MBA, says: “JP Morgan Chase offers a tuition sponsorship program with a rigorous application process. I went into the EMBA with the backing of my colleagues, my boss and the president of JP Morgan Chase. It was an honor to represent my company in class and I continue to value JP Morgan Chase for sponsoring me.”
Common perceptions and misperceptions about the EMBA
It is an abbreviated MBA and we do not pay for non-accredited MBA programs.
The executive MBA is a fully-accredited two-year program that allows employees to work full-time and attend school. The curriculum is as rigorous, if not more so, than the traditional MBA with course work in accounting, organizational behavior, marketing and finance. Year two includes advanced levels of these courses plus intensive study in leadership, strategy, and practical consulting projects. NYU EMBA students traveled through Europe analyzing the airline industry; Georgetown students traveled to the United Kingdom to study the management of technology; and Fordham students went to China to advise computer giant Lenova on their global acquisitions.
Employers can appreciate the immediate application of the education. Practical, hands-on training and education in the classroom and the workplace makes for a rich and rewarding business education. This method is highly effective and more competitive than a traditional MBA which is a theoretical education geared to much younger, less experienced students.
Synthia Molina, CEO of Alternative Link, a small healthcare intelligence company in California, says: “I think the EMBA is an incredibly valuable degree. The candidate is someone with tremendous practical experience, the kind of experience I desire in those I hire. I also think the EMBA offers the company, along with the individual, a richer, more thorough perspective on the issues facing an organization in the internal and external environments. The EMBA attracts better candidates, retains better employees and results in better performance.”
Students must be fully sponsored financially by the firm in order to attend.
False. No schools require full, corporate financial sponsorship for acceptance to the executive MBA. Corporate cut backs in recent years are seeing more people financing part or all of their education. They see the benefit to their careers and are willing to take on the educational debt. According to Business Week Magazine, only about 20% of EMBA graduates are fully sponsored. Another 20% are fully self-sponsored while the rest pay through a combination of self and corporate financing.
Our benefits policy recognizes only the full- and part-time programs, not the EMBA.
There are no definitive responses on why the executive MBA is not specifically addressed in corporate benefits policies. It may be failure of management to address the issue or that, since many respondents reported being unfamiliar with the EMBA, it is disregarded when brought up by employees. A few respondents to a recent survey to gauge understanding of the EMBA said the prestige of such a program required significant organization.
There is excessive time demanded on the employee away from the office.
Class schedules and the number of class trips vary by program but should not exceed the equivalent of two to three weeks in one year — equivalent to most middle managers vacation time. Most students are willing to use vacation time for trips, particularly if their employers offer financial support. The school calendar is planned well before enrollment is completed so the calendar can be reviewed before making sponsorship decisions. Employers can also check with program administrators early in the candidate selection process to modify the calendar should there be a potential conflict. EMBA programs, however, endeavor to minimize travel during traditionally busy times such as during the accounting season from January to April.
What guarantees are there that the employee will continue to work for us?
The notion of flight upon graduation is a genuine concern but also an overused excuse for not supporting employees in the executive MBA. Some employers impose employee contracts from two to four years after graduation. Others avoid contracts because suing employees who don’t honor such agreements is not always good corporate policy. Others, claiming their hands are tied, simply avoid sponsorship even though they reimburse traditional full- and part-time programs.
It’s worth remembering that the executive MBA appeals to older students, many of whom have families, are sponsored by their employers and are on the fast track to executive status. While switching employers is always a possibility, it is actually less likely among this group. According to a salary survey conducted by the Financial Times, EMBA graduates reported significantly higher salaries: 73% higher pay in the year 2001 than when they enrolled back in 1996. The same survey group reported that a higher salary was achieved largely with the same employer. EMBA students may actually have more staying power than assumed and be more loyal to their employers.
Several innovative investment models show how employers can find ways of making education accessible while protecting their own interests. Some employers, for example, tie tuition to a backend hiring bonus while others use their commercial bank as a financial intermediary. For instance, a bank loan to the company would convert to a standard student loan if the employee chose to leave the company.
About the author
Jason A. Price, MS, MBA, is Director of EMBA World (www.embaworld.com), a New York City-based organization dedicated to helping employees and employers understand options concerning graduate level business education and in particular the executive MBA. He is author of
The Executive MBA: An Insider’s Guide for Working Professionals in Pursuit of Graduate Business Education. He can be reached at
jason@embaworld.com.