Recent studies have shown that an increasing number of European senior executives are opting to take time to sharpen the saw via executive education; their primary motive being the expeditious ability to guarantee themselves better positions in a growingly competitive business world, and to a certain extent, as a way of shaping the downturn into an opportunity to seek new leadership skills, refresh their strategic vision, and to acquire new frameworks that can be applied to their business today.

An unraveling economy or not, the idea of executive education has long been gaining momentum as the definitive and logical solution to anybody wishing to develop deeper insights and understanding into successful business management. However, not everyone has a year or two to devote to a full-time MBA program.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business in California offer a six-week advance management program; entitled the Stanford Executive Program, which has been tailor-made for the needs of senior executives throughout all types of global corporations. The program sees participants embark on a comprehensive academic curriculum which covers all the relevant aspects of general management, empowering participants with the right set of tools and the knowledge required to assess ambiguous market and non-market environments, set productive strategies and effectively manage execution globally.

Consistently ranked as one of the world’s best business schools, with three Nobel Prize winners on the faculty, and key figures in the world of business and economics having taught there, including Peter Henry, one of US President Barack Obama's top economic advisors; Stanford is certainly honouring their commitment to providing instruction of the highest standards, and on delivering the necessary resources for those wishing to see greater consummation from their managerial decisions.

However, world-class instructors are not the be all and end all of the six week program. With over one hundred leading executives from around the world residing on the Stanford campus throughout the duration of the program (nearly 60% of attendees reside and work outside of North America, while 30% come from Europe), there is ample opportunity to network with fellow global managers. In addition, Stanford’s location in Silicon Valley brings a perfect opportunity to interact with and examine many of the world’s most innovative organizations.

With other shorter programs on offering, from Strategic Marketing Management, to Leadership, Innovation and Wealth Management programs, all relevant areas of business management and strategy are well administered for at Stanford, but it is not just the content and the delivery of the programs that define what benefits one might receive by choosing Stanford. More importantly, the results procured by the application of the Stanford methods have proved tried and tested in the business world.

In 2006, Stanford alumnus Phil Knight, Founder and Chairman of Nike, Inc.,donated $105 million - at the time thelargest gift to any business school.This money provided the down payment for a new business school campus that will provide a collaborative learning forum for both working executives and MBA students. Moreover, when completed in 2010-2011, the campus of eight buildings around three quadrangles is expected to achieve the highest level LEED Platinum certification for environmental sustainability from the U.S.Green Building Council.

Whilst this may arguably be a token of appreciation for Knight's time at Stanford, where he conceived his business plan, the message is clear; the art of business is not always learnt out in the field, but sometimes most expediently in the classroom.

 

 

By Erik Ritchie
Director of Marketing
Office of Executive Education
Stanford Graduate School of Business
518 Memorial Way
Stanford, CA 94305-5015

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