Curriculum

Innovative Executive MBA Curriculum Renowned World-Wide

Bringing together the best educators in the world with the most promising managers in the region, IEDC’s Executive MBA Programs prepare you to successfully manage business in a fast-changing international environment:

• by providing you with a solid foundation in core management disciplines and helping you recognize and leverage interdependencies between different functional areas;
• by developing your ability to deal with global uncertainties and capitalize on rapidly-emerging opportunities;
• by translating and adopting the best global knowledge to the unique realities of a particular region and industry;
• by pinpointing and fostering the attitudes and traits required for effective leadership;
• by utilizing art to foster creative thinking and innovative decision-making, and
• by enhancing your team-building and interpersonal skills.

The professors employ a stimulating variety of teaching methodologies including formal lectures, case studies, team and individual presentations, role-play and negotiations, action learning, and discussions. The program uses a pragmatic and result-oriented philosophy. You will work on consulting projects and assignments related to general management, building on the knowledge and skills learned in the formal courses.

Courses

The IEDC curriculum includes three types of courses: functional courses, strategic and integrative courses, and personal and interpersonal skills courses. All courses, even the functional course, share a common general management perspective, providing you with the ”view from the top” of an organization, and preparing you for the uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change that mark the reality of a typical executive.

Functional	Strategic & Integrative
Accounting and Control Financial Management Leading Through People Management of Information Technology Marketing Management Operations Management  Electives	Arts and Leadership Business and Society Business Ethics & Corporate Governance International Political Economy Leading Self and Others Strategic Management Strategic Management Toolbox

FUNCTIONAL COURSES

Accounting and Control focuses on effective measurement of organizational performance, and helps participants become intelligent users of accounting information for decision-making. Topics include reading financial statements, financial accounting and reporting, capital investment decisions, cost management systems, management control systems, and new management accounting.

Financial Management provides participants with the understanding and tools necessary for financial management. Course topics may include profit decomposition, bank lending practices, financial ratio analysis, financial health assessment, financial forecasting, break-even analysis, business planning, discounted cash flow analysis, capital expenditure analysis, introduction to valuation, debt policy, corporate strategy and financial performance, dividend and capital structure policies, leveraged buyouts, financial restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions.

Leading Through People provides participants with an understanding of emerging people issues and gives them the tools required to respond to those issues. Topics include managing the human relations function, building a corporate culture, selecting and hiring personnel, developing talent, compensating and motivating employees, building human capital, managing for high performance and the role of human resource management in change processes.

Management of Information Technology introduces the participant to the effective use of information technology in business and management. This course cuts across the various functions of the organization and positions information technology as part of the strategic infrastructure enabling overall business success. Both the internally- and the externally-focused roles of IT are addressed, the former including management information, corporate resource planning, communications, and operation streamlining, and the latter, sales and marketing  issues in particular (B2B and B2C).

Marketing Management, Part 1 & 2, gives participants an analytical framework for the marketing discipline and provides them with powerful marketing tools. Topics may include marketing mix, consumer market analysis and segmentation, brand positioning and repositioning, basic principles of pricing, the development and implementation of distribution policies, private labels, marketing communication policies, advertising and promotion, and preparation of marketing budgets for brands. These topics are later taken as a starting point for addressing more complex strategic marketing business issues.

Operations Management discusses another perspective on the organization: its sum of processes with the clear goal of performance maximization. A broad range of topics include operational strategy, material planning and control systems, demand chain management, outsourcing and strategic sourcing, management of constraints, virtual organizations, and the elements of lean manufacturing and quality. The course includes, as a prerequisite for transformation competence, modern project management methods: planning and coordination, fending risk and uncertainty, project stakeholder management, new organizational structures and learning from projects. Although it requires greater effort, project-based activity is being adopted by more and more companies at the expense of perfected but rigid processes, procedures and structures. The current business environment requires constant change, which entails the need to manage projects. A trendy profession by itself, Project Management is becoming a critical component of every manager’s toolbox.

STRATEGIC AND INTEGRATIVE COURSES

The Arts and Leadership course is a collection of lectures and discussions with prominent artists and thinkers. The objective of this course is to raise awareness among participants of the arts as a source of reflection, inspiration and motivation for management and creative leadership, as well as to offer fascinating parallels between the worlds of the arts and business.

The Business and Society course overviews strategies for effective business and society relationships, with a specific focus on sustainable business strategy as a means of assuring sustainable long-term value creation for business and society. This class reviews approaches and frameworks regarding business-in-society strategy, offers fundamentals of business sustainability, suggests tools and mechanisms for creating sustainable value, and presents the most interesting cases of sustainable business development worldwide.

Business Ethics and Corporate Governance teaches participants how to maintain ethical standards, and how to apply principles of corporate governance. In addition to other leadership topics addressed in various courses throughout the Program, this course includes ethics in relation to an organization’s stakeholders, rules and codes governing the relationship between an organization and its stakeholders, and ethical challenges faced by business leaders engaged in leading business transformations.

International Political Economy introduces participants to the workings of the global economic, social and political environment in which businesses operate. Topics discussed include the role of government in the economy, price stability, full employment, economic growth, monetary policy in theory and in reality, influence and behavior of central banks and currency boards, competition policy and regulation in order to paint “the big picture” of the international business arena, which has become a very complex and uncertain place.

Leading Self and Others offers a different way of viewing the issues of managing and leading: the Leadership Point of View, which means seeing a situation in all its scope & complexity from the perspective of a person who wishes make a difference by understanding the underlying forces that affect a situation so as to act effectively.

Strategic Management introduces participants to the theory and practice of achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Topics include formulating and implementing a competitive strategy, strategy paradoxes, competition and collaboration, market positioning and the competences required, managing growth, strategic coordination and adapting to a changing environment, and corporate transformation.

Strategic Management Toolbox equips participants with the frameworks and tools needed for various forms of strategic analysis. In particular, participants learn how to analyze a certain industry, how the business environment impacts strategic thinking and what issues should be taken into account when leading for sustainable competitive advantage. This is complemented with techniques which facilitate better understanding of the internal situation in a company. Practices used by professional consultants are observed, making the participants more effective in their EMBA project work.

ELECTIVES

Electives Week offers an opportunity for each participant to choose two courses out of a list of five to seven options, and spend more time with a topic they most are interested in. Traditionally, electives cover in-depth study of foundational courses, such as finances or marketing, or topics of strategic interests that might be interesting to a particular group, such as entrepreneurship or organizational design.

 

PERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

The Experienced Leaders’ Mentorship Program allows you to harvest the years of practical business experience of top managers in Central and Eastern Europe via individual face-to-face mentoring sessions organized throughout the MBA program. Each participant is matched with a mentor with relevant interests, industry background, and expertise to accelerate his/her personal development.

Leadership Skills workshops focus on practical issues related to leading others and oneself. Therefore they deal with topics such as the essentials of team effectiveness, team dynamics, team roles, and stages of team development. They also address the need to adjust personal leadership style to different situations, as well as make the participants more aware of the need to understand and manage own priorities.

The Management Communications and Psychological Aspects of Communication course is based on three interrelated themes: structuring effective communications, in particular presentations as streams of messages; the need and ability to persuade the audience; and the use of management communication as a crisis resolution tool. In order to be successful and effective in this area the relevant psychology of human behavior is also explored.

Personal development sessions are dedicated to individuals’ personal development over the whole program. Scheduled at the beginning and towards the end of the program, they are designed to serve as points of reference in assessing and reflecting on one’s own current leadership and managerial practices, and offer support in designing a plan to build on strengths and overcome weaknesses.

Art & Leadership

High speed, ever-changing circumstances, and constant demand for new solutions define business reality today. Experience and professional knowledge alone are not enough to face these challenges successfully. To constantly adapt and respond to business demands, we need a deeper source of inspiration. IEDC uses art as a platform for leadership development: it inspires exploration and enhancement of the sources of personal inspiration and creativity. At IEDC you will work with artists who are able to transmit lessons of creative leadership through art. By making artistic experiences relevant, you will be invited to think more deeply and thereby open new creative channels for innovation in an era of rapid change.

Project Work

Project work is a cornerstone of IEDC’s Executive MBA Programs and plays an important role in the learning process.

As a part of your Executive MBA Program, you will work in teams as consultants to the top management of selected client organizations, providing real value to them. The objectives of this project work are to enhance the practical side of the learning process, to internalize managerial concepts, and to develop creative and applicable solutions.

Applying recently-acquired management concepts and skills, you will conduct the project in several stages with the ultimate goal of providing an applicable solution to the organization. The project work typically starts with a systematic analysis of the industry and of the company itself, to determine its competitive positions and identify priorities and areas of possible improvement. You will focus on one particular strategic issue, analyzed in depth, develop alternative solutions to the identified problems, and create a managerial implementation plan.

Extra-Curricular Activities

IEDC provides participants with the opportunity to attend many activities: career development sessions, guest lectures, sports activities, and social events.