EDP Curriculum
The curriculum for the Executive Development Program has been created to meet the needs of middle-management executives. Some 60 percent of the curriculum is designed to cover a broad range of functional areas in order to sharpen general management skills and expose participants to areas of management in which they may have limited experience. The remaining 40 percent of the curriculum is designed to enhance each participant's strategic thinking, leadership, and interpersonal skills in order to help them be more effective leaders and change agents. Below are brief descriptions of some of the topics covered in a typical Executive Development Program.
STRATEGIC ORIENTATION IN BUSINESS BASICS
Accounting
The accounting sessions aim to demystify financial statements and reporting enough to enable you to ask the right questions about the numbers. You will examine the interrelationship of financial statements and how individual transactions impact these statements. You will also explore the key conceptual underpinnings of corporate financial reports and their impact on financial statements. Finally, you will identify, apply, and link strategies for evaluating earnings and cash flows to value creation. In the end, you will have a clearer understanding of corporate disclosures and non-disclosures and the circumstances in which companies take advantage of allowable income-increasing strategies.
Finance
This component will familiarize you with both the frame of reference used by financial officers and the problems encountered in finance. The three principal areas that will be covered are cash-flow analysis, capital budgeting allocation decisions, and capital structure analysis. Other topics include models for evaluating investment alternatives and the ranking of investment projects.
Marketing
Our Kellogg School marketing faculty will share insights into how marketing is changing in the new millennium and how marketers must change with it. This module addresses the marketing-related challenges faced by mid- to senior-level executives and is designed to provide the concepts and tools needed to deliver improved operating results. This module assumes familiarity with basic marketing principles.
Operations
This section focuses on the strategic role of operations to enable improvement and financial success. It provides a systemic view of an organization as a collection of business flows that suggests appropriate performance metrics and facilitates the identification of potential improvement targets. The emphasis is on linking operational and financial flows in the setting of daily management, as well as strategic capacity investment and operational hedging considerations.
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL TOPICS
• Strategy and Strategic Implementation
The Fundamentals of Strategy and Competitive Advantage Positioning and Fit
Collectively, these two courses teach you how to create value and profit in a competitive environment by thinking strategically about the strengths and vulnerabilities of your operating units and companies. You will address the nature of the markets in which your companies operate and the competition and rivalry within these markets. You will then cover how to find your core competencies and how to maximize these resources in order to grow the top line.
• Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
Team Building
Group simulations are used in this unit to increase your understanding of human behavior within organizations. You will have the opportunity to develop your problem-solving skills to better manage individuals and groups. Topics to be covered include team building, the new leadership challenge, and continuous learning in an organization.
Cross-Cutlural Negotiations
This course not only provides basic business negotiation skills but also provides useful frameworks to negotiate in a global environment. Professionals in all fields constantly deal with conflict and disputes. This unit introduces some of the new ideas and techniques for managing negotiations that are emerging from the field of dispute resolution. While the negotiating approach that is presented is used in all situations, the unit emphasizes negotiating within organizations and negotiating group decisions.
Decision Making
Decision making is the core of a leader’s job. This highly interactive module challenges participants to deal with decision making under risk. The most common decision-making pitfalls are exposed and leaders are encouraged to identify these biases in others and to design groups to be more vigilant decision makers.
Power and Politics
Effective management and leadership in organizations requires that managers be comfortable developing and utilizing their organizational power. This unit introduces theory and applications on the political capital model for building, leveraging, and deploying power in and between organizations. Case analysis and film will be used to develop strategies and skills for managing with political capital.
Building Social Capital & Leading Organizational Change
Learn the theory and practical implications of social capital – who you know. Learn how to maximize your effectiveness through the relationships you have in your organization. You will apply the concept of social capital in a computer simulation involving how to gain buy-in and commitment in leading change.
BUSINESS TRENDS AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
Several courses will be taught on new topics that managers and leaders need to be aware of to help poise their organizations for the future. These topics change on a regular basis to keep of current trends. Sample courses include: Meeting Expectations of the Nanosecond Culture; Service Marketing; and Competing in the Networked Economy, Marketing and Emerging Markets” |
