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IE Business School Launches New Global Executive MBA

New program takes participants to the US, Brazil, Spain and China, and uses latest technology to foster discussions between students across the globe

By  Harriet Murdoch

Tue Oct 4 2011

BusinessBecause
BusinessBecause caught up with David Bach, IE Business School’s Dean of Programs, to find out more about the launch of the School's Global Executive MBA.

This is the “version 2.0 of our existing international executive MBA”, he says. So, how does it differ from version 1.0?

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The Global Executive MBA uses a "blended methodology", says Bach. "We combine the best of face-to-face learning experience in conventional classrooms with some very sophisticated online learning.” The participants will spend face-to-face time in Madrid, Shanghai, Providence, Rhode Island and Sao Paolo.

“There is so much growth and dynamism in Asia, and Shanghai continues to be the cradle of all this, there are many other booming cities but Shanghai is really the centre of business in China.

"Via that face-to-face period in China we are exploring the dynamics of Asia and growth in Asia with classes led by IE faculty and Chinese professors from Fudan University as well as local business experts.”

Brown university is the reason for the time spent in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is a strategic partner to IE. “Through that partnership we can bring content into the EMBA that ordinarily wouldn’t be in a program like this, to really round the experience.

"Brown is a leader in the liberal arts so we are going to be drawing on the expertise of Brown faculty in psychology, political economy, art and creativity.”

“Sao Paolo, Brazil is very much about emerging markets, commodities, and the process of modernization that is happening in Brazil. Brazil is in many ways exemplary of a whole range of emerging economies.”

The online element to the Global Executive MBA is an interactive learning platform. The same professors who teach in the face-to-face modules teach online. “It is impossible for anyone to really fall behind. Everyone that starts a program like this ends up finishing it because they are engaged the entire time.”

The careers service for Global Executive MBA students is built to provide long-term support as well as providing instant career answers; “Quite a few participants will use this program one way or another to foster their career, either by advancing faster in their companies or making the switch. Each group is assigned a career counselor who works with participants to look at profile, ambitions, strengths and goals."

"There is a part of the curriculum which is all about teaching people to manage their own careers."

"All of our graduates have life-long career services. Maybe right now you are very happy in your job but who knows five years from now what you will want to do?!”

Women make up 30 to 35% of the programme and Bach says they are working hard to reach 50%, “perhaps even 60%”. The programme lends itself to the particularly busy agendas of female executives especially if they are combining family and work because it requires fairly little time away from the office or from home because a lot of it is in these "blended interactions.”

People on the program have interesting backgrounds, with students from the military, medical doctors and even pilots who are taking on managerial positions within airlines. Back says the program "attracts diversity, which makes for a rich learning experience."

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