FT Business Education

Executive MBA Ranking 2023

A pilot project:
start-up takes off
Airline captain turns
entrepreneur

Employers pull the

sponsorship plug
Shift to DIY funding
as support dries up

What AI means in
the real world
Artificial intelligence
on the curriculum

OCTOBER 202 3
FT.CO M/E M BA
 OCTOBER 2023

Editor
Jerry Andrews
Global education editor
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FT Business Education
Executive MBA Ranking 2023

A pilot project:
start-up takes off
Airline captain turns
entrepreneur

Employers pull the

sponsorship plug
Shift to DIY funding
as support dries up

What AI means in
the real world
Artificial intelligence

Charts show p16

on the curriculum

What the latest

OCTOBER 202 3
FT.CO M/E M BA data tells us
COVER: ZACK WITTMAN COLUMNS/ AI gets real p18
INSIDE AFTER
Contributors FEATURES Schools react to SCHOOL SCHOOL
Wai Kwen Chan Communities the revolution
editor, FT Project Publishing
Leo Cremonezi
Business education Editor’s letter p4 China puzzle p21 World apart p32 Technology p43
rankings manager
Why the EMBA’s The risky business Global study and Judging where AI
PHOTOS: RICK HOVIS; KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES; NOAH WILLMAN; BASF

Kate Hodge Freelance writer

Andrew Jack Global appeal is widening of ‘de-risking’ deglobalisation really matters
education editor
Seb Murray Freelance writer
Patricia Nilsson Frankfurt Introduction p6 Social impact p36 Free webinar p44
correspondent The top 25 schools Purposeful projects Sign up for online
Sam Stephens
and ranking analysis for future leaders EMBA conference
Quantitative analyst
Christopher S Tang THE 2023
Professor, UCLA
Siddharth Pilot project p10 RANKING Demobbed p38 Student tips p45
Venkataramakrishnan From airline captain Military veterans Alumni share what
Banking and fintech reporter
Ian Wylie
to tech start-up return to school they have learnt
Freelance writer Tables p23
Prashant Yadav
Affiliate professor, Insead Who pays? p14 The top providers, Teaching case p40 In real life p46
Employers’ cuts plus key, profiles Unlocking health in One man’s safari
FIND US ONLINE
FT.COM/EMBA
drive DIY funding and methodology poorer countries sustainability plan

3
COMMENT
EMBA appeal widens
despite funding and
geopolitical tensions
I
Andrew Jack f demand for the Masters in Business Administration
is the FT’s global is being weakened by the appeal of more junior
education editor
Masters in Management and even bachelor degrees, it
is also facing fresh competition from above: from the
Executive MBA.
While traditionally drawing from a pool of more
experienced, older managers than for the MBA, in some
business schools the EMBA is now also attracting more
youthful applicants who like the flexibility of part-
time programmes that allow them to continue to work
while studying.
Historically, the EMBA has been a way for those with
significant work experience, often in their late 30s, to
reflect, reskill and potentially consider a reset: whether
in their professional focus, via a promotion, a shift in
employer or sector, or even by launching a start-up.
That aspiration for change is double-edged. Employers
often funded promising current and future leaders on
their EMBA courses, as a way both to strengthen their
leadership capacity and to act as a means to retain their
most promising employees.
But there has been a significant trend in recent years
of employers cutting back on that financial support.
The latest FT survey of alumni from 100 of the leading
business schools shows a steadily rising pattern of self-
funding, with almost half reporting no corporate support
for their tuition. (See pages 14 and 16.)
That may, in part, reflect cost cutting during a period
of economic disruption, such as the recent restructuring
The degree is attracting more
youthful applicants who like the
flexibility of part-time study
4
in the tech sector: training often gets trimmed in
such times. Yet the shift appears to be part of a longer
term trend, and the FT survey shows that employers
may be right to be cautious: a significant number
of EMBA graduates report aspirations to quit their
current company.
This has not undermined demand, but providers say
it has put an ever greater burden on them to ensure
the EMBA — which is far from cheap — provides clear
value for money. That means a fresh focus not only on
new ways to teach existing themes, such as innovative
leadership, but also to add fresh insights on emerging
topics from sustainability to artificial intelligence
(see page 18).
In particular, for those at these more senior levels,
it also means business schools are placing fresh focus,
alongside group work and sharing experiences, on more
personalised, tailored executive coaching — a service
some schools now offer long after the programme has
come to an end.
Our latest FT ranking shows — at least for the leading
schools — that there is little doubt the qualification can
lead to a substantial increase in income, as well as a high
overall satisfaction, a strong alumni network and a range
of other benefits.
Despite fresh geopolitical tensions — notably between
the US and Europe on one hand and Russia and China on
the other — there is a strong appetite for international
perspectives among EMBA providers and their students
(see page 32).
That is reflected in the fact that many of the degrees
assessed for the ranking are offered across different
countries, sometimes through partnerships between
multiple schools: a way to offer exposure to different
working cultures and people around the world.
As one academic describes, deglobalisation is causing
many companies to rethink their supply chains and
notably to ease back on connections to China in favour of
“reshoring” or “friend-shoring”. Yet that can create new
difficulties and greater complexities (see page 21).
In our regular “caselet” for class discussion (page 40),
we highlight in the style of a teaching case study attempts
to reduce risks for companies trying to deliver health
innovations in low-income countries.
As always, our rankings are simply a starting
point: one of many sources of information for anyone
considering whether or where to study for an EMBA. This
year, we include more insights into the green credentials
of each business school’s operations, as a yardstick for
how far they are reflecting on climate change on their
own campuses.
Participation is voluntary, and schools must be
accredited by leading agencies, as well as having a
minimum class size and sufficient responses from alumni
to generate statistically significant insights.
We welcome your thoughts, both on current
insights and possible future changes to our rankings
methodology, as well as to trends and ideas about EMBAs
more broadly. Write to emba@ft.com
INTRODUCTION

Rank 1
Top again

Executive
Kellogg/HKUST tops the
table for the second year
running, in part due to the
high average salaries of
its alumni.

MBA
ranking
Rank 3
Abroad minded

France’s ESCP is ranked

highest for the proportion
of course hours taught

2023
overseas.

Traditional employer funding of senior

executives studying for EMBAs has fallen Rank 4
fast, but the allure of the international Experience counts
degree remains strong in the face of
weakening global ties. Andrew Jack The joint Trium EMBA
reports on what this year’s ranking tells us has the alumni with the
greatest work experience
pre-EMBA, based on
seniority, employer size
and overseas employment.

Rank 5
On target

Alumni of Oxford: Saïd

reported achieving the
highest proportion of their
aims for starting an EMBA.

6
 The Financial Times top 25 EMBAs in 2023 Rank 24
See pages 24-29 for the full ranking of 100 institutions Weighted
Salary rise
salary (US$)*

1 Kellogg/HKUST Business School 652,326 HKU’s alumni have the

highest salary increase, of
2 Ceibs 529,822 110 per cent, from before
the MBA to now.
3 ESCP Business School 324,261
Rank 17
4 Trium: HEC Paris/LSE/NYU: Stern 394,123 New insights
5 University of Oxford: Saïd 333,676
6 IE Business School 313,746 Chicago: Booth tops the
research rank, based on
7 HEC Paris 323,515 the volume of articles
published in selected
8 Fudan University School of Management 483,878 journals, weighted by the
THE TOP RANKING TIER INCLUDES SEVEN BUSINESS SCHOOLS (SEE NOTES, PAGE 25)

school faculty size.

9 London Business School 292,595
10= Iese Business School 306,384
10= Yale School of Management 291,124

* AVERAGE SALARY THREE YEARS AFTER COMPLETION, US$ PPP EQUIVALENT, FOR THE CLASS THAT FINISHED THEIR EMBA IN 2020.
12 Arizona State University: Carey 438,783
13 MIT: Sloan 380,973
14 IMD — International Institute for Management Development 312,280
15 Essec Business School/Mannheim Business School 251,623
Rank 14
16 National University of Singapore Business School 376,706 Global knowledge
17 University of Chicago: Booth 318,909
18= University of Pennsylvania: Wharton 295,344 IMD has the highest
proportion of international
18= Kedge Business School 213,085 faculty, with 98 per cent
from overseas.
20 Warwick Business School 199,852
PHOTOS: COLLPICTO JEFFREY ISAAC GREENBERG/ALAMY; EUROPA PRESS NEWS/GETTY IMAGES

21 SDA Bocconi School of Management 310,531

22 UCLA Anderson School of Management 273,513
23 CUHK Business School 282,943
24 HKU Business School 277,367
25= Imperial College Business School 238,554
25= University of St Gallen 258,290
Rank 10=
Gender balance
Rank 6 Rank 10=
ESG leader Different class
Yale is one of two schools
to report 50:50 gender
Spain’s IE includes the Iese in Barcelona has balance in its most recent
most core course hours on the most international EMBA cohort.
environmental, social and students, with 98 per cent
governance content. of the class from overseas. By Sam Stephens

7
INTRODUCTION
T
he share of employers contributing to the cost
of senior managers taking executive MBAs
has dropped to just over half, according to the
latest FT ranking, in which the joint Kellogg-
HKUST programme in Hong Kong and Ceibs
in Shanghai retain the top two positions.
EMBAs — often studied by executives while working in
senior roles — have traditionally been seen as a way to
strengthen managers’ skills and aid retention. But the share
of alumni who said they had received financial support
from their employer has been steadily declining over the
past few years.
Since 2016, the proportion of EMBA alumni who said
they had received full support has dropped from 29 per
cent to 23 per cent in 2023; and those who were partially
funded from 34 per cent to 29 per cent; while those with no
support at all has risen from 38 per cent to 48 per cent.
(See funding feature, page 14, and charts, page 16).
Greg Hanifee, associate dean of degree programmes at
Kellogg School of Management, in Illinois, says: “The days
of the fully sponsored student have dwindled, with
companies cutting costs or deciding the EMBA is not a
retention tool. That means the expectations by students on
excellence in delivery are at a premium because of the
demand for return on investment.”
Hanifee adds that the Kellogg-HKUST programme,
created 25 years ago, reflects strong demand from students
for a “global mindset”. “It’s counterintuitive given what’s
happening in the world today as nationalism rises, but it’s
all the more important.” (See “deglobalisation” feature,
page 32.)
Among the 100 EMBAs in the final ranking, nine were
run jointly by more than one school, with some in two or
more countries, with degrees offering insights in locations
including the US, mainland Europe and China.
The top-ranked programme is run by Kellogg with the
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business
School. It scored highest for salaries reported by alumni
three years after completing their degree, at $652,326
following adjustment for international purchasing power
parity. Alumni of Ceibs — the joint EU-Chinese controlled
China Europe International Business School — received the
next-highest average salary, at $529,822.
Business schools choose whether or not to be ranked by
the FT, and to be eligible must be approved by one or both
Financial support provided by
employers is consistently higher
for male than female alumni
8
leading accreditation agencies — AACSB or Equis — while
their alumni must provide sufficient responses to be
statistically significant (see methodology, page 27).
The ranking gives the highest weights to alumni salary
and salary increase, but also includes relative performance
on a range of other factors. These include: gender and
Excellence
required international diversity of students and faculty; academic
Kellogg’s research; and carbon emissions in the schools’ operations.
Greg Hanifee Financial support provided by employers is consistently
notes that higher for male than female alumni, with 53 per cent and 50
self-funded
students’
per cent respectively receiving full or partial funding this
expectations year. The overall fall may partly reflect recognition by
are high employers that many of those taking EMBAs seek to shift
employer or career, as well as broader efforts to cut expenses.
The most significant reasons given by more than half the
alumni for studying were management development, to
expand their network and to increase earnings. But about
a quarter gave a change of career or employer as an
important motivation, and only slightly fewer cited starting
their own business.
Alumni at ranked schools rated their EMBAs highest
overall for the quality of teaching around corporate
strategy, general management, finance and organisational
behaviour. They gave the lowest scores for courses on
fintech, law, IT and ecommerce.
US schools performed strongly in the assessment of
academic research — measured by the number of articles
faculty had written in leading journals over the past three
years. Eight of the top 10 schools in the category were in
the US, led by Chicago Booth School of Business and
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Outside the US, only London Business School and Canada’s
Rotman School of Management at Toronto University made
the top 10.
IE in Spain and Koç University Graduate School of
Business in Turkey were the only two EMBA providers with
an equal split of full-time male and female faculty, with
women on average comprising one-third of teaching staff
across the 100 ranked programmes. Women comprised on
average 35 per cent of students, with only Ceibs and Yale
School of Management achieving parity. IMD, the
International Institute for Management Development in
Switzerland, had the highest share of faculty with
citizenship outside its home country, at 98 per cent.
SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy, followed by
BI Norwegian and IE Business School in Spain, were ranked
top for carbon footprint — an assessment of a carbon audit
and a net zero emissions target — across the school or its
affiliated university. IE Business School was top and
France’s ESCP Business School second for the extent to
which they incorporated environmental, social and
governance topics in their core courses.
10

Pilot project: a captain
changes direction
Taking on a demanding executive MBA after treatment
for breast cancer both lifted Evey Cormican’s spirits and
prepared her to launch a virtual reality training start-up
BY KATE HODGE PORTRAIT BY ZACK WITTMAN
I
Forward focused n 2016 — just as she entered recovery following
Learning more about treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer — Evey
technology, and
Cormican started an executive MBA. It was something
having a passion for
aviation, inspired she decided to do as soon as she received her diagnosis,
Evey Cormican’s which left her unable to work as an airline pilot.
start-up idea “When I started flying, it didn’t really dawn on me
that I wouldn’t be able to fly or that I would get grounded
at some point,” she says. “And, when I did, the first thing
I thought was, ‘I’m going back to school to get my MBA’,
because I’ve always wanted to.”
The EMBA programme helped keep her spirits up, even
if her wings were clipped. “It was a rough, rough time,”
she says. “And thank goodness I had this to boost my
confidence. It’s such an amazing way to keep your brain
moving and keep yourself from going to dark places.”
Education is woven throughout her career, which has
taken her from airline pilot to teaching her peers, and now
to founding a virtual reality pilot training start-up.
In eighth grade in suburban Chicago, her journalism
teacher set an assignment to interview someone in a job
Cormican felt she could not herself pursue. She lived close
to an airport and thought, “Oh, that’s easy. I’ll go interview
a pilot because everybody knows only military men
become pilots.”
When she arrived to interview the chief pilot at the
nearby flight school, she had 10 questions. But, as they
talked, those questions multiplied and Cormican ended up
‘Iloved the flying part, but I was
also intrinsically satisfied by
doing other things in the career’
HOW I DID IT
going for a flight. “That is how I was bitten by the aviation
bug,” she says.
She started learning how to fly aged 16, before completing
her training at the University of North Dakota. In 1997, she
secured a job flying for what was then Continental Airlines.
Training and teaching became a large part of her work.
In the early 1990s, for example, Cormican was the chief
pilot and flight instructor of Altitudes Flight Training.
She also held a variety of educational roles at Continental,
and — after a 2010 merger — at United Airlines. These
included human factors training, which aims to understand
the connection between employees, their equipment and
the surrounding environment; as an instructor for “check
airmen”, who assess other pilots; and as vice-chair of the
Air Line Pilots Association’s training committee.
“I found my passion for teaching and learning just
followed me through,” she says. “... I loved the flying part,
but I was also intrinsically satisfied by doing other things in
the career and in the field.”
During an entrepreneurial class at Kellogg School of
Management at Northwestern University in Illinois,
Cormican — who jokes “I couldn’t spell IT before the
EMBA” — worked in a team with tech experts. She found
herself learning more about technology and, as she did, her
passion for aviation combined with this new knowledge.
“We would talk about aviation, and talk about simulation
and talk about how pilots are trained and things like that.
And virtual reality and augmented reality came up, and
once I got exposed to it, I said, ‘Oh, this is unstoppable’.”
With that, the seeds of a business were planted. But it
took a second leave of absence due to complications from
her treatment for Cormican to get started.
In 2017, during a leave of absence, she established
Visionary Training Resources, a start-up that provides
11
HOW I DID IT

Out of this world

VTR currently has
38 employees, some
of which are from
the Kellogg EMBA
network

CV
1997-present United
Airlines. Roles include
Captain B757/B767, captain
and assistant chief pilot
at Houston Texas and a
simulator instructor
check pilot.
2017-present Founder
and chief executive (CEO)
of Visionary Training
Resources Inc.
2009-2011 Consultant
at Hughes Aerospace
Corporation.
1995-1997 Captain and first
officer at Frontier Airlines
1995 First officer at United
Express.
1994-1995 First officer at
Continental Express.
1990-1994 Altitudes Flight
Training. Roles included
chief pilot and flight
instructor, charter pilot and
corporate pilot.

virtual reality airline pilot training. “I’m viewing it as a
little bit of an act two,” says Cormican, noting that VTR
brings together her passion for learning, her EMBA — and
the confidence it gave her in the business world — and her
aviation knowledge.
There is a significant shortage of pilots — Cormican
says the industry needs 450,000 airline pilots in the next
20 years — and the aim is to use VR to “produce better
pilots, faster” while maintaining safety. The company is
also looking at other ways VR can be used in the aviation
industry, including in soft skills development, onboarding,
interviewing and staff training.
The EMBA has been instrumental in helping to get the
business off the ground. Cormican says some of her senior
executives at VTR — which currently employs 38 people —
are from the Kellogg network, as are many of her investors
and advisers whose expertise in their respective fields has
been valuable.
“One of the professors, Professor Harry Kraemer, teaches
leadership classes, typically. And he likes to say: ‘Who is on
your bus? If you’re going to start something, you need to fill
up your bus first’,” she recalls. “I had a really big bus.”
Professor Leigh Thompson’s class on leading high-
impact teams was also powerful. “When I went to Kellogg,
I was already a captain,” recalls Cormican. “So my
teams typically consisted of between five and 12 people,
depending on the size of the airplane I flew,” she says.
“I thought I knew how to lead a high-impact team —
only I didn’t,” she says, noting that the key is knowing the
12
difference between “bootstrapping” and understanding the
structure behind what happens in high-performing teams.
This has affected how she approaches leading VTR. At
first, when it was just her running the business, she was
across everything. But, as the start-up has grown, she tries
to remain “stepped back”. This helps her keep a wider
perspective, but also allows her team — “who are high
functioning, who know their work much better than I ever
could” — to get on.
When it comes to leading a high-impact team, she says,
you do not actually do it yourself. “They’re leading it. You
are there to help them.”
After the EMBA, Cormican found the alumni network
would soon be a little closer to home: as soon as she
finished, her husband, also an airline pilot, started the
course. Indeed, her advice to anyone thinking about
studying the EMBA is: “just do it.”
“There’s never going to be a perfect time, or a perfect
reason or a perfect job”, she says. “The next two years, they
will go by one way or another. If you start it, you will finish
and you will come through the other end in a transformed,
better version of yourself.”
‘Who is on your bus? If you’re
going to start something, you
need to fill up your bus first’
FINANCES
No strings attached:
the rise of self-funding
As employers reduce financial backing for expensive
EMBA study, some executives are choosing to fund
themselves and avoid being tied to long work contracts
BY SEB MURRAY PORTRAIT BY SIMON HABEGGER
T
he turmoil that rocked Credit Suisse in March
not only imperilled the Swiss bank’s stability;
it also reverberated in the business education
sector, affecting the traditional practice of
companies paying for their senior bankers to
attend executive MBA courses.
“Credit Suisse was always willing to finance [EMBA
programmes], but now they say they need to see what
happens with UBS,” says Karolin Frankenberger, the
academic director of the EMBA HSG programme at the
University of St Gallen in Switzerland.
The lender’s shift in stance, as it is absorbed by UBS,
is not an isolated change; it typifies a broader trend.
Employers spanning industries worldwide are re-evaluating
their historical financial support for EMBAs. “Lots of
companies can invest in their own training programmes —
they can just copy an EMBA,” says Prof Frankenberger.
A decade ago, in 2013, 24 per cent of EMBA participants
had their tuition fees paid in full by their employers. By last
year, the proportion was only 16 per cent, according to the
Executive MBA Council (Embac), an academic association.
As corporate purse strings tighten amid economic
uncertainty, employer funding is waning, pushing more
students to bear the financial burden themselves. Embac
notes the percentage of fully self-funded students has risen
from 41 per cent to 56 per cent over the same period.
This indicates more than just employers’ financial
restraint. Prof Frankenberger says some candidates are
choosing to decline funding offers, to evade the shackles
of lengthy employment contracts or the obligation to
reimburse tuition fees upon departure — conditions often
attached to corporate funding arrangements.
14
“In the past you stayed with the company for 40 years.
This is not the case anymore,” she notes.
Hannes Klockenhoff illustrates this shift. Rejecting
his previous employer’s offer to pay some of the fees,
Klockenhoff — now head of drywall market management at
building materials group Knauf Gips — opted to personally
finance the €53,000 annual EMBA tuition at Germany’s
Mannheim Business School.
Based in Stuttgart, Klockenhoff also funded another
several thousand euros in travel expenses, reflecting his
desire for autonomy. “I was in a luxurious position, but in
the end, I did not want to owe my time to anybody,” he says.
While schools report that company-wide sponsorship
programmes are dwindling, they note the continuation of
partial funding for EMBA candidates — particularly against
the backdrop of a persistently competitive labour market.
This chimes with the FT’s data, gathered from schools
participating in the 2023 EMBA ranking process (see page
Ways to pay for an executive MBA
Employer sponsorship is typically tied to an Loans are issued by government and private
agreement that the participant will continue institutions, helping students cover tuition fees and
working for the sponsoring company for a related expenses. Interest will be paid on the loan.
specified period. Grants and fellowships are offered by
Self-funding is when students pay from personal various organisations, industry associations
savings, investments or other resources, providing and foundations to support people pursuing
greater flexibility in their career choices. advanced degrees.
Scholarships can be based on various criteria, such Crowdfunding platforms enable EMBA candidates
as academic excellence, professional achievements, to gather financial support from family, friends,
leadership potential and diversity. colleagues or even strangers.
 ‘In the past you stayed
with the company for
40 years. This is not
the case anymore’
16). The proportion of students receiving full or partial
sponsorship is down to 52 per cent from 63 per cent in 2016
but the data reveals that partial sponsorship has remained
relatively stable over the past eight years.
“Often, the ones that do get sponsorship are the high-
potentials in companies... retention is a key factor,” says
Arnold Longboy, the executive director of recruitment and
admissions for London Business School.
At LBS, 52 per cent of last year’s London-based EMBA
intake received some form of company contribution —
higher than the average of the previous four years: 31 per
cent. Beyond financial assistance, Longboy underscores
the significance of study leave. This is a form of employer
assistance that helps with the intensive schedule of an
EMBA, which is usually studied alongside full-time work
and is sometimes wryly described as the “divorce course”.
LBS also plans to double its overall scholarship budget
over the next five years. Traditionally, business schools
have tended to allocate more financial resources to full-
time MBA candidates, who forgo their salaries to return
to education. The mix is now changing, as schools look to
entice top EMBA candidates with scholarships. “It’s a major
topic of interest,” Longboy says.
EMBA programmes are also undergoing changes beyond
financing. As industries evolve, the curriculum is adapting
to meet the changing demands of the corporate world.
Ser Keng Ang, the academic director of the EMBA course
at Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian
School of Business, says the degree’s value extends beyond
technical competencies, as schools increasingly prioritise
the cultivation of leadership skills such as strategic
thinking. “The danger of getting too technical is you start to
have silos,” he says.
Traditional programme designs, he adds, have been
compartmentalised into disciplines such as finance and
marketing. However, as participants ascend the corporate
ladder, they need to learn how to manage across various
functions. “The job we have is to design something that
bridges across,” Ang says.
In the same vein, EMBA participants are increasingly
tasked with leading across cultures. In a global business
environment, Kathy Harvey, associate dean for MBA
and executive degrees at the University of Oxford’s Saïd
Business School, says that international diversity within
EMBA cohorts offers a unique platform for honing skills in
cross-cultural collaboration: “It’s very hard to fast-track
that kind of training, but an EMBA can facilitate that.”
Meanwhile, a survey among EMBA alumni of Mannheim
Business School has highlighted a preference for a more
holistic approach to leadership development over fleeting
management fads. That said, Jens Wüstemann, the school’s
Observer
St Gallen’s president, points to a growing employer demand for
EMBA academic courses focused on environmental, social and governance
director Karolin (ESG) matters.
Frankenberger has In response, Mannheim has dedicated 20 per cent of the
seen corporate
funding of EMBAs content in each EMBA module to ESG issues. “[Employers]
become less want topics they see as having the utmost importance to
common future generations,” Wüstemann says.

15
DATA

2 GENDER DIVIDE
Percentage of male and female EMBA
participants partly or fully sponsored
65%

Who pays the

EMBA bills? 60%
Male

FT ranking specialists delve into the executive 55%

MBA survey data for 2023, looking at trends in Female
employer sponsorship, the funding gender
gap and alumni seniority increases. Plus: why
people sign up for EMBAs; what business 50%
schools teach best; and whether alumni would
recommend others to follow in their footsteps
BY SAM STEPHENS AND LEO CREMONEZI GRAPHICS BY CHRIS CAMPBELL
45%
2016 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

1 EMPLOYER SPONSORSHIP IS DOWN 3 POWER SURGE

Nearly half of alumni surveyed for the 2023 ranking Seniority mostly rises faster for funded
received no funding from their employers alumni (see table note 3 for scores)
No funding Partial funding Full funding Seniority increase as points score
50% 48%
48% 8 10 12 14 16

32 or
younger
Fully or Not
partially at all
40% funded

33-35
29%
30%

23%
36-38
20%

39-42
10%

0% Older
2016 18 20 22 2016 18 20 22 2016 18 20 22 than 42

16
1 The proportion of alumni who 4 WHAT’S YOUR MOTIVATION?
received full or partial funding
from employers is down nearly
Alumni reasons for enrolling on an EMBA, scored by importance*
10 percentage points from 2016.
(Alumni were surveyed for the
Low Medium/high Very high
2023 survey, three years after
Management development
completing their EMBA.)
Networking (expand network)
2 While full or partial employer
Increase earnings
sponsorship is down for all EMBA
participants, it is consistently lower Promotion within workplace
for women. Change of career (same industry)

3 Seniority is scored between 0

Change of employer (same industry)
and 100, based on the seniority of Change of career (different industry)
the individual and the size of the
Change of employer (different industry)
company they work for. A CEO or
president of a company with more Start own company
than 50,000 employees will have
Work overseas
the highest score, whereas an
unemployed person will score 0. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

5 WHAT BUSINESS SCHOOLS TEACH BEST

4 Alumni most commonly rated
management development,
networking and increasing
earnings as of very high
Topics on which alumni rated the quality of teaching most highly*
importance as reasons for enrolling
for an EMBA. See * below for Low Medium/high Very high
scoring.
Corporate strategy
General management
5 The teaching of corporate
Finance
strategy, general management,
Organisational behaviour
finance and organisational
Economics
behaviour was rated very highly by
Accounting
alumni. Delivery of IT/computing
Marketing
and ecommerce was less highly
Entrepreneurship
regarded. See * below for scoring.
International business
Environ., social & governance/ethics
6 The proportion of alumni who are
Statistics
very likely to recommend studying
Manufacturing/logistics
for an EMBA is rising. (By year of
HR
ranking survey, three years after
Social enterprise
completing programme; likelihood
Fintech
rated nine or 10 out of 10.)
Law
IT/computing
7 Three years after their EMBA,
Ecommerce
alumni who worked in five or more
countries before their programme 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
earn an average of $50,000 more

6 RECOMMENDED? 7 MONEY AND MOBILITY

than those employed in only one.

Proportion of alumni likely to advise Average salary by number of countries

studying for an EMBA (3 years later) in which alumni worked pre-EMBA
80% $280,000

75%
$260,000
70%
$240,000
65%
Average
A
Aver
Av
verage
ver
erage
age base salar
salary
salary
alary
*For charts 4 and 5, an alumni 60% $220,000
score between 1-6 points out of 10
= low; 7-8 points = medium/high; 55% $200,000
and 9-10 points = very high. 2020 2021 2022 2023 1 2 3 4 5 or more

17
TECHNOLOGY
Artificial intelligence
forces a rethink
EMBA participants’ demands for greater understanding
of AI and its implications are driving schools to innovate
with teaching about — and use of — the technology
BY JONATHAN MOULES PORTRAIT BY MAGALI DELPORTE
T
he transformational impact of artificial
intelligence is impossible for business schools
to ignore. Chatbots built on large language
models can now easily pass the standardised
MBA entrance tests and, this year, a Wharton
professor showed how ChatGPT was able to
secure a B grade in a core MBA module.
Such revelations have shocked business school deans
into action. The response of many has been to embrace the
AI age for MBA programmes and, in particular, executive
MBAs. EMBA students are generally from a senior, older
demographic and are keen to get to grips with leadership
techniques using technology that has appeared later in
their careers.
Esade, for example, has struck an agreement with nearby
Barcelona Supercomputing Center, one of the scientific
crown jewels of Europe, to allow EMBA students to
complete internships exposing them to AI and to see how
such technologies affect business strategy.
“If technology has so far been a simple structural factor,
subordinate to business strategy, today it becomes in most
industries a strategic driver, which fuels new and disruptive
business models,” says Xavier Ferràs, associate dean of
Esade’s Executive MBA programmes.
Imperial College Business School in London has run a
generative AI “stress test”, analysing all assessments in
classes to judge the effect of the technology on students and
teaching pedagoguery. The school will review the results,
encouraging collaboration between different departments
of Imperial College to adapt the way students are taught
and assessed, according to David Shrier, professor of
practice, AI and innovation at the business school.
18
“We cannot ban AI, but neither are we saying let the
chips fall where they may,” he says. “We have to rethink
assessments and rethink our classes.”
Classes in future will focus much more on “learning by
doing” and worked examples, where students can learn
how to apply AI tools by using them for their assignments,
adds Prof Shrier.
He has created a bot to analyse half a million words from
his books, so it can answer participants’ questions about his
work whenever they want.
“Students can ask their questions at 3 o’clock in the
morning, and they don’t have to email me for answers,”
he says. “We just want students to be immersed in trying
things out, in a safe environment where it is OK to fail.”
The supply of new AI-based courses is quickly taken
up by students concerned about the implications of AI for
executive roles. Prof Shrier helped create an AI Ventures
module at Imperial, which uses “learning by doing”,
developing plans for a start-up in AI or a corporate project
within a company. The course attracted 40 students when it
was first offered generally last year and demand has grown
such that the school has had to cap the intake at 80 this year.
“Learning what to learn for AI jobs is even more pressing
for the 45-year-old completing an EMBA because a lot
of what they have done in business up until now is being
rendered irrelevant,” Prof Shrier says (see column, p43). Switch
He stresses the urgency of learning such skills, pointing An AI course at
to a recent study by Evercore, the investment bank and HEC Paris enabled
software engineer
advisory firm, into the US employment market. This Richard Manga to
concluded that 100 per cent of jobs will be at least 10 per become a senior
cent affected by AI. Evercore calculated that, on average, 32 enterprise architect
per cent of each job’s functions are exposed to AI.
About 30 per cent of his
cohort knew more about
AI than most but lacked
skills to translate this into
the needs of executives

“If you are a professional ballet dancer, you are not going
to be that affected by AI but, if you are an accountant or
you are in investment banking analysis, or if you are in the
strategy function, you are at high risk of material impact of
AI on your job,” Prof Shrier says.
“We will still need programmers but we will need far,
far fewer of them. Those that remain will be in more
senior roles.”
Getting an edge on AI through new EMBA courses has
delivered results for some. Richard Manga secured his
“dream job” — senior enterprise architect at Capgemini
France — a few weeks after completing the HEC Paris
EMBA, including the data science for management
certificate, specialising in AI.
“The first sentence that the recruiter said on the
telephone the first time we spoke was [that] you are the
person we have been looking for the last two months,”
he says.
Manga, 37, had trained as a software engineer, working in
Silicon Valley as well as his native France before deciding
to apply for an EMBA programme to improve his business
management skills.
He was particularly attracted to HEC’s AI certification
programme to help develop his skills in translating
machine learning concepts, such as clustering: the act of
organising similar objects into groups within a machine
learning algorithm. Other concepts included real business
scenarios, such as a chief marketing officer wanting to
identify new products for a specific market segment.
“When you work as an engineer you know about
clustering...[but] HEC explained to me how to offer it as an
answer to business questions like this,” Manga says.
Manga estimates that about 30 per cent of his EMBA
cohort were “deeply technology orientated”, like himself,
and had better knowledge than most about AI concepts,
but lacked the skills to translate this to meet the needs of
business executives.
He also hears more and more conversations at work
about the application of AI. “After graduating, I spent
almost the entire month talking with executives from my
old company, and the main topic we were discussing was
how we can include AI in the company’s platform to better
serve our customers.”

19

Bad connection
Apple shares fell last
month after reports
that China had
banned some officials
from using iPhones
Reducing the risks of
China ‘de-risking’
Western companies must consider the implications of
shifting their supply chains, says Christopher S Tang
I
n this new era of “de-risking”, with each of the G7 group
of leading wealthy nations committed to lessening their
reliance on China, business leaders need to develop new
ways to manage their supply chains.
At a time of escalating geopolitical tensions with
China, companies have sought to reduce their exposure.
In 2021, Yahoo and LinkedIn announced plans to withdraw
from the country and IBM shuttered its China Research
Laboratory after a quarter of a century. US foreign direct
investment in the country fell from a peak of $20.9bn in
2008 to an 18-year low of $8.2bn in 2022.
This exodus of American investors signals a definitive
Christopher S Tang
is UCLA shift in global supply chains. Many US companies are
distinguished “friend-shoring”: moving supply chains to political or
professor and the economic allies such as India, Thailand and Vietnam. In
Edward W Carter 2022, Dell said it would move at least 20 per cent of laptop
Chair in business
production to Vietnam. In June, Apple announced plans to
administration. He is
senior associate dean shift 18 per cent of its global iPhone production to India.
of global initiatives, At the same time, businesses are increasing their
and faculty director sourcing from “near-shoring” countries such as Mexico
of the Center for and Canada to take advantage of the USMCA free trade
PHOTO: KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
Global Management
at the UCLA agreement. In July, HP said it would move production of
Anderson School of millions of consumer and commercial laptops to Mexico.
Management De-risking from China through friend-shoring or near-
shoring can improve supply chain resilience, but it is not
risk-free. First, it may trigger risks including retaliation
that impedes future US economic growth. In May, Beijing
imposed a ban on Chinese operators purchasing chips from
the US chipmaker Micron Technology, which derives more
than one-10th of its $31bn annual sales from the country.
PROFESSOR’S BRIEFING
Shares in Apple — which derives one-fifth of its sales
from China — fell by about 6 per cent in early September
after reports that the country had banned officials at
central government agencies from using iPhones. Ten
stocks in the S&P 500, including Qualcomm, Monolithic
Power and Texas Instruments, received more than a
quarter of their annual revenue from China. If retaliation
persists, the tech sector will face increasing headwinds.
More than half of Chinese consumers shun US goods,
according to a recent survey. With a few notable exceptions,
such as Tesla’s electric vehicles and Apple’s devices, sales of
many prominent brands have been declining in China since
the trade war began in 2018. GM’s market share, including
its joint ventures, fell from roughly 15 per cent in 2015
to below 10 per cent in 2022. To counteract the market
risks, US companies must devise strategies to tap into new
markets with promising growth potential.
De-risking from China by diversifying suppliers across
multiple countries can also amplify operational risks by
increasing the complexity and lack of transparency in
global supply chains. According to a 2021 McKinsey survey,
just 2 per cent of companies reported visibility beyond
their second-tier suppliers — those who provide materials
and parts to their direct suppliers.
This opacity makes for difficult communication and
co-ordination across suppliers in different countries, adding
complexity in consistency of quality and timely delivery.
For example, Boeing suffered multiple setbacks in the
development of its 787 aircraft. Companies should adhere
to W Edwards Deming’s quality management principles,
simplifying supply chains and enhancing transparency.
The lack of supply chain traceability can inadvertently
cause difficulties for suppliers. For example, South Korea’s
SK Hynix ceased shipping chips to Huawei after the US
imposed a ban on exporting advanced chips to China.
The company has been scrutinising its supply chain to
understand how its chips ended up inside Huawei’s Mate
60 Pro phone.
Conversely, the US Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act,
which came into effect in June 2022, aims to prevent goods
made in China from entering US markets. But forensic
checks by customs officials on 37 imported Chinese garments
last May showed 10 samples came from the Xinjiang region.
While de-risking the interconnected trade relationships
of the US and China is not easy, the difficulties are not
insurmountable. For example, after a worldwide recall
of more than 19mn unsafe toys tainted with lead paint in
2007, Mattel gradually shifted production from China to
Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam. Its plant in Nuevo Leon,
Mexico, is now the company’s largest worldwide.
Government support can play a pivotal role in mitigation.
For instance, the $52.7bn US Chips Act subsidies can
help incentivise companies such as Intel to reshore their
semiconductor supply chains.
To facilitate overseas sales, the UK joined the
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-
Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in July, expanding its free trade
relationships with 11 Pacific nations. Similarly, US president
Joe Biden initiated the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework
in 2022 with 13 other nations, including India, Japan, South
Korea and Vietnam, to streamline trade negotiations.
More such international alliances are crucial to reduce
the risks of de-risking.
Executive MBAs and ‘deglobalisation’, page 32
21
 High ambition
The Kellogg-
HKUST EMBA,
based in Hong
Kong, tops the
ranking

Financial
Times
PHOTO: SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

RANKINGS

Executive The tables p24

The top 100 EMBAs
plus school profiles

MBA 2023
Methodology p27
How the ranking
was compiled

23
RANKING

Top EMBA Top solo EMBA

Kellogg/HKUST Ceibs

Kellogg/HKUST retains the number In second place, the Shanghai-

PHOTOS: SAM LIU/IMAGINECHINA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

one spot, partly because its alumni based school retains its position as
reported the highest average salary the highest ranking EMBA offered
at $652,326. This joint programme by a single provider. Three in four
run by the US and Hong Kong graduates fulfilled their goals for
business schools has taken top studying for an EMBA. They also
place 12 times since the launch of received the second-highest average
the EMBA ranking in 2001. Despite salary, at $529,822, with an average
dipping significantly for career increase of 88 per cent. Alumni
progress to 57th place, measured by commended the international
changes in alumni job seniority and experience of the programme, the
employer size, the EMBA received a network opportunities and Ceibs’
high overall satisfaction score at 9.64. locations, with campuses in Europe
TATJANA MITEVSKA and Africa. LEO CREMONEZI

FT EXECUTIVE MBA 2023

The top 100 EMBA programmes (continued overleaf)

Programme name
average rank
Rank in 2023

Rank in 2022

School name
Rank in 2021

Three-year

Location

FT ranking tier I (see table notes, p25)

1 1 2 1 Kellogg/HKUST Business School Hong Kong Kellogg-HKUST EMBA
2 2 2 2 Ceibs China/Switzerland/Ghana Ceibs Global EMBA
3 5 6 5 ESCP Business School France/Germany/UK/Italy/Spain/Poland EMBA
4 6 5 5 Trium: HEC Paris/LSE/NYU: Stern France/UK/US Trium Global EMBA
5 15 12 11 University of Oxford: Saïd UK Oxford EMBA
6 12 14 11 IE Business School Spain Global EMBA
7 4 1 4 HEC Paris France/Qatar HEC Paris International EMBA
FT ranking tier II (see table notes, p25)
8 12 13 11 Fudan University School of Management China Fudan EMBA
9 19 18 15 London Business School UK/UAE EMBA
10= 10 7 9 Iese Business School Spain/US/Germany/Brazil Global EMBA
10= 14 16 13 Yale School of Management US Yale MBA for Executives
12 20 9 14 Arizona State University: Carey China WP Carey/SNAI EMBA
13 7 17 12 MIT: Sloan US MIT EMBA
14 27 30 24 IMD — International Institute for Management Development Switzerland/Singapore IMD EMBA
15 27 45 29 Essec Business School/Mannheim Business School France/Germany/Singapore Essec & Mannheim EMBA
16 24 22 21 National University of Singapore Business School Singapore The NUS EMBA
17 8 21 15 University of Chicago: Booth US/UK/Hong Kong EMBA
18= 22 38 26 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton US Wharton MBA for Executives
18= 42 45 35 Kedge Business School France/China Kedge — SJTU Global MBA
20 34 26 27 Warwick Business School UK EMBA
21 34 33 29 SDA Bocconi School of Management Italy EMBA
22 21 37 27 UCLA Anderson School of Management US EMBA
23 24 19 22 CUHK Business School Hong Kong EMBA
24 18 32 25 HKU Business School China HKU-Fudan MBA (International)
25= 26 31 27 Imperial College Business School UK EMBA
25= 32 42 33 University of St Gallen Switzerland EMBA HSG
27 23 27 26 Northwestern University: Kellogg US Kellogg EMBA
28 16 24 23 Kellogg/WHU Beisheim Germany Kellogg-WHU EMBA
29 46 45 40 BI Norwegian Business School/Fudan University School of Management China BI-Fudan MBA
30 49 51 43 Edhec Business School France Edhec EMBA
31 36 25 31 University of Cambridge: Judge UK The Cambridge EMBA
32 51 53 45 University of Michigan: Ross US EMBA

24
FT EMBA ranking tiers l-lV and table notes Key (weights for ranking criteria are
(for methodology see page 27) shown in brackets as a percentage)

All the EMBAs in the ranking are of high quality. schools ranked from joint 43rd to 78th. Tier lV SALARY TODAY US$ (16): average alumni salary
Some 212 points separate the top programme includes schools from University of Utah: David three years after course completion,
from the school ranked 100. The schools are Eccles at 79 to Iscte Business School at 100. US$ PPP equivalent.†#
divided into four tiers. Business schools in tiers SALARY INCREASE (17): average difference in
l and ll score above the average for the cohort, * Data in this column is for information only and alumni salaries between before the EMBA and
and tiers lll and lV are below it. The difference in not used in the rankings. now. Half of this measure is calculated
scores between schools ranked consecutively is according to the absolute salary increase and
greater within tiers l and lV than in tiers ll and lll. half according to the percentage increase
Tier l includes seven programmes, from Kellogg/ relative to the pre-EMBA salary — this is the
HKUST Business School to HEC Paris. Tier ll figure published in the table.†#
includes schools from Fudan University School of CAREER PROGRESS (6): calculated according to
Management, in eighth position, to University of changes in the level of seniority and the size of
FT ranking tier (see table notes, above)
Texas at Austin: McCombs in 42nd position. Tier the company or organisation alumni work in
lll, headed by Emory University: Goizueta, spans I II III IV now versus before their EMBA.†#
WORK EXPERIENCE (5): a measure of the pre-
EMBA experience of alumni according to the
seniority of positions held, number of years in
each position, organisation size and overseas
Career progress School diversity Research/ FT work experience.†#
ESG ranking AIMS ACHIEVED (6): the extent to which alumni

tier fulfilled their goals or reasons for doing

International students (%)

Environmental, social and

an EMBA.†#
International faculty (%)

International board (%)

governance (ESG) rank

Carbon footprint rank
Work experience rank

FEMALE FACULTY (5): percentage of full-time

Career progress rank

Women on board (%)

Overall satisfaction *
Female students (%)

International course
Salary increase (%)
Salary today (US$)

Female faculty (%)

Aims achieved (%)

female faculty.‡
FT research rank
experience rank

See table notes,

doctorates (%)

FEMALE STUDENTS (5): percentage of female

Rank in 2023
Faculty with

students on the programme.‡

above
WOMEN ON BOARD (1): percentage of female
members of the advisory board.‡
INTERNATIONAL FACULTY (5): calculated according

I
652,326 89 57 6 73 26 19 41 73 65 86 17 99 14 42 66 9.64 1 to the diversity of faculty by citizenship and the
529,822 88 6 15 75 34 50 50 83 68 100 67 100 33 47 33 9.54 2 percentage whose citizenship differs from their
324,261 101 4 17 74 42 35 70 91 92 95 1 100 64 2 14 9.50 3 location of employment — the published figure.
394,123 60 34 1 76 35 25 33 63 88 56 2 93 25 38 33 9.43 4 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS (6): the percentage of
333,676 90 20 11 79 27 35 39 69 84 73 35 100 29 19 33 9.19 5 current EMBA students whose citizenship
313,746 51 38 3 72 50 37 50 73 93 100 12 100 42 1 2 8.89 6 differs from the location in which they study, or
323,515 72 9 16 75 32 27 41 66 78 94 5 98 31 18 33 9.57 7 where the school’s main campus is located, as
well as their diversity by citizenship.
483,878 82 53 53 73 38 37 6 6 1 71 78 99 53 61 66 9.29 8 INTERNATIONAL BOARD (1): percentage of the

II
292,595 74 11 19 73 30 30 35 87 88 94 39 99 7 27 42 9.25 9 board whose citizenship differs from the
306,384 56 88 9 75 35 33 31 97 98 97 3 100 39 3 5 9.27 10= location in which the business school
291,124 71 33 74 76 30 50 24 45 28 46 11 100 6 13 33 9.50 10= is situated.
438,783 82 45 36 74 27 41 31 94 0 94 78 84 20 8 5 9.50 12 INTERNATIONAL COURSE EXPERIENCE RANK (5): based
380,973 59 16 10 76 26 33 25 44 39 51 78 100 8 97 12 9.80 13 on the percentage of classroom teaching hours,
312,280 65 27 2 74 25 28 34 98 89 80 7 100 38 35 14 9.57 14 for the recent completing class, that were
251,623 70 36 13 71 34 41 50 58 73 82 4 100 57 14 14 9.03 15 conducted outside the location in which the
376,706 58 75 32 70 35 31 20 64 90 40 15 97 22 24 14 8.97 16 business school is situated. In-person, virtual
318,909 84 50 47 74 20 25 16 74 74 50 50 93 1 66 83 9.37 17 and hybrid experiences are included.
295,344 65 37 81 77 30 32 21 29 38 35 68 96 2 43 57 9.71 18= FACULTY WITH DOCTORATES (5): percentage of
213,085 92 10 46 78 43 37 50 45 77 72 31 99 80 7 66 9.26 18= full-time faculty with a doctoral degree.
199,852 74 2 63 74 42 38 29 84 55 36 65 100 31 31 14 9.37 20 FT RESEARCH RANK (10): calculated according to
310,531 72 47 42 70 40 22 38 44 7 77 56 99 17 26 1 9.43 21 the number of articles published by a school’s
273,513 62 40 57 76 33 36 21 35 20 4 41 100 5 25 5 9.07 22 current full-time faculty members in
282,943 63 5 43 76 33 33 50 42 17 100 77 99 24 48 45 9.08 23 50 academic and practitioner journals from
277,367 110 18 91 73 27 63 27 30 0 18 78 98 16 17 93 9.47 24 January 2020 to about May 2023. The rank
238,554 60 26 12 69 30 37 44 97 67 83 29 100 19 80 46 8.53 25= combines the absolute number of publications
258,290 76 1 54 77 28 25 50 84 50 50 57 100 49 6 14 9.64 25= with the number weighted relative to the
300,570 45 30 29 74 23 32 45 50 33 26 45 100 12 39 66 9.35 27 faculty’s size.
247,892 67 17 7 69 27 31 41 76 52 85 13 100 21 49 58 9.21 28 ESG AND NET ZERO TEACHING RANK (3): proportion of
264,464 99 12 77 70 34 59 18 67 2 77 28 88 66 32 41 9.27 29 teaching hours from core courses, for the recent
204,414 77 49 14 73 33 30 50 66 51 89 23 99 73 5 14 9.86 30 class, dedicated to environmental, social and
249,120 70 13 28 76 24 27 55 84 68 50 73 98 48 56 64 9.22 31 governance issues and climate solutions
348,990 56 21 48 74 29 25 15 40 26 7 78 81 15 96 46 9.54 32 enabling organisations to reach net zero.

25
RANKING

Top for overseas experience Top 10 again

ESCP Business School Oxford: Saïd

PHOTOS: ED BUZIAK / ANDREW MICHAEL / MEMEME ALAMY

In third place overall, multi-campus The EMBA at the University of
ESCP is ranked top for international Oxford’s Saïd Business School — last
course experience: a measure in the top 10 in 2019 — is ranked
of the percentage of classroom fifth. Alumni experienced a 90 per
teaching hours completed outside cent salary increase, on average,
the school’s location. In addition to between before the EMBA and
exposure to diverse working and now, and praised the management
teaching cultures, students also capabilities gained. “The programme
receive a strong education in ESG, enabled interactions and deep social
for which ESCP is ranked second. connections with other leaders, which

STOCK PHOTO
Alumni described the course as a greatly influenced both my personal
transformational experience. and professional development,” said
SAM STEPHENS one alumnus. LEO CREMONEZI

FT EXECUTIVE MBA 2023

The top 100 EMBA programmes (continued)

Programme name
average rank
Rank in 2023

Rank in 2022

School name
Rank in 2021

Three-year

Location

33 - 34 - Columbia Business School US EMBA New York

34 40 41 38 New York University: Stern US NYU Stern EMBA
35 31 55 40 Koç University Graduate School of Business Turkey EMBA
36 47 61 48 EMLyon Business School France/Morocco/China EMBA
37 30 49 39 Kellogg/York University: Schulich Canada Kellogg-Schulich EMBA
38 43 36 39 ESMT Berlin Germany EMBA
39 52 49 47 Duke University: Fuqua US The Duke MBA — Global Executive
40= 54 38 44 Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) UK/UAE EMBA
40= 65 61 55 Henley Business School UK/South Africa/Denmark/Finland Henley EMBA — Global
42 38 - - University of Texas at Austin: McCombs US Texas McCombs EMBA
FT ranking tier III (see table notes, p25)
43= 36 63 47 Emory University: Goizueta US EMBA
43= 62 66 57 Copenhagen Business School Denmark CBS EMBA
45 39 34 39 WU Vienna: Executive Academy/University of Minnesota: Carlson Austria Global EMBA
46 78 70 65 Neoma Business School France/China/Iran Global EMBA
47= 47 57 50 Cornell University: Johnson/Queen’s University: Smith US/Canada EMBA Americas
47= 74 92 71 Mannheim Business School Germany Mannheim EMBA
49 - 75 - Vanderbilt University: Owen US Vanderbilt EMBA
50 56 45 50 Antwerp Management School Belgium International EMBA
51= 53 43 49 University of Toronto: Rotman Canada EMBA
51= 44 54 50 Kozminski University Poland EMBA
53= 33 28 38 Singapore Management University: Lee Kong Chian Singapore EMBA
53= 62 83 66 Frankfurt School of Finance and Management Germany EMBA
55= 54 52 54 Georgetown University: McDonough US Georgetown EMBA
55= 58 56 56 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands RSM EMBA
57 57 64 59 Stockholm School of Economics Sweden SSE MBA Executive Format
58 82 73 71 Queen’s University: Smith Canada Smith EMBA — The National Program
59 73 88 73 Rutgers Business School US Rutgers EMBA
60= 64 59 61 Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Business School Ireland Trinity EMBA (part-time)
60= 71 81 71 University of Maryland: Smith US Maryland Smith EMBA
62 74 85 74 TBS Education France/Spain/Morocco Global EMBA
63 84 - - The Lisbon MBA Catolica | Nova Portugal The Lisbon MBA Católica | Nova Executive
64 69 72 68 University College Dublin: Smurfit Ireland Smurfit EMBA
65= 89 66 73 Western University: Ivey Canada/Hong Kong Ivey EMBA
65= - - - Xiamen University School of Management China EMBA

26
 Top for salary increase Key (ranking criteria weights in
HKU Business School brackets as a percentage) Cont. from p25

Ranked 24th, HKU Business School CARBON FOOTPRINT RANK (4): calculated using the
alumni reported an average salary net zero target year for carbon emissions set
increase of 110 per cent from before by the university and/or school, and the
their EMBA to now — the biggest existence of a publicly available carbon
rise for the second year running. The emissions audit report since 2019.
Hong Kong school also improved its OVERALL SATISFACTION: average course
position in the research rank, from evaluation by EMBA alumni, scored out of 10.
29 to 16. Alumni rate the faculty FT RANKING TIER: schools are divided into four
and the EMBA network highly. One groups. Schools at the top are in tier l and
executive said: “The programme those at the bottom are in tier lV.
played a crucial role in expanding
my professional network, both within † Includes data for the current year and the one or two
and beyond my industry.” LC preceding years where available.
‡ For the three gender-related criteria, schools that
have 50:50 (male:female) composition receive the
highest possible score.
#
Data from alumni who completed their programmes
Career progress School diversity Research/ FT in 2020 included.
ESG ranking
tier Judith Pizer, of Pizer-MacMillan, and Avner Cohen acted
International students (%)

Environmental, social and

as the FT’s database consultants. The FT research rank

International faculty (%)

International board (%)

governance (ESG) rank

Carbon footprint rank
Work experience rank

was calculated using Clarivate data covering 50 journals

Career progress rank

Women on board (%)

Overall satisfaction *
Female students (%)

International course

See table notes, p25

Salary increase (%)
Salary today (US$)

Female faculty (%)

Aims achieved (%)

selected by the FT from the Web of Science, an abstract

FT research rank
experience rank

doctorates (%)

Rank in 2023 and citation database of research literature.

Faculty with

255,372 58 83 97 76 25 41 21 62 37 35 78 93 3 93 66 9.23 33
FT Executive MBA 2023
II
270,728 63 84 70 74 32 41 24 48 41 38 50 86 13 67 46 9.05 34
328,132 89 48 60 65 50 40 15 29 6 60 78 94 76 78 93 8.59 35 Methodology (continued on p29)
218,914 63 62 5 69 41 35 50 68 14 67 53 100 68 11 14 9.26 36
190,956 58 3 44 75 24 27 46 83 69 93 14 100 18 16 63 9.63 37
220,672 52 14 34 68 25 35 50 71 69 33 16 100 47 34 33 9.36 38 This is the 23rd edition of the FT’s annual ranking of
220,455 63 78 83 69 23 37 28 43 50 60 21 98 9 82 4 9.31 39 the world’s top 100 executive MBA programmes for
204,280 63 55 84 72 37 37 50 77 59 60 71 96 50 46 46 8.77 40= senior working managers.
169,910 52 46 33 74 47 31 50 71 73 38 18 99 84 30 14 9.18 40= Participation in the ranking is voluntary and at the
232,386 74 29 37 75 32 23 32 32 13 0 76 89 11 72 83 9.35 42 business school’s request. EMBA programmes must
meet certain criteria to be eligible. First, the school
210,019 66 54 39 77 38 34 28 25 20 0 61 92 36 100 66 9.11 43= must be accredited by either the US’s Association

III
200,719 52 42 4 70 35 37 45 47 35 18 26 96 30 65 82 9.50 43= to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or
194,839 46 15 21 73 39 23 33 58 57 91 6 91 50 77 46 9.33 45 Europe’s Equis.
147,696 42 71 22 71 48 44 50 95 20 70 40 100 69 10 14 8.89 46 The EMBA must be cohort-based, with students
223,740 54 31 55 72 28 32 31 47 35 41 25 92 27 75 44 9.24 47= starting and completing the programme together.
247,076 53 66 24 71 30 27 50 32 60 67 19 100 57 40 14 8.94 47= A total of 125 programmes took part in the ranking
184,724 75 32 88 72 38 30 37 23 13 18 49 96 55 53 66 9.26 49 process, including 13 joint courses delivered by more
244,425 55 56 45 72 33 32 27 19 32 73 10 97 94 22 59 8.48 50 than one school. Four new schools are featured in
166,938 44 7 80 70 32 34 53 72 58 42 78 94 10 81 66 8.50 51= the table.
240,147 80 60 58 74 39 46 15 17 24 62 54 89 100 68 93 9.43 51= Data for the ranking is collected using two online
265,346 26 82 8 73 27 30 55 62 27 55 20 99 37 45 59 8.05 53= surveys, the first completed by participating schools
206,041 58 19 27 74 19 33 33 30 71 29 78 100 54 20 93 8.90 53= and the second by alumni who completed their
223,287 45 25 82 74 32 40 18 49 14 22 68 94 35 74 83 8.88 55= programmes in 2020. For a school to be eligible
156,286 56 64 38 72 29 33 43 58 59 21 27 99 23 36 66 8.54 55= for the rankings, at least 20 per cent of its alumni
167,122 51 35 30 73 35 34 43 44 52 39 74 96 63 9 83 9.26 57 must respond to the FT survey, with a minimum
164,838 75 28 71 71 30 37 34 47 23 42 22 87 60 94 46 8.88 58 of 20 responses. Due to the effects of the Covid
216,868 70 65 94 72 28 41 22 23 33 5 9 73 52 79 46 8.69 59 pandemic, the FT considered schools with a lower
173,980 53 74 56 68 42 37 44 56 43 24 43 100 76 51 14 9.22 60= response rate. The survey was completed by
208,317 44 52 59 75 32 52 21 32 8 11 78 81 27 83 5 9.28 60= 3,814 alumni — an overall response rate of about
137,850 47 91 52 70 47 22 44 54 74 19 8 99 80 12 14 8.73 62 40 per cent.
181,755 73 63 51 69 39 32 40 41 19 40 62 100 87 37 14 8.74 63 Alumni responses inform five ranking criteria:
179,852 68 58 75 71 32 45 28 42 3 61 78 99 65 88 83 8.91 64 salary today, salary increase, career progress, work
155,928 48 44 67 70 35 38 30 51 28 39 48 95 44 73 66 9.47 65= experience and aims achieved. Together, they
156,555 109 67 98 68 36 52 0 4 9 18 70 98 79 23 93 9.09 65= account for 50 per cent of the ranking’s weight. The

27
RANKING

Biggest riser Highest new entry

Neoma Business School Xiamen

The French school leaps 32 places Xiamen University School of

to 46, the biggest riser in the EMBA Management in China is the
ranking. Alumni praised the study highest new entrant, in joint

PHOTOS: ESIGN PICS INC/ARCHITECT´S EYE /

trips abroad, the school’s engaging 65th place. Its placing can be
professors and the supportive alumni attributed partly to the second
network. Neoma is 14th in the new highest alumni salary increase —
carbon footprint rank, based on of 109 per cent — from before
factors including its net zero target the course to now. Xiamen

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

year for carbon emissions. The also performed well in the ESG
school also has 95 per cent of full- category, ranked 23rd, measured
time teaching staff from overseas, the by the number of hours devoted to
third-highest in the table. the topic in the programme’s core
WAI KWEN CHAN courses for the recent class. WKC

FT EXECUTIVE MBA 2023

The top 100 EMBA programmes (continued)

Programme name
average rank
Rank in 2023

Rank in 2022

School name
Rank in 2021

Three-year

Location

67 68 89 75 Hult International Business School US/UK/UAE EMBA

68 - 70 - University of California at Irvine: Merage US EMBA
69 70 90 76 HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne Switzerland EMBA
70 59 79 69 Incae Business School Costa Rica EMBA
71 71 76 73 Texas A&M University: Mays US Texas A&M — EMBA
72 - 59 - University of Georgia: Terry US EMBA
73 94 82 83 Melbourne Business School Australia EMBA
74 - 87 - Grenoble Ecole de Management France/Georgia Executive Part-time MBA
75 - 77 - University of Pittsburgh: Katz US Katz EMBA
76= 97 - - Cranfield School of Management UK EMBA
76= 95 - - Lancaster University Management School UK/Ghana/Malaysia Lancaster EMBA
78 80 80 79 Tias Business School, Tilburg University Netherlands EMBA
FT ranking tier IV (see table notes, p25)
79 86 93 86 University of Utah: David Eccles US EMBA
80 - 20 - Korea University Business School South Korea EMBA
81= 80 - - Georgia State University: Robinson US EMBA
81= - 100 - Sabanci Business School Turkey Sabanci EMBA
83= 100 98 94 Fordham University: Gabelli US Fordham Gabelli EMBA
83= 89 - - Rennes School of Business France/China EMBA
85= 74 97 85 Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller US EMBA
85= 91 84 87 University of Strathclyde Business School UK/Malaysia/UAE/Oman/Bahrain/Greece Strathclyde EMBA
87 98 - - Politecnico di Milano School of Management Italy EMBA
88= 91 - - National Sun Yat-sen University Taiwan EMBA
88= - - - University of Amsterdam — Amsterdam Business School Netherlands The Amsterdam MBA
90 99 - - Audencia France/Algeria Audencia EMBA
91 - - - Cornell University: Johnson US Cornell EMBA Metro NY
92 93 95 93 University of Tennessee: Haslam US EMBA
93 88 93 91 Aalto University Finland/Singapore Aalto EMBA
94 86 - - Indian Institute of Management Bangalore India MBA (two-year, part-time)
95 - - - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management Belgium EMBA
96 74 - University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business South Africa MBA specialising in Executive Management
97 85 99 94 Michigan State University: Broad US Broad EMBA
98 - - - NHH Norwegian School of Economics Norway EMBA
99 83 90 91 BI Norwegian Business School Norway EMBA
100 - - - Iscte Business School Portugal EMBA

28
 Top for ESG FT Executive MBA 2023
IE Business School Methodology (continued from p27)

Some business schools are first two criteria concerning alumni salaries count for
showing the way on ESG and 33 per cent.
sustainability issues. In sixth place Salaries of full-time students are removed. The
overall, Spain’s IE Business School remaining salaries are converted to US dollars using
is one of the leading institutions the latest purchasing power parity (PPP) rates
when it comes to teaching ESG supplied by the International Monetary Fund. The
and this is reflected in the EMBA highest and lowest salaries are then removed and
table, where it is ranked first for the mean average current salary is calculated for
the category. Alumni noted that each school. Salary increase is calculated according
ethics and ESG were emphasised to the difference in average salary between before
in all modules, not only those the EMBA and three years after course completion.
with a specific focus on these Half of the ranking weight is applied to the absolute
topics. SAM STEPHENS increase and the other half to the percentage
increase relative to pre-EMBA pay.
If available, alumni criteria are drawn from the past
three surveys. Responses from the 2023 survey carry
50 per cent of the total weight and those from 2022
Career progress School diversity Research/ FT and 2021 each account for 25 per cent. Excluding
ESG ranking salary-related criteria, if only two years of data are
tier available, the weighting is split 60:40 if data is from
International students (%)

Environmental, social and

2023 and 2022, or 70:30 if from 2023 and 2021. For

International faculty (%)

International board (%)

governance (ESG) rank

Carbon footprint rank
Work experience rank

salary figures, the weighting is 50:50 for two years’

Career progress rank

Women on board (%)

Overall satisfaction *
Female students (%)

International course

See table notes, p25

Salary increase (%)
Salary today (US$)

Female faculty (%)

Aims achieved (%)

data, to avoid inflation-related distortions.

FT research rank
experience rank

doctorates (%)

Rank in 2023 Information provided by the business schools

Faculty with

informs 10 criteria that collectively account for

40 per cent of the ranking. The ESG category is
based on the proportion of core courses dedicated
214,794 56 43 23 70 37 34 25 91 85 67 36 69 94 21 14 9.08 67 to environmental, social and governance issues. It

III
203,858 54 8 72 60 45 37 22 38 9 0 78 93 34 55 5 9.25 68 carries a weight of 3 per cent.
182,282 47 79 20 68 25 46 17 84 74 83 63 100 70 89 83 8.81 69 The weighting for faculty and student gender
171,820 67 51 85 66 25 23 19 69 80 88 33 100 87 52 14 9.45 70 diversity is five per cent each. For these gender
222,735 34 39 26 71 35 37 24 26 15 0 78 81 26 87 66 8.96 71 diversity criteria, schools with a 50:50 (male: female)
213,200 50 90 49 72 35 34 29 21 7 0 59 82 41 29 14 9.23 72 composition receive the highest score.
176,309 50 24 64 65 36 29 36 61 22 21 64 87 59 91 5 9.11 73 The international diversity calculation is based on
141,662 81 99 99 64 49 67 50 55 14 60 24 88 74 62 14 8.87 74 the overall percentage of students and faculty from
236,120 35 73 69 66 32 47 22 27 8 13 66 89 44 50 43 9.04 75 abroad as well as the spread of these individuals by
151,711 47 81 25 73 38 33 47 57 25 26 78 92 98 59 14 8.96 76= citizenship based on the Herfindahl index, a measure
115,702 73 77 93 67 35 40 43 64 53 21 78 99 75 64 33 9.00 76= of concentration.
155,310 55 23 86 74 41 24 33 36 18 0 38 100 93 33 59 9.00 78 The final criterion, the FT research rank, accounts
for 10 per cent of the ranking. It is calculated
198,076 57 68 87 72 31 25 25 26 9 6 44 79 40 57 46 9.33 79 according to the number of articles published

IV
324,074 79 87 92 66 7 14 50 7 4 42 32 100 78 76 93 9.55 80 by schools’ full-time faculty in 50 internationally
170,125 48 61 61 74 34 30 35 29 26 9 42 82 56 69 93 9.62 81= recognised academic and practitioner journals. The
190,096 51 59 73 66 33 39 67 25 4 25 78 100 90 86 93 9.23 81= rank combines the absolute number of publications
191,818 52 93 89 69 40 39 28 25 17 18 46 87 72 44 83 8.93 83= from January 2020 to about May 2023 with the
107,878 44 98 65 66 38 52 40 86 79 100 52 98 89 54 83 9.11 83= number of publications weighted relative to the
193,066 43 70 50 72 30 22 24 21 19 4 34 82 43 71 66 9.05 85= faculty’s size.
150,579 69 72 95 66 40 34 33 94 29 22 78 82 90 63 46 8.86 85= The FT rankings are relative. Schools are ranked
175,879 62 96 66 67 41 20 50 10 5 67 47 89 86 15 66 9.00 87 against each other rather than against set standards.
206,154 57 89 96 71 28 26 23 12 1 68 75 100 94 95 64 9.55 88= The FT calculates the Z-scores for each criterion.
138,555 46 94 100 67 30 38 24 50 48 30 72 88 67 4 12 8.89 88= Z-scores show how far a school’s data is from the
128,412 32 80 31 61 46 32 50 62 57 88 30 97 80 90 46 9.15 90 mean and are unitless, so they allow the ranking
176,700 21 100 68 61 25 33 25 48 30 39 55 100 4 85 33 9.29 91 to be based on very different criteria — salary,
243,981 31 95 35 68 35 32 24 19 5 0 78 84 60 99 81 9.00 92 percentages and points. These scores are then
147,922 33 85 41 65 36 37 43 36 10 43 78 99 62 92 59 9.36 93 weighted as outlined in the ranking key and added
237,823 68 41 90 68 23 26 33 6 0 0 78 100 97 98 83 9.17 94 together for a final score.
147,102 55 22 79 63 34 29 50 37 43 43 78 94 92 60 83 8.88 95 After removing the schools that did not meet the
219,119 11 92 40 58 47 52 50 56 15 80 78 94 80 84 66 8.64 96 minimum response rate from their alumni, a first
167,187 47 69 78 66 29 30 39 35 9 0 78 84 46 58 66 8.88 97 version is calculated using all remaining schools.
135,567 28 86 62 73 27 33 64 43 11 36 37 98 85 70 46 9.36 98 The school at the bottom is removed and a second
124,054 30 76 18 71 33 18 63 37 39 13 58 83 70 28 2 8.78 99 version is calculated. This action is repeated to find
131,928 44 97 76 60 48 27 40 13 10 80 60 99 99 41 5 8.87 100 the top 100.

29
 Social impact
Professor
Toni Irving’s EMBA
participants at
Darden School of
Business work with
Virginia school
students to devise
career plans

INSIDE
SCHOOL

Deglobalisation
and EMBAs p32
Studying in a less
connected world

Beyond the
bottom line p36
Courses with a
social impact

Farewell to
arms p38
Programmes for
military veterans
PHOTO: NOAH WILLMAN

Making health
affordable p40
Teaching case:
malaria innovations

31
 INTERNATIONALISM

‘Deglobalisation’ and
the global degree
With international connection and co-operation facing
multiple challenges, what does the disruption mean for
the most cosmopolitan of qualifications, the EMBA?
BY SEB MURRAY PORTRAIT BY JULIANA TAN

W
hen Philippe Rose, a business
development manager for Asia Pacific
carbon capture and storage at Shell,
decided to study for an executive MBA,
he did not want to limit himself to a
single location.
EMBAs are renowned for their global outlook, and Swiss-
raised, Singapore-based Rose picked a programme spanning
multiple countries to further expand his horizons. But such
internationalism faces increasing challenges today.
Last year, he joined the Tsinghua-Insead EMBA, taught
across Insead’s three campuses in Singapore, Fontainebleau
near Paris and Abu Dhabi, as well as Tsinghua University’s
campus in Beijing.
One driving force behind his choice was a desire to bolster
his understanding of renewables and make a transition from
the conventional oil and gas industry. The degree’s China
component was important because the republic is a key
player in renewables, dominating the supply of materials
crucial for the energy transition. “If you’re in the renewable
power industry and involved in the supply chain, pretty
much all routes lead to China,” Rose says.
He intended to enrol on the EMBA in 2021, but pandemic
restrictions made it complicated to travel, so he deferred
entry until 2022, taking some hybrid courses initially
that blend online and in-person teaching. His experience
underlines the challenges that business schools face in
delivering EMBAs around the world at a time of diminished
international connection, co-operation and free movement.
From Covid and Brexit to fallout from Russia’s war on
Ukraine and Chinese-western geopolitical tensions, this has
been described by some observers as “deglobalisation”.
The success of many highly ranked EMBAs — often
collaborative programmes with global partnerships —

32
 ‘If you’re in the renewable
power industry and
involved in the supply
chain, pretty much all
routes lead to China’

is attributed to their ability to share unique expertise

between institutions and provide students with insights
into different cultures, business and political environments.
But is deglobalisation starting to challenge the value
and internationalist proposition of these degrees? Business
schools insist not, claiming that it has actually increased
the relevance of EMBAs by preparing participants to
navigate geopolitical challenges, prompting many providers
to incorporate fresh content on the subject.
“For a long time, we took it for granted that whatever
benefits business would be accepted by governments, that
innovations would always be welcomed,” says Professor
Xiaowei Rose Luo, academic director of the Tsinghua-Insead
dual degree. “Now, we are training participants to better
anticipate the political consequences of business strategies.”
Professor Gonzalo Freixes, the associate dean for fully-
employed and EMBA programmes at UCLA Anderson
School of Management in Los Angeles, also robustly defends
programmes delivered by schools with global partnerships.
“Despite the challenges of globalisation, I think there is still
tremendous value in helping educate and advance the global
leaders of tomorrow,” he says. “Schools have a responsibility
to provide a global perspective, but to do so responsibly.”
Prof Freixes accepts that globalisation has its potential
downsides, such as social disruption, but stresses the
integration of environmental, social and governance
(ESG) content into the UCLA-NUS EMBA, delivered jointly
with Singapore’s NUS Business School. “We not only talk
about how to be successful in global business, but also the
implications for society and the environment,” he says.
Renewal Nevertheless, business schools are balancing the desire
A China-based for a diverse, globally oriented education with the potential
component was vital
to Philippe Rose’s constraints imposed by deglobalisation. EMBA programmes
energy transition with international partnerships are grappling with logistical
studies challenges in today’s geopolitical landscape.

33
INTERNATIONALISM
1 Many international components were suspended, moved
Wuhan airport, in online or relocated during the early stages of the Covid-19
China, at the start of
pandemic, restricting global mobility. For example, the
the Covid pandemic,
in March 2020 UCLA-NUS EMBA was placed on hold in the 2020-21
2 academic year and, even after it reopened a year later, the
Evacuees in Ukraine
first two modules were shifted online because of Covid
in March 2022, restrictions. The programme resumed in-person instruction
following the Russian in February 2022, but is still 25 per cent online. “This has
invasion been very convenient for our students,” says Prof Freixes.
3 However, other schools find that many participants have
The union flag little appetite for online classes, favouring opportunities to
is lowered at the
share perspectives and build networks on campus. “They
European Council
building in 2020 really treasure the in-person experience,” says Kai-Lung
Hui, the academic director of the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA
programme, delivered by Kellogg School of Management in
the US and the HKUST Business School in Hong Kong.
As Covid restrictions have eased, this has allowed for
freer global movement, but some business schools have
adapted their strategies. The Trium Global EMBA — jointly
delivered by HEC Paris, New York University’s Stern
Some schools say that many
EMBA participants have little
appetite for online classes
34
School of Business and the London School of Economics —
has yet to reinstate its China module, which was suspended
during the pandemic.
“We believe there will be less business with China in the
years to come, and therefore we decided to explore other
interesting locations,” says Laurence Lehmann-Ortega,
HEC’s academic director for the Trium programme. The
school has introduced Singapore as an alternative location
for this year and next, and South Korea from 2025 onwards.
EMBA programmes have had to navigate wider
geopolitical challenges. France’s Neoma Business School has
suspended modules in Iran for its Global EMBA, given the
PHOTOS: OLIVIER HOSLET/DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
current social unrest. Yet, demand for the course remains
strong, up 40 per cent from the previous year.
“Our participants are looking for the edge to operate
in an uncertain world,” says Sami Attaoui, the academic
director of the Global EMBA. He points to the potential
expansion of the Brics emerging market bloc: “This is
something we need to help participants understand and
navigate through all these changes.”
For Philippe Rose, the value of his Tsinghua-Insead
EMBA lies in gaining a comprehensive overview of the
myriad factors that influence the business landscape.
“The space I’m in [renewables] is recognised as being at
the extreme end of complexity. So the EMBA is not about
having all the answers, it’s more about giving a roadmap
and the confidence to ask the right questions.”
ESG
Big hitters: social
impact projects
Executive MBAs increasingly include practical projects
that make a difference in the wider world while helping
participants develop ESG understanding and skills
BY IAN WYLIE PORTRAIT BY NOAH WILLMAN
P
articipants on executive MBA programmes
are taught to learn, travel and think globally.
But, while international residencies take those
on the Darden School of Business EMBA to
locations as far-flung as China, Estonia, Ghana
and Cuba, one elective course keeps them
grounded — by giving them a close-up view of social issues
in their Virginia backyard.
Working with the local Piedmont Community College,
the executives — who commonly study while working
full-time in senior leadership roles — research and devise
career pathways for school students, helping them get the
qualifications to land jobs with decent salaries.
“Our university is the anchor institution for the
Charlottesville community, where 14 per cent of families
don’t make enough money to afford the essentials in life,”
says Toni Irving, the professor teaching this non-profit
management course to participants who pay $180,000
tuition and fees. “Our EMBA students understand all
too well the relationship between academic degrees and
well-paying jobs. They also understand the roles that
corporations play as anchor institutions.”
The course is a second-year elective on the 21-month
programme at Darden, the University of Virginia’s
business school. This year’s class decided to focus on job
opportunities in dental hygiene, radiologic technology,
computer network support, advanced manufacturing, and
telecommunications installation and repair. They then
created and delivered a marketing plan to tell young people
and parents about the career pathways.
Along the way, the participants get to put their recently
honed economic, financial, marketing, organisational
36
behaviour and data analysis knowledge into practice, with
immediate real-world implications.
“What they accomplish in just eight weeks is pretty
phenomenal,” says Prof Irving. The project has an impact
on her participants as well as the school students, she adds.
Some have subsequently convinced their employers to
change the way they think about social issues or how they
do philanthropy.
“We spend a great deal of time at Darden understanding
the more prominent, larger issues in our economy,” says
participant Erin Schneider, chief financial officer for global
business services at information services company Wolters
Kluwer. “But, if we don’t address the social and societal
issues properly, we won’t make a true impact.”
The course has been particularly relevant for another
participant: Liz Brunette, who served for 10 years in the
US military, including in Afghanistan, and is now principal
program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion at
Amazon. She is also a board member of the Constantino
Family Foundation, which provides scholarships and grants
to young people in San Francisco.
“The course has had a direct impact on how I support
my family foundation,” says Brunette. “Now, I’m able to
more keenly evaluate the purpose and impact of providing
scholarships to Bay Area students”.
A growing number of business schools include social
responsibility modules and projects on EMBA programmes,
offering participants the opportunity to give back while Purposeful
learning responsible leadership. More than 70 per cent Professor
Toni Irving says
of MBA students say they expect content on responsible applying new skills
management, ethical leadership, global challenges and locally delivers
on diversity, equity and inclusion, according to research real-world results
‘Our EMBA students
understand the roles that
corporations play as
anchor institutions’

among more than 1,650 students conducted by education

consultancy Carrington Crisp and EFMD, the European
Foundation for Management Development.
Some schools make environmental, social and governance
(ESG) courses or projects compulsory. HEC Paris reports
that, in the past five years, it has doubled ESG content on
its EMBA to 29 per cent. Students are required to complete
a project or paper on social impact and professors are
encouraged to include ESG cases in their classes.
“Our students are hungry to make an impact while they’re
on campus and beyond,” says Brad Harris, associate dean for
MBA programmes at HEC Paris. “It’s about pushing students
to answer the question ‘How will I leave a mark on this
world?’, then helping them take steps to make it happen.”
Every cohort on the Essec and Mannheim joint EMBA
works on a mandatory social project — past examples have
included fundraising efforts for children suffering from
cancer, ensuring that veterans have better access to job
opportunities, and campaigning to help save Mediterranean
seagrass “meadows”.
At Hult International Business School, EMBA
participants taking the Business and Global Society class
are organised into teams, asked to select one of the UN’s
sustainable development goals and challenged to identify
a company for which the chosen goal could present a
strategic opportunity. Projects so far have ranged from
encouraging circular economy practices and new energy
solutions, to improving science, technology, engineering
and maths (Stem) educational opportunities and
developing nutritional foods at lower prices.
“Our EMBA participants learn how each decision
we make changes the reality of the situation and has
consequences — environmental, societal, as well as financial
— that can be negative or positive,” says Joanne Lawrence,
the professor of practice who teaches the class. “We view
the concept of responsibility as a business imperative,
because business has always been about serving society
and, the better it does that, the more successful the
company becomes.
“Today’s students are increasingly people with purpose,”
she says, who want to “live their values in their day job”.
“More and more are seeing that business can do well and do
good and serve as a foundation to drive positive change.”

37
CAREER TRANSITIONS
Uniform experience:
after the military
Specialised business school programmes are helping
former US armed forces personnel adapt their
knowledge, skills and resilience to a civilian future
BY ANDREW JACK PORTRAIT BY RICK HOVIS
W
ith her background in the armed forces,
Takiesha Waites-Thierry has a high
tolerance for stress that has rarely been
surpassed in her civilian job overseeing
security and intelligence at Bank of
America.
“My predecessor told me I looked much more calm in the
job than he ever felt, but my threshold is very simple,” she
says. “Did anyone die? If no one got killed, there’s no need
to stress. When you’ve worked under that type of pressure
in the military, you get into any environment and thrive.”
Five years of active duty in naval intelligence prepared
her well for preventing and mitigating everything from
robberies and street violence to cyber attacks at the bank.
“Serving on the USS Ronald Reagan, I spent my time
looking at threats from foreign navies, considering
anything that could harm our carriers,” she says. “I
assessed the range of their missiles, how far their aircraft
could travel without refuelling and briefed our pilots to
prepare for anything.”
When she left the armed forces and a stint in government
intelligence, she wanted to learn some basic accounting so
she could open her own restaurant. Ultimately, she took an
unusual tailored degree that gave her new skills, networks
and an appetite for a far broader range of business careers.
Waites-Thierry enrolled in a 10-month Master of
Business for Veterans (MBV) qualification first launched a
decade ago by the University of Southern California (USC)
Marshall School of Business, which takes about 50 military
veterans, active duty and reserve personnel each year.
Many business schools offer slots on their regular
courses for veterans, who receive generous financial
38
aid: they range from Duke University’s Fuqua School —
which is close to a military base in North Carolina — to
Stanford in California and Tuck at Dartmouth College 1
in New Hampshire. Mays Business School at Texas A&M
University has its own veteran resource and support centre.
But far rarer are the courses in the civilian world tailored
specifically for military personnel to help them adapt.
James Bogle, USC Marshall’s MBV programme director,
served 25 years in the US army and was himself a student
on the programme. He says the degree was launched partly
in response to requests by the California Department of
Veterans Affairs, but also after observing that many former
soldiers were taking Marshall’s general Executive MBA
course to ease the transition to their new civilian lives.
“In crafting the programme, we took a deep dive into
what background veterans already have, what would their 2
needs be in coming to business school and how to make
that shift successfully,” Bogle says. 1
Veterans already have distinctive skills of leadership, Takiesha Waites-Thierry
now oversees security at
management and professional competence, he says. These
Bank of America
include “a mission orientation, a focus on getting the job
2
done, a very strong understanding of how to motivate Waites-Thierry receives an
people and get them to work together, to build a team to achievement medal while
accomplish a task”. serving in the US Navy
The difference between an EMBA and MBV, Bogle 3
notes, is that veterans are looking more for teamwork, Eric Wong switched from
collaboration and camaraderie. “The motto of our the US Air Force
to working in healthcare
programme is: we’re all invested in each other’s success.
There is a lot of trust, teamwork, nurturing and benefiting
from the support of others.”
That view resonates with Ken Keen, who retired as a
lieutenant general after 38 years in the US army. He is now
 programme lead at Goizueta Business School at Emory
University in Atlanta for its own 11-month MBV, which will
take in its first cohort of about 35 next May.
Keen says Emory — like many other US universities
— lost a connection to the military when it shuttered its
Reserve Officers’ Training Corps after campus protests
against the Vietnam war half a century ago. The links have
since been renewed, not least through him taking civilian
MBA students on a one-day immersive course to Georgia’s
Fort Moore army base for team building.
Keen sees important distinctions between civilian and
3 military culture, to which his course will be adapted. “The
way we orient our people with basic training and deleting
the ego is different to business,” he says. “It’s not all yelling
in the military but we are afforded a lot of crutches: a
significant level of authority, the ability to punish, a degree
of uniformity. There are some adjustments in leadership.”
Military personnel become used to a very structured
organisation, he adds. “That’s not to say there is not a lot
of give and take, but we pride ourselves in giving orders,
making timely decisions and operating in a calm, collected
‘The way we orient our people
with basic training and deleting
the ego is different to business’
way in a very chaotic environment. In the business world
that structure is not always there.”
Eric Wong, a graduate of USC’s MBV, who served for over
eight years in the air force and now works in the healthcare
sector, says: “There is a relatively strict hierarchy. We
wear our names on our chest, our ranks on our shoulders.
It’s very clear what the pecking order is. If you join the
military, you are committed to this organisation, don’t
really have true agency on where you go, what you do, who
you work with.”
He valued the brevity — and affordability — of the
degree and used his time to explore and interview for
a range of different jobs. He also networked with his
professors and peers.
Wong is comfortable in his adaptation and career choices,
but sees important distinctions from the military. “There’s
a different way of thinking about money: in the squadron
we were supposed to blow it all or we wouldn’t get the same
amount next year. It’s quite difficult to fire someone. The
civilian workforce is less secure and way more diverse, with
older employees and co-workers with disabilities. You have
to use your soft skills much more.”
The cultures may be different, but Waites-Thierry says
that veterans’ backgrounds are still underappreciated
elsewhere. “Where we struggle is that some leaders who
aren’t familiar with the military don’t give us enough
work or trust our capabilities. I try to coach my peers to
[recognise] what a veteran can do.”
39
TEACHING CASE SERIES
How sharing risks
can save lives
This teaching case study explores attempts to make it
economically viable for companies to help tackle
diseases in lower income countries. Readers are invited
to consider the dilemmas raised. By Prashant Yadav
M
any groundbreaking innovations in life
sciences — from novel treatments and
diagnostics to digital health tools —
remain out of reach of people in low and
middle-income countries. Manufacturers
can be unwilling to take on the risks of
unpredictable demand, fragmented and uncertain funding,
regulatory uncertainties and political instability.
Yet limited ability to pay means companies cannot
charge more to offset those risks. Instead, they underinvest,
especially in production capacity, limiting access to life-
saving innovations. While donors can fill gaps, they do not
systematically decrease the risk for global companies to
serve these markets better.
One recent response is the use of “volume guarantees”:
providing a manufacturer with an assured minimum
order volume over a designated period in exchange for a
commitment to better pricing and guaranteed supply. This
model has expanded access to contraceptive implants and
vaccines to protect against rotavirus, diphtheria, pertussis
(whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B and hib.
In 2016, the UK’s international development agency
and CDC (now British International Investment) created
MedAccess to do more. It provided $200mn for volume
guarantees across a range of products to support risks
companies or health agencies were unable to bear. By late
2017, chief executive Michael Anderson had recruited key
staff and put the structures in place to launch.
Mosquito nets: accelerating uptake
Sleeping under a mosquito bed net is an affordable and
effective intervention against malaria. Nets have been widely
40
used, with significant funding from organisations such as the 1
Global Fund and the US President’s Malaria Initiative. A mother and
infant under BASF
But the gradual emergence of resistance to the basic
dual-insecticide
pyrethroid insecticide they use posed a significant risk to bed nets in Nigeria.
control efforts. A new generation of nets with innovative Young children and
insecticide coatings was more expensive, and limited pregnant women
demand meant producers such as BASF, the German are among the most
vulnerable to malaria
chemical company, were reluctant to scale up sufficiently to
2
lower production costs and reduce prices.
A delivery of the new
MedAccess considered global and national policies, nets in Mali. Their
financing and regulation to assess the likelihood of supply was made
these nets’ approval, recommendation and use. In 2019, possible by a volume
MedAccess and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly guarantee funded
by MedAccess and
provided BASF with a four-year volume guarantee to the Bill and Melinda
purchase a specified volume of innovative nets that combine Gates Foundation
pyrethroid and chlorfenapyr insecticides. In exchange, the
company agreed to reduce prices by two-fifths.
A key question for MedAccess is whether volume
guarantees lock in the first supplier or incentivise others
to enter the market, driving price competition, efficiency
and maintaining a diverse innovation pipeline. There is
criticism and continuing scrutiny of how far they risk
granting an unfair advantage to the manufacturer who
receives the support.
In practice, the project actually shifted market dynamics
towards greater self-sustaining competition. By the end
of 2022, BASF had shipped more than 35mn nets to 16
countries and the volume guarantee was not called. In
March this year, the World Health Organization (WHO)
PHOTO: BASF
made a strong recommendation for the use of dual
insecticide nets, increasing demand further and bringing in
new manufacturers with such mosquito nets.
 Vaccines: approval uncertainties
After three decades of development by GSK with support
from global health funders, European regulators approved
the RTS,S malaria vaccine in 2015. But the WHO remained
hesitant and recommended only a pilot programme in a few
countries. Without a more comprehensive endorsement,
Gavi, the multilateral vaccine alliance, and other donors
did not pledge funding. That left GSK exposed to risks that
could have halted production.
In mitigation, MedAccess provided a guarantee to
cover new types of risk: of regulatory approval and
associated funding. It offered Gavi a guarantee of $56mn
to underwrite its support. This allowed GSK to continue
manufacturing while awaiting a final WHO decision. In
October 2021, the agency recommended wider use in
children across sub-Saharan Africa. Gavi then established
a funding mechanism, and deployment has since expanded
significantly.

An unusual growth dilemma

With more than 10 different volume guarantees
underwritten over five years, MedAccess has increased
patient access through partnerships with life science
companies and global health funders. With backing from his
board and funders, Anderson is exploring different health
applications, notably treatments and diagnostics for non-
communicable diseases such as diabetes.
But the chief executive sees multiple risks ahead.
Expanding too fast to a broader range of products and
markets brings the danger of over-reliance on volume
guarantees and creating a moral hazard: that all companies
1 seek risk underwriting before undertaking any initiatives in
lower income countries. “We’re not interested in expanding
2 market share for us, we’re interested in the market working
well,” Anderson says.
His team has developed tools to assess the potential
public health and market implications, but it is a challenge
to achieve consensus and alignment with their partners on
which deals to prioritise. Declining a potential customer’s
request is difficult, even for a social enterprise.

Questions raised
1. MedAccess’s volume guarantee mechanism has
demonstrated its value in markets where the funders
are primarily global agencies and the current risks are
relatively low. Should it support projects for which
individual countries are responsible for purchasing?
2. As MedAccess expands to additional therapeutic areas, it
must tackle multiple forms of risk. These include: the risk
that a country will fail to meet its payment obligations; that
some countries switch more quickly to new interventions;
that some regulators withdraw approval or marketing
authorisation; that raw material prices increase beyond
reasonable limits due to supply chain disruptions.
Which risks should be absolutely avoided? Which
can be contracted upon and how can they be mitigated?
MedAccess currently values its volume guarantee exposure
as a derivative financial instrument at fair value. How
should it assess that fair value given different risk profiles
of the volume guarantee being called?

For a teaching note to accompany this case study, contact

prashant.yadav@insead.edu
Prashant Yadav is a senior fellow at the Center for Global
Development and affiliate professor at Insead.

41

Is AI the real deal?
What EMBAs, Oppenheimer and Franz Liszt tell us about what the
tech will mean for execs. By Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan
I
f one thing is almost guaranteed to
follow innovation, it is hype. New
technologies garner great interest but
much of it is overstated or inaccurate.
“From crypto to non-fungible tokens
to the metaverse, we’ve seen some
pretty stupendous hype around dubious
technologies,” says Henry Ajder, an
PHOTO: JONATHAN RAA/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
expert and adviser on generative artificial
intelligence and synthetic media —
images, text or voice generated using AI.
AI is the latest big trend in technology
but, unlike many of its predecessors, it
has significantly more applications, Ajder
reckons. He describes it as “legitimately
different from those other hype cycles”,
with an opportunity to create clear and
meaningful change.
For more senior leaders on executive
MBA programmes, identifying the real
TECH COLUMN
Screening
Leaders will need to
judge which AI uses
may prove effective
value will be vital to avoid wasting
resources and reputations on AI projects
that cannot live up to their promise.
People working in — and with expertise
in — technology are keen not to write off
the potential of AI.
REVIEW
The ability of ChatGPT and its rivals to
quickly spit out responses to questions
has raised the bar for workers, says Chirag Student views
Mahawar, chief of staff for the chief
executive’s office at Quolum, a “software
p45
as a service” company. Top tips from
“If the boss has asked preliminary the classroom
questions around a subject and asks the
same to ChatGPT, the average worker’s
In real life
response might be of a similar quality,
or ChatGPT could be higher,” he says. p46
“You have to sharpen your existing skills Safaris and
— if an AI tool can pop out an answer sustainability
in a few seconds, why should my
43
TECH COLUMN
supervisor wait for a day or two for the
same advice?”
Ajder, who has spent years exploring
topics around generative AI — an
industry that has been professionalising
and commercialising since before the
pandemic began — agrees that there are a
number of potential use cases.
“I wouldn’t want to be down on it — I do
think there are some useful applications,”
he says. “But, before you rush headfirst
into something, you have to ask whether
the tech is mature enough to actually
deliver the value you want out of it.”
For example, publications using AI to
generate articles have been scuppered by
so-called “hallucinations”, when systems
simply invent inaccurate facts — an
embarrassing and potentially costly error.
Ajder says this is the consequence of
fear of missing out and a rush to market,
comparing it to companies that rushed to
create virtual storefronts in the myriad
of now largely deserted and technically
disappointing metaverses.
Business schools also need to ensure
that students can dig into what a system
actually offers, with many AI start-ups
becoming less impressive under close
scrutiny, he says.
“You have to analyse whether a product
is just an application programming
interface (API) with a nice wrap that’s
at the mercy of OpenAI or Google or
whoever’s providing the baseline,” he
says. “Fomo [fear of missing out] can lead
to companies mistaking novelty for actual
revolutionary technology.”
Alex Connock, senior fellow in
management practice at the University
of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, says
that there is “both substance and hype”
around generative AI, noting that there
Future of Business
Education: Spotlight on
the Executive MBA
Free digital conference,
Wednesday October 18
For more information and to register: emba.live.ft.com
44
Creative vision have been almost 2,200 start-ups in the
Alex Connock of field since January.
Oxford: Saïd sees
“There is a start-up for every function
parallels between
the continuing of daily life, and most cannot succeed,”
need for human he says. “While the festive season of
creativity in the AI 2022 was defined by venture capitalists
era and the success cancelling their holidays to work on AI
of films such as
Oppenheimer, investments, by the end of this summer
which draw on we saw falling demand.”
film-makers’ Connock sees parallels with Hollywood,
originality rather where this year’s box office winners
than ‘retreads of the
showed evidence of human creativity.
training data set’
“We have indeed seen movies made this
summer that were retreads of the training
data set — of the kind that AI could write,
by reorganising the patterns of past data
to create a new and synthetic iteration,”
Connock says. But, he adds: “The films
that did well were actually the ones that
let human ingenuity and originality run
free.” Connock’s parallel around human
creativity offers hope for business school
students concerned about their futures
#FTEducation
in a working world where AI systems are
being touted as their replacements.
“All the skills that you really learn at
business school are going to be more
important than ever: presenting, coherent
storytelling, analysis, charismatic
persuasion, writing original material,
structuring original ideas,” he says.
“These are the skills that will prevail in
the boardrooms of the next decade.”
In an era of AI disruption and continual
uncertainty, Connock looks to another
unexpected source of inspiration — Franz
Liszt, who said: “My sole ambition as a
composer is to hurl my javelin into the
PHOTO: ERIC THAYER/BLOOMBERG
infinite space of the future.”
Connock says, “My advice to students
is to enter the workplace with a clear
view of what value your perspective can
contribute, to be AI-literate at every level,
but not AI paranoid. If you approach the
future with your own firm vision, then
that’s as good as you can do.”
Join our free online webinar
to learn more about the
latest FT EMBA ranking and
hear from business school
leaders, admissions officers,
alumni, recruiters and FT
specialists. The event will
explore what to expect
from an EMBA and how
the degree can aid career
transitions, refine leadership
skills and broaden horizons
for a global career

Executive
summary
Graduates and students around
the globe tell Kate Hodge what
they have learnt from their EMBA
Julie Driscoll
British. Imperial College
Business School,
graduated 2018. Chief
executive, Olympia
London, UK
Why did you decide to study
for an EMBA?
I was in a senior leadership position
within a global media business and
wanted to become a chief executive. I
was self-aware enough to know I had
knowledge gaps, such as how to craft
a compelling shareholder relationship
management strategy or valuing
companies for M&A. An EMBA was
the best way to address this. Imperial’s
programme offers a range of courses from
corporate finance to macroeconomics.
The course gave me what I needed. I
gained deep knowledge in areas so I can
sit in any boardroom with confidence.
The mentoring and coaching that I
received during the EMBA also taught
me that being an authentic, dynamic
leader at the top of your game requires
continual work. I have a coach and
am a lifelong learner. The course also
supercharged my career journey. I was
able to progress into my current role
and now have the tools to apply the very
latest thinking and strategic frameworks,
helping me to drive significant growth.
The most important lesson
was not just the knowledge
I gained from the course,
but my contribution to it
Antonie Jagga
South African. NUS
(National University of
Singapore), graduated
2023. Actuarial partner,
PwC Australia, Sydney
How did the EMBA change you?
I have a more mature approach to
problem solving and dealing with different
personalities. On the programme, you’ve
got 50 people, who are very senior and
accomplished. Those people are used
to getting their own way. But, in the
classroom, we are just students, working
together with perspectives to share. I
now listen more and respect that people
have different perspectives. Just because
a view differs from yours does not mean
it is wrong, it’s that they come from a
different background. I’ve always felt that
I’ve been good at those things — balancing
perspectives, diversity and different
views — but, as you get more senior, you
naturally get less of that challenge. Being
in this class makes you take that step back
and say, “Actually, I could be better at
asking for perspectives and more open to
learning from other people.” So I feel like
it’s been an exercise in humility and I am
coming out of it with a more open mind
and growth mindset.
Uju Uzo-Ojinnaka
Nigerian. Ceibs (China
Europe International
Business School),
graduated 2018. Founder/
chief executive, Traders of
Africa, Lagos
What was the most important lesson you
took from the course?
The most important lesson was not just
the knowledge I gained from the course,
but also my contribution to it. I realised
that the lessons went beyond the content
given to us by the faculty at Ceibs — it
was also from the collective input of
the class. Studying is not just about
passively absorbing information from the
lecturer — there is an interactive dynamic
in the classroom that the lecturer
facilitates. [You have to ask:] ‘What
unique perspectives do I bring to class
discussions to foster a more profound
learning experience?’ This realisation
also emphasises the idea that whatever
role I play in the world, it is critical
for me to bring something valuable to
discussions. It also aligns with my ethics
and perspective: it’s important to me
that relationships are driven by mutually
beneficial insights, constructive feedback
and shared depths of experiences.
STUDENT VIEWS
Isabelle Ugochukwu
French/British. Insead,
graduates in 2024.
Start-up co-founder,
divides time between
UK and France
What surprised you about the course?
How time-consuming it is. With a
newborn, a toddler and no finance or
economics background, I had to work
hard to keep up. But I realised the power
of leadership skills. Plenty of people on
the course have amazing technical skills,
but leadership is about bringing the future
into the present and sharing a vision that
people can be passionate about turning
into a reality — that’s where my strengths
lie. I didn’t expect the transformation to
be so deep. The leadership development
programme made me realise that I tend
towards perfectionism because I grew
up in a culture that humiliated children
for making mistakes. I learnt a lot about
myself. My capacity for entrepreneurship
surprised me. I thought the EMBA would
accelerate my corporate career, but then
a business idea happened and I am now a
start-up co-founder. With the support of
the Insead community, I’m able to — in a
prudent way — throw some caution to the
wind and see what happens next.
Gia Mahmoud
American. Cornell:
Johnson, graduated 2023.
Vice-president, workplan
development & resource
management, National
Grid, US
What are your tips for balancing a
rigorous course with work?
I didn’t try to balance work, life and
school. I integrated all three so I would
not lose out on my daughter’s final soccer
game or miss my class or homework time.
I watched many of my daughter’s games
sitting in the car and taking a class, or
made lunch for my family while chatting
with my team about an assignment. While
you have to make sacrifices, the learning
and relations you build outweigh the
downsides. Staying organised is critical.
You have to prioritise: I use tools such as
calendars and to-do lists and developed
a study schedule. Getting up early and
studying two hours before work helped
me stay on course. I delegated tasks
where possible and asked for support
from colleagues and family. You have to
remember to take breaks to relax and
recharge. Stay motivated and remind
yourself of the long-term benefits and
goals you hope to achieve.
45
IN REAL LIFE
On safaris and
sustainability
Eco-tourism executive Neuman Vasco wants to build an
economy that supports Botswana’s nature and people
I
grew up in Maun, a small town in northern Botswana.
We have started diversifying, but it is pretty much a
tourism-based economy.
My dad used to have a transport company and would
deliver gas and building materials for safari companies
and I would accompany him into the bush when I was on
school holidays. It felt like home to me — I loved it. We also
had a family farm a couple of hours outside Maun, where
we would go at weekends and on vacations, so I grew up
with a lot of exposure to the wilderness.
Mother Nature is one of the resources we have and true
wilderness can generate revenue and improve people’s
livelihoods, if it is managed sustainably. Sustainability
was something that started manifesting in my headspace
Call of the wild early on. From a young age, I knew I wanted to work at the
Neuman Vasco has
worked at most tourism lodges in the Okavango Delta.
levels of the safari After high school, I went to Cape Town and got a
business bachelor’s degree in geographic environmental science and
46
tourism. I then returned to Maun and started working for
Wilderness Safaris, where I still work today. I worked in
every department from housekeeping to food and beverage
and maintenance. I eventually became a general manager,
overseeing the whole operation and bringing everything
together, before moving to the executive role that I have
today, where I look after four camps.
I had this voice that kept bugging me, asking how I could
keep improving the sustainability of our business. How can
I be more effective? How can I change people’s lives, and do
it on a bigger scale?
I spoke to the chairman of our company about it and he
suggested that I already had a lot of experience, but that
I needed to connect it to trends that were happening not
just in my world but also internationally. That led me to
go back to the University of Cape Town, to the Graduate
School of Business for an executive MBA.
The course attracted me as it is one of the best in the
world, and I could do it part time and continue working.
There are about 60 of us doing the course, which stretches
over two years in two-week blocks, with classes every
three months. You have the option of attending in person
or virtually, but I chose to go in person because the
biggest takeaway for me has been engaging with the other
participants.
What I have most enjoyed about the course was the path
of self-discovery that it set me on. I learnt about current
ways of thinking and hot topics in business, but I discovered
which of these actually resonated with me. I learnt a lot
about how I actually learn, and how I can best engage with
what is happening in other industries or countries.
I never considered myself an academic, so when I
started the course, I felt a little bit out of place. Many of
the people in my cohort come from very corporate roles
in finance or banking, while our company does not really
have a very corporate culture. But interacting with people
from so many different industries helped me draw a
clearer picture of the whole ecosystem of the economy and
how we all interact.
I am graduating from the programme in December and I
am currently working on my dissertation, which is looking
at how we in Botswana can stimulate domestic travel and
diversify our tourism industry, trying to learn from the
pandemic and travel restrictions. My passion is to have
an impact on the tourism industry — that’s where it lies,
with the people and, most of all, with the environment.
It is about building an economy that sustains both people
and nature.
Ultimately, that will require influencing policy — I can’t
do it all inside our business. Botswana has developed a
great eco tourism model, which a lot of other countries
have adopted and looked up to.
But, now, as the next generation is coming in, I’m
PHOTO: TEAGAN CUNNIFFE
wondering: can we do better? We need to keep adapting
to new changes and challenges, and keep working on
our sustainability model. That’s where I wish to have
an impact.
As told to Patricia Nilsson