Out of the ordinary: interesting EMBA electives

An Executive MBA program is typically composed of two types of courses. The first are core courses which make up the basic foundation of the program. These courses are compulsory which all students must attend.

The second type of course is the elective course. Chosen by each individual EMBA student, EMBA electives allow the candidate to focus on a specific aspect of business education or specialise within a particular area of emphasis. In other words, they allow you – the EMBA student – to customise your business school education and it is often these electives that give your EMBA an edge.

Both the number of electives required and those offered differ across business programs worldwide. Some business schools and universities offer a limited but focused selection of electives; others let EMBA students choose from a wide range of courses to meet their Executive MBA degree requirements.

Among the usual array of electives in business education are traditional courses such as strategic management, negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, innovation, entrepreneurship, corporate and international finance or marketing strategy to name a few, but every once in a while an elective course offers a focus beyond the immediate business realm.

Leaning on a term from early strategy literature, Columbia Business School’s EMBA elective, ‘Napoleon’s Glance’ provides “key skill for strategy, leadership, and decision-making in business, your career, and your personal life”. Unlike many other courses that are fully focused on the finite and calculable application of practices, this course includes strategic intuition as a tool for decision-making and success.

This is not a course offer for aspiring majors or politicians, rather it’s about communicating with the outside world in aspects of business that interact directly with external stakeholders and environments, specifically the broader financial community, such as investors, bankers, brokers and analysts. The course offers a better “understanding, appreciation and awareness of the methods, strategies and techniques” that are relevant for connecting with this specific segment of the outside world.

This EMBA elective incorporates a particular contemporary theme: uncertainty and volatility. The course addresses strategies and management techniques that facilitate a better understanding of this growing uncertainty and the strategies required to deal with conditions of precariousness. As the program states: “it is important to create strategies that are flexible and robust in an unpredictable world.” Embracing the unknown is a highly topical issue in a social, economic and business context that is increasingly determined by greater complexity and unpredictability.