Diversity in the EMBA Classroom

TopMBA.com looks at why there is so much diversity in the Executive MBA classroom. 

Finance, consulting, IT, marketing – it’s all too common for such industries to be represented in the Executive MBA classroom. Professionals in these fields find value in the EMBA, providing them with a holistic view of management practices, yet at the same time ensuring industry-specific relevance through modules and group projects.

However, in addition to these regular industries, business schools are reporting an increase in candidates from other areas such as internal investigation and compliance positions as well as the leisure industry. In 2011, London Business School announced its EMBA cohort in Dubai was made up of professionals from 13 different industries, 17 per cent of whom came from within media, leisure, sport and entertainment.

In Germany, ESMT has experienced a 60 per cent growth in EMBA participants for the current year with 50 students from 17 countries represented. The majority come from multi-national corporations such as Allianz, Bayer, Daimler and KPMG, but Rick Doyle, marketing manager for MBA programs at ESMT says the school does have a small percentage of EMBA participants from non-traditional backgrounds such as medicine, law, NGO’s and entrepreneurial ventures.

“The ESMT EMBA program and participants benefit immeasurably by having a student population from a mix of backgrounds and nationalities,” Doyle explains. “They add a great deal to class discussions. We also have participants with a mix of education in law and professional experience in Asian tax planning for a European company which will help enable fellow students to understand the intricacies of such issues on a global scale and navigate across borders.

” One trend Doyle says the school has noticed over the past few years is that more women participants for the EMBA program tend to come from non-traditional backgrounds than male participants. “Among those from non-traditional backgrounds, 60-70% tend to be women," he says.

Entrepreneurial options

Traditionally attracting an older, more seasoned group of executives, both the HEC EMBA and the TRIUM Global EMBA are also boasting diversity in the classroom. The September 2011 intake of the TRIUM EMBA included 66 executives representing 31 different nationalities from around the globe from companies and organizations ranging from Accenture to Mitsubishi and from Goldman Sachs to the UN. Similarly the HEC EMBA attracted executives from a diverse range of companies representing the broad range of company functions including HR, finance, and operations information systems.

“What is different is what participants are looking for in their degree,” says Sean Kilbride, HEC Paris Executive Education commercial and admissions director. “We can see that participants from all backgrounds and nationalities are becoming more and more attracted by the entrepreneurial options offered by an EMBA. In the HEC EMBA, this general management degree offers six “majors”. The majors are designed to develop special competence in a particular area of business and options include: Global Business Perspectives; Aerospace & Aviation; Services: Differentiation and Innovation; Management in an Energy-concerned Economy; Luxury; and Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

“One of the most popular major is Entrepreneurship and this year we had over 80 participants travelling to the US to experience the entrepreneurial model there. We can clearly see that HEC participants are moving away from the pure “powerpoint presentations” type of delivery to actually putting in place what they learn both immediately in their organizations and more and more through launching their own companies,” Kilbride says.

Family focused

Meanwhile, at Melbourne Business School in Australia another trend is emerging. “If you’re an accountant, lawyer or engineer, at a certain point - and it’s probably about 40 years of age – you’ll want to move into practice management, the C-suite or out of the field and into HQ,” says Patrick Butler, program director of the Executive MBA at Melbourne Business School.

“Being the best accountant, lawyer or engineer will not do. We know what career development is in these professions: these people are at a stage where they don’t want to build another bridge, supervise another audit or litigate another case and you get the same pattern in family-run businesses. Sometimes you need to make sense of your success, stop the momentum, and step outside – that’s where you want an EMBA with classmates at the same level,” he says.

Diverse networks

With such diversity in the EMBA classroom it’s no wonder students and alums speak of the valuable network of professionals across the globe they become a part of throughout their studies. And as candidates from an ever-increasing variety of industries choose to embark on the EMBA journey, such networks can only continue to expand.