Which MBA Employers Run the Best Leadership Development Programs?

Joining a company’s leadership development program after graduating with an MBA can be a shrewd way to fast-track a post-MBA career into the leadership ranks.

Structured, intense and often rotational, they are designed to groom and propel those who show potential into leadership roles within an organization.

Leadership development programs are offered by a wide range of MBA employers, in sectors such as healthcare, technology, finance and consumer goods.

But, because they are so coveted by those hoping to become business leaders, selection criteria are often rigorous and recruitment highly competitive.

A new list put together by MBA-Exchange.com aims to identify the world’s best leadership development programs based on the views, given over the past year, of MBA students from more than 100 business schools. A total of 537 programs are ranked and the top 10 is shown below. 

Source: MBA-Exchange.com

AB InBev, the global brewing giant responsible for big-name brands such as Budweiser, Beck's and Quilmes, is ranked number one. It offers a one-year leadership scheme that hires MBA students into specific business areas, yet gives them the potential to move cross-functionally and geographically throughout their careers.  

• Read an interview with AB InBev’s global director of talent attraction and retention.

Second is Amazon’s ‘Retail Leadership Development Program’. This three-year scheme rotates MBAs through different parts of the company, with the goal of providing a five-to-seven-year pathway to leadership roles. Amazon has another program, the ‘Pathway Operations Manager’, in the top 10. That program, ranked seventh, is also three years long and recruits specifically for the company’s fulfilment centers and customer service sites.

Third on the list is the ‘Esprit Commercial Program’ at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK pharmaceutical company. It runs for four years and rotates MBAs through roles in the traditional pharmaceutical side of its business as well as those in areas that deal with vaccines or consumer healthcare.

• Discover how one MBA student’s internship at GSK led to him accepting an offer to join its Esprit program.