Executive education is key to effective leadership

In an increasingly complex global business environment, leaders continue to look for ways to stay ahead of the crowd and effectuate meaningful change. In this fast-changing dynamic world with the growing importance of leadership in business, an increasing number of educational institutions are offering Executive Education courses to ensure that participants have the attributes that will allow them to succeed. Renu Kulkarni, Associate Dean, Executive Education at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business talks to Nishtha Balagopal about the importance of Executive Education and the programme offered at Chicago Booth School of Business.

What is the USP of Chicago Booth School of Business?

The three things that stand out are our data-based research, same faculty teaching all our programs — MBA and Executive Education — and our international campuses in London, Chicago and Hong Kong. We also have presence through the three University of Chicago Centres in Delhi, Beijing and Paris so it gives us an unparalleled global presence and knowledge to conduct our programs.

What is ADP-India and who is the ideal candidate for it?

The Accelerated Development Program–India (ADP-India) is the first program that we are offering for Indian Executives who are functional leaders and are looking to broaden their general management skill sets and responsibility, specifically in the area of finance, strategy and leadership. It will help to strengthen their strategic decision making skills, and to shape organisational culture and structure to create value. This is a nine-month journey, and during that period, our faculty teaches one week each in Hong Kong, Delhi and the Chicago campus. So the same group of executives go to all three campuses with Booth faculty delivering the programs in those modules.

In between modules, we have practitioner workshops, which are held in Delhi and Bengaluru to give a practical perspective to what is learnt in the classroom, and to allow them to talk with experts and peers, and experiment with this in real time. We also have live online interactions and learning modules to strengthen business fundamentals throughout the nine-month period. We do this course in partnership with Northwest Executive Education which is a leading Executive Education provider in leadership space in India. We offer workshops and online learning programs through them, and in the class, lectures are delivered by the Booth faculty.