Programme themes
We’ve built three themes into the very core of the programme.
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Complexity - The world is complicated. And doing business in a complicated world throws constant challenges at you. Every module of the programme brings together diverse opinions to help you understand the world from new perspectives. The expertise you’re exposed to will help you think critically and become capable of leading organisations through complex challenges.
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Teamwork - You can’t be a leader without a team. Group work is threaded throughout the programme to replicate how you’d work in your own organisation. You’ll assume different roles while we actively help you develop the skills and processes you need to succeed as a leader and team member.
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Digital as standard - The world is digital. Technology isn’t an optional add on for businesses, it’s an integral part of daily life. Everything from the way you learn to the activities you complete will reflect the realities of working in a digital world. We’ll bring in experts from across King’s who will help you understand technologies and their opportunities for your business. How will NFTs affect your financing? What does automation really mean for your workforce? Which new technologies are King’s scientists working on with the potential to disrupt or revolutionise your industry?
Year one
You can’t get where you’re going without knowing where you are now. So before exploring your ambitions, we begin the programme with some background. What leadership qualities do you have now? What skills can you improve to be the best possible leader?
Then we move on to context. What’s happening in the world? What challenges will you face as a leader?
Finally, for your first year, we’ll help you build your confidence to engage specialist teams and lead across your business, achieving financial and impact goals. Throughout the course, you’ll have opportunities to combine your knowledge and apply your new skills to practical, real-world solutions.
Year two
In your second year, you’ll explore business strategy, innovation, and impact. You’ll work on challenging projects where you’ll need to consider different perspectives to make strong decisions.
In The Impact Project, you and your peers will work with a non-profit organisation to solve a challenge they’re facing. You will work to understand the challenge, research solutions, and then present your recommendations to your client to help them deliver real impact.
Modules
Leadership skills are the bedrock of your Executive MBA journey. Together, we’ll explore how leadership is changing, as well as the frameworks, skills and tools you can apply in your own organisation. Decide how to position yourself for immediate and long-term success, thinking ahead to the legacy you’d like to leave on the world. Working with an executive coach individually and in groups you’ll explore your leadership strengths and areas for development and how to flex your skills across a hybrid world of interactions.
As well as leadership at the person level, you’ll explore the wider context of leadership outside of your own team and organisation. Explore the role of business in tackling environmental and social challenges, and how you can achieve change, legacy and impact. You’ll learn what good governance looks like and how that needs to include stakeholders, ESG regulation and compliance. You’ll learn how to weigh up a diversity of views in your financial, commercial and strategic decisions and take an active role in influencing and challenging your organisation and industry to achieve both competitive advantage and positive impact.
Using online and self-study materials and primers, you’ll work at your own level to develop your understanding of management accounting and financial reporting. We’ll then come together to build your expertise in complex concepts of strategic financial management and the communication of numbers and finances across the C-suite and your wider organisation.
In this module, we’ll address the future of work. What does it look like? How can companies become and remain agile in a changing, global, virtual world? We’ll look at more than attracting, selecting and retaining talent. You’ll focus on how to make the very best of a diverse workforce and consider methods and structures companies can embed to leverage human capital.
Economic and financial theory are essential to understanding the grand challenges facing business today. You’ll explore the ways economics explains how, when, and where impact, innovation and sustainability are pursued. And unravel how contemporary forms of entrepreneurial and sustainable finance work, covering filtering models, valuation techniques and deal terms. We’ll look at where and when innovation occurs, how markets shape innovation, how finance augurs (or undermines) the case for sustainability and the role of finance in fostering innovation.
We live in a world that is characterised by high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Although organisations now often have huge volumes of data, this often doesn't give simple answers: data may be incomplete, inaccurate or simply irrelevant. This creates a challenge for leaders: people seek certainty and reassurance, and yet uncertainty persists. In this module, we will explore this dilemma looking both at the technical and social aspects of the problem. We will explore the ways of understanding different problems, the limitations of data and frameworks available to solve them (and how to mitigate these), and the broader cultural challenges that organisations face in managing uncertainty. Throughout the module, we will take a practical approach to solving problems, and reflecting on their implications for leaders.
Immerse yourself in the current and future issues of consumers, customers and marketing. Focusing on digital and social media marketing, you’ll explore the impact of technologies such as analytics tools, AI, machine learning and web 3.0. You’ll explore consumer behaviour and neuromarketing, the importance of brands and brand purpose, and the impact of technology on business models, strategy, products, platforms and marketing.
Strategy today is completely different to the business school textbooks of the recent past. Looking at the processes and opportunities of the future, you’ll explore what strategy is and how to create and execute it. You’ll learn how to strategise for virtual organisations such as start-ups or high tech firms, how to grow with and around industry regulation and how to talk about strategy with your investors and stakeholders with credibility and impact.
In this module you will focus on how you can innovate for impact, and how you can navigate and shape organizational environments to embrace the opportunities of unmet consumer, social and environmental needs. From your position inside an established organisation, you will enhance your ability to act as an entrepreneurial change agent or catalyst, and to redefine the impact that business can achieve.
The world is global. Effective leaders leverage their cultural competency and understanding to make the most of opportunities. We’ll travel as a group to an overseas city (location to be confirmed) to immerse you in the local business landscape. Explore the local, national and global ecosystem that impacts businesses in that area. In your study team, you’ll explore a specific business problem, using your experience to solve a pressing issue or make a recommendation.
Projects
Working in a team, this substantial consultancy project will bring together all of your learning. Working with one of our partner non-profits, charities or social enterprises, you’ll unravel their challenges and formulate solutions and recommendations to present to the organisation. Combine a taught consultancy framework and your own unique experience to leave a positive legacy for an organisation while honing your own business skills.
An integrated programme journey
Our Executive MBA is carefully designed and curated to bring together academic teaching and practical study alongside experiential learning, personalised coaching and exposure to a wide intellectual and stimulating community.
All of the core components of the programme, including executive coaching, fireside chats and opportunities for structured and informal networking will be conveniently timetabled into your time spent on campus or your regular core learning commitments.
Workshops and coaching
Workshops throughout the programme will be tailored to your career stage – and your ambitions. You have the potential to succeed at any venture and we’ll provide as many opportunities as possible to help you along the way.
You’ll meet your personal executive coach throughout the programme. Together, you’ll explore your professional goals and your personal values and priorities. Coaching can help you solve leadership challenges, develop skills, and create a plan to achieve your aims.
Fireside chats & practitioner talks
King’s is home to top researchers in a huge range of areas. We’ll bring some of that leading insight to the programme through our fireside chats. You’ll have your say about who we invite – and together we’ll discuss the topics and challenges you’re exploring in the programme from the perspective of some of the brightest brains in the country.
Building your personal resilience
We’ll draw on some of King’s renowned expertise in health and wellbeing through the personal resilience programme. Many of today’s most successful leaders have got where they are having mastered personal resilience and wellbeing. The activities in the programme will give you habits to stay well throughout your career.
Course format
As a rising star in your organisation you’ll have a busy schedule and you’ll have important personal commitments. We have designed the programme to fit around your personal and professional life.
At King’s you’ll visit campus for 10 intensive blocks of a few days, using weekends within this so that you are not out of the office too often. You’ll spend this time working on real projects, alongside leading academics and your cohort of professional peers, maximising the time spent together to learn and practise solving complex challenges as a team.
This in-person immersion is complemented by convenient virtual learning between the blocks, both self-paced and synchronous with your classmates. And of course, you’ll always have access to the huge resources of King’s at any time you wish.