When Professor and Faculty Director Grant Ackerman set out to redesign Columbia Essentials of Management (CEM), he knew he wanted the program to go beyond a traditional strategy/leadership course. His goals for this program for mid-level executives: to include more sessions on functional excellence and reflect a broad, MBA-inspired curriculum.
Those goals, he says, "opened up the need for professors from a variety of areas within Columbia Business School. We had an opportunity to get more people involved - to say, 'Let's create a showcase of the best of Columbia Business School faculty.' That was our first step."
The second step involved inviting professors who were doing cutting-edge research and asking them to present that research in ways that executives could use right away, in their daily work. "We wanted not only to demonstrate the latest research being conducted by the Business School, but we also wanted to show state-of-the-art practical application - how it relates to business today," says Professor Ackerman.
Just like the Columbia MBA, participants in CEM need to come to the program with a commitment to learning and a true student's mindset: an intellectual curiosity that will allow them to take in the information and then apply it to their own business challenges. Along the way, they will engage in discussions and discourse with Columbia Business School thought leaders, in a setting that provides ample opportunities for questioning and practicing.
"The faculty presentations were good, with a lot of interaction and, in some cases, lively debate between the participants and faculty," says Ayesha Guzder, who helps run her family-owned business, AFL Private Ltd. in India, and attended CEM in April 2008. "I have found the presentations to be very helpful to me on my return, and I use them as a resource and key reference point."
"With all the different perspectives offered by our faculty, participants in CEM will experience serious academic learning as well as experiential learning," notes Professor Ackerman. "We enjoy what we do as the program's faculty, and we invite participants to take that journey of learning along with us."
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Click here to watch a segment from Leadership Jazz, a unique session of Columbia Essentials of Management. |
Columbia Essentials of Management includes presentations by more than a dozen Columbia Business School faculty, including:
Creating Breakthrough Strategies, with Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee;
Marketing and Advertising, with Professor Gita Johar;
Accounting and Ratio Analysis, with Professor David Beim;
Organizational Alignment, with Professor Paul Ingram; and
The Changing Distribution of Global Power, with Professor Ray Horton.
For a detailed program grid that lists all of the sessions and faculty, please contact Executive Education at execed@columbia.edu or 212-854-3395.
