Executive MBA (EMBA) Overview

Since 1983, the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) Program has offered a unique two-year course of study tailored to the needs of mid-career managers who have the potential to reach senior executive positions within their organizations. The program offers a creative alternative to the traditional executive MBA, both in its instructional delivery system and in its emphasis on an electronic linkage between the Krannert School and the program participants between in-residences.

The schedule of six concentrated two-week sessions interspersed throughout a two-year long program period allows participants to maintain their job responsibilities while they acquire the broad range of managerial skills needed to be effective in today's and tomorrow's dynamic business environment. The program is divided into three modules, each of which corresponds in course content to an academic semester.

Program participants study an integrated curriculum, drawing on the full range of the functional areas of business and stressing the development of analytical skills. The emphasis is on decision-making, particularly as decisions are influenced by the global setting of business. The courses in the program have an applied, policy-making orientation and use cases and other experiential materials extensively. The use of the computer to support decision analysis is a key component of most courses.

 Instructional Approach

A new group of participants enters the program each year in July - beginning with a four-day orientation session on the Purdue campus - and continues through the two-year course of study as a cohort, sharing the same educational experiences. The program is distinctive in that the subsequent instructional sessions are concentrated into six two-week residencies, rather than following the evening or alternating-weekend format typical of traditional executive MBA programs.

This schedule makes it possible for participants to be drawn from around the world, and eliminates the problem of potential interruptions in their education for participants who confront job transfers during the program. The resulting diversity of the group provides an unusually rich environment for interaction among the participants, both in class and in their respective study groups.

EMBA courses include a mixture of individual and group assignments with the membership of study groups designed to allow each of the participants to benefit from an exposure to diverse business and cultural backgrounds during the residencies. The study groups remain active in the interim periods between residencies as well, with participants linked to each other and to the faculty electronically via the Internet and a central Web site.