Course description
Programme details
The EMBA-Global is a unique dual MBA programme offered jointly by London Business School and Columbia Business School. It equips talented high achievers with the tools of international leadership and is designed for those who want to be challenged and stimulated by a truly international postgraduate degree.
The EMBA-Global is a five-term, 20-month programme commencing in May each year and leading to two MBA degrees from two world-class business schools. During the first academic year core courses take place in 4-6 day blocks which alternate between London and New York each month. During the second academic year, students choose electives from the portfolios of either/or both Schools. The electives are offered in block week, term time or weekend formats.
Teams and group work are at the centre of the EMBA-Global learning experience. It can be challenging to work in multicultural teams, but it is an essential management skill that is highly valued by employers. You will be assigned to a group of approximately six people at the beginning of the programme, and you will work with them throughout the first three terms. A major part of assignments will be based on group projects, and extensive communication among group members will be essential. This is facilitated through the intranet site and specially designed courseware.
Programme content
The EMBA-Global curriculum combines the best of two strong Executive MBA programmes. At the heart of the EMBA-Global concept is the opportunity to expand your mind. Ideas, concepts, theories and practice will challenge you as you challenge them.
You will join with your professional peers and our world-renowned faculty in this expansive intellectual environment and you will grow, learn and transform through:
Core courses provide a sound knowledge base for general management
Electives provide the opportunity to focus on specific subject areas and to explore these in depth
International seminar: a week in Buenos Aires, Shanghai or Munich, visiting companies and meeting with top business leaders and government
Company project: apply theory and test skills on a real-life business problem
Core courses
At first sight, the core courses will look similar to other top MBA programmes. However, there is a significant difference, which is in the global content and delivery of the courses. With faculty from all around the world, including Israel, Finland, Belgium, US, UK, Canada, India and many other countries, you will benefit from unique insights and a truly international perspective, providing you with the general management skills necessary for you to build upon and develop as global leaders.
Electives
As an EMBA-Global student you will have access to the broadest array of electives in the most flexible of formats choosing from both School's elective portfolios. This means you can select a format and timeframe that allows you to successfully integrate your study with your professional commitments. The variety of elective formats ensures that time away from the office in the second year can be further minimised.
International Seminar
The International Seminar is a week-long residence in Buenos Aires, Shanghai or Munich where students attend seminars, visit corporate sites and meet with top business and government leaders.
Company project
Students work in teams, and in collaboration with a faculty member from either London or Columbia Business School, to apply the theory and concepts learned in the core courses to the research and development of a project focussing on a real-life business problem. Projects may include consulting work, business planning or professional research.
Core course timetable
View the EMBA-Global programme structure
Core skills, a grounding for success
EMBA-Global core courses:
-Corporate Finance
-Decision Models
-Financial Accounting
-Leadership Development
-International Macroeconomy
-Managerial Accounting
-Managerial Economics
-Managerial Statistics
-Marketing
-Operations Management
-Leading and Managing in Organisations
-Strategic Management
-Corporate Finance
The objectives of this course are to provide an overview of corporate finance including investment appraisal and financing decisions. An important part of the course is a description of how risk is priced and its applications to valuing risky assets. The course should also provide insights into how capital markets, both North American and European, work.
Decision Models
Important decisions cannot generally be left to intuition alone. We need to communicate the structure of our reasoning, often defend it to adversarial challenge and make presentations that show we have done a thorough analysis. We also need to make sense out of various sources of data, organise the inputs of experts and colleagues, and use state-of-the-art business software to provide analytical support to our reasoning. The overall objective of this course is to equip you to be more effective in these tasks. However, the emphasis in the course is not on the quantitative aspects, but on the qualitative insights that come from using models to aid managerial thinking about important issues.
Financial Accounting
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive, graduate level introduction to accounting. It is designed to provide globally oriented managerial users of accounting products with the foundations of accounting concepts, mechanics, and a perspective upon which intelligent use of accounting information rests. The course will focus on typical financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement) along with the environment in which they are produced and used. The perspective emphasised is that accounting reports provide information useful for a variety of purposes.
Leadership Development
The purpose of the course is to assess your leadership and management skills by providing an opportunity to gather feedback on your strengths and developmental needs. It focuses on self-awareness and employs several experiential exercises and self-assessment instruments including, a 360-degree feedback instrument and the NEO Personality Inventory. Class members will also be trained in giving and receiving professional feedback. The final morning of the course you will focus on goal setting for future leadership development.
International Macroeconomy
The purpose of this course is to familiarise you with the workings of the global economy and the elements that determine the financial health of corporations and nations. By the end of the course you should understand - among many other things - what determines the long run performance of an economy; the role of trade in influencing national wealth and corporate performance; the determinants of exchange rates and inflation; why business cycles occur, and the principles and motivation underlying government economic policy.
Managerial Accounting
The objectives of the costing and management control course are to enable you to understand how some of the key figures available from an organisation's financial information system can be used, and to improve your ability to use financial professionals. This subject may be more familiar than some other courses if you have been directly involved in budgeting and control and in dealing with cost information. Whatever your level of existing understanding, this course will enable you to build on your knowledge.
Managerial Economics
The goal of this course is to teach you to think analytically about the basic economic factors that shape an industry and influence the choice of strategy in that industry. These are the factors that, for instance, make the semiconductor industry different from the software business, although both are dealing with related technologies. Again, the airframe industry is very different from the computer industry, although both are referred to as "hi tech" industries. In trying to understand the essential distinguishing characteristics of an industry and how they affect the running of a company, you will cover the following topics: analysing the structure of a market, pricing strategy, e-con.com and strategy.
Managerial Statistics
The main objectives of this course are to: build a foundation of concepts in statistics and probability; examine analytical techniques, when and how they are used, and what they can tell us; consider ways to gather information, their advantages and disadvantages; develop an appreciation of statistical approaches and how to evaluate studies based on statistical analyses.
Marketing
This course emphasises the role of marketing in creating value for customers which in turn leads to the creation of value for other firm stakeholders (e.g., shareholders, employees). The course introduces students to the role of marketing in the modern corporation, both at the level of the firm and the marketing function. It focuses on providing a set of concepts and ideas for approaching marketing decisions, on providing a common language with which to think about marketing issues, and on the structuring and analysis of managerial problems in marketing. This course prepares future CEOs and general managers to deal with core marketing issues by providing a way of thinking strategically about the firms products, services and markets.
Operations Management
The goal is to give students both a managerial conceptual framework and an understanding of analytical and managerial tools and concepts that are used to help manage important operations functions. This course provides a foundation for understanding the operations of a firm. In it, students will learn how a firm's technology, facility configuration, processes, trading relationships and management practices enable it to effectively and efficiently serve its markets. The course's objective is to provide you with the basic skills necessary to critically analyse and evaluate a firm's operating performance and practices. Such knowledge is important for careers in a variety of areas, including general management, entrepreneurship, investment banking (e.g. business restructuring, mergers and acquisitions), venture capital (e.g. evaluating new business plans) and management consulting (business restructuring, improvement).
Leading and Managing in Organisations
This course is designed to increase your effectiveness as a manager by introducing you to a framework for understanding organisations and the behaviour of people and groups within them. The course is concerned with improving your skills as a manager to deal with the increasing challenges facing organisations. The diversity of workforces and markets, domestically and globally, tests the skills and creativity of modern managers. New technologies and ever-greater interdependence, between individuals, work groups, and organisations, drastically change the demands on managers and organisations. The goal of this course is to help you acquire the knowledge and skills that will result in high performance for you and the organisations you manage. Particular emphasis is placed on working with the course material in a way that will make it easier for you to apply it in your career as a manager.
Strategic Management
This core course deals with the craft of business (rather than corporate) strategy; that is, how to identify and choose a superior competitive position, how to analyse a strategic situation, and finally how to create the organisational context to make the chosen strategy work. As such, the objectives of this course are two-fold: 1) to explore conceptual frameworks and models which will assist you to analyse competitive situation and strategic dilemmas and gain insight into strategic management; 2) to help you acquire practical experience in dealing with strategic issues. Additionally, we'll try to build on the collective experience of the class to illustrate major strategic issues.
