Executives who have graduated from global EMBA programmes this year have no doubt that the courses were worth the extra effort and cost, because of the strong curriculums and the extra possibilities offered by regular meetings with students from other campuses or schools. Employers are enthusiastic, too.
Fabiana Prada, now 31, is one of about 12 employees that DuPont Brazil has sent on the Pittsburgh programme. “In Brazil, I think it is unique as it is a US programme and all the classes are in English, so that is a competitive advantage,” she says. “It is also a very good curriculum, but one of the key items is the global element – to be able to interact with students from the Prague and Pittsburgh campuses and cover global subjects.”
On the São Paulo campus, she says, most of the students were from US-owned companies, whereas there was a strong contingent of entrepreneurs on the Prague campus or executives from European companies with different cultures. “Interacting with them is an amazing experience,” she says.
At 45, when he joined the Trium programme, John LaNave was slightly older than the 39/40 average on this course. “It’s not that 30-year-olds aren’t serious, but this class was serious about learning,” he says. “The 40 of us did a lot of things that went way beyond what the course required.”
Mr LaNave hoped that a global EMBA would enhance his career at Siemens in the US. The Trium programme particularly attracted him because of the political and economic framework provided by the London School of Economics modules – a rare element in EMBA programmes; the very diverse perspectives on global business offered by the three institutions; and, especially, the diversity of the cohort. “We had students from 23 countries, each operating global businesses,” he says. “The amount of learning that happens within the cohort is incredible.”
Alfredo Ergas, regional chief financial officer at Enersis in Chile and another Trium student, also appreciated the programme’s diversity. “In the globalised environment in which we must develop our careers there is an implicit benefit to learning in different countries with teachers of diverse backgrounds,” he says.
Mr LaNave has recently moved from Siemens’ US telecommunications group to a more senior role in its building technologies business, while Ms Prada has been promoted from DuPont Brazil to become finance manager for the chemical company’s US industrial coatings business.
The Brazilian subsidiary paid 75 per cent of the cost of Ms Prada’s course but Ricardo Vellutini, president of DuPont of Brazil, has no regrets about losing her to the US parent company. “We give financial support for EMBA programmes on a case-by-case basis, to employees with high potential,” he says. “For these global employees it is part of their career development to be exposed to a different culture. So our plan for Fabiana was that she would take the MBA and then move out of Brazil.”
