Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part III
June 9, 2008
PICKING YOUR SPOTS
While the AAAA puts the finishing touches on its brand-new center, one of the country's most highly ranked institutions is carrying on a tradition that is more than 50 years old. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, set in the Chicago lakefront suburb of Evanston, Ill., offered its first executive education course in 1951. In 1973, the school broke new ground again by offering a first-of-its-kind customized program for US Gypsum, the precursor to USG. Along the way, Kellogg has worked with some of the biggest, most well-known marketers in the world, including General Electric, Motorola, Sears and British Petroleum.
Kellogg's custom programs, which comprise about half the school's executive education program offerings, typically take six to nine months to plan and execute, and faculty are assigned based on the specific needs of the company. Roughly equal in number are Kellogg's open-enrollment programs, the school's focused topic programs that range in length from three to five days and draw students from many different organizations. All such programs are held in the Allen Center, a residential and classroom facility devoted entirely to courses for executives.
Rounding out the Kellogg School's executive education offerings are general management programs which are three to four weeks in length, executive scholar certificates, and an executive MBA program that is widely considered one of the best in the world.
In all of Kellogg's executive education programs, emphasis is placed on developing management skills necessary to formulate and build comprehensive strategic goals and, more importantly, translating those goals into comprehensive plans that energize a company and boost profitability. Without a doubt, Kellogg is one of those pedigreed schools in the business, with a name that resonates with many in the industry. Since 1981, when Stephen Burnett joined the faculty as a visiting assistant professor of marketing, he has championed the addition of custom executive education programs to the traditionally strong open-enrollment courses at Kellogg. Now he's the associate dean of executive education and a professor of strategic management at the school.
Burnett and his colleagues believe it is vital for an executive education center to constantly review its portfolio to make sure it reflects the current business environment and executive needs." Our faculty members do exactly that within each course," says Burnett. "We also look for new offerings." Among the new program's he's spearheading is a post-MBA program, designed for people who received theirMBA10 or more years ago.
Another new Kellogg program focuses on how companies can achieve organic growth. "We talk about growing organically, not just through acquisitions," he says. "Organic growth is very relevant for marketing growth. Organic growth is code for being better at marketing."
Yet another new Kellogg program, "Kellogg on Retirement," aims to capitalize on a demographic trend that's been hurting the executive education field recently: the vast numbers of baby boomers approaching retirement age. "People tend to make a lot of bad decisions when they approach retirement," Burnett says. "This is a finance program that teaches them not to be too conservative and to realize that they've got to structure their assets in a different way than previous generations of retirees did."
And Burnett, of course, is right. Executive education, at its essence, is all about the expansion of ideas and intellectual limits. It's a way to challenge long-held and perhaps outdated beliefs to move a firm's business forward. Regardless of the program or the school or the overriding philosophy, executive education has become a deeply engrained part of the industry and an integral component in its evolution.
"What's happening in the advertising industry is that technology and techniques are changing so quickly," says VCU's O'Keefe. "The days when you could just get out of college and go to an agency and not continue to add new skills are gone. That's why executive education has been important in the past and why it will always be a key driver in this industry."
For more Executive Education coverage:
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part I
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part II
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part III
