The International Business Times reports on a new joint Executive MBA program from IE Business Schools in Madrid, and Brown University. From the outset, this appears to be just the sort of program that provides best in class curriculum focused on the rapidly evolving needs of business leaders. Of note:
As Professor Bach points out, traditional management education has always emphasized how managers need to be fast, how they need to be able to hit the ground running; but as one becomes more senior, it is imperative to know when to apply the brakes or shift or turn around and go in a different direction. The most able managers of the future will be people who possess, along with technical aggression, the judgment to stop, reflect, connect and put things in context. That is what a liberal arts perspective can bring to the MBA.
Interesting to note Brown's approach to the new degree as a partnership akin to shared service centers we've been discussing of late. The whole concept of sharing educational services in a way that highlights Brown's exemplary humanities with IE's critical business skill development programs illustrates terrific creative thinking in curriculum development; it is the same creative thinking sure to be at work in administration that is in place to make this program happen.
The first class launches in March, 2011.