Executive Education

Harvard Business School works with companies on a one-to-one basis to create high-impact learning experiences that are tailored to the needs of each firm. Whether an organization is facing shifting market dynamics, new competitors, more demanding customers, or other strategic challenges, a custom program can be developed to strengthen the leadership capacity of executives individually and of the organization as a whole.

Program Goals

The primary goal of every HBS custom executive education program is to develop leaders who can make a difference within the organization. While each company faces its own unique set of issues, all typically partner with HBS to help achieve one or more of three commonly shared objectives:

• Prepare leaders to implement a strategic change—perhaps a merger or an acquisition—and move the company forward
• Enable individuals to enhance specific management skills
• Build new or greater organizational competency in specific areas—such as marketing, operations, or governance

Learning Outcomes

Most learning outcomes differ from one program to the next, as they relate directly to the defined goals of each tailored experience. However, feedback reveals that every HBS custom program puts a group of committed individuals, with the desire to learn and change, on a new and more productive path that will lead their organizations to a different and better place.

Through ongoing interaction with the faculty and their peers, participants acquire enlightened perspectives, enhanced capabilities, improved decision-making skills, and the desire to drive the takeaway learning throughout all levels of the organization. Whether focusing on change management, capability enhancement, or organizational development, executives return to their companies with the ability to contribute more broadly as leaders.

HBS custom programs add value in five distinct categories:

• Reinforcing positive intangibles—confidence, trust, organizational commitment, openness to change, and inspiration—to energize executives' efforts, transform managers into leaders, and spread leadership throughout the organization, from top to bottom
• Fostering collective recognition of the company's mission and values, core businesses, key challenges, and promising opportunities, as well as a common level of understanding, to further improve the communication of ideas within the business group and across the organization
• Providing the necessary time and space for participants to step back from their daily responsibilities and reflect, think, learn, and converse about the issues, thereby fostering a learning culture
• Creating professional and personal networks to enhance intracompany relationships, develop a different mindset, break through barriers, and "make it happen"
• Focusing on best practices, case lessons, models, frameworks, and tools to apply new knowledge, course concepts, and innovative approaches within the workplace

The Power of a Long-Term Relationship with HBS

Custom programs are virtual "windows" into the rich resources of the Harvard University community. These include Baker Library, the world's largest and most-respected business library, and Harvard Business School Publishing, as well as the resources and faculty of not only Harvard Business School, but also of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Law, Government, and other Harvard University Schools. The University's unparalleled worldwide network of research centers adds an extra dimension to the program experience. While building relationships that help position the School as a powerful force in the global marketplace, opportunities are created for faculty and students to produce a stream of innovations in education and research, anticipating and meeting the evolving needs of business leaders everywhere.

Custom programs enable learning partnerships that have mutual value for leading companies and the HBS faculty. In addition to gaining timely exposure to new research that is shaping the practice of management, executives have ready access to the MBA community's extensive field work. In turn, the faculty benefits from the awareness of emerging issues that will expand their research agendas, plus new opportunities for case development that will feed back into the programs. Because company relationships with the faculty extend beyond the course sessions, they can be leveraged to support other corporate initiatives, as well.

Why HBS?

With more than 60 years' experience in Executive Education, Harvard Business School is the leading provider of advanced learning opportunities that strengthen the leadership capacity of both individuals and their organizations. Regardless of the issues confronting individual organizations, all client companies can attest to the power of a long-term, multifaceted relationship with HBS.

For More Information on Custom Programs, please complete and submit the custom program inquiry form.

"Working with Harvard Business School, we've been able to develop a powerful program for addressing strategic issues—one that is led by our general managers and that tightly links strategy and execution."
Bruce Harreld [Senior Vice President, Strategy], IBM Corporation