Leading Global Businesses

Faculty member Krishna G. Palepu giving lecture in HBS classroom with participants in background

Enhance your ability to lead globally in the context of significant change. Expand your global business acumen while also engaging in a profoundly personal exploration that builds leadership insights and strength. Become a better, more authentic, more purposeful leader who can step up to increasingly challenging leadership roles.

The program fee covers tuition, program materials, accommodations, and most meals.

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As the world is experiencing technological disruption, geopolitical shifts, changing macro-economic and demographic dynamics, and evolving stakeholder expectations, companies need leaders with a unique mix of global business skills and personal leadership strengths.

Leading Global Businesses will help you develop both your global intelligence and your personal effectiveness in leading a global business. You will learn how to create and sustain global competitive advantages for your company, adapt business strategies and operations to the rapidly changing global environment, and build global leadership capacity throughout your organization. You will also embark on a profoundly personal exploration that builds your self-awareness and emotional intelligence, delving into the core of your experience to strengthen your capacities as a global leader.

Key Program Features

Key Topics

  • Explore the experiences that have shaped your character and contributed to your development as a leader

  • Lead in a global context and in times of crisis, adapting business strategies and operations to the rapidly changing global environment

  • Incorporate new technologies, including AI, in the development of winning strategies and lead the related transformation initiatives

  • Integrate global and local strengths, improving collaboration across cultures

  • Develop a global leadership team that reflects the diversity of its global markets

  • Shape your company's culture in support of its purpose—integrating multiple stakeholders and mobilizing people around your company's mission and values

  • Reflect on and refine your personal purpose, values, and leadership principles

Program Format

  • 6
    days on the HBS campus
  • ~25
    hours of pre-program work

Case materials and a detailed schedule will be made available approximately two weeks prior to program start.

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for senior leaders of large global companies who typically report directly to the CEO or have the potential to in the next few years.

Attendance by two or more representatives of your organization will allow for a broader impact by fostering a common vocabulary and mutual support. Please note that executives from the same company will be placed in different global leadership groups.

Related Program: Executives looking to strengthen their enterprise leadership skills, but are not necessarily focused on the global dimension of leadership, can consider the Growing as an Enterprise Leader program.

Global Perspective

A diverse group of four executives laughing and engaging in a casual business meeting, seated around a wooden table with documents
3%
Africa
10%
Asia Pacific
22%
Europe
6%
Latin America
3%
Middle East
56%
North America

Top Industries Represented

  • 16%

    High Technology

  • 12%

    Health Care

  • 11%

    Financial

  • 10%

    Manufacturing

  • 9%

    Consumer Products

  • 8%

    Chem/Pharma/Bio

  • 7%

    Professional Services

  • 3%

    Raw Materials / Energy

  • 3%

    Transportation

  • 2%

    Education

Experience

Years Worked

  • 2%

    Less than 10 years

  • 4%

    10-14 years

  • 17%

    15-19 years

  • 35%

    20-24 years

  • 28%

    25-29 years

  • 11%

    30-34 years

  • 2%

    35-39 years

  • 1%

    40 or more

Companies That Have Participated

  • Air Liquide
  • Aldi
  • BNY Mellon
  • Boston Scientific
  • Cargill
  • Danone
  • Ecolab
  • Eli Lilly
  • Federal-Mogul
  • General Motors
  • GSK
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • L’Oréal
  • Medtronic
  • Mitsubishi
  • Philips
  • PWC
  • S&P Global
  • Schneider Electric
  • Stanley Black & Decker
  • Stryker
  • Unilever
  • Wellington

Teaching Team

All our executive education programs are developed and taught by a team of widely recognized HBS faculty. Many are skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Through their board memberships, consulting, and field-based research, they address the complex challenges facing business leaders across the globe.

Faculty Cochairs

  • Headshot of Hubert Joly

    Hubert Joly

    Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

  • Headshot of Krishna G. Palepu

    Krishna G. Palepu

    Baker Foundation Professor, Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, Senior Associate Dean, Business in Global Society

Faculty

The HBS Experience

This in-person program takes place on our storied campus where you'll live and learn at the heart of Boston's vibrant business, academic, and technology hubs.

At HBS, every detail is carefully calibrated to drive your success. Living arrangements and classrooms that spark connection. Unrivaled academic resources. And rejuvenating fitness, dining, and cultural amenities.

View of Executive Education area of HBS campus

The dedicated Executive Education area of campus features multiple classroom buildings and three residence halls around a quad

Residence hall bedroom and bathroom, with woman looking out a window

Our well-appointed residence halls feature private bedrooms, living group lounges, and courtyards to fuel vibrant discussions

Admissions

We admit applicants on a rolling, space-available basis, so you are encouraged to submit your application as soon as possible.

The selective admissions process is based on professional achievement, organizational responsibility, and the admissions criteria for each program as described in Who Should Attend. There are no formal educational requirements for HBS Executive Education programs.

Learn more about the admissions process and requirements.

Program content, dates, schedule, fees, technology platforms, and faculty are subject to change. In accordance with Harvard University policy, Harvard Business School does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.