Methodology

The efficiency of teamwork

The active co-operation of participants, faculty, collaborating managers, and associated companies is fundamental to the EMBA program, fostering synergies in turning theory into practice. It employs an active learning approach and stresses participation.

The methodology is based on a combination of a renewed case study approach, simulations, research, role-playing, videoconferences and discussions with invited management speakers. It is accompanied by seminars developing special management and inter-personal skills.

Study and project groups are used to foster effective teamwork, helping students drawn from a wide range of professional backgrounds to work together in a common enterprise.

Leaders pooling their experience

The MBA Speaker Series is a cycle of conferences organised by the ESADE Business School. It provides news of the latest business trends straight from the leaders who invented them.
Attending conferences given by national and international leaders is an exciting opportunity to discover new ways of tackling management problems and techniques in a highly innovative way.

Some of the conferences in the cycle are:

Pedro L. Uriarte
CEO, BBVA
'Leadership in Times of Change'

Martin G. Christopher
Professor, Cranfield University, School of Management
'Relationship Marketing: The UK Perspective'

Ángel Corcóstegui
First Vice-President and Managing Director, BSCH
'Banks in the Global Financial Market'

Thomas Sattelberger
Executive Vice-President, Product and Service Member of the Airline Board, Lufthansa
'Leadership in Turbulent Times of Change: The Experience of Lufthansa and General Reflections'

Soonu Kochar
Indian ambassador to the following countries: France, Argentina, and The Netherlands. Currently Visiting Professor at ESADE, ISA-HEC (France) and Rotterdam School of Management
'September 11th - A Year After '

Masaru Yoshitomi
Dean of the Institute of the Asian Development Bank and Visiting Executive Professor of Finances, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
'Unique Characteristics of Deflation and Economic Policy Issues in Japan '

José Antonio Zarzalejos
Director, ABC newspaper
'The Press at a Crossroads'

Richard Boyatzis
Professor and Director of the Department of Organisational Behaviour, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University; and co-author of Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Danuta Hübner
Minister for European Integration, Secretary of the Committee for European Integration of the Republic of Poland
'Poland's Contribution to the Development of the European Union'

Alexander von Frankenberg
Venture Manager, Siemens Technology Accelerator

Johannes von Borries
Manager of the ICT team, Wellington Partners Venture Capital, Munich
'Corporate Entrepreneurship from the Venture Capital and Corporate Perspective'

Management challenges far removed from the office

During the second stage of the program, participants get the opportunity to undergo an intensive period of Outdoor Training, which focuses on Personal Development and Management Behaviour. This immersion experience provides each participant with self-evaluation tools, laying emphasis on activities and posing challenges that are far removed from the usual office environment. The reflections on your management behaviour should prove extremely useful in helping you attain the program's objectives.

Outdoor Training is an excellent activity for discovering and developing ¿people skills¿. The training strongly influences individual and group attitudes through its emphasis on experience-based learning.

Our experience led us to design the Outdoor Training to reflect the kind of activities found in companies. We deliberately avoided potentially risky activities of the "outward bound" type, whose cognitive content is virtually non-existent. Faculty members explain the conceptual model and act as coaches, creating an ideal learning environment. Their function is not so much to teach as to transform and facilitate learning processes. The work teams are made up in such a way as to achieve as much variety in their membership as possible. Our intention is to simulate a real team with real objectives. Some participants, who are chosen by the group, must take fairly complex decisions during the Outdoor Training/ Action Learning. Each participant receives feedback regarding the decisions made by the work group. The personal skills learnt can immediately be put into practice in daily work situations in an almost intuitive fashion.

The conceptual model is one of "Action Learning" and comprises six stages:

1. Experience-based.
2. Reflection on the learning model.
3. Presentation and analysis of the activity to be planned.
4. Execution of the activity outside the classroom.
5. Feedback in small groups on the decisions taken.
6. Evaluation of the learning process and transfer of the lessons learnt to participants' work settings.