A leadership program focused on executive education, run through the Tuck School of Business and Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development, will launch next spring. The program, separate from Tuck’s full-time MBA program, aims to help experienced managers with more than 10 years of experience transition into business leadership positions, associate dean for executive education Sydney Finkelstein said.
IMD has run the program as an open enrollment program for managers four times per year, IMD program director J. Stewart Black wrote in an email to The Dartmouth. This year IMD will conduct one session of the program with Tuck. The four-week program will be divided into two sessions, each two weeks long. Participants in the joint session will receive dual certifications of completion from IMD and Tuck.
A recent Economist ranking of full-time MBA programs placed Tuck second worldwide. IMD has been rated first in the world for executive education by the Financial Times since 2012. The program comes as Tuck searches for a new dean — Paul Danos’s fifth term ends in June 2015 — and as the school receives national attention.
The first module, on understanding the role of the business leader, will run in March, focusing on cultivating executive leadership skills. The second module, on leading change, will be held in Hanover between April 20 and May 1.
The program will have two projects, one focusing on individual development and one on organizational development. The first will allow participants, matched with a personal executive coach, to write and apply action plans related to an area of personal leadership they want to develop.
The second project engages participants in projects relevant to their fields, Black said. Participants group by common project themes and apply the concepts and tools to their personal project, he said. Four months after the program, a manager will connect with participants to track the success of their project.
About 30 individuals from more than 20 countries participate in the current IMD program, according to Black. The average age of participants is 41, and most have more than 10 years of management experience and 15 years of total work experience, he said.
Finkelstein said the competitive programs offered by both Tuck and IMD make it a “natural” partnership.
“This is a great opportunity for two world class business schools to collaborate in bringing a much needed executive program to leading executives,” Tuck professor William Joyce, who will help teach the program in the spring, said.
Though Tuck partners with other foreign business schools and has instituted a global requirement for MBA students, this program is Tuck’s first global offering in executive education, Finkelstein said.
“The joint program will help build the Tuck brand,” Finkelstein said.
He said the program will not only provide participants with a competitive international education and global contacts, but also it will also attract global business managers to Hanover — potential recruiters for Tuck MBA students
“This is an exciting new initiative, perfectly aligned with Tuck’s continued emphasis on the global dimension of business,” Tuck professor Pino Audia said. He will also be teaching the program along with Joyce and Tuck professor Jeff Weiss.
IMD and Tuck directors are in the process of developing another joint program to be targeted at new or soon-to-be CEOs, with a curricular focus on the transition from business to larger company leadership roles, Black said.
Danos was unable for comment by press time.
