With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/740454
M B A / E X E C U T I V E E D U C A T I O N S p e c i a l F e a t u r e next summer we are taking students to Greece for a course on doing business in a recovering economy." Most people complete the MBA program in two and a half to three years, but participants can take up to five years if they need to. "We are looking for students with solid management experience when they come into the program," says Hurst. "We teach at the strategy level and from an executive's view, help students see opportunity across functional units and within their industries. We can really help someone who is on a board to see the bigger picture and understand the competitive environment, and this helps them with the guidance and governance role that an effective board should have." The Directors Education Program ( DEP), jointly developed by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, is offered nationally at Canada's top business schools. "The program's strength is in its ability to adapt the curriculum to address local and regional business dynamics, issues and challenges," says Richard Powers, national academic director of DEP at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. "The end goal is to design a learning experience that helps directors hone their skills, be more effective in discharging their duties and add value to the organizations they serve." DEP Alumni are part of a national network of 4,300 directors and over 11,000 ICD members across Canada. The DEP is the only program of its kind in Canada that bears the seal of the director community itself. The ICD-Rotman DEP has been specifically designed to help experienced directors overcome these challenges by introducing activities and processes that assist them in fulfilling their role. Complemented by some of Canada's most accomplished and highly respected directors-in-residence, this 12-day course is taught by leading governance experts delivered in four three-day modules. The program offers experiential learning through breakouts and board simulations tailored to meet the needs of directors from public and private companies, Crown corporations, public institutions, co-operatives and large not-for-profit organizations across Canada. The DEP is not an entry-level director education course. It has been developed for experienced directors who wish to hone their skills and be more effective. The course itself is focused primarily on for- profit governance with an emphasis on the governance of publicly traded corporations. The course is most appropriate for directors with for-profit governance experience or those directors and professionals with near-term opportunity to serve on for-profit boards. For five straight years, UBC Sauder Executive Education has ranked among the world's best providers of professional development by Financial Times (FT). Ranking 17th in North America, UBC Sauder is the only Canadian business school outside of Ontario to crack the top 50. Bruce Wiesner, associate dean of UBC Sauder Executive Education says he's pleased to be recognized by the global publication as, "it reflects the positive experience our customers have in our programs." The FT ranking is based on feedback from executive education clients on everything from the caliber of the faculty and their teaching to the relevance of courses and ROI experienced on the job. "It is a tremendous vote of confidence to know that the professionals who take our programs feel their careers are benefiting and that they are bringing value back to their organizations," says Wiesner. UBC Sauder Executive Education programs range from short courses for the broader business community delivered downtown at UBC Robson Square, to immersive week-long in-residence programs for senior leaders, to custom programs designed to meet the needs of specific organizations. The goal is to maximize learning impact and minimize time away from the office. "We work hard in the program to give participants practical strategies they can put to work that have proven benefits for organizations," says professor Darren Dahl, a key faculty member in the executive education program. "We're small on theory and big on application. We teach participants the steps they need to lead innovation, and pull apart and solve complex business challenges." Ranked in the global top 20 by the Financial Times for research impact, UBC Sauder professors bring the latest insights in team building, leadership, project management, negotiation, management strategy and much more into the classroom. "Our focus is on our clients' results," says Wiesner. "Our programs provide executives and managers in pursuit of career goals with the tools they need to launch themselves and their businesses to greater heights." UBC Sauder Executive Education's program offerings include: Short Programs With High Impact UBC Sauder Executive Education includes The Sardul S. Gill Graduate School at University of Victoria's Peter B. Gustavson School of Business offers a Weekend MBA with international scope, in a North American gateway