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How Does a Blended Advanced Management Program Create Networking Opportunities?

September 21, 2021

Advanced management programs address the unique leadership challenges facing c-suite executives and other senior-level business leaders. With enrollment limited to experienced, upper-level businesspeople, advanced management programs home in on precisely those issues critical to successful leadership.

Columbia Business School Executive Education’s Advanced Management Program is unique in many ways, not least of which is its duration. Unlike other intensive advanced management programs that run over a long weekend or a single week, Columbia’s program spans several months and delivers over 100 unique sessions. This calendar enables participating executives to apply their learning to their professional lives and return to the program to analyze the results repeatedly throughout the program. As Advanced Management Program faculty director Paul Ingram puts it, “Because the program runs for several months, you will build relationships with other global business leaders who become life-long friends and advisors to your business and career. The program has the potential to be truly life-changing.”

What are the benefits of a blended advanced management program?

Columbia’s program focuses on critical questions surrounding leadership, decision-making, and corporate strategy execution. You’ll complete self-awareness exercises, participate in workshops, and undergo one-on-one coaching to optimize your already considerable skill set. You’ll leave the program with a fully developed action plan to address a business challenge you are facing as well as advanced training in leadership skills, change management, competitive strategy, negotiation, team-building, goal-setting, motivation, innovation, and self-evaluation. Your peers’ extensive and varied professional experience will contribute substantially to your learning.

As an Advanced Management Program participant, you’ll dig deeper into those self-evaluations during the program and also receive executive and communication coaching during the program. The program weaves numerous learning group discussion times for you to exchange ideas and implement the learning with your peers and business leaders.

The online components of this blended program open it to senior-level participants worldwide, and, indeed, more than two-thirds of Advanced Management Program participants come from outside North America. In today’s global business environment, it’s more important than ever to learn with and from your international peers. The Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School delivers a stellar opportunity to do just that.

Why is networking an essential part of any advanced management program experience?

Columbia Business School is “very thoughtful about constructing a community around our Advanced Management Program,” Ingram explains. As a result, participants “benefit from tapping into the collective wisdom of the community of faculty and learners. These are not transactional relationships. People open up and give honest feedback. They give each other advice. Our participants bring a wealth of business insights and experiences..”

When you participate in this premier executive education program, you learn not only from expert faculty members but also from a global network of business executives and peer participants. Your colleagues will represent a range of perspectives from across industries and business functions worldwide; they will share invaluable experiences and insights drawn from their professional lives.

How does a blended AMP create networking opportunities?

Through a combination of online and in-person activities and exercises, the Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School Executive Education features many opportunities for attendees to build relationships. It starts with the leadership coaching you’ll receive from faculty and coaches during the program, but it goes much further than that. Online exercises interspersed throughout the program encourage collaborative engagement that builds new business relationships.

During the five-day New York City immersion, participants collaborate in team-building activities to solve real-world business problems. Exercises may include:

  • Stakeholder Management You’ll engage in an in-depth case study of a high-profile, high-stakes decision-making process at a world-renowned institution
  • Leadership Jazz: Discover principles of improvisation, responsiveness, collaboration, and listening through the example of world-class jazz virtuosos
    • In this session, executives learn about jazz musicians’ “great mastery of a set of elements and a humility to be able and willing to recompose those in interaction with others without a set plan,” according to Ingram.
  • Fencing: Building Your Competitive Edge: Don a mask and protective vest, grab an epee, and prepare to engage one another in a fencing salle
    • You’ll learn the business applications of building a championship team, developing and executing strategy under pressure, and leading a high performance team
  • Customer Experience Management: Observation of customer service practices in 5th Avenue shops yields insights into how executives can improve the quality of their professional interactions

During the final program module, you’ll participate in “Heart of Leadership,” in which your working group will study persuasion and organizational change before completing a transformational project based on a real-world case study.

Whom will you meet in the Advanced Management Program?

The blended Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School Executive Education attracts senior executives and other business leaders with substantial work experience and records of noteworthy success. One in five participants has more than 20 years of management experience. More than half have between 11 and 20 years of work experience, and none have fewer than 10. Participants represent such diverse industries and institutions as:

  • Consulting
  • Consumer packaged goods
  • Education
  • Energy and resources
  • Finance and accounting
  • Government
  • Healthcare
  • Information technology
  • Insurance
  • Manufacturing
  • Shipping and transportation

Your program peers will represent all major business functions: general management, marketing, sales, finance and accounting, technology and innovation, operations, and more. The Advanced Management Program attracts an international cohort of senior leaders hailing from:

  • North America (32 percent)
  • Asia (27 percent)
  • Europe (12 percent)
  • Oceania (12 percent)
  • Africa and the Middle East (10 percent)
  • South America (7 percent)

Networking opportunities upon completion of the Advanced Management Program

Your participation in the Advanced Management Program entitles you to select alumni benefits. You’ll be invited to utilize Columbia Business School Alumni Career Services resources, including privileges to create an online profile, upload a resume, and enroll in a searchable database used by fellow alums and top recruiting organizations. You’ll be able to take advantage of the global Columbia Business School alumni network and join the school’s 47,000 graduates in the Columbia Business School Alumni Club. You’ll also attend alumni events and programs at which you’ll forge lifelong connections with an elite group of business executives worldwide. All of these opportunities will help you build rapport with fellow industry thought leaders.

Grow your network by enrolling in Columbia’s Advanced Management Program

The Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School Executive Education can help you develop a competitive advantage by taking your leadership and management skills to the next level. Just as significantly, it will extend your professional network to include notable executives from across business fields and around the world. The program offers two annual start dates for added convenience. Why not join this exclusive group of executive learners? Apply today.

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