Strategic Curriculum

Acquire Advanced Management Capabilities

Program components
Courses

The MIT Executive MBA curriculum integrates data-driven analytical methods and the fundamentals of business management with an action learning-based approach to executive-level management education. Through this scientific approach to management you learn research-based tools and acquire the skills and the credibility to lead change across your organization and across your industry.

Program components

Weekend sessions
There are 26 weekend sessions that meet all day Friday and Saturday and are spaced about three weeks apart. These sessions provide iterative engagement with the program courses and an opportunity for you to collaborate with classmates and build on one another’s experiences.

Executive modules
The four executive modules are six to nine days long and spread six months apart. These modules offer an immersive experience during which you realize the benefits of being a full-time student at MIT. The executive modules combine intensive classwork, collaboration with classmates on projects, and evening events and speakers that link you to the MIT community as you build tight bonds within your MIT EMBA class.

Electives
During the three electives periods (January '13, January '14, and Spring '14), you have an opportunity to explore more deeply specific areas of interest. Each January, you may choose to take one or two weekends of electives. Electives vary from year to year and include advanced topics and cutting-edge research. MIT EMBA students may also take advantage of full cross-registration privileges at Harvard and in MIT's full-time programs.

Applied learning
In action learning experiences, you apply the program’s methodologies and frameworks both to your company and to team challenges focusing on other enterprises and industries of interest. Midway through the program comes Organizations Lab (O-Lab), an opportunity to use your coursework so far – particularly in system dynamics and operations management – to fix a process in your own organization.  In your final spring semester comes the capstone action learning project, Global Organizations Lab (GO-Lab). In GO-Lab, you work as part of a small EMBA team for an international company to help them solve a global integration issue. This includes one week at multiple company sites worldwide for field research and immersion in the company’s challenges.

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Courses

Course titles and sample topics are below. For the detailed course sequence, please refer to the Program Schedule.

    Integrated and Action Learning Courses
  • Leadership and Integrative Management
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    Sample Topics:

    Perspectives on Creating, Capturing, and Conserving Value

    Deep Dive on the Challenges of a Multinational Organization

  • Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurial Advantage (IDEA)
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    Sample Topics:

    New Product Innovation

    Entrepreneurial Strategy

  • Organizations Lab (O-Lab)
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    Sample Topics:

    Organizational Analysis for Change Initiatives

    Implementation amid Organizational Resistance

    Features full-semester in-company project

  • Leading in a Global Context
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    Sample Topics:

    Macroeconomics: Countries and Regions

    Global Markets and Strategy

  • Global Organizations Lab (GO-Lab)
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    Sample Topics:

    Global Management and Global Integration

    Strategic Analysis of Global Challenges

    Features full-semester in-company project

  • Leading Complex Organizations
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    Sample Topics:

    Putting It All Together: General Management as Integration and Intervention

    Your Next Change Initiative

    Analytical Frameworks
  • Applied Economics for Managers
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    Sample Topics:

    Microeconomics: Firms and Markets

    Economic Analysis of Corporate and Policy Decisions

  • Organizational Processes
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    Sample Topics:

    Organizational Behavior: The Three Lenses
    Behavioral Perspectives on Organizational Management

  • Data, Models, and Decisions
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    Sample Topics:

    Driving the Business through Best-practice Quantitative Methods

    Industry Perspectives and Applications

  • Introduction to System Dynamics
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    Sample Topics:

    Systems Thinking and Modeling

    Organizational Design and Management in a Dynamic World

    Business Essentials
  • Competitive Strategy
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    Sample Topics:

    Strategies for Competitive Advantage

    Modern Strategic Management

  • Financial Accounting
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    Sample Topics:

    Using Accounting Information for Corporate and Investment Assessment

    Financial Statement Analysis

  • Financial Management
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    Sample Topics:

    Corporate Finance and Capital Markets

    Risk Measurement and Risk Management

  • Leading Organizations
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    Sample Topics:

    Organizational Behavior

    Change Leadership for the Rising Executive

  • Operations Management
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    Sample Topics:

    Global Operations Strategies

    Supply Chain Management

  • Marketing Management
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    Sample Topics:

    Market Segmentation

    Marketing Strategy

    Advanced Courses (Sample)
  • Topics in Corporate Finance
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    Sample Topics:

    Complex Valuations

    Static and Dynamic Capital Structure

  • Risk Management
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    Sample Topics:

    Financial, Operational, and Other Sources of Risk

    Identifying, Modeling, Analyzing, and Managing Risk

  • Power, Influence, and Negotiation
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    Sample Topics:

    Distributive and Integrative Bargaining

    Multi-party Decision Making

  • Marketing Strategy
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    Sample Topics:

    Firm-wide Marketing Mix

    Customer-based Sources of Competitive Advantage

  • Law and Strategy for the Senior Executive
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    Sample Topics:

    Law-sensitive Strategic Decisions

    Issues of Liability, IP, Contracts, etc.

  • Business Analysis Using Financial Statements
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    Sample Topics:

    Analysis of Corporate Profit and Riskiness

    Investor, Analyst, and Finance Manager Perspectives

  • The Analytical Edge
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    Sample Topics:

    Advanced Methods in Analytics, Optimization, and Data Mining

    Industry Applications (Healthcare, Finance, Energy, etc.)

  • Technology Strategy
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    Sample Topics:

    Managing Innovation in High-technology Industries