Dr. Joyce Kurpiers of Percept Research attended the 2018 Executive MBA Council Southeast regional meeting February 25-27. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Coral Gables, FL, hosted the meeting with co-sponsors Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business and Florida International University’s College of Business. The event brought together about 100 attendees.
To open the conference on Monday, Melissa Holland and Florida Atlantic University’s Vegar Wiik delivered a warm welcome and opening remarks. On Tuesday, Executive Director Michael Desiderio reported on the Council’s recent achievements, upcoming events, and the state of the Executive MBA industry.
EMBAC Executive Director Michael Desiderio delivers industry updates
The regional meeting included sessions covering topics such as “Student Feedback: All the Ways We Know How We’re Doing”; “Personal Branding: The EMBA Student”; and “Brand Strategy.” Northwestern Kellogg’s Elmer Almachar also led a session on “Journey Mapping” to help programs examine the recruitment and matriculation experiences of EMBA students.
Melinda Strickland (Duke Fuqua), Barbara Millar (UVA Darden), and Tami Fassinger (Vanderbilt)
Along with rich conversation and robust deliberations that addressed EMBA students’ needs, conference attendees enjoyed a tour of Biscayne Bay.
EMBAC Southeast conference attendees socialize with a view of Miami
We wanted to share some of the interesting insights we heard at the meeting:
- Adnan Rukieh (Northwestern Kellogg) observes that some international students avail themselves of EMBA programs particularly when facing economic or political climate shifts in their home countries.
- Rohan Mills, Sybil Alfred, and John Carpenter (Florida Atlantic University) detail how the school’s values of sincerity, commitment, and evenhandedness in service underpins their multi-program offering with centralized operations: When it comes to student and alumni satisfaction, “Little things can mean more than reputation or rankings…”
- Tami Fassinger (Vanderbilt Owen) relates that acting promptly, tangibly, and visibly to student feedback yields high student satisfaction.
- Angel Borgos (Florida International University) notes that a “new career normal” has emerged among some EMBA students, who recognize that the once-clear career path of the typical EMBA student now appears unsure.
- John Nykolaiszyn (Florida International University) proffers a definition of “employability” as “one’s ability to control her/his career choices,” and employs that definition when coaching students through their career options and accountability.
- Amy Berman (Luxury Lady Consulting and Florida International University alumnus) emphasizes the need for EMBA students to recognize that networking is key to staying relevant; furthermore, functioning as a “connector” is critical to delivering value to others, and listening to and understanding people is the foundation to delivering that value.
- Elmer Almachar (Northwestern Kellogg) led discussion on how EMBA programs can make small adjustments in their on-boarding processes to maintain recruits’ momentum toward completing the matriculation process.
Do you have other insights that you would like to share in our article comments section below?
Dr. Joyce Kurpiers led a session focused on key business school metrics in the industry that were measured in the 2017 Executive MBA Council Membership Program Survey and from the MBA Student Entry and MBA Student Exit Surveys offered by Percept Research. Additionally, she moderated discussion around insights from a custom project, co-sponsored by AACSB, UNICON, and EMBAC, which reveals insights on future business education needs of the “digital generation.”
Percept Research serves as the research partner to the Executive MBA Council. The mission of Executive MBA Council is to educate, network and inform. The council both captures and disseminates valuable industry data to member schools, the media, and the corporate sector.
Percept Research also conducts higher education market research and communications consulting for over 250 business schools worldwide. Custom research engagements include new program feasibility studies, brand positioning, student lifecycle assessments, and messaging strategy.
Many thanks to Ivy Exec, Maestro by Tumlare, Andromeda Simulations International, WorldStrides, and Hyatt Regency for sponsoring this productive meeting!
Be sure to check out more photos from the regional meeting on the Percept Research Facebook page.
