
Timeline & courses
Part-Time MBA Timeline
Part-Time MBA Timeline
What you will study
The ESMT part-time MBA in business innovation is a life-changing experience. Over seven modules you will build a bridge to your future.
-
Module 1: preparation
Form the team to help realize your vision and prepare the ground.
- Building high performance teams: Get the most from your teams after applying learnings from this immersive course that takes place away from the ESMT campus
- Introduction to general management: Gain insight into three components of the program: 1. the General Manager’s perspective that defines much of the program content; 2. the participant-centered approach to our philosophy of learning; and 3. the collaborative, collegial, and professional culture that will help you succeed throughout your studies.
- Data analytics for managers: Be an intelligent consumer of data by distinguishing good analytics from bad analytics and learn data analytic techniques that will allow you to meaningfully describe your data and build predictive models.
- Economics for digital business: Identify and apply basic economic concepts of practical value to business life.
-
Module 2: foundation
Establish the foundations upon which the bridge will be constructed.
- Data and decisions: Develop your critical thinking, analysis and creativity skills, with particular focus on the application of quantitative frameworks to specific business settings such as marketing, finance, and human resources.
- People, teams and organizations: Realizing any project or initiative relies on effective relationships and structures between people, teams, and their wider organization. Evaluate managerial options and choices in the context of system, individual, and collective behavior
- Financial accounting: Learn to speak the “language of business” to understand how financial performance is analyzed, forecasted, and used to manage decisions and interactions involving financials more effectively.
-
Module 3: pillars
Pillars are essential structural elements that will support your bridge.
- Marketing and sales in a digital world: Develop an understanding of key concepts and decision areas in marketing and sales.
- Financial management: Apply the techniques of compounding and discounting, capital asset pricing model, securities valuation, risk pricing, capital budgeting, and more to complex corporate situations. Identify and isolate the necessary critical information.
- Ethics and responsibility: Decision-making often carries with it ethical and sustainability challenges arising from conflicts of interest between different stakeholders. Learn how great organizations can successfully manage to create value and benefit for multiple stakeholders simultaneously.
-
Module 4: structure
One the internal structure has been created, the superstructure ensures the bridge can be used to reach the future.
- Operations management: Create value through operational excellence by designing and managing operational processes to support the value proposition, and by seamlessly matching customer demand with supply.
- Agile leadership: Empower people to innovate and implement - together, fast, and flexibly - in the face of ambiguity.
-
Module 5: monetization
Ensure the long-term success of the bridge by identifying and developing business models that help recoup the investment.
- Entrepreneurial strategy: Build a toolkit of strategy tools and frameworks; communicate about strategy using strategy "language".
- New business creation (entrepreneurship): Develop your ability to apply knowledge, frameworks and techniques from many disciplines to translates ideas into new businesses.
-
Module 6: connections
Maximise utility for your customers by understanding how the bridge is used and how you can keep track of them.
The is the start of the elective period. You will need to earn at least 8 ECTS across your elective choices.
- Customer centricity (2 ECTS): This advanced marketing course uses case studies to learn approaches to providing great customer experience at the point of sale and after the sale for competitive advantage.
- Matchmakers in the digital economy (2 ECTS): Achieve a sophisticated understanding of what makes multi-sided platforms in technology-intensive businesses (also known as "matchmakers", such as eBay, amazon, Uber, Spotify) distinctive with respect to their business models, pricing and investment strategies.
- Customer analytics in the digital age (2 ECTS): Gain an understanding of, and ability to segment, customers through the use of advanced quantitative methods.
During this module you will also have the option to participate in two international options:
- Short international exchange (3 ECTS): Spend 1 week at one of the 30+ members of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM). Exchange is included in your tuition but places are limited and availability is not guaranteed; you will need to cover travel and accommodation
- Study virtually at a partner school (1-3 ECTS): Choose up to two GNAM network courses and study virtually at a partner school
-
Module 7: customization
The bridge is nearly complete and you want to make it distinctive. In this final phase, adapt the bridge to ensure it meets your needs.
- International field seminar: mandatory 1-week trip focused on business innovation in a different country
- The human factor of innovation (2 ECTS; online only): Managing innovation has often centered on the company, here you will address the human dimension and management challenges arising from seizing the opportunities presented by technological innovation.
- Embracing Technological Change (2 ECTS; online only): Familiarize yourself with techniques to leverage data for insights that drive innovation.
- Negotiations (2 ECTS; online only): Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties with different preferences and motives. Gain an understanding of negotiations and be equipped to more effectively negotiate with range of different partners - in business and private life.
-
Module 8: capstone
Lay the final bridge piece – the capstone – and get ready to cross over to your future.
The part-time MBA program concludes with an opportunity to apply what you have learned to a business issue currently facing your employer. By combining academic theory and practical fieldwork, you will help your company solve a pressing business issue and tangibly demonstrate your progression. The capstone project is a great opportunity to initiate change, gain visibility, and grow your personal network while creating value for your organization.
Program schedule
-
The part-time MBA starts in September each year. Your residency schedule for the upcoming program is as follows.
Module 1: preparation (25 September – 10 December 2023)
Residency 1: 16-21 October 2023
Residency 2: 16-18 November 2023
Module 2: foundation (01 January - 17 March 2024)
Residency 3: 25-27 January 2024
Residency 4: 22-24 February 2024
Module 3: pillars (08 April - 23 June 2024)
Residency 5: 02-04 May 2024
Residency 6: 30 May - 01 June 2024
Module 4: structure (01 July - 29 September 2024)
Residency 7: 25-27 July 2024
Residency 8: 05-07 September 2024
Module 5: monetization (07 October - 22 December 2024)
Residency 9: 17-19 October 2024
Residency 10: 05-07 December 2024
Module 6: connections (06 January - 23 March 2025)
Residency 11: 30 January - 01 February 2025
Residency 12: 27 February - 01 March 2025
Module 7: customization (07 April - 22 June 2025)
Residency 13: 08-10 May 2025
International study tour: 15-21 June 2025
Graduation: Week of October 21, 2025
* Dates are subject to change for finalization. Check back regularly for updates.