As the old saying goes, "one size does not fit all". Today, more business schools are well aware of the specific need of different organisations and are delivering customised executive education programmes to help organisations meet the unique challenges they face.

There’s no doubt that the market of executive education is highly competitive. Business schools that are able to agilely cater for executives’ need will definitely stand out from the crowd. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University knows this so well and thus established the Institute of Advanced Executive Education (IAEE) in January 2011 with its strategic remit in developing advanced executive education and providing interdisciplinary courses to executives and professionals. Since its establishment, the Institute has been in collaboration with world-class institutes to provide training programmes for organisations in Hong Kong and China, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Alcatel Alcatel-Lucent (Shanghai) and Guangdong Mobile.

"IAEE is specially established to meet the training needs of organisations. As senior executives and entrepreneurs may be too busy to spend a few years on a degree programme, we therefore provide relevant, innovative, and market-driven programmes that are tailored to meet their specific needs. Upon completion of these highly intensive programmes, executives will leave with new knowledge, enhanced leadership and management skills, and capabilities that are immediately applicable,” says Prof. Judy Tsui, Vice President (International and Executive Education), Director, Graduate School of Business and Chair Professor of Accounting, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In fact, these customised programmes are often sought by organisations with specific training needs. Since the programmes are designed specifically for organisations, organisations enjoy greater influence on the programme content, which is different from general programmes for open enrollment.

"We are like acting as a consultant for the organisations to understand their needs and design programmes for them that are highly intensive and relevant. So, each programme is unique and organisations can assess the learning outcomes more effectively to ensure a greater return on investment,” she continues.

Corporate Partnership
The growing popularity of customised executive educaiton also reflects the trend of corporate parnership, as more organisations are working with business schools to set up programmes to educate their management more effectively.

"In recent years, the challenges from the volatile economic environment have urged organisations to realise the importance of learning and development. Meanwhile, as more organisations recognise the great effect of customised executive education, many of them are now seeking to collaborate with business schools to provide their high potentials with customised training, which has formed an irresistible trend."

Engagement through Training
As the Director of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) of PolyU and an experienced professor, Prof. Tsui holds that organisations should always act flexibly to respond to the volatile environment by adjusting their staff development policy.

"It is very critical if organisations want to thrive in such an adverse environment. To cope with the challenges ahead, organisations should also maintain good communication with their employees, which is a key factor for employee engagement. When it comes to employee engagement, the top management of different organisations may have their own thinking. But devils are in the details. It is really about how all the employees from different levels would be able to implement the vision and mission as well as strategy of the entire company. It is particularly important in a volatile economy where many employees are in lack of confidence,” says Prof. Tsui.

Prof. Tsui suggests that organisations should always ensure that they are providing sufficient learning and development opportunities for their talented staff, whilst all the employees should always think about news ways in order to communicate and add value to the different departments and divisions as much as possible. “The key is not only to think about fulfilling your job duties, but also to think about how you can help your organisation handle the challenges. I really appreciate executives who have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. Every employee should pursue lifelong learning if they really want to succeed in a changing and competitive business environment.”

We Create Scholar-Leaders
As told by Prof. Tsui, today’s executives not only need to enrich their professional knowledge, but also the essentials skills of being “scholar-leaders”. “I believe that executives who are able to apply research findings in solving the real-world management problems will definitely achieve success. Therefore, we aim to educate senior executives to be the ‘scholar-leaders’, and provide them with a wide spectrum of postgraduate business programmes in various areas of interest including leadership development, human resources management, supply chain management, accounting, etc.”

Qualified for the Real World
It is Prof. Tsui’s belief that good executive education should be able to facilitate one’s personal development, business acumen and understanding of the environment in which one works.

She says, “‘Qualified for the real world’ is the core value of GSB. Our teaching philosophy is to enable our students to have an in-depth understanding of how to apply theories in the real world of business. In other words, it means that we ‘qualify you for the real world. Students will walk away from class well prepared to apply the latest business thinking to their day-to-day management decisions, and to meet business challenges of today and tomorrow.”

The teaching philosophy is also reflected in GSB’s flagship programme – the DBA, which is among the first DBAs in the world to secure UK-based Association of MBAs (AMBA) accreditation. Besides, GSB is among a small group of business schools worldwide that holds triple accreditation: AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA. With creating “scholar-leaders” as its mission, the GSB has been in collaboration with a number of world renowned business schools including the IMD (International Institute for Management Development) in Switzerland, the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia in Canada and the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester in the US.

"Our DBA students are given opportunity to study in IMD’s internationally acclaimed executive education programme, whilst renowned scholars of Sauder School and Simon School join forces with our faculty to co-teach subjects in the programme,” Prof. Tsui adds.

When East Meets West
As we can see, Asian business schools are increasingly going into collaboration with schools from the West. When asked about the outlook for executive education, Prof. Tsui thinks that it is a trend for Asian business schools to integrate the Western teaching elements into the local programmes.

"With the rapid economic development in Asia, particularly in China, there is an increasing demand for talent who possess global vision and innovative thinking. Integration of western teaching styles into the local context will facilitate business schools in nurturing international talent who are proficient in the essential management skills. That’s what IAEE is doing right now and we are confident that we can do it well to achieve a great breakthrough in executive education,” Prof. Tsui concludes.