Executive MBA academics
The EMBA curriculum delivers insights across the spectrum of business and management foundations. Leadership courses examine the issues leaders face from initial concept to final implementation of organizational value creation.
Curriculum
The EMBA curriculum is both balanced and integrated, meaning that each course works in relation with the others, building your knowledge and competencies over the course of the program. By focusing on how different disciplines inform decisions that leaders must make, you’ll discover how to manage and leverage competing interests across business units to influence.
The design of the EMBA curriculum extends beyond classes and assignments. Even in the admissions process, your potential teammates are carefully screened to ensure that every EMBA student brings both the experience and motivation to be an effective contributor to discussions and learnings throughout the program.
Our entrepreneurial approach to learning at the W. P. Carey School of Business utilizes a variety of teaching methods, including case studies, role plays, and simulations, to ensure you develop high-level skills and confidence across the major business disciplines. The Executive MBA curriculum also emphasizes ethical, high-impact leadership, developing and sustaining a competitive advantage, how to interpret and use data for decision-making and the requisite soft skills needed for senior leaders.
Executive MBA classes meet on ASU's Tempe campus for one in-residence weekend per month. The intensive weekend includes both Friday and Saturday, with Friday overnight lodging provided. Live virtual course content will also be delivered on one additional Saturday per month, for a four-hour time block, allowing you greater flexibility to meet course commitments while still balancing work and life. Small classes of fewer than 50 students allow you to network with peers, faculty and alumni from the program as you develop lifelong business and personal relationships.
One of the unique features of the W. P. Carey EMBA program is a strategy capstone that gives you the opportunity to address business challenges in your own organization. Just as the core curriculum builds on itself as the program progresses, the strategy capstone builds on the core curriculum and helps you integrate it in a culminating experience. This highlight of the EMBA program not only encourages strategic thinking and a way to deploy newly acquired knowledge in all courses but it also allows you to closely examine your business and current role in a more tactical way.
One of the signature experiences of the W. P. Carey Executive MBA, Business Strategy and Public Policy takes you to the Arizona capitol and Washington, D.C. to see the interaction of business and public policy in action on both the state and federal levels. Participate in an Arizona legislative process, then observe first-hand how the federal government interacts with business policy in the nation’s capital.
This strategy course not only reveals a side of business never seen in a classroom but also helps you understand how public policies can create opportunities or challenges for organizations.
- Experience the structure and operations of the various branches of government
- Discover how to monitor and anticipate key public policy decisions
- Participate in a policy simulation to balance the state budget
- Interact with legislators, lobbyists, and other key players in the public policy process
Travel abroad and see how business gets done around the world. The International Practicum provides critical insights into the ever-changing global economy. Study international management concepts in the classroom then put them into practice during a class trip overseas. Past visits have included sites in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia.
- Visit local businesses and industries
- Discuss live case examples with local business leaders, government officials, and industry experts
- Engage in case discussions and classroom experiences with local professors
Executive MBA courses
Delves into the strategic, technical and ethical dimensions of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to transform businesses. Focuses on formulating strategies that integrate AI capabilities to sustain a competitive advantage.
Use a case-oriented approach to apply finance theory to issues such as financial risk management and the use of derivative instruments, international finance, exchange risk, and modern portfolio management.
Travel to the Arizona Capitol and Washington, D.C. to see how businesses participate in the public policy process.
Identify, evaluate, value, and create entrepreneurial opportunities through a series of cases and discussions on topics covering various phases of venture development
Studies ethical decisions; the role of business in society.
Contemporary financial accounting and reporting systems; emphasizes the interpretation and evaluation of a company's external financial reports
Addresses the inherent ambiguity surrounding effective leadership by providing a toolkit of tangible behaviors to ensure leaders create 'high impact' in all areas of their professional and personal lives. Emphasizes what high-impact leaders do differently and uniquely to achieve results while also inpsiring loyalty in relationships. Covers core topics including building executive maturity and presence, developing and delivering compelling messages, inspiring those around you, building a strong relationship network, establishing credibility, and managing upward relationships. Includes peer dialogue, extensive presentation skills training, and assignments based on students' real-life leadership experiences.
Build on lessons covered in High Impact Leadership I.
A small class emphasizing discussion, presentations by students and written research papers.
Shape your global perspective with sessions abroad, highlighting differences in doing business in distinct cultures.
Managerial accounting concepts and procedures for internal reporting applied to the decision making activities of the professional managers.
Applies microeconomic analysis to managerial decision making in areas of demand, production, cost, and pricing. Evaluates competitive strategies.
Theories and techniques used for business decisions in working capital management, capital budgeting, financial control and long-term financing.
Managing the marketing function; market and environmental analysis; marketing planning, strategy, and control concepts. Development and management of marketing programs.
Improve your skills in the art of negotiation through simulations involving multi-party, multi-issue negotiations.
Explores supply chain management topics including environmental, project and supply chain processes. Additionally, covers processes in the areas of new product introduction development; quality control; TQM (Total Quality Mgt).
Understand the human side of organizations through management theories and applications. Develops knowledge and skills for successful management of self and others.
Fundamentals of statistical analysis to aid management decision making.
Learn the tools of strategy and policy formulation, emphasizing the integration of decisions in the functional areas to help your organization gain and sustain competitive advantage.
Continued in Quarter Seven and Quarter Eight.
Customize your MBA
A variety of exciting electives, an optional concentration, and applied learning opportunities add depth to your Executive MBA education and experience.
EMBA electives
As an EMBA student, you can personalize your degree to meet your career goals. Electives offered exclusively in the EMBA — as well as those offered across other W. P. Carey MBA platforms — add depth and diversity to your experience, honing your skills or developing new strengths. An elective course is required in Quarter Four and is optional in Quarter Eight. Designed exclusively for Executive MBA students, elective content is dynamic and may change based on student and alumni feedback, changing trends in the workplace, and employer and industry needs.
>> EMBA electives change every year. Sample EMBA electives include Leadership Strategy, Systemic Innovation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Behavioral Economics, and AI in Business. Cross-platform electives allow you to take a deeper dive in areas such as marketing, healthcare management, finance, and supply chain.
Business of health care concentration
The W. P. Carey Executive MBA business of health care concentration prepares senior leaders in the health care sector to improve the quality of care across all zip codes at a lower cost. By bringing together stakeholders from all sectors of heath care, class discussions can address how to improve every aspect of our current system. In addition to the courses described below, a one-day extension to the Business Strategy and Public Policy course in Washington, D.C. will focus exclusively on health policy issues.
Concentration courses include:
- The Economics of Health Care
- Health Care Supply Chain Issues
- Health Care Informatics and Artificial Intelligence
- Managing Health Care Organizations
- Health Care Systems: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes
- International Health Care Practicum
Why W. P. Carey
The objective of the W. P. Carey Executive MBA is to broaden and refine your management skills and thinking, enabling you to contribute more substantively to your organization and society.
Our comprehensive approach equips you with:
- Analytical, data-driven problem-solving skills
- Business fundamentals, proficiency, and confidence
- Strategic leadership skills and exposure
- Competitive advantage through unique understanding of public policy process here and abroad
Industry-experienced professors bring real-world examples and insights into your classes. Significant professional experience among your diverse peers means richer understanding of concepts, immediate application of learning, and a high-caliber network.
Gain deeper insights into management strategy through exclusive industry exposure. Off-site company visits, guest speakers from government and industry, alumni feedback panels, and a comprehensive curriculum provide you with incredible depth of management exposure.
It is important to have the knowledge and foresight to navigate the political landscape. Our program framework will help you understand the public policy process, experience what it’s like to work within it, and offer you the unique opportunity to connect with legislators and lobbyists.
Each Executive MBA student is different in their professional background, experience, and goals. W. P. Carey is Where Business is Personal® — and that commitment is exemplified by our approach to your career development. Dedicated career services coaches, experienced in addressing the needs of executive students, as well as external executive coaches will work one-on-one with you to plan and address your career and professional development.
Faculty
Learn from dedicated, passionate teachers, practitioners and thought leaders. As world-renowned researchers and experts who consult companies around the globe, W. P. Carey faculty bring learning to life. W. P. Carey faculty members regularly contribute to and edit prestigious academic journals, and their expertise is sought by such media outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, USA Today, CNN, and NPR.
View our directory to learn more about esteemed faculty members of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.