Back to school: with executive MBA costs running as high as $100,000 , what makes this degree so valuable, especially for high-level executives whose careers are already on the fast track? - although $30,000 is more typical for a local program - Executive Education

South Florida CEO, August, 2003 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

When he was starting a Mexico office for The Center Group, a multinational management consultancy, Claudio Cury ran into a number of problems. So Cury, the company's regional manager for North American operations, turned to an experienced global support team: his classmates from Florida International University's Global Executive MBA program.

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"We are so focused in our companies that we don't know that the same thing is happening to other companies," Cury says. Learning from other managers' experiences is one of the central principles of any executive MBA, just as important as the cases studied in class. "You're not only buying the degree that you're getting at the end, but you're really getting a network," Cury says. "Then you realize that it was a cheap investment."

For starters, an MBA offers exposure to technical management concepts. Ricky Arriola, president of marketing firm Inktel Direct, already had a law degree and a bachelor's in economics when he decided to go to Harvard for a traditional MBA. "The exposure to broad-ranging managerial disciplines ... was a very valuable way to get a lot of knowledge in a very short amount of time," he says.

Steve Sonenreich, CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, saw an executive MBA as a way to keep abreast of a fast-changing field. An administrator at Mount Sinai at the time, he completed the University of Miami Executive MBA With a Specialization in Health Administration and Policy. "Health care administration is one of the most complex areas of management that you'll find in the business world [so] you're constantly trying to educate yourself regarding the various changes," he says.

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Indeed, with the rate of change in business ever increasing, companies today place more value on executive education than they have in the past, says Dick Clark, COO of the Florida/Caribbean region for organizational consulting and executive coaching firm Right Management Consultants. "Leading a company today is different than it was 10 or 15 years ago, and it really requires a leader who is up to speed on change," says Clark, whose firm works with nearly 450 of the Fortune 500 companies.

Executive education of any sort--whether an MBA or a shorter program--also broadens a manager's knowledge beyond his or her own experience. Perry Long, a SunTrust vice president and portfolio manager who graduated from the University of Florida executive MBA program, says he often uses what he absorbed to help clients in other industries. "When people are talking about their business, I can relate to that based on what I've learned," he says. He recounts that after finishing a class on manufacturing and production--two subjects that bankers rarely have occasion to deal with - he found himself at a client's business, discussing throughput and other manufacturing topics. "The MBA will open a door into business deals," says Long.

Another benefit has already been alluded to: fellow students. With minimum admissions requirements of eight to 12 years of work experience--at least five of them managerial--the network of minds that executives are exposed to is top-caliber. "They tend to be very savvy, from CEOs of mid-size companies, to vice presidents of bigger companies," says Erik Gordon, director of MBA programs at the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida. "These are people who have had a lot of responsibility running people and projects."

Even 15 years later, says Sonenreich, he draws on the knowledge of his classmates. "It's not infrequent when associates from that experience contact me, or I contact them as resources," he says. Sonenreich also cites another, more intangible benefit of his degree: "Overall, acquiring knowledge builds an individual's confidence in performing their responsibilities ... which I think is very important to being successful."

It's no longer just executives from large companies who are enrolling in executive programs these days. "We're seeing a lot more entrepreneurs, people who have grown a business, and now the business is outgrowing their capacity," says Dan Nagy, associate dean for admissions and recruiting at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. UF's Gordon has seen the same trend. "Business has gotten really tough for the little companies, and they need to be a lot more sophisticated," he says. "So, we get a lot more people from earlier stage and from smaller companies, where the need for ... sophisticated strategy is greater."

That is contributing to an ever-younger executive MBA population. "The average age has gone down over the last 10 years, and that's an indicator that people are not waiting as long," says Ania Nozewnik, University of Miami assistant dean of graduate programs. "I think that now, in order to be competitive in business, you need to have the MBA degree."

Executive recruiter Bonnie Crabtree, managing director of Korn/Ferry International's Florida office, says that although an MBA may not be a requirement for a position, it does get noticed on a resume. "Companies are looking for that advanced degree ... because they're looking for the skills that it brings," she says. "It helps people to start to think differently ... and to apply strategic thinking to practical situations."