What Top Programs Deliver

Computerworld - In these days of renewed cost-consciousness, companies are careful about spending on executive education programs, which are often perceived as having a high fat-to-muscle ratio. Compared with specific technical training, "leadership development" can seem downright flabby. To find out what's beneath the surface of executive education, we dissected six programs that our survey respondents cited as most valuable.

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford University

Program: Strategic Uses of Information Technology (SUIT)

Duration: One week

Cost: $7,100

Take-away: Attendees learn new business models to apply to their own companies.

Web: www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/

Stanford's executive education offerings range from a six-week course in general management, known as the Stanford Executive Program, to intense one- and two-week programs in financial management, marketing and leadership. One offering that's popular with CIOs is SUIT. Working in groups of their peers, IT executives focus on applying business models to their own situations back at the office. Much of the benefit of the SUIT experience comes from high-level IT professionals working collectively to solve real-life problems.

"Stanford is very selective: This year SUIT admitted about 40% of those who applied," says Haim Mendelson, co-director of the program. "We want to be sure that the SUIT participants are at the right level in their jobs so they can apply what they learn when they return, and also so they can add value to the other students. So much of the learning takes place in the study groups. Plus we hope that SUIT participants will stay connected to maximize the value of the network they establish here."

Attendee view: That's exactly what Emma Espino,CIO at Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua SA in Chihuahua, Mexico, did. Espino used her time in the lectures and study group sessions to ask her colleagues questions about actual situations she was experiencing on the job.

"It was a real benefit to collaborate with a group of other CIOs to think about ways to solve specific problems," says Espino. "My company is going through a re-engineering project, integrating innovation with IT. The SUIT program gave me the opportunity to align IT and IT projects with my company's value proposition and strategic direction."

Darden Graduate School of Business Administration

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Program: The Executive Program (TEP)

Duration: Four weeks

Cost: $25,000

Take-away: Attendees learn how to integrate business acumen with interpersonal skills to gain a holistic view of work and life.

Web: http://exed.darden.virginia.edu

Consistently ranked among the top executive education programs in the world, Darden is unusual in its holistic approach to training future leaders. TEP includes the standard features of an intense executive education program, plus a rigorous academic curriculum in general management. A hands-on, computer-automated business simulation allows participants to work in small groups to manage a hypothetical company.