August 2019 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / 57TO EMBA, OR NOT TO EMBA? | THE CASE FOR PURSUING EXECUTIVE EDUCATIONMaryke Luijendijk is the Program Director for the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) at American University in Dubai (AUD). She joined AUD
from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) where she was the Director of Marketing and Admissions for the globally top-ranked MBA
portfolio. She served on the Strategic Platform of RSM, where she was involved in internationalization and new business development, including setting up
various cross-national collaborations and joint degrees. Prior to that, she worked in the UK, and before that, she held various roles at educational institutions
in her native South Africa. She has served on several advisory boards in the graduate management education sphere, including the Graduate Management
Admissions Council (GMAC), TheMBATour and MBATube/MasterTube. aud.edu
MAKE SURE THE EMBA NETWORK
WILL GIVE YOU MORE THAN WHAT
YOU ALREADY HAVE OR WHAT
YOU COULD GAIN IN YOUR OWN
CAPACITY. FIND AN EMBA WHERE
YOU WILL BE SURROUNDED BY THE
“NON-TRADITIONALS”- YOU WILL BE
AMAZED AT THE PERSPECTIVES THAT
SOMEONE WHO KNOWS NOTHING
ABOUT WHAT YOU DO CAN BRING TO
YOU AND YOUR PROFESSION.SCRUTINIZE THE PROGRAM
CONTENT TO MAKE SURE
THAT IT IS RELEVANT AND
REAL. IF THE CURRICULUM
HAS NOT BEEN REDESIGNED
IN THE LAST YEAR OR
TWO, YOU MIGHT WANT
TO ASK HOW IT REFLECTS
THE LATEST TRENDS THAT
AFFECTS THE WORLD.Maryke Luijendijkchallenged and perceptions
change. In our AUD EMBA, we
foster this by actively seek-
ing individuals that will bring
fresh ideas to the table.
4 / An EMBA can broaden your
outlook
EMBA content will, of course,
teach you what you need to
know about business; yet,
how it is taught, and who it
is taught by is crucial. Ensure
that the EMBA you choose will
give you so much more than
what you can learn in your
own capacity. Scrutinize the
program content to make sure
that it is relevant and real. If
the curriculum has not been
redesigned in the last year or
two, you might want to ask
how it reflects the latest trends
that affects the world. For the
AUD EMBA, this means that
we cannot, for example, teach
supply chain without looking
at drones and 3D-printing, we
cannot teach marketing with-
out looking at R-programming,
we cannot teach finance with-
out looking at fintech and all
it entails, etc. If the professors
teaching you has never worked
in the industry and/or are not
consulting in their fields, you
need to ask how they will en-
sure that what they teach you
is applicable. The content you
take away from your EMBA
will be the solutions you im-
plement at work every day.5 / An EMBA builds you
Arguably the greatest value of
an EMBA comes not from the
content but from the journey.
This sounds philosophical, and
in a sense, it is: the growth you
experience while on the pro-
gram will change you as a per-
son, change the way you lead,
and change the impact you
have. To make the most of this
process, seek out the programs
that actively support your
journey- programs that offer
coaching, that work on your
soft skills, and that challengeyour assumptions. At the AUD
EMBA, for example, we are all
about making you comfortable
with being uncomfortable. We
do this through an integrated
skills trajectory where we
create situations in which you
need to push your boundaries
and feel out of depth, because
we believe this is where the
greatest growth happens.6 / An EMBA teaches you to be
more mindful
In a world where resources are
getting scarcer and popula-
tions are growing, you would
be well served by looking for
EMBA programs that pay at-
tention to aspects of ethics,
sustainability, and corporate
social responsibility. Programs
that value more than just the
bottom line are most likely the
ones that will be best equippedto ensure you and those
around you can still benefit
from your business decisions
for generations to come. For
the AUD EMBA, this notion is
translated into the program by
ensuring that all faculty mem-
bers, regardless of the subject,
dedicates a portion of their
teaching to aspects of ethics,
sustainability, and corporate
social responsibility. For us,
it is not merely about “going
green,” or “doing good,” it is
about instilling these topics as
key business principles in all
fields of business.The worst reason possible to
do an EMBA is to do it only for
the title. You need to first and
foremost ensure that what you
want to gain fits with the con-
tent, culture, and approach of
the EMBA program you choose.
However, there is no denying
that often the EMBA title is
the differentiating factor when
it comes to further steps of
your career. At a certain stage,
you will be amongst peers that
have very similar potential and
experience to you– if you wish
to set yourself apart, more of-
ten than not, an EMBA is what
makes all the difference.