Executive Education - History

History

The genesis of executive education can be traced to Frederick Taylor and his 1911 treatise Principles of Scientific Management. This groundbreaking book described how the application of the scientific method to the management of workers greatly could improve productivity. Taylor's ideas, also known as "Taylorism" would become the standard for businesses worldwide.

On the heels of Taylorism came The Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, which in 1914 began offering Course XV, Engineering Administration, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At that time, the concept of providing business training in the academic environment was gaining popularity, thus MIT created a program “specially designed to train men to be competent managers of businesses that have much to do with engineering problems.” Harvard also began offering short five-week selections of standard MBA material in the late 1920s.

In 1930 Course XV at MIT became an independent department and was named the Department of Business and Engineering Administration. In 1931 an innovative program for executive development was initiated with the backing of several industrialists. This one-year program — offering graduate study in the fundamentals of management and decision-making — was aimed at young managers who were nominated by their employers and was highly competitive. In 1938 the program received full funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was formally named the MIT Sloan Fellowship Program for Executive Development at MIT.

Executive Education in the United States developed critical mass after World War II. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights—allowed veterans to take advantage of education benefits. Many studied business in college, a privilege previously only enjoyed by the wealthy elite. Subsequent executive education programs, including the 13-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard University and the four-week Institute for Management at Northwestern University’s School of Commerce (now the Kellogg School of Management), developed in response to the need to rapidly train line executives for general management in the post World War II era.

By the late 1970s nearly 20 business schools in the United States were offering some form of executive education. The science of business also was developing at a rapid pace as faculty, such as Harvard Professor Michael Porter and University of Michigan Professor C.K. Prahalad, published academic papers that changed the way people thought and acted within companies.

Professor Prahalad is most notably remembered for developing the concepts of “core competencies” and “strategic intent.” These and other respected academic business thinkers—Don Hambrick, Ram Charan, David Ulrich, Michael Hammer, Gary Hamel and many others—are the true pioneers of executive education and the ongoing effort to facilitate wealth creation and other new concepts aimed at making stronger businesses while improving the welfare of the world.

Throughout the 1970s university-based executive education continued to evolve as an industry. Several on-campus residential facilities were constructed at several universities, demonstrating the value of a standalone facility dedicated to executive education programs. This spurred the development of such facilities at schools nationwide and the subsequent expansion of short open enrollment programs. The industry’s exclusive professional association, The International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON), also came into existence during this period. UNICON began sponsoring a tradeshow in the 1970s for companies interested in learning about university-based executive education and an annual conference for members. UNICON has since grown into a consortium of nearly 100 universities with executive education programs around the globe. It sponsors three annual conferences that allow members to share best practices, conducts research into topics of concern and provides benchmarking data for members.

Executive education further developed in the 1980s and 1990s as the increasing pace and scope of global business demanded higher levels of education among employees. The dot-com boom further changed the scope of the business landscape by favoring employees and organizations that were quick to adapt to change. As longstanding business concepts became obsolete, continual training was necessary – but earning a degree was not.