Program Overview

Growing Great Managers: The Core Essentials equips new managers and technical experts with the essential management skills and strategic perspectives needed to succeed in today's business world. In one week, Darden's top-ranked faculty impart wisdom on core topics associated within the MBA degree, enabling participants to return to their organizations with a broad, solid base of fundamental knowledge, ideas and approaches to implement and share across their respective enterprises.

Specifically, participants:

• Learn cross-functional skills in five key areas: strategy, marketing, operations, finance and leadership
• Analyze complex business challenges through case discussions, simulations and workshop activities
• Gain the tools and confidence needed to be at the forefront of today's business thinking

Audience

Primary Audience:

• New managers with up to six years' experience who need to evolve their skills in all core business areas
• Individuals recently promoted from contributing to management roles

Others Who Will Benefit: 

• Professionals from engineering, consulting, IT and other technical backgrounds transferring to broader management roles
• Anyone wanting to build fundamental business skills and expertise in the core topic areas (strategy, marketing, operations, finance and leadership) associated with the MBA degree

Faculty

Key Takeaways

• You will blossom into a better manager through:
  • An expanded toolkit and greater confidence for leading in the contemporary business environment
  • Understanding of how all areas of business fit together/appreciation of other functions and their importance
  • A personal action plan - for applying classroom knowledge to current situations, and for continued learning and development
  • New abilities to tackle tough business challenges
  • Insights from the latest in business thinking
• You will gain specific knowledge in five topics required for the modern manager's competency and capability kit:
  • Finance - increased capability to use financial data to assess and understand business performance impact; understanding of how financial decisions impact strategic efforts
  • Leadership - new abilities and strategies for leading a diverse team, leading through change and challenges, and delivering powerful messages
  • Marketing - understanding of various frameworks and concepts, including brand management and customer value
  • Operations - methods for helping your organization run smoothly and efficiently, ability to translate strategy into day-to-day activity, and understanding of the impact of operational decisions on strategic efforts
  • Strategy - understanding of the dynamics of strategy, its relation to every area of your business, and how it drives value
• You will gain access to a lifelong, global network of business leaders and managers - including contacts obtained directly through this program and connection to the larger, tightknit Darden School community

Topics

• Finance
  E.g., financial statements, financial data use best practices, cash flow drivers, using financial reports in decision making
• Leadership
  E.g., leading through change/dynamics of change, developing presence, delivering influential messages, leading and working in teams, leading across diverse cultures
• Marketing Strategy
  E.g., market and competition analysis, basic marketing metrics, marketing planning, customer behavior and loyalty, value delivery, marketing dynamics in a complex and ever-changing world
• Operations
  E.g., performance assessment methods, improvement levers, lean thinking, translation of strategy to effective operations, impact on competitive advantage
• Strategy
  E.g., strategic leadership, strategic vision, aligning organizational capabilities for sustainable competitive advantage, business models and their application, how strategy drives value, strategic mapping

Features

Program activities include:

• Case discussions
• Simulations
• Workshop activities and exercises
• Opportunity for one-on-one interaction with and feedback from top-ranked faculty who are experts in management and other areas
• Time for individual reflection/development of a personal action plan - so that knowledge learned is immediately related to individual roles, functions and companies

Schedule:

• Day 1 kickoff reception and dinner
• Daily sessions + lunch at the Darden School
• Evenings spent in group discussion and/or individual preparation
• Final day session + lunch