The Case for Sponsorship:
Seeking Support from Your Employer for Executive MBA Studies
Joining an Executive MBA program should be a game-changer for your
career. The significant investment in time, effort, and money to
complete an Executive MBA program can be daunting and many managers
considering this step in their personal development seek support from
their employers.
I have put together this guide to help anyone
thinking about how to approach an employer and seek this support. I hope
you find it helpful.
Preparation
The likelihood of success for any initiative is improved with careful
planning. The same holds true for your efforts to secure sponsorship from your
employer in an Executive MBA program.
Before you can craft and present a compelling case for sponsorship you
have to consider and collect the relevant data you need. This information can
be divided into the following categories:
Executive MBA
Programs: The starting point for
your planning is to ensure that you understand Executive MBA programs. The MBA
landscape includes various options, each targeted at managers with different
needs. You must understand how Executive MBA programs fit into this portfolio,
who they are intended for, and the outcomes associated with this path to an MBA
degree. The second part of this initial step is to identify the specific
Executive MBA program for which you are seeking sponsorship. The more concrete
and you can make your case for sponsorship (e.g., focusing on a specific
program and its characteristics), the more convincing your proposal. This means
connecting the benefits for your employer with the proven outcomes for
graduates from a particular Executive MBA program.
Policies &
Practice: A thorough understanding
of your organization’s past practice and current policies can help you create a
stronger case for sponsorship. If your proposal represents the first time your
employer has been asked to consider supporting a manager through an Executive
MBA or just the latest in a setting where other managers have already received
such support presents different challenges and different resources for you
address in your case.
The Investment: It is critical to position your case for
sponsorship as an investment opportunity for your employer rather than simply a
perquisite or benefit for you. This begins by making sure you can accurately
describe what you are asking the organization to invest. Critically, you must
also describe what you are preparing to invest as well. The basic forms of
investment by both you and your employer in your successful completion of an
Executive MBA program are time and money.
The Return: This is really the most important part of any
convincing case for sponsorship. All of the steps leading to this part of your
proposal are intended to strengthen your case that your employer’s sponsorship
constitutes a real capital investment with real returns. A strong case for
sponsorship identifies and, wherever possible, quantifies the expected outcomes
that an employer making this commitment will experience and how these results
will benefit the organization. A frank discussion of returns should also
address the outcomes you expect based on the personal commitment you are making
to the Executive MBA experience. The goal for this part of your case for
sponsorship is to make explicit what both you and your employer expect from
this joint investment of time, effort, and money.
Thinking through these four parts of a case for sponsorship will serve to
strengthen your proposal and improve the likelihood of receiving support from
your employer.
The Executive MBA Experience
It is very likely that many of the people in your organization who will
be involved in reviewing your case for sponsorship in an Executive MBA program
will not be graduates of an EMBA or even MBA holders. For this reason you must
consider any preconceived ideas that decision-makers may hold about MBA
programs in general and the Executive MBA experience specifically and address
these in your case for sponsorship. This begins by ensuring that you have a
clear understanding of the design of Executive MBA programs.
While a comprehensive Executive MBA program includes courses focused on
some technical disciplines of management, it is inappropriate to believe that
the primary benefit or focus of an Executive MBA program is to simply equip
managers with a set of technical skills. Since Executive MBA programs are
targeted at mid-career managers and professionals, a well-designed EMBA
experience includes two major design components.
The experienced participants in Executive MBA programs typically bring
advanced expertise in a specific field of management with them into the
program. Many participants already hold mid-level or senior positions in
functional areas of business such as finance, marketing, operations, IT, or HR.
The common goal for these participants is to broaden their understanding of
management beyond their familiar disciplines. For this reason, one aspect of a
well-designed Executive MBA program is to provide a broad and integrated
foundation across the disciplines of management.
Given the established roles and positions typical of participants, the
second design component of Executive MBA programs is to develop advanced
leadership skills. This is actually what distinguishes the Executive MBA from
other paths to an MBA degree: the focus on leadership that is aimed to prepare
mid-career managers for senior and general management roles. A well-designed
Executive MBA program will not only have courses specifically on the topic of
leadership, but also include related topics such as communication, team
management, change management, strategy, and personal development.
Your appreciation for these key characteristics of the Executive MBA
experience, and where they lead, should be threaded through your case for
sponsorship. In particular, if you must respond to decision-makers in your
organization who react to you seeking sponsorship for this process by
suggesting there are simpler or more efficient ways to provide you with
technical skills you desire, then you should explain the full range of the EMBA
design and benefits.
The “Where?” Question
Ask anyone who has an MBA what is the first question they receive when
someone learns they have that degree and you will hear the same thing: “Where?”
This alone is strong evidence that is does indeed matter where you earn your
MBA. Before making your case for sponsorship with your employer, you should be
sure in your own mind where you want to earn your MBA and why.
The decision-makers in your organization may inquire if there is some way
to reduce the level of their sponsorship by having you attend a less expensive
Executive MBA program or perhaps one that is shorter or requires less study
time or fewer days away from the office. Such an inquiry should not come as a
surprise - in fact, you should count on it and be prepared for it. The implicit
assumption behind this inquiry is that there are little or no differences between
Executive MBA experiences so why not find the cheapest/shortest/fastest
program? The shortsightedness of this assumption is simple to rebut: all
Executive MBA programs (like virtually every other product or service in the
world) are not the same and do not lead to the same benefits. That’s why people
always ask “Where?” you earned your MBA degree: it matters.
Your goals for making your case for sponsorship are to (1) identify the
Executive MBA program you want join and (2) make a clear and compelling case
why that is the right program for you and your employer.
Analyzing Executive MBA Programs
The complexity of analyzing different Executive MBA programs can be
simplified by considering three basic aspects of any program: inputs, process,
and outcomes. As you consider these characteristics, you should put them in the
context of what would make the greatest contribution to your Executive MBA
experience and lead to the greatest benefits for your employer.
Inputs: You
want the Executive MBA program you join to attract high-quality, experienced
managers from diverse backgrounds with respect to functions, industries, and
regions. This is very important because one of the wonderful opportunities in
an Executive MBA is peer-to-peer learning. You should highlight this
characteristic of your chosen Executive MBA program for your employer by
ensuring that decision-makers appreciate how the interactive and participative
nature of learning in an MBA means that your classmates can make a significant
contribution to your development. You should ask the following questions about
any Executive MBA program you are considering:
- What are the academic
admission standards (e.g., are all participants required to hold an accredited
undergraduate degree; what proportion of the participants already hold graduate
degrees)?
- What are the functional
backgrounds of the participants (e.g., what proportion of the class typically
comes from finance, marketing, IT, human resources, etc.)?
- What are the industry
backgrounds of the participants (e.g., what proportion of the class typically
comes from financial services, manufacturing, public sector, technology sector,
etc.)?
- What is the seniority of
the participants (e.g., what is the average amount and range of both
organizational and managerial experience)?
- What is the international
diversity of the class (e.g., from how many different countries or regions do
the students in a typical class come from)?
Business schools that are committed to the excellence of their Executive
MBA programs understand the importance of their admissions standards and the
role of peer-to-peer learning in the experience of their students. Accordingly,
good schools will already have prepared this information in anticipation of
kinds of questions that strong candidates will pose.
Process:
There are two elements to the process of an Executive MBA experience that you
should analyze: academic and logistic. With respect to the latter, anyone
considering an Executive MBA program must identify the option that offers a
schedule and geographic location(s) that make sense with respect to his or her
job and family commitments. There is no such thing as a generally better or
worse schedule or geographic location - only the ideal schedule and location for
you. Before creating your case for sponsorship you must be confident that your
chosen program offers a schedule and location that will leave your employer
confident that you will be able to meet your job responsibilities.
With respect to the academic process, you should certainly have your
priorities in place when analyzing Executive MBA options. Well-designed
Executive MBA programs will have professors, learning methods, a curriculum,
and facilities that are selected with the specific needs of Executive MBA
participants in mind. These are different than the needs of undergraduate
students or even full-time MBA program participants. You should ask the
following questions about any Executive MBA program you are considering with
respect to the academics:
- What are the backgrounds,
experience, and credentials of the faculty who teach in the program (e.g.,
where did they study and earn their degrees; what organizational experience do
they have outside of an academic setting; how long have they been teaching in
an executive education setting)?
- What are the learning
methods used in the courses (e.g., what portion of courses use lectures / case
study / simulations)?
- What is the design of the
curriculum (e.g., is there a broad an integrated foundation across the disciplines
of management; is there an appropriate focus on leadership skills; how well
does the curriculum match my needs with respect to the skills I need to advance
my career)?
- In what sort of setting /
facilities do classes take place (e.g., is the facility designed for executive
/ interactive learning; is the setting appropriate to facilitate a focus on
learning and networking)?
Some further consideration with respect to learning methods is important.
A very effective learning method used extensively by the world’s leading
business schools is called the case method. The case method requires students
to prepare an analysis of a real business situation that is focused on the
application of specific managerial tools and concepts. The classroom experience
using the case method requires professors to facilitate a class discussion
rather than simply lecture to the class. The case method is interactive and
creates an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning that is not possible in a
traditional lecture approach. This should be of particular interest to anyone
considering an Executive MBA program because part of the value proposition for
this path to the MBA degree is peer-to-peer learning. In many business
programs, however, the professors are more familiar with teaching
undergraduates rather than experienced managers and professionals and, as a
result, utilize lectures rather than facilitate class discussions. This is a
characteristic of the academic process that you should investigate fully. If
you wish to highlight and reinforce the benefits of peer-to-peer learning in
your case for sponsorship then selecting an Executive MBA program that makes
extensive use of this learning method is critical.
Price versus Value
A focus solely on what something costs rather than considering the value
of a purchase is misguided and, inevitably, leads to disappointment. Regardless
of the sponsorship you are seeking from your employer for your Executive MBA
studies, the experience, and the degree you earn will be yours and will affect
the rest of your career. You have to be confident that the specific MBA for
which you are seeking sponsorship is the choice that will create the greatest
value for and your employer.
This position is easier to support when you are focused on a specific
Executive MBA program, its features, and its results, rather than addressing
Executive MBA as a general category. Do not allow a discussion of finding the
least expensive path to any MBA degree derail or distract from your request for
support. Focusing on a specific program and making concrete links between the
results of that program and how you will be able to enhance your contributions
to your organization’s success is the foundation of a compelling case for
sponsorship.
You are Your Best Advocate
Presumably you are reading this document specifically because you need to
make a case for sponsorship with your employer for support in an Executive MBA program.
In that effort you are your best advocate and must prepare the most thorough
and convincing case as possible.
Earning your MBA degree in an Executive MBA program represents a
significant investment in time, effort, and money by both you and, hopefully,
your employer. If you wish to seek sponsorship from your employer to contribute
to this investment then you must have a deep understanding of the Executive MBA
experience and how it will lead to benefits for your organization in order to
advocate for this support. That understanding begins with thorough research about
Executive MBA programs and that explains why we begin this document with this
topic.
Perhaps your organization has a long history of grooming high-potential
managers through sponsorship in Executive MBA programs. Or, perhaps you may be
the first person in your organization that has ever sought sponsorship for this
undertaking. Either way, you need to understand the environment in which you
find yourself as you create your case for sponsorship. Familiarizing yourself
with precedents and past practice as well as current policies is a critical
part of your research.
The Internal Environment
Here is a list of the questions you should be asking about precedents,
policies, and practices in your organization regarding management development
in general and sponsorship in Executive MBA programs specifically:
· Does your organization have formal policies on
management development? If so:
- What are the policies (e.g., financial limits, time
limitations, geographic constraints)?
- Do these policies specifically address MBA
sponsorship?
- Who is responsible for the creation and management
of these policies (e.g., Human Resources Department)?
- Who is (are) the decision-maker(s) for applying these
policies (e.g., HR, your immediate superior, CEO)?
- On what basis are these decisions made (e.g., results
of annual reviews, personal decision of the top manager)?
The presence or absence of formal policies does not necessarily create
any advantages or disadvantages for you as you seek sponsorship. While it is
true that having policies in place may provide you with a starting point, sometimes
they also present constraints if your are asking for some form of support that
might be outside of the policies. The important consideration here is to
understand your environment and adapt your case for sponsorship accordingly.
Another part of your research should be to investigate past practice, or
precedent, with respect to sponsoring managers in Executive MBA programs. You
should inquire if this kind of sponsorship has ever been provided to a manager
in the past. If so, then try to discover the answers to the following
questions:
- How frequently is this
kind of sponsorship offered?
- How long has it been
since the last time this kind of sponsorship was provided to a manager?
- How large / significant
was the sponsorship for Executive MBA programs in the past?
- Which schools have the
sponsored managers attended? Have any gone to the school to which I wish to
apply?
- Have the managers
sponsored in Executive MBA programs come from specific divisions or functional
areas within the organization?
Once again, these questions are intended to supply you with important
contextual information in crafting your case for sponsorship. Understanding
past practice provides a stronger foundation for your request, especially if
there are precedents for sponsoring managers in Executive MBA programs.
Researching policies and past practice allow you to understand some of
the formal processes in your organization. This perspective can be complemented
by learning more about some of the less formal conditions in your organization.
Other questions you should be investigating include:
- What is the general
impression of top management regarding the benefits of management development?
- What is the general
impression of top management regarding the value of supporting managers in Executive
MBA programs?
- What is the general
impression of top management regarding graduates of the Executive MBA program
to which I wish to apply?
- Are their any managers in
the company now who are MBA holders and/or alumni of the school to which I want
to apply? If so, how can I get their support in this process?
These questions will help you understand the culture and attitude in your
organization regarding support for management development. Hopefully, your
organization understands the value of this practice and has a strong tradition
of grooming high-potential managers for senior roles.
There is one question that you will face when presenting a case for
sponsorship for which you have to be ready - retention. A common concern about
investing in management development for many organizations is the possibility
that after making the investment in training and growing managers these
individuals may leave the organization. This sort of concern is often presented
to managers seeking sponsorship in an Executive MBA program as the scale of the
support, both in time and money, can represent the most significant investment
an organization can make in the development of a single manager. In some cases,
top management in an organization may even believe that the completion of an
Executive MBA program will lead normally to a manager seeking new opportunities
outside the organization.
In constructing your case for sponsorship you should pre-emptively address
this concern. Include a discussion of your interests and targeted goals for
your contribution while you enrolled in an Executive MBA program and after you
graduate. Encourage any decision maker in this process to talk about how the
organization will utilize your new skills and knowledge in the years to come.
The more you can explicitly address your post-graduate career intentions and
encourage your employer to discuss your post-graduate career opportunities the
more effectively you can eliminate an employer’s concerns regarding retention.
The External Environment
A case for sponsorship in an Executive MBA program can be strengthened
with data from outside your organization.
For example, analyze the management of your main competitors and the
organizations recognized as leaders in your industry. In fact, analyze the
management of any organization respected by the top management at your
employer. Do key leaders in those organizations have an MBA? The possibility of
using precedent from outside of your organization can underscore why your
employer should follow that example.
Next Steps
With the research in place, you are now ready to move to building your case
for sponsorship in the most informed and convincing manner. The next steps are
to focus on describing the investment you are asking for and the return that you
can offer.
If you have done the research described above then you are now ready to
start building your case for sponsorship. The main focus of this request for
support should be to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) your employer
can expect thanks to sponsorship. In this section of this document we will
address both parts of this analysis: investment and return.
Investment - Time Commitments
The investment portion of the ROI analysis is more straightforward than
the return analysis. In general, your employer’s investment takes two forms:
time and money.
An important theme that runs through the analysis of the investment of
time to earn an MBA degree in an Executive MBA program is that while you are
asking for your employer’s support for time away from the workplace you are
also prepared to make a significant commitment of your own time. Most Executive
MBA programs include residential sessions away from your workplace where a
classroom experience is the venue for learning. That said, a great deal of the
time commitment to earn an MBA degree is outside of the classroom as well. This
includes, for example, reading, preparing for classes and case discussions,
preparing for examinations, working on projects, and team meetings. When
discussing your commitment to devoting the time necessary to be successful in
an Executive MBA program you should ensure that your case for sponsorship
highlights (a) that you are prepared to make that commitment of your time and
that (b) aside from the residential sessions you will use your personal time
for these activities without requiring more time away from the workplace. This
point highlights your investment and commitment to the process.
What will likely be a more focused area of the discussion regarding time
commitments is the time you will need away from the workplace to attend the
residential sessions. These immersive experiences, where program participants
can focus on the courses and the learning process, are a critical part of the
Executive MBA process. Providing you with this time off clearly represents a
significant investment by your employer. In preparing your case for sponsorship
you should address this aspect of your request by showing you have considered
the impact of your absence from the workplace for these sessions and you have
identified various ways in which your work responsibilities can be addressed
while you are away.
Of course, this does not mean you can commit to the same activities and
the same deadlines as when you are in your workplace - that’s simply not
possible while attending an Executive MBA residential session. But it does mean
that you have to plan ahead. Considering the following:
- What projects or
deliverables can you accomplish before departing for a residential session?
- What specific tasks or
deliverables can you advance to a point where a colleague or team member can
complete that work without your continued participation?
- What (limited) work might
you still be able to do while attending a residential session (e.g., conference
calls, selected deliverables)?
When discussing these time commitments with your employer, the three main
messages in your case for sponsorship should be:
1. There will be time away from the workplace required
(be specific: how many weeks; which specific weeks?),
2. While you are asking your employer for this time,
you are also prepared to make a significant commitment of your own time to this
process (e.g., devoting a portion of your holiday time to cover the residential
sessions, working in the evening), and
3. You have planned ahead to try to make your absence
from the workplace as smooth as possible with respect to activities and
deliverables.
Investment - Financial Commitments
In general, the financial commitments for completing an Executive MBA
program include: tuition fees, living expenses during residential sessions, and
travel-related costs. Tuition fees are known in advance and the other costs can
be reasonably estimated before the start of a program. You should collect this
information and prepare a budget, including the timing, for the financial
commitment necessary to complete an Executive MBA program.
Earlier, document addressed the necessity to identify a specific
Executive MBA program for which you will seek sponsorship. In the event that
your employer poses the question regarding a less expensive program you should
be prepared to address that by speaking to the value and outcomes of your
preferred program. We will discuss this more in the section on returns below.
Of course, the ideal situation would be if your employer agrees to
financially support you for 100% of all of the costs associated with your
preferred program. However, you should prepare for a different response based
on analysis of your own ability and willingness to make a financial
contribution to earning an MBA degree.
Unarguably, there are benefits for an employer to invest in developing
managers to enhance their skills and abilities to contribute to the success of
the organization. At the same time, a manager who acquires these new skills and
abilities will also enjoy the associated benefits through accelerated career
advancement. Be honest with yourself: your interest in earning an MBA is driven
in part by your own career goals and aspirations. If you are prepared to agree
that the benefits of having an MBA are shared between you and your employer
than you must consider if you are also willing to share some of the costs. The
discussion of a shared financial commitment parallels the shared time
commitment mentioned above.
Of course, the opportunity to personally commit to some portion of the
cost of earning an MBA depends not simply on your willingness but also on your
financial ability to do so. As you create your case for sponsorship you should
be prepared for this possibility. In other words, you should be prepared for
the possibility of making a financial commitment to this process along with
your employer. You should analyze what portion of your personal savings, loans
from family members, or loans from financial institutions you can access if
necessary to make this personal commitment. It is possible that without some
personal financial commitment that, at best, your opportunity to join your
preferred Executive MBA program may be limited or, at worst, you will not be
able to join an Executive MBA program at all.
There are some specific financial arrangements that could be offered by
you, or be part of the offer by your organization, that you should consider and
prepare for:
- You might initially cover
the costs of the program and then receive a refund from your employer upon your
successful completion (this could be at specific milestones, like after each
half of the program, or a delayed refund until the program is completed),
- You might agree to a
“retention” clause where you will personally refund your employer’s investment
if you leave the organization before a certain amount of time after finishing
the program (e.g., 1-3 years).
To summarize, when analyzing the financial commitments necessary to
complete an Executive MBA program and incorporating this analysis in your case
for sponsorship consider the following:
- Create a detailed budget
showing the amount and timing of the financial commitments for completing the
Executive MBA program,
- Be prepared (whether as
part of the initial request or as part of the negotiations) to discuss a
personal financial commitment to the Executive MBA process,
- Be prepared to address
your employer’s financial risk with various conditions around financial support
(e.g., refunds, retention contract).
Returns - The Heart of Your case for
Sponsorship
All of the work you have done to research the Executive MBA space and
analyze the investment necessary for you to earn an MBA has been to make an
informed case for the ROI your employer will enjoy thanks to sponsoring you.
Accordingly, articulating the returns is truly the “heart” of your case for
sponsorship.
The most compelling returns you can offer your employer will be those
directly linked to the needs of your employer. In this way, you can tailor your
case for sponsorship by linking the outcomes of an Executive MBA program with
the specific contributions you can make to address your employer’s needs.
While you can likely list several challenges facing your organization
today off the top of your head, a more structured analysis will be helpful in
putting these challenges in context. One popular method to examine an
organization is called a SWAT analysis. The acronym stands for: Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You should begin thinking about your
organization’s needs through the lens of this sort of analytical framework.
Specifically, try to identify:
- What current Strengths
of your organization (e.g., corporate social responsibility, ethical
decision-making) can be bolstered or complemented with the skills and abilities
you can acquire through an Executive MBA experience,
- What Weaknesses
does your organization face today (e.g., leadership skills, employee evaluation
and motivation, strategic thinking) that could be eliminated with the skills
and abilities you can acquire through an Executive MBA experience,
- What new Opportunities
could your organization pursue more effectively (e.g., international expansion,
diversification, partnerships, acquisitions) if you had the additional skills
and abilities that can be acquired through an Executive MBA experience, and
- What Threats does
your organization face today, and in the future (e.g., new market entrants, new
product introductions, competitive pressures) that could be more effectively
countered thanks to the skills and abilities that you can acquire through an
Executive MBA experience.
(Note: In applying SWOT analysis it is appropriate to consider how your
organization’s strengths can create opportunities and, similarly, how your
organization’s weaknesses can lead to threats.)
Once you go through the process of carefully analyzing your organization
you should have a list of what your organization needs right now and in the
immediate future in order to be successful. Ideally, you should be able to
prioritize these observations in a manner that the senior management of your
organization would find insightful.
The next step in identifying the ROI for your employer is to demonstrate
how specific characteristics of the Executive MBA experience will leave you
prepared to address the issues you raised in your SWOT analysis. The following
is a list of the benefits and outcomes of sponsoring a manager in an Executive
MBA program from an employer’s perspective. You must find those that are
strongly linked with your analysis:
Develop
General Management Insights
Most
managers begin their careers by specializing in a topic. That could be a
technical topic, like engineering or IT, or it could be a functional
specialization, like finance, marketing, or human resources. A distinguishing
feature of senior management, however, is a general management perspective. It
is critical for senior managers to understand the “big picture” of an
organization and how every decision will impact or involve every part of the
organization. A well-designed Executive MBA experience includes a strong core
of courses across the fundamental business disciplines. In this way, an
Executive MBA program graduate is exposed to an integrated and balanced view of
how all of the parts of an organization should interact. Your case for
sponsorship should highlight how your decision-making responsibilities and
abilities will be enhanced through the Executive MBA experience thanks to this
general management perspective.
Develop
Leaders
One
challenge that all organizations face is developing strong leaders. This is not
meant to refer solely to the person in the top role, but to the entire senior
leadership team. A well-designed Executive MBA experience has a strong focus on
developing leadership skills and insights. Leadership is a complex topic yet
the principles of leadership can be learned if carefully and thoughtfully
incorporated into the Executive MBA experience. Your case for sponsorship
should highlight how the future success of your organization depends on
excellence in leadership skills and demonstrate how that is a specific outcome
of your preferred Executive MBA program.
Practical
and Immediately Applicable Skills
Often,
people refer to the outcomes of a management training process by considering
what happens after a manager completes the training. While that is a fine
perspective, it overlooks the fact that practicing managers and professionals
in an Executive MBA program bring new skills and abilities to their
organization everyday while the program is underway. In other words, the
returns to an employer begin immediately, not just after a sponsored manager
completes an Executive MBA program. In addition, many Executive MBA programs
include required projects for the application of management principles and
techniques. By selecting your employer as the focus for such projects you can
offer another form of payback before a program is complete. Your case for
sponsorship should highlight that after every course, after each residential
session, you will return to your role with new abilities and enhanced
decision-making skills.
Best
Practices from Peer-to-Peer Learning
Great
business practices and ideas exist everywhere. When managers spend all of their
time speaking with colleagues inside their organizations then it is difficult
to learn about best practices that exist in other organizations, other
industries, and other regions. A great Executive MBA program will attract a
diverse set of participants. As a student in such a program, you will be able
to learn from counterparts from other settings whom you simply would be unable
to meet otherwise. In this way, a great Executive MBA program becomes an
incubator for new ideas from new sources. Your case for sponsorship should
highlight the unique opportunity for cross-pollination that a program provides
and the opportunities it presents.
Internal
Development versus Hiring from Outside
As organizations grow they need new managers and leaders. The choice that
growing organizations face is whether to develop current managers or hire from
the outside to fill this need. The search process in latter path is time
consuming involves. Moreover, hiring from outside means a learning curve (and
it’s associated inefficiency) for these new managers. In contrast, developing
current managers for senior roles means working with people that already have a
successful track record in the organization, have proven their fit with the
organizational culture, and a very small learning curve to climb in order to be
effective in a new role. Your case for sponsorship should highlight the added
efficiency and speed an organization can enjoy when developing current
managers.
Send a Positive Message - Retaining Talented
Managers
All managers want to work in an environment where they are valued. The best
managers can move to organizations where they can find that support and
commitment. Your case for sponsorship should highlight that by supporting you
in an Executive MBA program your employer sends an encouraging message to all
managers. No organization wants to lose talented people and by demonstrating a
willingness to invest in talented and deserving managers your employer should
be more effective in retaining - and attracting - the best people.
An Environment Designed for Experienced Managers
By definition, an Executive MBA program is designed for experienced
managers and professionals. If you are well suited for that environment then
other setting or development programs that would ask you to learn with junior
managers or inexperienced classmates would not be focused on the best form of
learning for you. Your case for sponsorship should highlight that the Executive
MBA experienced is specifically designed for managers at same point as you in
their careers.
Networking Benefits
Your time in great Executive MBA program will be spent in the company of
managers from other forward-thinking organizations. The contacts you make
should translate to real opportunities for your employer. New partnerships, new
markets, and new ideas can all be formalized thanks to the network you forge
through the process. Your case for sponsorship should highlight how real
opportunities for your employer can have their start with the network of
classmates, alumni, and faculty you will meet in your Executive MBA experience.
Given that the largest of these three groups should be alumni, this heightens
the need to select an established, highly-regarded program that includes a
large pool of well-paced alumni.
Forging a Partnership with a Leading Business School
As your employer learns more about the Executive MBA experience at your
preferred program that opens the door to other forms of cooperation with your
chosen business school. An organization committed to developing managers can
also identify targeted topics where training is required. A leading business
school will be able to partner with your employer to assist with development
needs broadly. Your case for sponsorship should highlight the opportunities
that developing a partnership with the right business school can serve.
As you go through this list of potential benefits for your employer, you
should be identifying those that most clearly connect with the results of your
SWOT analysis.
One final comment regarding benefits: you should enlist the staff of your
preferred Executive MBA program to help you with constructing your case for
sponsorship. One great input into this preparation is the concrete examples and
evidence they have collected regarding the success that graduates and their
employers have experienced in the past. Supplementing any statement you make
regarding program outcomes and benefits with facts supplied from the program
can only serve to strengthen your case for sponsorship.
Financial Analysis of Returns
This document has made the point several times that you should consider
your case for sponsorship as an investment opportunity for your employer.
Essentially, you are asking your organization to invest resources today in
order to experience benefits - a return on that investment - in the future.
Organizations make investment decisions all the time. In fact, it is
highly likely that your organization has a standard process for the financial
analysis of investment opportunities. The common type of financial metrics for
capital investment opportunities includes indicators called Payback, Internal
Rate of Return (IRR), and Net Present Value (NPV). All of these techniques
compare an investment of capital today against the expected future returns in
order to see if the investment is worth making. In crafting your case for
sponsorship you should consider using the same capital investment analysis
tools and techniques already used by your employer to reinforce that your
request is an investment opportunity.
Of course, all capital investment analyses are based on expected future
benefits. In other words, there is always a need to estimate what those
financial benefits might look like. While such forecasts are not simple and
always involve uncertainty, one approach is to determine a break-even point
where an investment pays for itself. This is likely the most straightforward
way to include financial analysis in your case for sponsorship.
The quantitative techniques in IRR and NPV calculations are beyond the
scope of this document. Payback, however, is the most common and widely used
form of financial analysis for capital investments and is also a simple
calculation. Payback is an estimate of the amount of time the incremental cash
inflows (e.g., net incremental revenue, net incremental cost savings) from an
investment takes to equal the amount invested. Typically, organizations that
use Payback to evaluate capital investment opportunities establish a threshold
time period under which investments look appealing. Here is a basic example of
applying Payback analysis for sponsorship in an Executive MBA program:
EMBA Investment $80,000
Target Payback Period 4 years
Required Annual Incremental Benefits
($80,000 / 4 years =) $20,000
What this simple calculation indicates that your organization would have
a 4-year payback period if the new skills and abilities you can bring back to
your organization thanks to an Executive MBA experience could generate an
incremental $20,000 of benefits annually. In
other words, sponsorship in an Executive MBA program would pay for itself in
4-years if this sort of incremental benefit was realized.
The
next step in your financial analysis of Payback is to put this incremental
annual benefit in context. For example, if you are responsible for an operating
budget of $1,000,000 in your current managerial role then finding new
opportunities through an Executive MBA program to reduce operating costs by
just @% per year for four years would lead to the target Payback. Similarly, if
you are in a sales position and responsible for a $1,000,000 sales budget then
an increase in net revenues of just 2% per year for 4-years would lead to the
same Payback period. Of course, incremental cost savings or net revenues of
just 4% per year would cut the Payback period in half to 2-years.
Obviously
you need to adopt this Payback calculation to your setting and use the numbers
that make sense. In general, the result of incorporating a simple financial
calculation in your case for sponsorship can serve to demonstrate to your
employer that their investment in you will generate great financial returns
quickly.
Making your Case
While your case for sponsorship must include a discussion of the ROI for
your employer, any description of the future is going to be based on estimates
and forecasts. This is unavoidable, but you should strive to make your
forecasts of the benefits for your employer plausible and comprehensive. To
summarize, the ROI section of your case for sponsorship should include the
following:
- A comprehensive
description of the time commitments and financial commitments for the
successful completion of the Executive MBA program (detailing what you are
requesting in terms of time and money and what you are willing to invest in
terms of time and money,
- An analysis of your
organization’s needs based on a thorough examination of the internal
(strengths, weaknesses) and external (opportunities, threats) that your
organization is facing,
- A thorough explanation of
the many different benefits that sponsoring you in an Executive MBA program
creates for your employer and linking these to the needs previously listed,
- A financial analysis of
the time required for the organization’s investment in you to pay for itself
and then begin generating positive returns.
Summary
An Executive MBA program is a transformative
process that leaves every successful graduate changed. In speaking with EMBA
alumni, the word they use all the time to describe how their Executive MBA experienced
changed them is, “confidence.” Earning an MBA is a challenging process and
meeting that challenge does indeed create a sense of confidence in one’s
ability to meet all other career challenges and opportunities. I encourage you
to pursue your aspirations for new knowledge and career advancement through an
Executive MBA program.
I hope that this document can serve as a
useful guide in composing an effective case for sponsorship. We believe that
the ideas and steps shared in this document can contribute to your success in
seeking sponsorship.
Remember, you will never know if you don’t try!
Good luck!
Danny Szpiro (dszpiro@gmail.com) - Please feel free to share this document and/or links to this document as long as the full attribution of it's authorship is retained.