The FINANCIAL — The Executive Education Centre of Saïd Business School and the WHU School of Management Executive Development Team have won the prestigious Excellence in Practice Award 2010 of the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) in the category of Executive Development. The prize was awarded for their senior management programmes for MAN SE.
This is the first time that the Award has been made to three partners working together- a major company and two business schools in two different countries. The international dimension and business impact of the programmes were the key criteria on which the award was based.
Dr Gerd Islei, Director of the MAN Programme at Oxford said: ‘To mobilise the strengths of three very different European organisations in order to help turn a traditional German engineering firm into an international company at a time of unprecedented global turbulence we believe marks a significant step forward in executive and corporate education – and we are delighted EFMD has recognised our contribution by this Award.’
"The three institutions, MAN, WHU and Saïd Business School, have worked together since May 2008, developing two programmes, each consisting of two modules, for MAN’s senior management. The General Management Programme (GMP) was devised for MAN’s managers at middle-to-senior positions within the organisation and the Executive Management Programme (EMP) for its leadership tiers, targeting senior and board executives," Saïd Business School reported.
MAN Board member and Chief HR Officer Jörg Schwitalla and Tatjana Thiel, Head of Management Development of MAN commented on the impact of the development programmes: ‘The WHU-Oxford-MAN program, with its opportunities for dialogue, has greatly strengthened the open exchange of ideas and global networking among our employees. Participants from all over the world and different business units describe it as a state-of-the-art programme on the basis of design, content and faculty. The projects and learning have had a clear positive business impact.’
Programme director Dr Gerd Islei of Saïd Business School, Oxford said: ‘The partnership of MAN, WHU and Oxford far exceeded our expectations. Underpinning its success was a detailed understanding of the business, mutual trust, rapid implementation of changes and, in particular, a constant willingness to work out joint solutions to the strategic challenges posed by the difficult economic context.’
Gay Haskins, Dean of Executive Education, Steve Ludlow, Director of Custom Programmes at Said Business School and their colleague Bernadette Conraths, Head of Executive Development at WHU, are looking forward to developing further the partnership that they jointly launched two years ago. Steve Ludlow said: ‘The Award is a wonderful recognition, both an honor and an incentive to continue to grow the partnership proactively.’
The Prize will be awarded at the EFMD Annual Conference 7 – 8 June 2010 and the MAN-WHU-Oxford Team will present their successful MAN-WHU-Oxford Project.
