Four Jobs Where You Can’t Survive Without an Executive MBA

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The Executive MBA has become an ideal choice for executives and future leaders to secure their master’s degree in business administration while maintaining a full-time job. The benefits of the EMBA are so numerous that many companies are willing to pay for their employees’ higher education, as this investment often yields improved work quality and problem-solving ability for the company’s business challenges.

1. Entertainment Industry Senior Vice President

“I absolutely could not do my job today if I hadn’t gotten my EMBA and upgraded my skill set,” John Loken, senior vice president of marketing and distribution for Live Nation Entertainment told CMO.com. With so many changes regularly occurring in the entertainment industry, Loken applauds his EMBA for giving him a competitive advantage in an industry where quantitative analysis and strategic planning is under-utilized but very much-needed.

2. Energy Industry Senior Executive

Securing an EMBA after years of working in one industry is a surefire way to transition to a senior level position in a completely new industry. This was the strategy James Cleland of GE’s Heavy Oil Solutions used when he wanted to leave manufacturing for something new. Speaking with the Financial Post, Cleland commends his EMBA with giving him the confidence needed to pursue a change he may otherwise not have made. The real-world case studies from EMBA courses such as “Technology Commercialization” and “New Venture Creation in Organizations,” paired with networking with classmates, helped Cleland ease the transition. “I would say 50% of what I learned was just from my classmates — sharing experiences, working through problems, working on this or that. You learn just as much from that as you do from the curriculum.”

3. Entrepreneur

Scott Griffin is a serial entrepreneur with more than twenty successful start-ups under his belt, and one failed one. With the failed business, an unanticipated growth spurt left him cash-poor, sending him to a venture capital firm for an investment. The firm required he be replaced with an “MBA CEO,” who lacked the same vision and commitment as Griffin. The new CEO subsequently mismanaged the company into bankruptcy. Speaking with Forbes.com, Griffin confided that the venture capital firm experience is what lead him to pursue his EMBA With courses such as “Competitive Strategy & Business Policy,” “Financial Policy for Managers,” and “Venture Capital & Private Equity,” the EMBA made it possible for him to be both visionary and leader of his latest business.

4. Professional Athlete

The idea that a professional athlete can’t survive without an Executive MBA may seem farfetched, but the reality is 75 percent of athletes enter bankruptcy within years of retiring. Further, many athletes don’t finish their education before going pro. At 20, abandoning educational pursuits to become a professional athlete seems like a smart business move — at 40, the consequences of this decision prove otherwise. EMBA’s have now become the better business decision for active athletes thinking about their next chapter. Speaking with New York Times, Baltimore Ravens’ linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo said, “With injuries and concussion and all these things happening in the sports world, athletes are starting to realize that our careers are only going to last X-number of years and then we need something more than just ‘football player’ on our résumé.” Taking courses such as “Leading People,” “Global and Local Environments,” and “Mastering Business Functions,” Ayanbadeho is learning financial management and decision-making skills to use for his post-football career. Its vast scope of practical applications and its financial potential combine to make obtaining an online executive MBA program a foolproof educational investment.