Earlier this fall, we announced a number of exciting innovations to our Executive MBA Program. In this ongoing blog series, we explore each of the innovations in more detail. Today, we catch up with Assistant Dean, Barbara Millar, about the Explorations in Enterprise Leadership (EEL) course she is currently leading for our Class of 2020.
EEL is a recurring course offered in global quarters (i.e. those quarters in which a global residency occurs) for EMBA format students who are not traveling on the week-long global residency. Students who travel on the global residency participate in a similar course called Global Leadership Explorations (GLE). Check out our FAQs for additional insights about the structure and design our our Executive MBA Program.
Curious about other innovations? See our previous post on career support enhancements and stay tuned for additional entries in the coming weeks. For an overview of all of the program innovations, be sure to check out our podcast interview with Associate Dean Jim Detert. And now, our conversation with Barbara Millar!
What attracted you to Explorations in Enterprise Leadership (EEL)? What is exciting to you about teaching this course?
When we decided to redesign this course, we wanted to create a learning opportunity for our students that focused on a compelling business topic. We also wanted the course to draw on the expertise of industry leaders and practitioners.
The class we are currently leading certainly checks both of these boxes. The course focus is healthcare, a timely topic that affects us all, and I’m excited to teach alongside Vivan Riefberg, a senior McKinsey partner who brings extensive experience to the classroom.
How did Vivian get involved?
Our Dean, Scott Beardsley, had worked with Vivian and knew her expertise leading McKinsey’s healthcare practice. Vivian and I met and realized we had a shared vision for how we would design the course. We both have strong professional networks of healthcare industry leaders, and, as a result, we were able to tap a set of speakers that truly gave life to the course content. There is nothing like having subject matter experts in the classroom. Co-creating this course with Vivian has been a true pleasure and a professional highlight for me.
You obviously have a lot of great content planned. For you, what are some of the highlights of the course?
The course design is interesting. Students will examine high-level healthcare challenges and cases through a stakeholder lens (patient, provider, insurer, pharmaceutical company, advocacy group, etc.). We also have a number of truly amazing industry leaders who will come to the classroom and share their leadership challenges as well as professional insights, projections, etc. with our students. I’m really excited about everything we have planned.
How did you pick healthcare as the focus of the course?
I have always believed that we needed to have the leadership of healthcare as part of our required curriculum. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the healthcare industry or not, the challenges of the US healthcare system impact all of our lives in significant ways. As leaders, our students must understand the current and future challenges of this significant driver of our economy. Well worth exploring and understanding.
