Executive Development Programme at a Management Institute

An autonomous management institute of repute was well-known for the high quality of the students graduating and entering to the corporate world. The institute’s main mission was to extend this high quality of education to those who could not undertake a full time college programme. Therefore, the institute conducted programmes aimed at providing education and training in several areas of management to working executives. These working executives attended the programmes either their own (after working hours) or sponsored by the company where they were working.

The executive development programme had three tiers. The First tier was to develop supervisory personal, the Second and Third tiers were meant for middle level and top level executive. The main emphasis of this programme was to improve trainee’s managerial, decision-making, human relation skills. Over a period of time the enrolment to this programme was on the decline. The institute was at a loss to explain, why such a thing was happening? The institute was very sure that the many of the doubts raised by the programme participants were amply cleared and the feedback from the participants was very positive, with no negatives in the feedback form. Despite this, the institute could not trace the reason for the declining attendance. The institute wondered, whether the decline was caused by economic factors or increased competition from other education providers. Could it be due to content or structure of the programme, or could it be due to the fact that it was not properly promoted and not properly targeted at the right level.

Consequently, a major promotion programme was conducted by mailing the brochures which indicated the content and the structure of the course. The mailing was done, both for those who attended the past programme and others (freshers).