Working students

The Asian Institute of Management markets its Executive MBA or EMBA as a "corporate change" program designed to help managers embrace change as part of the broader business landscape.

But Raul Anthony Concepcion, president of Contel and 2002 EMBA graduate, believes the course is first a "personal change" program that enables managers to transform themselves and adapt to the very fluid demands of the workplace and business environment.

"I have improved a lot as a person because the whole program is rigorous. It was as if I was put through fire and, because I survived, I am now more confident that I can succeed. I am now more capable of meeting the challenges that come my way," he said.

The program runs for 18 months. It requires students to spend one week a month in school for classroom sessions set from 8 a.m. to 6:20 p.m. from Monday to Friday and ending with a written exam on Saturday. Then, the students go back to work for the next three weeks, immediately applying what they have learned on the job.

"I became a better manager with better people skills while attending the program. Since I had to be out of the office for a whole week, I learned to delegate and to teach my people to work as a team," he said.

Key component

A key component of the EMBA program is the strategic change project which each students must implement with measurable results for his/her company.

For Concepcion, he chose to expand Contel’s trunk radio service to Cebu. "We all grew as leaders and managers. The team members were involved in all aspect of the project, from engineering to marketing to sales. I turned out to be just a facilitator and they did all the work," he said.

The Contel expansion increased total revenues by 10%, with each area in Cebu City, Mactan, Danao, and Santana hitting its sales target and becoming a profit center.

Partnership

"The core of the EMBA is the triad or three-way partnership among the student-manager, his corporation, and the AIM faculty. Forward-looking companies, which invest in their people, reap the benefits of their investment by making available reasonable resources to implement a strategic change initiative," said project director Bienvenido Canto.

"If you’ve found the guy who will take over your business, you might as well equip him with the tools he will need," said Concepcion, who recommends the program to entrepreneurs. "Most entrepreneurs have this gut feel but many do not have the discipline of the numbers and this is where they fail. In school, they can learn from mistakes in the classroom."

Ironically, Concepcion was discouraged from going to a graduate school when he was younger by his dad, industrialist Raul Concepcion. "Spend one year with me and you’ll learn more than in a Master’s program," the older Concepcion had told him seven years ago.

"He’s a cynic when it comes to MBA programs. And it’s true. I did learn a lot on the job, being in business and working for him. But because I wanted to learn and experience new things, meet different people, and take as much out of life as I can, I felt I had much to gain from pursuing graduate studies," Concepcion said.

And gain much he did.