General Management Plus Program

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management

General Management

About Programme

Boost your General Management skills with the General Management Plus Program: By combining the WHU Management Essentials Program with the Capability Program, which we conduct in cooperation with BOOKBRIDGE, we offer you the opportunity to obtain a WHU Mini MBA certificate with 15 ECTS. At the same time, we empower you to transform yourself and your organization with purpose. During the WHU Management Essentials Program, you will enhance your general management skills in the areas of finance, leadership, strategy, and entrepreneurship. Facilitated by BOOKBRIDGE, you will establish a real-life and fully independent social enterprise in a deprived community during the Capability Program.

Programme Content

Accelerate your career with the WHU Mini MBA Certificate!

With the General Management Plus Program (WHU Mini MBA Certificate) you acquire comprehensive expertise for your future as a successful executive in just a few months. In interactive courses, renowned WHU professors provide knowledge in the fields of strategy, finance, leadership, change management, and entrepreneurship. At the same time, you develop as a purpose-driven leader while co-creating a tangible social enterprise together with other program participants. For this purpose, you you will assess the needs, brainstorm ideas, create prototypes and pitch a business plan. After each module, you will receive a Take Home Exam, which you must submit digitally. You will receive 15 ECTS points upon successful completion of all exams.

The Capability Program (Social Entrepreneurship Project) transforms you with purpose so that you can transform your environment. The action learning program challenges you to step up and take real responsibility as a social entrepreneur in the field. As part of a diverse team, you co-create a tangible social enterprise to improve job and life chances of a deprived community. In this process, you will find unique opportunities to find and lead by purpose, think and act as an entrepreneur and collaborate as a diverse self-organized team.

The Capability Program runs part-time in sync with your professional career over a period of 6 months. The program is has modules in Switzerland, and the project location. You can complete the three modules of the Management Essentials Program at the WHU Campus Düsseldorf simultaneously, before or after the Capability Program, choose the way that suits your personal schedule best!

Program set-up/Modules

The program requires 25 presence days and 2 to 3 hours of virtual teamwork per week.

Programme Audience

This part-time program is specially designed to combine a professional schedule with a learning opportunity and is therefore very suitable for middle-management talents. Participants should have a global orientation, be willing to engage in an entrepreneurial project.

Who will benefit most from the program?

Managers who are in transition into a leadership position

Managers and professionals with an educational background in a field other than business administration

Managers and specialists who wish to hone their intercultural competences and leadership skills

Managers and specialists who are interested in entrepreneurial thinking and acting as well as working in intercultural and challenging environments

Managers and professionals seeking to broaden their international network

Employees who aim at excelling as intrapreneurs within their companies

Professionals with a keen interest to make an impact

Admissions requirements

For ECTS credits to be granted, a proof of a Bachelor or equivalent first degree is necessary.

Participants are expected to have at least three years of post-graduate professional experience.

Participants should have adequate written and spoken English-language skills at C1 level (or equivalent).

The exact admission requirements can be found in the Certificate Regulations .

Programme Benefits

Receive a WHU Mini MBA Certificate (15 ECTS) in an intensive program that suits your professional schedule

Enhance your general management knowledge in strategy, leadership, finance, change management, and entrepreneurship

Assess the needs of an unknown market

Think and act as a real entrepreneur by setting up a tangible business

Lead an international team in a virtual setting

Transform ideas into viable business ideas and plan for entering a new market

Reflect on your own leadership style and role

Develop into a purpose-driven leader

Develop and leverage personal networks and engage in trust-based dialog

Conduct market research in an intercultural context

Bring education to a rural area in a country of the global South

The General Management Plus Program is the perfect choice for professionals and executives who are looking for a short-term program at MBA-level from one of the best business schools in the world. The program gives you the tools you need to become a true intrapreneur (i.e. applied entrepreneurship within an existing organization) in your own company!

Become an entrepreneurial thinker and a responsible leader who recognizes new business opportunities and quickly transforms ideas into viable business models. Represent the next generation of leaders with sound knowledge of general management topics and a good sense of responsible leadership, and experience the results of your work in the long term.

Certificate

Upon successful completion of the program and the corresponding exams (admission requirements apply for the award of ECTS credits), 15 ECTS credits will be granted and you will receive a WHU Mini MBA certificate. You can continue your MBA at WHU at a later stage of your career (the requirements and conditions of the MBA admission procedure apply).

More details on the Certificate Regulations can be found here .

Testimonials

"In today's world, hierarchies are getting flatter, more fluid and in some instances even irrelevant. Employees are transforming more and more into collaborators with a voice that wants to be heard. Coaching is an important and very powerful leadership and collaboration style to address people who are eager to contribute yet want to grow and develop. It has the potential to unleash creativity and create true accountability as well as strong emotional connections. However, as every powerful tool it needs to be handled responsibly and with great care."

Guillaume Dupont

General Management Plus Program

"What appealed to me about the WHU General Management Plus Program was the combination of finance, strategy and leadership modules along with the hands-on social enterprise project. Through all phases of this team project, we could apply and experiment with our newly acquired skills to create a real impact for a rural community in Sri Lanka."

Ayuska Motha

FAWCO UN Representative

"The program is great in its versatility. It combines the academic stimulant you would expect from a leading business school with the hands-on entrepreneurial experience in a real-life setting. Although the quality of the teaching is already exemplary, the actual feeling of creating a real impact in communities is where this makes all the difference."

Gijs Koopman

Global Account Manager, Swisscom

"I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate in this excellent program! I had the chance to enhance my entrepreneurial thinking while working on setting up a worthwhile, tangible business in an intercultural and challenging environment!"

Andreas Probst

Senior Project Leader B/S/H

"The GMP program is an exciting learning journey. It provides the theoretical foundations of leadership and business strategy, with the right combination of case studies and stimulating debates with experienced faculty and peers. It has an enormous practical and hands-on component as it allows implementing your learnings to by starting up a social enterprise and creating a positive impact in a community."

Jordi Juan Roch

Purchasing Manager Federal Mogul LLC

"Through the General Management Plus Program by WHU and BOOKBRIDGE, I experienced an excellent and relevant leadership development for both my career and for contributing in a meaningful way. What makes the program unique for me is the comprehensive mix of general management knowledge, social entrepreneurship, business rigor, and hands-on application in an unknown context."

Philipp Zimmermann

Head of HR Strategy – Siemens Energy

Testimonial Source