Hanken Executive MBA

Content & structure

The EMBA programme has optional entries and you can choose to start in October or March. For a tailor-made programme start, please contact the EMBA team. The programme includes part-time studies for 18-30 months in 15 modules, including 47 in-class days of which 33 during weekdays. It is possible to join the modules at Hanken & SSE Executive Education office downtown Helsinki or virtually via Zoom. International modules are held in Berlin + Boston or Shanghai. The Hanken Executive MBA programme is structured around a few key topics:

Strategy and leadership

With the help of the modules in strategy and leadership, you will improve your ability to identify ideas of strategic importance and act on them. The leadership development sessions will support participants’ personal development process throughout the entire Executive MBA programme. By continuously challenging participants to uncover new insights, the sessions aim at preparing participant’s for demanding leadership situations and enhancing their critical leadership skills and capabilities. You will also gain an increased understanding of change and how to manage and drive change in complex and competitive business environments.

Programme modules include strategic thinking, strategic leadership, strategic HRM, change leader, leadership development sessions: throughout the programme, industrial and corporate change, global perspectives and innovation management, work and leadership in the global economy, communication skills and individual development project.

Service business and innovation

Hanken school of economics is a forerunner in services management. The modules in service and solutions will provide you with the insight of transforming your business from a product-oriented to a solutions-oriented business – always keeping the customer at the centre of your business model.

Programme modules include service business approach, customer-oriented business models, service innovation and service and relationship-oriented sales.

Finance and controlling

Any person with aspirations for a position in top management needs to understand the numbers behind operations and to put them into a bigger context. In the modules on strategic finance and controlling you will gain insight of key figures and how to interpret them, pricing strategies, how to apply sound and sustainable financial solutions to your business, as well as systems to control you business.

Programme modules include financial management, wealth management, corporate finance, value-based management, financial intermediation & risk management, macroeconomics, microeconomics, financial accounting & acquisitions, management accounting, management control systems and incentive systems.

Sustainable business in a global context

Learning how to merge individual business activities into a larger context, where international competition, sustainability and corporate social
responsibility influence your organisation is vital.

Programme modules corporate social responsibility, business analytics, strategic foresight & scenario planning, digitalisation of business, supply chain management, strategic corporate branding, intellectual property rights and micro- and macroeconomics.

Who the programme is for

The programme is for managers and top talents who are highly motivated to challenge themselves and dedicate time to develop. The programme criteria are minimum a bachelor’s degree​, at least 5 years of relevant professional experience​ and a high level of proficiency in English​.

Your current position could be manager​, executive​, senior expert​, entrepreneur​ or top talent.

A diverse group is our aim as experience has shown that a more diverse group increases in-group learning. A higher level of diversity broadens the bases for discussions and increases the variety of perspectives.

Hanken EMBA participant quick facts

• Average participant age 40 years
• Average years of working experience 15 years
• 60 % male and 40 % female
• 8 nationalities

Industry sectors: Biochemicals, creative agency, energy, financial services, food industry, geological services, IT, marine solutions, media, metal industry, personnel lifting services, software, technology, transportation

Job functions: CEO, EVP, Vice President, Director, Manager, Senior Specialist, Entrepreneur

Educational backgrounds: Bachelor’s or master’s degrees in Engineering, Economics and Business Administration, Geology and Mineralogy, Healthcare, History, Food Sciences, Languages and Tourism, Laws, Music Business, Technology, and Visual Arts.

Benefits & value

The Hanken Executive MBA provides you and your organisation with new perspectives, improved understanding and the means to develop the ability to tackle key challenges in business both today and tomorrow. The Hanken Executive MBA programme is designed to help you create value for yourself, your organisation and your customers, as well as other stakeholders by becoming a better strategic decision-maker and leader. We provide you an opportunity to develop new insights of your business context, to enlarge your influence in your organisation and business network, and to improve your capacity to achieve results and to make an impact of strategic relevance.

Benefits for you as an Individual

• Continuously developed programme content with world-class faculty and experienced lecturers
• A journey of learning and sharing with ambitious EMBA peers resulting in a valuable personal and professional network 
• Engaging dialogue where you and your peer students play an important role
• A flexible part-time programme with daytime classes allowing time for work and family commitments
• A potentially life-changing experience

You will gain a globally accredited diploma, knowledge about key business areas and processes and the capacity to make strategic business decisions. You will also improve your skills and competences to analyse challenges and find solutions to them, to lead, develop and engage others. You will increase your capability to share insight and drive change and gain a business network for life.

Benefits for Your Organisation

Managers and top talents that excel and gain new motivation through an internationally accredited programme become a colleague

• with improved strategic decision-making skills
• who can introduce fresh ideas, concepts and tools to the workplace
• who has become a better leader and professional
• who can connect you to a broader and deeper variety of influential business contacts
• who can apply team/consultancy projects to your company

How to apply

Application and selection process

Step 1: Application

To apply to the programme, you must submit a complete application to the Hanken Executive MBA office before the deadline. You will receive an acknowledgement that your application and the references have been received.

Step 2: Interview

If you are short-listed, you will be invited for an interview held in English. You are required to bring your original degree certificates and transcripts to the interview. Please note that being selected for an interview does not guarantee admission to the programme.

Step 3: Admission decision

A careful selection of candidates is conducted and the final admission decision is taken by the Dean of Executive Education at Hanken where after all applicants will be informed.

Step 4: Confirmation of participation

The selected applicants receive a notice of the admission decision and the enrolment is signified by a study contract. The selected applicant confirms his/ her participation in the programme by signing and returning the study contract.


Apply here

Fee

Programme fee 40 000 Euro + vat

The fee includes material costs and modules abroad, except for travel and accommodation costs for the modules in Boston/Shanghai and except for travel costs for the module in Berlin

Admission requirements

To be eligible for the Hanken Executive MBA programme, you must fulfil the following requirements:

Bachelor's degree or higher in any field
A Bachelor's degree, in any field, is required for admission to the programme. However, if you do not hold a Bachelor's degree, but you fulfil all other requirements and have a strong professional background, please contact the EMBA office for further information.

A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience
The Hanken Executive MBA programme is designed for experienced professionals. The participants in our programme have an average of 13 years of professional experience. The professional experience will be judged from case to case.

High level of English proficiency
A high level of spoken and written English proficiency is required as the programme is conducted in English. The level of written English proficiency will be evaluated based on the application form and the oral proficiency demonstrated during the interview.

In addition, we expect you to meet at least one of the following criteria:

• You are in a managerial position; in charge of leading people, complex projects or entities
• You are an experienced senior expert, with responsibility for large entities, and want to broaden your expertise
• You are an entrepreneur with an established business
• You are a top talent with a solid track record of exceptionally high performance (in career development, studies, etc.) and strong recommendations

Meeting these minimum admission requirements does not guarantee admission to the programme, but allows you to be invited for a personal interview and be considered in the further selection process.

Selection criteria

We select a maximum of 30 experienced and talented professionals, who wish to become better strategic leaders and decision-makers.

Selection is based on a combination of the applicant's professional experience, educational background, leadership potential, interpersonal and cultural skills as well as motivation.

We highly value a willingness to learn from others in the Executive MBA group and the ability to share your own knowledge and experience. Employer and family support is also of significance. Fluency in spoken and written English is essential as the programme is conducted in English.

Each new group of Executive MBA participants is carefully selected by the EMBA staff. We try to select a heterogeneous group of people. A more diverse group increases in-group learning as the diversity broadens the bases for discussions and include different perspectives.

Info meeting

Get your questions answered and find out more about the Hanken Executive MBA, the learning process and methods. We schedule the meeting according to your preferences of timing and place. The meeting can be done either face-to-face or online. 

Book a meeting

Faculty

The Hanken Executive MBA modules are facilitated by dedicated Hanken faculty and experienced and renowned lecturers at the forefront of their respective fields, along with visiting top-level corporate and academic experts. By combining insights from both academic experts, company representatives and participants, we ensure a natural dialogue between academia and business.

Below you will find a selection of our experts in the Executive MBA programme.

Strategy and Leadership

Janne Tienari, Mergers and Aquisitions
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Mats Ehrnrooth, Stategic HRM
Associate Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Patrick Furu, Strategic Leadership
Adjunct Professor

Peter Zashev, Leadership Development
Adjunct Professor & Program Director at Hanken & SSE Executive Education

Liisa Välikangas, Global Perspectives on Innovating Management
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Service and Solutions

Christian Grönroos, Service Business Approach
Professor Emeritus, Hanken School of Economics

Paul Viio, Evli Assistant Professor in Selling and Sales Management, Hanken School of Economics

Pekka Helle, Co-Creating for Value
Founder, Growth Cliniq

Kaj Storbacka, Market Innovation
Professor, University of Auckland Business School, Graduate School of Management

Tore Strandvik, Sense Making of Market Disruptions
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Strategic Finance and Accounting

Gonul Colak, Corporate Finance
Professor of Finance, Hanken School of Economics

Henrik Palmén, Finance
Senior Lecturer, Hanken School of Economics

Anders Tallberg, Management Accounting and Digitalisation of Business
Senior Fellow at Hanken & SSE Executive Education

Pontus Troberg, Financial Accounting
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Processes and Enablers

Johanna Gummerus, Branding
Associate Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Roger Wessman, Macroeconomics
Economist

Topi Miettinen, Microeconomics
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Martin Fougere, Corporate Social Responsibility
Associate Professor, Hanken School of Economics

Nari Lee, Intellectual Property Rights
Professor, Hanken School of Economics

My Hanken EMBA experience

Meet some of our alumni and hear what they have to say about the Hanken Executive MBA programme.

Outi Waltari
Senior Transformation Consultant at Telia

"I'm more open-minded on what I can do or what I want to do in the future, so I see more opportunities now"

Stefan Wiik
Vice President at Wärtsilä

"It was very rewarding, I would do it again! Just do it, go for it! You´re gonna enjoy it"

Jussi Roine
CEO and Partner at North Advisors

“I would definitely recommend the EMBA. It´s fun, don´t stress too much. Begin with small steps and it happens almost by magic"

Juha-Pekka Ojala
CFO at Luhta Sportswear Company

“I would definitely recommend an EMBA for everyone who has the courage to question their own beliefs, understandings and biases; and learn new things about business, acquire a comprehensive understanding of their own company and it´s business and are personally in a position in their careers where they want to go forward”

Harry Sjögren
Sales Director at DNA Business

“I think that Hanken brings a wide perspective on how to create value in long term. My employer could get more value from me as a sales leader.”

Mari Haavisto
Director of Communications and Responsibility at EK Confederation of Finnish Industries

“I would definitely recommend this programme to basically anyone who is interested in learning new things about business, finance, strategy.”

Inka Uusitalo
CEO at Långvik Congress Wellness Hotel

“My leadership skills have been strengthened by the Hanken EMBA programme, especially through the strategic and conceptual thinking. Every module gave food for thought and also an inspiration to go an implement it in practice.”

Andrei Novitsky
Partner at Essedel

"The Hanken EMBA takes a lot of effort but it also gives a lot. It gives you a very broad, good look at many aspects of business life. You will not become an expert in one topic, but you will see a lot of different things. You will also understand which parts of business you need to concentrate more on or learn more about."

John Ekholm
CEO at Mekalasi

“I chose to do the EMBA because I wanted to deepen my knowledge in strategy and finance. Networking is of course one good part of the programme and the programme itself also brings quite a lot of substance and confidence to your work.”

Aki Temmes
Senior Vice President at UPM Timber at UPM Ltd

“Hanken EMBA gave me very valuable overview of business management as such. It covers all important aspects of being a successful leader. Based on that knowledge I gained in EMBA, I feel that I am much more prepared also to take the next steps in my career development.“

Monika Liikamaa
Co-Founder and Chair at Enfuce Financial Services

“The Hanken EMBA has supported my career development in many ways. I got the clarity of what I want to become. I wanted to become a Managing Director and/or entrepreneur. Now I am both! Anyone who has the possibility to do an EMBA should do it. It takes a lot of work, but it gives a lot. I highly recommend it.“

Natalia Goldberg
CEO at Forenom Russia

“Completing the Hanken EMBA programme was a valuable investment in my career development. My expectations for the programme were not only met, but greatly exceeded. I can strongly recommend the programme and have already done so to many of my colleagues. Joining Hanken EMBA was one of the smartest decisions I have ever made.”

Pertti Saarela
Executive Director at Finnish Red Cross, Oulu District

“I have worked in management positions during my whole career. The Hanken EMBA programme is a perfect fit for persons in managerial positions wishing to gain more self-confidence and leadership skills. The programme gives you insights about processes and tools needed in any business settings ensuring the next step in your career.”

Rashmi Kasat-Majakorpi
Vice President, Head of Digital Business Development at Metso

“When I joined Hanken EMBA programme, I came here with an aspiration that I’m going to become a better business leader. I never for a moment thought that it is going to have such a powerful impact on my entire life. It has been a life- changing EMBA programme, I fully recommend it!”

Rasmus Roiha
Managing Director at Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association

“The programme was a great boost to my self-confidence and career development. I warmly recommend the Hanken EMBA programme for highly motivated individuals with managerial experience looking to develop themselves.”

Osmo Lahtinen
CEO at OV Lahtinen Oy

"I hade the opportunity to step out form my comfort zone  both personally and professionally by proving myself that I can study and work with very different people, backgrounds and industries that I was used to"