Hi,

I hope someone can help me (I've been lurking for over a year but finally registered to post). Like many others here, I've got to the serious stage of looking for the right school, and am suffering from information overload and would be grateful if someone can quickly critique my school analysis to see if they disagree. If I've got this in the wrong place mods, please feel free to move it

Who I am;

UK, 34, male, 11 years experience in logistics and supply chain management, half internal consulting, half project management, working for AP Moeller, Kuehne + Nagel and these days DHL. Fluent in English, but only conversant in French and German (i.e. not good enough to be taught in these languages). I sit my GMAT in 4 weeks time, but I'm persistently getting 680 in all the practice tests I've taken; hopefully I can push that over 700 with work on my quantitive area. Being surrounded by McKinseys and PhD's all day in the midst of a massive global project, it's become painfully obvious that my BSc doesn't cut it and my decent work experience only goes so far. I'm rapidly approaching a glass ceiling.

What I'm after
A generalised EMBA (or Cranfield's logistics/operations heavy EMBA) taught in English based in Europe to fill in the holes in my skillset. Primarily I think these holes are accounting, marketing, general finance, but almost all decent schools cover these anyway. I don't want to become a financier/banker, so I'm not keen on a school that's too top heavy in these areas, but instead want something to continue building my consultant/project management career which I love. I am also keen on entrepreneurship, ethics and definitely in a school with an active alumni, networking and social opportunities.

Schools I've ruled in so far for a short list
In no particular order; IE, Said, IMD, ESADE, Judge and Cranfield (I know, there's 6 )

Schools I've ruled out because I think they're not suited
IESE, Ivey, LBS, Manchester, McGill, Queens, Rotman, HEC, INSEAD, St Gallen, Stockholm.

If anyone thinks I've gone wrong somewhere and ruled in or out something that I shouldn't, I'd be very grateful for your experience.

Gosh that was a fast response Thanks!

HEC I ruled out because whilst it has intakes in September and October in Europe, both are bilingual. There is an English language intake in January, but that's too late for the demands of the DHL sponsorship program; I have to start it by mid November. I will nevertheless push back for an exception to be made, but I'm not sure they'll accept.

INSEAD I ruled out because it looks top heavy in finance - too top heavy unless I end up on the global board. Maybe I should rethink. Core topics are corporate finance and macroeconomics, that's fine, but the electives didn't appeal so much. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

LBS I ruled out for the same reasons as INSEAD.

aviroop makes a fantastic point. If you are located in the UK you should definitely visit your target schools before you make that 50k investment. LBS has a reputation for being strong in finance, but its absolutely not pure finance school. If you are purely interested finance, you can take the MiF program.

The EMBA and the Sloan programs are perfectly catered for you as the core will contain all non-finance (and finance) essentials (from marketing to operations to accounting to entrepreneurship and strategy). I majored in finance, but I immensely enjoyed all the Organisational behaviour and entrepreneurship electives. I actually think that the non-finance faculty is a notch better in teaching than the finance faculty. Some examples are Nirmalya Kumar (marketing), Marco Bertini (Pricing), Phanish Phuram (Strategy / International mgt), Constantin Markides (Strategic Leadership) etc. The project management elective taught by Bert de reyck is amazing. Unfortunately I didn't take any operations focused classes except the core class so can't guide you further there.

Once again - I highly recommend that you visit and sit in the classes before deciding on a school list. Its all to easy to dismiss or select schools on pre-existing notions / stereotypes leading to biased decisions.
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Hey,

We have somewhat similar profile. If I were you, I'd consider IMD's full-time program. It's excellent - go for a site visit and you'll be able to discern much more than from all of the brochures.

I wouldn't go to Cambridge - the program is simply overrated! Some good quality and very diverse students though. Cranfield is good value for money, although Cambridge and Oxford have lured away some, perhaps, better quality students from Cranfield.

Don't underestimate yourself and believe in yourself!

fwoggie,

At your age you can definitely rule out all 2 years programs. However, don't look at cliché from schools. They are all very good at finance, strategy, marketing etc... we are talking about top notch european schools!!!

I would recommend you visit IMD and INSEAD as they are the two best 1 year program in Europe. You seem tilting toward consulting as a post-MBA job possibility but be carefull as you will have 35 at graduation and consulting hire always at the same level no matter your age !!! Thus, they might be less likely to hire you rather than a 28 folk for example.

They are also some great program in the US that could suit you if accepted like the MIT SCM program http://scm.mit.edu/program/degree if you want further advancement in you career (in supply chain) or other fellowships program depending on your seniority like the stanford sloan master's program http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sloan/