Open Programs for Individuals

The WHU Advanced Management for Senior Professionals Program is designed for experienced professionals and C-suite executives. Your focus will be on strategizing during periods of corporate transformation, inspirational leadership and boosting your impact in your organization and a globalized economy. Sessions in 2 modules with 2.5 in-class days each are designed to challenge your views on transformation and leadership through a dynamic mixture of methodological elements. The in-class experience is complemented by short Executive Insights sessions taking place online. Enhance your leadership skills, boost your individual leadership style, and create a valuable impact on your company’s strategy.

You will be awarded with a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the program.

Digital transformation is the key challenge for executives today. WHU, Foundry (formerly IDG Communications), and Software AG offer an advanced program for senior executives in IT and digitalization that enhances your capabilities to lead and transform your organization into a digital, disruptive, and globalized economy.

The five-day module hosted in Düsseldorf challenges your entrepreneurial mindset and inspirational leadership capabilities. Join an active network of more than 150 program alumni! You will receive a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the program.

Corporate boards play an increasingly vital role in today’s disruptive business landscape. As a board member, you can shape the entire future of your organization by providing guidance and oversight on crucial issues facing organizations today, ranging from risk management, business strategy, sustainability, and compliance.

Are you a senior-level executive currently serving on a corporate board, or aspiring to transition into this role? Or maybe you are a senior manager wanting to engage more effectively now with your board: This unique program was designed to give you pragmatic new insights and valuable tools to amplify your impact and secure your organization’s future.

In a dynamic learning forum, industry and academic experts from WHU and IESE Business School will accompany you to ensure you magnify your contribution in your particular role, create strategic value and ensure a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization.

This program is offered by Leadership Choices and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. You will learn how to add coaching to your leadership signature authentically.

You will primarily learn how coaching as a leader works from a practical perspective. Using the Leadership Choices coaching model, you will be given insights into powerful questions and levels of listening. Moreover, you will learn to apply coaching interventions that have proven successful in a leadership context. Plenty of practical coaching work will take place in the classroom. During the program, you will also be asked to work with real coachees, i.e., coaching clients. After successfully completing the program, you will receive a WHU Executive Education Certificate.

The CIMA CFO Program will complement your experience and put you on a fast track to gaining the globally trusted and highly valued Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification. With your vast experience in finance and business functions as a C-suite executive, we want to help you stay at the cutting edge of your profession.

This program is offered by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and hosted by WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. After successfully completing this fast-track program and passing the Strategic Case Study exam, you will qualify as a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

Our Negotiations Seminar equips you with the skills you need to manage business negotiations successfully, even in the most challenging situations. The 2-day program provides managers and executives with a rich set of negotiation strategies and negotiation techniques to lead successful business-to-business negotiations in any setting – be it day-to-day interactions with suppliers, customers, or colleagues. The international participant group allows you to network with peers from various cultural and industry backgrounds.

During hands-on exercises in the program, such as role-plays, you will be equipped with ready-to-use skills. On top of that, you will take home improved leadership and communication skills! You will receive a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the negotiation seminar.

Our world is changing at lightning speed. And so are the challenges you and your organization are facing. At the same time, we strive to integrate purpose, values and meaning into our and others' professional lives. The ability to open up, embrace change and co-create tangible, impactful solutions are critical success factors today and even more so tomorrow.

The Capability Program 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 the project country (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, or Mongolia). 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. At the same time, you will be granted 9 ECTS points.

The Financial Literacy Program is all about how to read, derive, and apply relevant financial information to decision-making situations. Created for managers who are not financial specialists, this program provides a solid foundation in finance and accounting.

This financial literacy training will help you to read, understand, and interpret income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. An overview of types of financing will be presented and you will develop an understanding of the characteristics of different financing instruments. You will be able to effectively apply financial analysis techniques and through that understand the strategic performance goals. You will receive a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the program.

In today’s complex and disruptive world, innovation management is key to staying relevant to customers, keeping ahead of the competition, and taking advantage of emerging digital technologies. The Innovation & Corporate Entrepreneurship Essentials Program will equip you with insights, skills, and tools to act as a frontrunner in innovation and corporate entrepreneurship within your organization. Renowned WHU faculty members and experienced practitioners, with extensive international experience, will share with you the latest research results, practical tools, strategic approaches, and agile methods for fostering an innovative mindset. The program is designed to engage all aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship through guest lectures, group work, case studies, and a Serious Lego Play Session. Special attention will be paid to generative AI and the practical applications of ChatGPT. You will learn how to utilize it effectively in your business development strategies through real-life examples.

You will be awarded with a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the program.

WHU’s Leadership Essentials Program explores the foundations of leadership by comparing effective and ineffective leadership behaviors – and by challenging you to (re-)consider who you are as a leader and why anybody should be led by you. During the 3-day interactive leadership seminar, you will develop a greater understanding of your own leadership, critical team dynamics as well as the strategic value of leadership at an organizational level.

We use exercises, group work, and case studies to illustrate the behaviors of highly effective leaders. The program concludes with reflections on what you have learned and a forward plan that will help you apply the insights you gained during the business leadership program. You will receive a WHU Executive Education Certificate after successfully completing the program.

A leader has to keep many things in mind in order to make sustainable and strategically relevant decisions. WHU Management Essentials Program provide participants who are transitioning into a leadership position or have done so recently, with the fundamental skills of General Management.

You can choose 3 out of 4 of the following programs: Leadership Essentials, Strategy Essentials, Financial Literacy and Innovation & Corporate Entrepreneurship Essentials.

Each of these programs focuses on different skills that are essential for successful leadership. In combination with a personality profile, the programs can be scheduled flexibly. You will receive a WHU Certificate of Excellence in General Management after successfully completing the program. Optionally, you can earn 6 ECTS credits, if you decide to write exams.

Are you looking to improve your business operations and stay ahead of the competition? Join a virtual bootcamp to learn how to leverage ChatGPT and other Generative AI tools to improve ideation, facilitate customer interactions, optimize data-driven decisions, and automate business tasks. In three interactive sessions, Professor Dries Faems, a digital transformation expert and a thought leader on the topic of Generative AI for business development, will give you an introduction on how to write effective prompts, combine different AI tools, and develop agents to execute tasks in the context of specific use cases. This format is especially suited for business professionals from all industries who are motivated to improve their business operations and stay ahead of the competition by harnessing the power of ChatGPT and Generative AI.

You will be awarded with a WHU Executive Education Digital Certificate after successfully completing the bootcamp.

Learn about game-changing technologies in a digestible, engaging, asynchronous online format, illustrated through first-hand examples from the fascinating world of sports. Explore how you can apply these technologies to your own context and industry as part of a digital transformation process. This digital transformation training is particularly suited for (non-tech) professionals interested in learning about revolutionary technologies, such as robotics, AI, cloud computing, Blockchain, and the Metaverse, and applying insights from professional sports to their respective industry. The course is offered in cooperation by WHU and MIT xPRO, the executive education platform offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After successful completion of the program, you will earn a Professional Certificate from WHU and MIT xPRO and 2.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from MIT xPRO.