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The while-you-work Ivey MBA

Ivey’s Accelerated MBA is a 14-month program designed to help you reach new levels of success for yourself and your organization. Business graduates can enter directly, while non-business graduates begin with the four-month Graduate Diploma in Management to build a strong foundation before progressing into the Accelerated MBA. Across both pathways, candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and perspectives shared by the world’s most effective leaders. Ivey graduates often draw a clear line between life before and after the program, gaining not only new tools and insights but a fundamentally different way of approaching challenges, relationships, and leadership. 

Curriculum Structure 

The Ivey Accelerated MBA curriculum consists of 14 courses across three themes. The careful sequencing of the individual classes, courses, and themes build on one another throughout the Program's three terms to provide you with a powerful and unique learning experience. 

Non-Business Graduates Curriculum

Theme 1 – Leadership Essentials

The first theme reviews business fundamentals and has a primary focus on developing a deeper understanding of leadership.

Courses

Business Fundamentals
Managing People
Impact and Influence
Negotiations
Sustainability in Embedding Circularity in Business
Business Fundamentals is designed to provide students with an update on a number of the fundamentals of business including, Financial Accounting, Operations, Quantitative Analysis, Marketing, and Strategy. As students who have successfully completed an undergraduate degree you already have a good understanding of the fundamentals of business. However, in many cases, you may not have had the opportunity to put all of these fundamentals into practice. As a result, you can benefit from the opportunity to refresh yourself with the basics of business. This is especially true for those that are looking to accelerate their career.

Required

The course is organized around six sets of activities critical to managerial success, each involving face-to-face interaction and a high degree of interpersonal skill. Within each set of activities, specific practices that differentiate highly successful managers from average or below-average managers are provided as guidelines to behaviour.

Required

Business success is determined by our ability not just to communicate effectively, but to present our ideas, proposals, plans and perspectives with clarity, persuasion, and credibility. Communicating with impact, and being compelling in both verbal and nonverbal ways is key for leaders. The ability to influence others is also key to develop followership. Knowing oneself, others along with contextual awareness are fundamental. The leader’s ability to read, analyze and then respond appropriately to the potential follower and stakeholder, begins with a knowledge and awareness of self, requires care for the other and insight into the context. Therefore, the course also enables the participants to analyze their communication and leadership style, flex it to accomplish shared objectives and ensure it fits the circumstance/context. Encouragement, instruction and peer feedback will be vehicles to “stretch” each participant’s behavioral comfort zone to new cognitive and experiential levels of success. Leaders are communicators.

Required

The basic premise of this course is that negotiation skills are of critical importance for a wide range of leadership challenges in organizations. Leaders must negotiate to implement change, make strategic decisions, and develop effective relationships with clients, suppliers and stakeholders. The course will include a series of negotiation exercises, in-depth class discussions and short lectures. Although we will conduct most of the negotiation exercises in class, you will need to meet with other class members outside of class to prepare for some exercises.

Required

Competitive advantage can be rooted in new capabilities related to using natural resources (production inputs) efficiently as well as finding innovative ways to regenerate such resources. If business exhausts natural resources, it will eventually stop producing. Taking the perspective of general managers, we will confront challenges and opportunities to develop more circular, regenerative processes and business models. Overall, the course is designed to examine why business struggles to improve eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness; to expand students’ understanding of how business can create ecological and societal value while remaining viable and profitable; to delve into organizational mindsets and policy frameworks that can accelerate the transition towards more circular, regenerative business.

Required

Courses

Business Fundamentals

Business Fundamentals is designed to provide students with an update on a number of the fundamentals of business including, Financial Accounting, Operations, Quantitative Analysis, Marketing, and Strategy. As students who have successfully completed an undergraduate degree you already have a good understanding of the fundamentals of business. However, in many cases, you may not have had the opportunity to put all of these fundamentals into practice. As a result, you can benefit from the opportunity to refresh yourself with the basics of business. This is especially true for those that are looking to accelerate their career.

Required

Managing People

The course is organized around six sets of activities critical to managerial success, each involving face-to-face interaction and a high degree of interpersonal skill. Within each set of activities, specific practices that differentiate highly successful managers from average or below-average managers are provided as guidelines to behaviour.

Required

Impact and Influence

Business success is determined by our ability not just to communicate effectively, but to present our ideas, proposals, plans and perspectives with clarity, persuasion, and credibility. Communicating with impact, and being compelling in both verbal and nonverbal ways is key for leaders. The ability to influence others is also key to develop followership. Knowing oneself, others along with contextual awareness are fundamental. The leader’s ability to read, analyze and then respond appropriately to the potential follower and stakeholder, begins with a knowledge and awareness of self, requires care for the other and insight into the context. Therefore, the course also enables the participants to analyze their communication and leadership style, flex it to accomplish shared objectives and ensure it fits the circumstance/context. Encouragement, instruction and peer feedback will be vehicles to “stretch” each participant’s behavioral comfort zone to new cognitive and experiential levels of success. Leaders are communicators.

Required

Negotiations

The basic premise of this course is that negotiation skills are of critical importance for a wide range of leadership challenges in organizations. Leaders must negotiate to implement change, make strategic decisions, and develop effective relationships with clients, suppliers and stakeholders. The course will include a series of negotiation exercises, in-depth class discussions and short lectures. Although we will conduct most of the negotiation exercises in class, you will need to meet with other class members outside of class to prepare for some exercises.

Required

Sustainability in Embedding Circularity in Business

Competitive advantage can be rooted in new capabilities related to using natural resources (production inputs) efficiently as well as finding innovative ways to regenerate such resources. If business exhausts natural resources, it will eventually stop producing. Taking the perspective of general managers, we will confront challenges and opportunities to develop more circular, regenerative processes and business models. Overall, the course is designed to examine why business struggles to improve eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness; to expand students’ understanding of how business can create ecological and societal value while remaining viable and profitable; to delve into organizational mindsets and policy frameworks that can accelerate the transition towards more circular, regenerative business.

Required

Theme 2 – Innovation and Disruption

The second theme has a primary focus on the ever-changing landscape of business; students will develop an understanding of innovation as both a threat and opportunity through their course work and Ivey Field Project.

Courses

Ivey Field Project
Advanced Business Analytics
Consumer Insights Amid Disruption
Managing Innovation
The Ivey Field Project (IFP) presents an opportunity for students to put into action what you have learned. Each team will work with an organization that is facing the threat of disruption, causing the disruption, or in some cases both. In each case, students are expected to draw on the knowledge and skills gained in other courses to address the strategic issues arising from an ever changing business landscape.

Required

Analytics, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence have all recently become trending business and industry buzzwords. The objective of this course is to introduce students to some of the statistical tools that constitute these buzz-words. The course builds on the pre-existing analytical/statistical framework and Excel skills and introduces students to some advanced statistics topics as well as familiarizes them to the statistical software R.

Required

Every organization can benefit from a better understanding of customers. In Customer Insights Amid Disruption, students will learn the links between customers, marketing strategy, and performance, and learn all of this in the context of digital and strategic disruption. Students will identify the factors that drive customer insights, and how the dramatic changes in the global business environment due to technology disruption and empowered consumers are affecting currently accepted marketing strategy concepts and methods. The concepts and skills learned in this course will enable you to develop a coherent marketing strategy for an organization priming to disrupt, or defending from disruption. The course is aimed at helping you identify and capitalize on market opportunities through an in- depth and data-driven knowledge of the customer. The emphasis throughout is on the profitable application of marketing ideas and techniques.

Required

Companies engage in many activities intended to impact the revenue sides of their income statements. They introduce new products, services, and business models, and attempt to reach new markets and customers. When they succeed, it is often by leveraging particular expertise in creative, scientific, or technological domains. The core capability required in these activities is innovation. In this course, we’ll examine the special challenges of managing businesses and business activities that depend on innovation. These range from design, to drug discovery, entertainment, product development, software and video game development, and beyond. These activities often unusual unique business difficulties — for example, thriving in markets where a handful of offerings capture 90% of the profits, winners are hard to predict, and the average offering is not profitable — and also exciting business advantages — for example, product differentiation that supports high profit margins that are relatively immune to swings in commodity market prices. This is a course focuses on the business models, strategies, processes, and management of growth-oriented firms and the growth-oriented efforts of mature firms.

Required

Courses

Ivey Field Project

The Ivey Field Project (IFP) presents an opportunity for students to put into action what you have learned. Each team will work with an organization that is facing the threat of disruption, causing the disruption, or in some cases both. In each case, students are expected to draw on the knowledge and skills gained in other courses to address the strategic issues arising from an ever changing business landscape.

Required

Advanced Business Analytics

Analytics, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence have all recently become trending business and industry buzzwords. The objective of this course is to introduce students to some of the statistical tools that constitute these buzz-words. The course builds on the pre-existing analytical/statistical framework and Excel skills and introduces students to some advanced statistics topics as well as familiarizes them to the statistical software R.

Required

Consumer Insights Amid Disruption

Every organization can benefit from a better understanding of customers. In Customer Insights Amid Disruption, students will learn the links between customers, marketing strategy, and performance, and learn all of this in the context of digital and strategic disruption. Students will identify the factors that drive customer insights, and how the dramatic changes in the global business environment due to technology disruption and empowered consumers are affecting currently accepted marketing strategy concepts and methods. The concepts and skills learned in this course will enable you to develop a coherent marketing strategy for an organization priming to disrupt, or defending from disruption. The course is aimed at helping you identify and capitalize on market opportunities through an in- depth and data-driven knowledge of the customer. The emphasis throughout is on the profitable application of marketing ideas and techniques.

Required

Managing Innovation

Companies engage in many activities intended to impact the revenue sides of their income statements. They introduce new products, services, and business models, and attempt to reach new markets and customers. When they succeed, it is often by leveraging particular expertise in creative, scientific, or technological domains. The core capability required in these activities is innovation. In this course, we’ll examine the special challenges of managing businesses and business activities that depend on innovation. These range from design, to drug discovery, entertainment, product development, software and video game development, and beyond. These activities often unusual unique business difficulties — for example, thriving in markets where a handful of offerings capture 90% of the profits, winners are hard to predict, and the average offering is not profitable — and also exciting business advantages — for example, product differentiation that supports high profit margins that are relatively immune to swings in commodity market prices. This is a course focuses on the business models, strategies, processes, and management of growth-oriented firms and the growth-oriented efforts of mature firms.

Required

Theme 3 – Global Business

The third theme has a primary focus on business in a global context; students will work through real life examples of global business through case study and personal experience during their international study trip.

Courses

Global Environment of Business
International Strategic Financial Planning
Global Strategy
Global Operations Strategy
International Study Trip
This course is focused primarily on what happens outside the boundaries of the firm – in the global environment of business. Although firms will be integral to our cases and discussions, in the GEOB course they play a role primarily as actors who must respond to the risks and opportunities presented by external forces such as the business cycle, exchange rates, government regulation and other forms of political intervention. In some of our cases firms also are shapers of these environments, for example through negotiations with government officials or by helping to craft the rules that govern international trade agreements. As such, GEOB is a “big picture” course– a course that has a fundamental purpose of fulfilling Ivey’s mission of graduating students with a global perspective.

Required

The international strategic financial planning course is designed to extend the concepts developed in an undergraduate degree. Specifically, we will discuss how the increasing globalization of business has impacted the set of choices facing managers as well as how globalization has increased the set of financial tools available to managers. It is important for managers to understand the additional issues (both opportunities and risks) and increase in complexity which arise for businesses either operating across borders and/or competing with firms who operate across borders. Recent events around the world have highlighted the importance of understanding the risks and benefits associated with financial and strategic decisions in both domestic as well as international markets. No firms are immune to what is happening elsewhere and firms need to recognize the associated risks and opportunities.

Required

This module is concerned with the opportunities and challenges that enterprises face when operating on the international stage, as opposed to operating only in their home country. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) develop strategies to exploit these opportunities, which then set the context in which business units, subsidiaries and individual leaders strategize and operate. We will explore how firms become international and then exploit their international scope. A special focus of the course will be emerging economies, in preparation for the study tours you will be undertaking later during your program.

Required

Business strategy frequently treats operations rather statically—as if its capabilities were fixed and unalterable. This frequently leads management to view operations as a liability whose potential difficulties and costs are to be minimized, instead of an asset whose strengths are a source of competitive excellence to be nurtured and exploited. This is surprising; given that the operations function has almost exclusive responsibility for producing and acquiring the goods and services whose success in the marketplace ultimately determines the overall success of the enterprise.

Required

The purpose of this trip is to dive into the cultures, heritages, and business environments of one of the fastest growing economies of modern time. The goal is to take you outside the tour bus and give you the opportunity to interact with the global economy. During the trip, Ivey will work hard to create a cornucopia of cultural and business experiences. The goal is to design a trip that you could not easily experience on your own. Certainly, there will be time for fun, but the intent of the trip is to push you to internationalize how you think about your future career. The economic center of the world is moving away from North America, in time, so will the educational center. This brave new world will require business professionals that are global citizens; this trip is being organized with this transition in mind.

Required

Courses

Global Environment of Business

This course is focused primarily on what happens outside the boundaries of the firm – in the global environment of business. Although firms will be integral to our cases and discussions, in the GEOB course they play a role primarily as actors who must respond to the risks and opportunities presented by external forces such as the business cycle, exchange rates, government regulation and other forms of political intervention. In some of our cases firms also are shapers of these environments, for example through negotiations with government officials or by helping to craft the rules that govern international trade agreements. As such, GEOB is a “big picture” course– a course that has a fundamental purpose of fulfilling Ivey’s mission of graduating students with a global perspective.

Required

International Strategic Financial Planning

The international strategic financial planning course is designed to extend the concepts developed in an undergraduate degree. Specifically, we will discuss how the increasing globalization of business has impacted the set of choices facing managers as well as how globalization has increased the set of financial tools available to managers. It is important for managers to understand the additional issues (both opportunities and risks) and increase in complexity which arise for businesses either operating across borders and/or competing with firms who operate across borders. Recent events around the world have highlighted the importance of understanding the risks and benefits associated with financial and strategic decisions in both domestic as well as international markets. No firms are immune to what is happening elsewhere and firms need to recognize the associated risks and opportunities.

Required

Global Strategy

This module is concerned with the opportunities and challenges that enterprises face when operating on the international stage, as opposed to operating only in their home country. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) develop strategies to exploit these opportunities, which then set the context in which business units, subsidiaries and individual leaders strategize and operate. We will explore how firms become international and then exploit their international scope. A special focus of the course will be emerging economies, in preparation for the study tours you will be undertaking later during your program.

Required

Global Operations Strategy

Business strategy frequently treats operations rather statically—as if its capabilities were fixed and unalterable. This frequently leads management to view operations as a liability whose potential difficulties and costs are to be minimized, instead of an asset whose strengths are a source of competitive excellence to be nurtured and exploited. This is surprising; given that the operations function has almost exclusive responsibility for producing and acquiring the goods and services whose success in the marketplace ultimately determines the overall success of the enterprise.

Required

International Study Trip

The purpose of this trip is to dive into the cultures, heritages, and business environments of one of the fastest growing economies of modern time. The goal is to take you outside the tour bus and give you the opportunity to interact with the global economy. During the trip, Ivey will work hard to create a cornucopia of cultural and business experiences. The goal is to design a trip that you could not easily experience on your own. Certainly, there will be time for fun, but the intent of the trip is to push you to internationalize how you think about your future career. The economic center of the world is moving away from North America, in time, so will the educational center. This brave new world will require business professionals that are global citizens; this trip is being organized with this transition in mind.

Required

Experiences

 

Real World Projects

The Ivey Field Project and International Study Trip will put your learning to the test. Experiential learning is a unique component of the Ivey Accelerated MBA.  

Read about the study trip from the student perspective
Learn more about the study trip from Nicholas Shalagan
International study trip photo
Ivey Faculty on laptop screen

Blended Learning

Blended Learning combines online learning with traditional classroom-based learning. This interactive and engaging platform allows students to acquire the knowledge they need to perform better in the classroom. Watch this video which explains how the experience in combination of case method provide a unique learning experience.  

Watch the Video

Accelerated MBA Curriculum Outcomes

The Accelerated MBA curriculum will help you develop stronger analytical, decision-making and implementation skills – and a new way of thinking that will become integral to everything you do. The program will equip you to:

  • Apply the fundamentals of business to address complex senior-level challenges; 
  • Develop a thorough understanding of leadership essentials: how to lead people, how to lead change, and how to communicate for persuasion and influence; 
  • Apply skills for negotiations to develop better outcomes; 
  • Build and deploy innovation-centric and emphatic-design strategies in both corporate and startup environments; 
  • Apply principles of innovation to address start-up challenges; 
  • Apply principles of disruption to address changes to corporate strategy and implementation; 
  • Develop an understanding of global economics and their impact on strategic business decisions; 
  • Develop an understanding of globalization effects on marketing, operations, finance and strategy and, 
  • Acquire experience of globalization through an international field learning course. 

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