Design a Month-Long Intensive Business Program: Learners, Curriculum and Format

Suppose you set out to build an MBA program that learners complete in a single month. How would you go about structuring it? Walk through who the program is for, what it should achieve, what it would cover and leave out, and how it would run. ```hint Unbundle the MBA A traditional MBA delivers several things at once: knowledge, a network, a credential and career support. Work out which of these a month can realistically provide for the learners you pick, and build the structure around those. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Who is offering the program: a university, a company training its own staff, or a new education startup? - Must the program grant an accredited degree, or can it award a certificate? - Is the month full-time and in person, or part-time alongside a job, possibly online? - Is there an intended learner already, such as early-career professionals, engineers moving into management, or founders? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear target learner and the outcome they want, with an honest view of which parts of a traditional MBA a month can and cannot replace. - A curriculum chosen and sequenced for that learner's goal, with explicit cuts. - A format and learning design suited to a compressed month, such as pre-work, cohort teams, cases, a capstone and follow-up after the month. - A business model, admissions approach and credential that fit the provider. - Success metrics tied to learner outcomes, with guardrails and the main risks. ### Follow-up Questions - Graduates start listing the program as an MBA on their resumes. How should naming and the credential handle that? - How would you show employers that graduates learned something comparable to a traditional program? - Enrollment is strong but many learners drop out in the second week. What would you change?