The EMBA - or executive option to the MBA program at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management - allows working professionals to earn a master's degree in business administration in just two years, without a break in service from their regular jobs or a loss in salary. The flexibility of the arrangement is extremely appealing to seasoned professionals. Thirty-two enrolled in the first EMBA class last August and are now in their second semester.

"We have CFOs, executives from businesses ranging from communication to finance, even a chief cardiac surgeon among us," said Richelle George, a manager of marketing communications with IBM who was an English major as a Harvard undergraduate. "You couldn't ask for a better cross section of colleagues."

Most EMBA classes take place on weekends in the Johnson School's executive conference center in Tarrytown, N.Y., just north of New York City, but each of the program's four semesters begins with an intensive week in Sage Hall, the Johnson School's home on Cornell's Ithaca campus. The EMBA program is identical in quality and content to the Johnson School's standard MBA program. All courses are taught by the school's regular faculty and follow the same curriculum, with a full menu of rigorous core courses the first year and advanced courses the second. The difference is the EMBA program is structured around the working lives of people who already are established in their careers.

"Executive MBA students are not necessarily seeking to change functions or employers," observed Michael Hostetler, associate dean for executive education at the Johnson School. "Rather, they are going after the degree at mid-career range to acquire the skills and perspectives necessary to be successful general managers."

To find out what MBA-seeking professionals needed to learn most, Hostetler and his staff held focus groups with senior managers and CEOs. What key factors were they looking for in their

leaders and those aspiring to senior-level positions of responsibility? he asked. Overwhelmingly

the answer was "leadership." That finding helped shape the EMBA program, which has an innovative "leadership immersion" learning feature. From day one, the students' leadership potential and skills are measured through sophisticated assessment tools and continual "360 degree" feedback from classmates and faculty. Each student shapes a leadership action plan based on the results.

Another inventive immersion exercise that grew out of the focus groups is one on international management in which EMBA students are asked to develop a detailed, well-researched business plan to introduce a new product or service in an overseas country. In a third, on management skills, students research, write and actually submit for publication an in-depth article to the professional or trade journal of their choice.

In the Cornell Management Simulation, EMBA students gain exposure to strategic planning when they are assigned to "companies" that compete against each other in a simulated global marketplace. The exercise calls for the students to make "real world" decisions involving marketing, sales, advertising, finance, operations and human resources. The companies' stock values rise or fall based on their choices.

Adrian Gonzales, a management consultant with Ernst and Young for the past four years, and a Bankers Trust alumnus, said: "I found the strategy simulation exercise especially interesting. It was good for me to see the various factors that impact a business, the bigger picture."

And EMBA students and faculty are assigned to "SWAT teams" in which they serve as consultants to one another, helping to solve major challenges that classmates are currently facing in their real-life organizations. The SWAT exercise, and the EMBA program in general, offer students the advantage of being with other experienced professionals, said Hostetler. "They bring real business problems and situations to the classroom and immediately benefit from the discussion and ideas of their classmates and professors."

To qualify for admission, EMBA applicants need a bachelor's degree or its equivalent and must have at least eight years of professional experience and be sponsored by their companies. "Requiring company sponsorship ensures that only the most qualified people participate," said Hostetler. Unlike some executive MBA programs, however, the Johnson School allows potential students to apply first, then get company sponsorship.

That policy appealed to Ora-Anne Jarvis, a senior counsel with Purdue Pharma L.P., a pharmaceutical company in Norwalk, Conn., who wanted to make sure she was accepted before making it public at work that she was looking to expand her horizons. Jarvis already has an advanced degree, in law, but she decided she needed an MBA, too, when she began to provide legal counsel to Pharma's licensing and business development group as part of her job. "I felt I needed to have a better understanding of the business end," she said.

Gonzales enrolled because "there were gaps in my knowledge I wanted to fill, and I thought that exposure to strategy and marketing would give me greater marketability."