Timeline & courses
The ESMT Berlin MBA program blends academic theory with practical application, and a significant portion focuses on experiences outside the classroom. You will also have numerous options to tailor the content of your MBA so that it delivers the great value you are looking for.
The springboard to flexibility happens once you have established your management foundation in the integrated core. From May, you are in the driving seat. Choose your track, select your summer option, and then tailor the program even more with electives. You can also enrich your MBA experience with further international exposure. Take a look at the options ESMT offers to launch an international career and expand your worldwide professional and personal network.
The curriculum and courses are described below. You can find more information about networking and personal growth on pages dedicated to your personal development, student life, and careers.
The ESMT Berlin MBA is a great way to accelerate or change your international career path.
In detail: the MBA curriculum
Your journey begins in January and finishes in March of the following year. The curriculum structure and cadence are designed to focus on the intersection of theory and practice, and ensure that you graduate with the tools needed to address current and future challenges.
The ESMT MBA is divided into five modules. Each module builds on the previous courses and will challenge you to think strategically, initiate creative solutions, and work in dynamic, international teams.
Five Modules:
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Build your foundation and develop a holistic perspective
January - May
The program begins with core business knowledge that establishes a foundation for everyone and introduces a holistic overview of all the key areas of business knowledge. The courses in this module form the basis for managing organizations, assessing economic impact, and making decisions. This is also where you identify your personal leadership style and continue to develop it throughout the program.
The Global Virtual Team constitutes an important part of this module. A project through the Global Network for Advanced Management equips groups to solve organizational issues with the cooperation of team members dispersed on every continent.
Foundation
- Introduction to general management
- Introduction to economic thinking
- Managerial analysis and decision making
- Inclusive leadership
- German evening class (optional)
Develop a holistic perspective
- Data analytics for managers
- Operations and supply chain
- Marketing management
- Financial accounting
- Managerial accounting
- Finance
- Competitive strategy
- Structured thinking workshop
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Specialize
June-July
The program tracks are where you begin to shape your program. Choose between Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Managerial Analytics, and Strategic Leadership.
In each track, you will build on your understanding of management fundamentals and grow beyond basic management theory. The objective at this stage is for you to develop an ability to make a difference – through innovation, analytics, or leadership.
The courses in this module stress the areas where future leaders must excel, and where they must have specific awareness.
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Human factor of innovation; Creating and capturing value; Entrepreneurial finance and valuation
- Managerial Analytics: Customer analytics; Advanced decision modelling; Machine learning
- Strategic Leadership: Digital transformation; Corporate strategy; Agile leadership
This module is supplemented with various leadership seminars such as:
- Mastering Negotiation Fundamentals
- Responsible and Ethical Leadership
- Leading Through Networks
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Summer Terms: Boost employability
Mid-July-August/September
Mid-July to August/September
Choose one of the three summer options to support your personal and professional development.
- Budding intra- and entre-preneurs can rise to the Industrial and Social Innovation Challenge and team up to solve a corporate or social challenge while also developing skills in reverse entrepreneurship
- If you have always wondered what it is like to work in a particular industry or function, try it out in a summer internship. This could be the springboard to change your career gain valuable experience and the opportunity to put what you have learned so far into practice.
- If you are committed to Germany beyond Berlin, German language skills will be very useful. Build upon the German you’ve already learned pre-program and in the evening classes and take them to the next level with a 6-week intensive Sommer-Sprachschule (B1 level required).
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Personalization
September to December
The winter term at ESMT is again focused on giving you what you need for your career. Stay in Berlin and choose from a broad range of electives focused on topics that include digital transformation, sustainability, entrepreneurship, leadership, personal mastery, and more. You will also have the opportunity to join a 1-week exchange at one of our many fellow Global Network for Advanced Management members. Partner schools include Yale (USA), EGADE (Mexico), HEC Paris (France), Fudan (China) and many more.
If you would like a longer international study experience, complete a full-term exchange at one of our partner schools.
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Practice
Janury- March
The capstone consulting project is where you get to see how far you have come by applying your prior experience and what you have learned to a real life business situation. Working in teams, the consulting project offers a practical learning experience that can be used to diversify your skills portfolio should you choose to work in a different industry or function, or build upon your previous experience with a new strategic challenge.
Projects are secured by the ESMT Career Services team from ESMT’s corporate partners and contacts, and two of the student clubs. Entrepreneurship Club members can choose to work on innovation projects from local startups, while Social Impact Club members work with NGOs and social entrepreneurs to create viable solutions to development problems.
Irrespective of how a consulting project is sourced, ESMT selects only those projects that have a significant strategic component. You will use your team’s experience to write a final analytical paper based on the fieldwork.
Examples of prior consulting projects include:
- Develop a business plan for a social entrepreneurial venture in the solar power industry in rural India
- Design a development plan, strategic and operational, to internationalize a successful Berlin real estate startup within the next three years
- Create a market overview and strategic recommendations for launching a new technological innovation onto the global market for a design and manufacturing firm based in New Zealand
- Write a market entry strategy for a European-based renewable energy smart grid system moving into the US market
- Study a recent merger between a German company and a Chinese company, and outline the strengths and weaknesses involved in the process, developing realistic organizational solutions to problems faced
But if you’ve always wanted to be your own boss, you can use the capstone to work on your business or expansion plans with the aid of ESMT’s expert faculty.
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Graduation
April
Graduates of ESMT Berlin automatically qualify for an 18-month work visa in Germany for which no employer support is needed. Graduate from the program and jump straight into your career. With over 80% of graduates staying in Germany, the ESMT Berlin MBA is great way to bring your international talents to Germany.
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Pre- and Post-program options
Pre-program:
Prior to the MBA program, you can choose to enroll in intensive German language courses in Berlin and either start your path to fluency or boost your current level of the language.
Post-program: April- June
After completing all academic requirements of the MBA, you can choose to apply to the Responsible Leaders Fellowship (RLF) and use your skills to give back.
Achieve your Goals
Depending on the desired outcome, the ESMT Berlin Full-Time MBA offers you a bespoke pathways to reach your personal and professional goals, with specially designed focuses for your journey.
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Intra-or entrepreneurship
If you are interested in intra- or entrepreneurship:
- The Innovation and Entrepreneurship track will be the start of your journey
- During the summer term, apply entrepreneurship principles to solve a social or industrial challenge
- In the electives, choose courses such as Entrepreneurial Strategy, Design Thinking, From Ideas to Business, and the Start Up Challenge
- Use the capstone project to build out your business or expansion plans
- And post-program, join the incubator program offered by our partner VALI Berlin
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Future business leader and innovator
If you want to make your mark on the business world:
- Chose the Managerial Analytics track
- In the summer term, complete an internship anywhere in the world
- Choose courses like Matchmakers in the digital economy, Quantitative Methods in Marketing, Integrative Leadership, and Conflict Management
- Take advantage of the career services support throughout the year to visit companies at their headquarters and meet with them on campus.
- Work as a consultant for an established company and get first-hand experience of the challenges and opportunities involved in solving the issues of another company
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German Mittelstand
The German Mittelstand (SMEs) are the companies that have helped forge Germany’s economic success. If you want to make your mark:
- Choose the Strategic Leadership track
- Improve your German language skills with evening classes and take them further in the intensive 6-week Sommer-Sprachschule
- Choose from electives such as Business German, Global Industrial Strategies, Geopolitics, and Sustainable Supply Chains
- And use the capstone project to be a consultant to a leading German company
