New executive MBA program will conquer divide between ‘big data’ and strategy

McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business has introduced a new graduate program aimed at executives and managers challenged with large and growing datasets and a need to integrate that data into corporate strategy.

The new Executive MBA in Digital Transformation, in partnership with CIBC, IBM and founding partner theScore, is the first in the world of its kind.

The program will focus on giving its students the digital literacy and executive leadership skills necessary to bridge the gap between ‘big data’ and corporate strategy.

“As founding sponsors, theScore wholeheartedly supports this EMBA – a unique and groundbreaking program that will equip today’s business leaders with the essential skills and knowledge required to successfully navigate and stay ahead of the ongoing digital evolution,” says John Levy, founder and CEO of theScore.

“The EMBA in Digital Transformation continues our tradition of innovative business education and signals our commitment to ensuring our graduates have the skills and abilities to manage well in the 21st century,” says Len Waverman, dean of the DeGroote School of Business.

The ubiquity of ‘big data’ has resulted in a divide between the analysis of increasing amounts of data and the execution of corporate strategies.

In too many corporations, these activities occur in isolation and result in strategic decisions that are not evidence-based. Employers have made it clear that they require senior management employees with the ability to translate data into strategy.

“Creating leaders that have the ability to translate data into strategy, ideas and actual solutions that benefit clients will be an even more important asset for companies like CIBC in the future,” says Brian O’Donnell, chief data officer at CIBC. “In supporting DeGroote’s new EMBA program as a lead partner, our goal is to contribute to the development of a new crop of digitally literate leaders.”

“IBM considers data — specifically Big Data – organizations’ newest and most valuable natural resource,” Sal Vella, vice-president, Cloud Foundational Services at IBM. “Enterprises across all industries are under increased pressure to extract new insights from the explosion of available data. Critical to that effort is the development of business leaders who are skilled in analytics and we are committed to working with McMaster University to facilitate that.”

The program is unique in that it relies on industry partners to help guide curriculum and provide experts in the classroom, delivered in four residency modules in Canada and California’s Silicon Valley.

The interdisciplinary program is designed to expose students to the core topics covered in traditional EMBA programs together with the more technical content associated with master-level courses in fields such as data science and business analytics.

With this unique combination of skills and knowledge, graduates will be well positioned to further their careers as mid- to senior-level executives in organizations that see the value-creating potential associated with digitally-driven innovations, technologies and ‘big data’ insights.

The program’s first cohort of students will begin in April 2016.