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Foreword to the 2nd Edition - 1997Business leaders of the 21st century will face a radically transforming business environment, increasing competitive pressures resulting from globalization and ever higher levels of personal challenge and stress. Equipping them to handle such demanding roles is a key task of those involved in management education and development, both in employing organizations and in business schools. There is little doubt that clarity of vision, strategic leadership, intellectual innovation and cultural sensitivity are some of the competences required; what is less clear is how best to develop them. What is increasingly obvious, however, is that much of the conventional wisdom and traditional teaching methods of existing executive development programmes is no longer relevant; companies and their managers are in search of fresh thinking. According to a recent survey on executive education in the Financial Times, a new breed of employee is to be found in the human resource departments of large corporations. They have one major task on which to focus: deciding which providers of management education the company should work with. They visit business schools and consultants, participate in programmes, get to know the faculty and then publish comprehensive guides to the selected services on offer. This directory will be of enormous use in the initial stages of this process. This development towards in-depth analysis of needs and sophisticated selection of programmes reflects three major trends in management education: the proliferation in the type of services and the number of programmes offered by an increasing range of providers, the acceptance of management development as an approach to motivating managers and gaining competitive advantage for their organizations, and the dissatisfaction with structured, packaged products which has led to increased demand for tailored programmes developed through long-term partnerships with suppliers. These trends are encouraging after a period in the early 1990s when business schools in particular were subject to constant criticism for their over-emphasis on theory, remoteness from the 'real world' and lack of concern for practicality, relevance and implementation of learning. Anew credibility has now emerged through much rethinking of what is really needed and considerable redesign of learning processes. But not only have the complexity and sophistication of these demands on providers risen, the fragmentation of the market-place has continued through the entry of new and diverse providers, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The issues explored in the editorial section of this second edition of International Executive Development Programmes and the profile entries which follow, provide an invaluable insight into the complex world of executive development. The guide will assist companies in determining their management education agenda and in selecting the most appropriate partners, in an area which is central to the success of every business. Michael Osbaldeston
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