What is the difference between GM and SM or How to choose the right Program?

Dear Executives!

Almost 2 years ago SSE Russia launched a new I-EMBA Program named Strategic Marketing. Since then none of the day has passed without few questions from our Applicants about the difference between General Management (GM) and Strategic Marketing (SM) Programs. It finally forced us to explain our vision on these 2 Programs on our web-site.

Before we will start to describe the differences, we would like to stress that General Management and Strategic Marketing Programs have much in common. First of all, both Programs are designed for Top Managers and Business Owners. SSE Russia provides degree programs for talented people who already occupy general executive positions which means the ability to run and develop internationally competitive business operations. Whatever Program you will graduate from you will get the Diploma of SSE "Master of Business Administration". There is no any difference in Degree and in Academic hour's amount as well as in full participation of SSE Faculty and Program design. The first Academic Year in both Programs is similar and includes the core management areas such as Accounting and Financial Analysis, Organizational Behavior and HRM, Marketing and Strategy.

The specifics in the second Academic Year very much depend on our vision of two gently different types of higher business education approaches. While the General Management Program is slightly more focused on Business Excellence and Business Processes within the organization as we see them today, the Strategic Marketing Program is a little bit more concentrated on Business Development and Market Opportunities. That is why you will find a lot of core management areas from the Marketing perspective within the Strategic Marketing Program. If anything the Strategic Marketing program is even more unique than the General Management Program when compared to what other business schools are in the position to offer. But bear in mind that both programs feature both current business excellence and future market opportunities substance.

The frequently occurring legend about the program labels is that the General Management Program is for General Managers (or for those who are going to be CEO) whereas the Strategic Marketing Program is for Specialized Marketing Directors. The statistics of SSE Russia I - EMBA groups shows that there is no significant difference in positions and backgrounds of our GM and SM participants. The legend as usual is very much far from the reality. However how to choose the Program which would match to your personal needs and expectations?

The answer is in the curriculum of the Program. If you are more interested in leading a relatively large organization in its maturity stage, you should focus on efficiency and efficacy of the organization as well as on operations and business excellence. Then you should join our General Management Program. If you are more interested in developing new businesses (within a large organization or separately), in finding new market opportunities and in gaining new competitive advantages for your organization, our Strategic Marketing Program will be even more suitable for you. In other words, the main idea of Strategic Marketing Program is Business Development.

The choice of I-EMBA Program which respond exactly to your goals, expectations and needs is an important step to our mutual future success. And that is why we are very open to discuss with you all related issues in details,

Sincerely Yours,

Rakutina Svetlana,
Head of Degree Unit