TOP MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

-PAG-

STATE-OF-THE-ART Knowledge for Executive Managers

Message from the Academic Director, Dr. Mauricio Jenkins:

“The Top Management Program (PAG) is INCAE’s oldest program for executives, thus we strive to provide our finest faculty, the best and most recent materials and experiences, and we also see to the smallest details so as to guarantee an unforgettable experience and the greatest benefits for our participants.”

Since its inception in Ciudad Antigua, Guatemala in 1964, the Top Management Program (PAG) is the oldest and one of the most renowned programs offered by INCAE. To date, over 5,000 Latin American executives have graduated.

The fundamental objective of the Top Executive Program (PAG) is to prepare participants to assume top management responsibilities, both in the private and public sector. The Top Management Program (PAG) meets the most important needs of today’s business environment, so that participants return to their professional activities and immediately put in practice all they have learned.

This program, the only one of its kind in Latin American, offers participants an unequaled opportunity to exchange experiences with other successful executives from over 20 countries.

In this context, participants have the opportunity not only to increase their knowledge, but also to visualize their own careers from a new perspective, clarifying values and attitudes that affect their behavior as leaders in their organizations and as individuals and understanding the constructive role they play in determining the future of their organization.

Objectives

The Top Management Program (PAG) has been conceived with the basic objective of developing executive management perspectives among participants by exposing them to new topics required for effective management decision-making, strengthening their managerial skills and knowledge and building their capacity to formulate medium and long-term policies and strategies.

The PAG offers participants new management concepts and techniques, strengthening their capacity in situational analysis and decision-making in today’s environment. After four weeks of intense work, it is expected that executives attending this program will return to their regular activities and put in practice all they have learned.

The PAG specifically seeks to:

  • Develop skills, knowledge and attitudes that are essential for senior managers, improving their capacity to manage and use the resources of their organization.
  • Identify and evaluate local, regional and international critical factors that affect the operations and results of the organization.
  • Build competencies in management analysis and decision-making, by stimulating rational decisions in the management and use of information and measuring results.
  • Strengthen the capacity of managers to craft and implement successful long-term competitive strategies.
  • Provide participants with new top-of-the-line management tools and techniques.
  • Promote the concept of knowledge in its broadest sense, as a continuous personal development process, capable of boosting the development of the organization and its immediate community.
  • Couple managerial experience and training with daily life elements, such as health, nutrition, stress management, balancing work and family, among others.

Academic Contents

The PAG combines major functional management disciplines with the most advanced administrative concepts, techniques and practices. Its design is focused on making and implementing decisions. It examines the business factors that have an impact on the courses of action adopted by the organization, as well as the internal factors and resources that allow the organization to operate in a highly competitive environment.

The program has a comprehensive design that closely relates all the topics covered. The Top Management Program has been divided in four basic sections:

Environment, Business Strategy and Senior Management

In today’s world, it is essential to develop new skills and approaches for analyzing the political, economic and competitive environment, taking into account new and continuously changing world economic conditions so that managers may adapt their organization’s strategy, vision and objectives, in order to defuse threats and take advantage of new opportunities.

This section has the following objectives:

•Better understand the political, economic and competitive environment and its impact on the organization.

•Learn to use a series of conceptual frameworks for analyzing the problems of the environment.

•Introduce the fundamental concepts of corporate strategy and their importance at different managerial levels.

•Provide practical knowledge on defining an organizational strategy for current economic, political and competitive problems.

•Learn and develop skills that facilitate the development of successful management plans, including topics such as learning community, leadership and teamwork.

Topics Covered:

  • Political and Economic Analysis
  • Business Strategy
  • Leadership and Teamwork
  • Elective Basic Management topics

Fundamental Management Tools

In order to better understand current problems and facilitate the analysis of optimal decision-making, management needs to gain in-depth knowledge in several basic business administration areas. This section examines basic functional management tools, their purpose and use in different types of organizations.

Topics Covered:

  • Information Technology Management
  • Financial Management
  • Marketing Management
  • Human Resource Management
  • Operations Management
  • Elective conferences on executive management topics, such as global corporate strategy and regional profiles
  • Elective conferences on personal well-being, such as health and nutrition.
Current Management Topics

The design of the PAG includes a series of current topics that allow managers to make optimal decisions and develop successful strategies and advantages vis-à-vis present and future competitors.

Topics Covered:

  • Boards of Directors and Management of Interest Groups
  • Growth Strategy
  • Balanced Scorecard
  • Analysis of Management Issues with Dynamic Systems
  • E-Commerce and its Impact on the Marketing Strategy
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Application of Modern Financial Theory
  • Business Ethics
  • Elective conferences on current topics for managers, such as sustainable development, corporate responsibility and globalization.
  • Elective conferences on personal well-being, such as stress management, health and healthy lifestyles.

Integration of Management Concepts

This last section of the program combines the experiences from previous sections with an analysis of the environment and functional areas of the organization. It analyzes the design of the competitive strategy and operating policy for achieving the objectives of the organization. In addition, the topics developed throughout the program are integrated through a comprehensive business simulation.

Topics Covered:

  • Negotiations
  • Leadership and Management Processes
  • Simulation: Comprehensive Business Simulation Exercise
  • Elective conferences on current management topics, such as free trade agreements and recent trends in different functional areas
  • Elective conference on personal well-being, such as balancing work and family, integral health for executives in the 21st century.

These broad areas comprise the academic content of our study program. To learn more about the courses offered in each section, visit our web page at:

Academic Excellence

Each INCAE professor has extensive academic experience and, most of them, have doctoral degrees from renowned universities in the United States and Europe. These faculty members not only have made significant contributions in their respective fields, but each possesses extensive practical experience in consulting and executive management in a large variety of industries and countries.

The Top Management Program will be taught in Spanish, or with simultaneous interpretation, by the most outstanding and experienced INCAE faculty members, as well as visiting professors from other prestigious world-class universities. INCAE faculty members and visiting professors who have recently taught this program include, among others:

Arnoldo Camacho – Creating Value for Shareholders

Ph.D.OhioStateUniversity

M.A.OhioStateUniversity

Arturo Condo – Business Strategy (Integration Exercise)

D.B.A.HarvardUniversity

M.B.A. INCAE

Arturo Cruz– Political Analysis

Ph.D.OxfordUniversity

M.A. The JohnsHopkinsUniversity

B.A. The AmericanUniversity

Brizio Biondi-Morra – BusinessEthics
D.B.A.HarvardUniversity
Ph.D. in Economy and Trade, UniversitáBocconi
M.B.A.RollinsCollege

Carlos Guillermo Sequeira – Marketing Management
D.B.A. Harvard University
M.B.A. INCAE

David Montesinos – Management Information Systems

Ph.D.University of Houston

M.B.A. INCAE

Computer Systems Analyst, Instituto Bancario e Industrial, Monterrey, México

Eduardo Luis Montiel – Financial Management

D.B.A.HarvardUniversity

M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Strategy researcher for financial services organizations

Enrique Ogliastri – Leadership and Negotiations

Ph.D. in Organizational Theory, Northwestern University

M.A. in Social Psychology, Northwestern University

M.B.A. IESE, Barcelona

Esteban R. Brenes – Business Strategy

Ph.D.University of Florida (Gainesville)

M.B.A. INCAE

Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez – Economics Management

Ph.D.University of Pennsylvania

M.A.University of Pennsylvania

Germán Retana – Leadership and Managerial Processes
Ph.D.University of Southern California
M.P.A.University of Southern California
M.B.A. INCAE

Guillermo Selva – Operations Management

Ph.D. (Cand.) University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)

M.Sc., University of Southern Carolina

Associate Dean

John C. Ickis – Human Resources

D.B.A.HarvardUniversity

M.B.A.HarvardUniversity

José Exprúa - E-Commerce and Marketing Strategy

D.B.A. Southern IllinoisUniversity

M.B.A. INCAE

Dean

José Nicolás Marín – Financial Management
D.B.A.HarvardUniversity
M.B.A.TulaneUniversity

Julio Sergio Ramírez – Learning Community and Human Resources

Ph.D. in Political Economics and Government

HarvardUniversity

M.P.A.HarvardUniversity

M.B.A. INCAE

Luis E. López – Systems Dynamics
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.B.A. INCAE

Mauricio Jenkins – Associate Academic Director and Finance

Ph.D.BrandeisUniversity

M.B.A. INCAE

Pedro Raventós - E-Commerce

Ph.D.HarvardUniversity

M.A.HarvardUniversity

Roberto I. Mendoza – Management Control

M.B.A. INCAE

Roy Zúñiga – Systems Dynamics

Ph.D. Universidad de Valladolid

Ph.D. (Cand.) University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology

M. Phil. University of Oregon

M.B.A. INCAE

Associate Dean

Visiting Faculty:

Aneel Karnani

D.B.A.HarvardBusinessSchool

Professor of Strategy and International Business, University of Michigan

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Writer and journalist. Rated as the “most read Spanish columnist” by the Spanish magazine Cambio

Vice-President of Liberal International

Marco Fernández

Ph.D.University of Manitoba, Canadá – Economics Analysis

Michael W. Lawless

Ph.D.AndersonSchool, UCLA

M.B.A.AndersonSchool, UCLA

Oscar Arias Sánchez

Ph. D. University of Essex

Anabel González

Enrique Ostalé

General Information
Candidates:

-Executives with over 5 years of relevant management experience

-No academic degree is required

-Candidates must be endorsed by their organization for the 4 weeks of the program.

Admission:

Candidates must complete an admission application via Internet or request an application at the INCAE office in their respective country. Upon admission, candidates are required to make a reservation at the time they receive a letter of acceptance.

Location:

The Top Management Program (PAG) will be held at the INCAE Walter Kissling Gam Campus in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Facilities include rooms shared with other participants, classrooms, study halls, library and dining room, as well as recreational facilities, such as swimming pool, gym, tennis court, basketball court and soccer field.

It is advisable for participants to bring their own personal laptops for use in the Campus.

Date:

July 6-31, 2009

Cost: $10,950.00*

Includes tuition, teaching materials, lodging accommodations at the INCAE Campus and meals.

A US$1,000 deposit is required or full payment at the time the reservation is made. The balance is payable at the respective INCAE office or upon registration.

The deposit is not refundable if the participant fails to attend. Likewise, no refund is provided if the participant withdraws after the program begins. Payments must be made in United States currency, either in cash, check drawn against a U.S. bank or traveler’s check.