Rethinking Leadership – Strategy, People and Organisation in Focus
For registration, please, contact the GMP Program Manager Dr. Anastasia Kurysheva
Anastasia.Kurysheva@ebs.edu
General Management
General Management Program
Leading organisations through complexity, transformation, and change requires more than functional expertise - it demands the ability to think across disciplines, make sound decisions under uncertainty, and drive meaningful change.
- German
- face-to-face
- 12 ECTS
- 12 , 500 €
- Next start: 15.10.2026
- 10 Präsenztage über vier Monate
- Campus Rheingau
What to expect in this General Management Program
In today’s complex and rapidly evolving business environment - characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), as well as global disruptions - strategic management is more critical than ever. Managers with P&L responsibility must step back from established ways of thinking to reassess whether their strategies remain effective.
The EBS General Management Program (GMP) is designed to develop exactly this capacity. Through a modular, academically grounded approach built on the latest developments in adult learning principles, the program equips participants with an integrated perspective on the challenges general managers face today - from strategy and finance to customer-centric value creation, innovation, and leadership. Combining rigorous theory with practical application, participants will not only refine their strategic capabilities but also build a strong professional network to support their continued development.
Details on the program
Action Learning Integration
A defining feature of the GMP is action learning, where participants formulate a strategic challenge they or their organization is currently facing - one that lies within their sphere of influence. Drawing on the learnings from each module, participants will reflect deeply on this real-world issue, developing a structured methodology for approaching and resolving it.
Peer Groups
To maximize relevance and foster continuous learning, participants will be organized into peer groups consisting of 3-5 professionals from different companies. These groups will maintain regular calls throughout the program. Integrating diverse perspectives of peers within one group, they will deepen understanding, foster peer-to-peer learning, and create a collaborative space for sharing experiences, solving problems, and building lasting professional relationships.
Capstone Projects Linked to Strategic Challenges
The program culminates in a team-based capstone project, where participants apply the tools, frameworks, and insights gained throughout the GMP to address a real strategic challenge identified by their organizations or industry. In teams, participants will conduct in-depth analysis, develop actionable recommendations, and present their findings to peers and faculty. This capstone project not only synthesizes learning but also serves as a practical demonstration of participants’ strategic capabilities, preparing them to lead transformative change.
Program Highlights
- Strategic Decision-Making: Develop the ability to make informed strategic decisions by integrating financial, leadership, and digitalization perspectives.
- Financial Steering: Build comprehensive strategic financial decision-making skills grounded in accounting, corporate finance, lending, restructuring, and sustainable finance.
- Leadership and Team Dynamics: Refine leadership skills to effectively manage teams and drive organizational change.
- Capstone project: Team-based work provides opportunities to apply knowledge in practice and explore approaches to addressing strategic challenges encountered in daily business. Collaborative learning also fosters close networking and enables a comprehensive assessment of learning outcomes.
Details on the program content
The EBS GMP is designed to be highly flexible and can be tailored to the highest levels of organizations, including senior managers and C-level executives. In these programs, we integrate your organization’s strategic priorities into the curriculum, ensuring immediate applicability and increasing the potential for transformation and change. This approach guarantees that learning directly addresses the leadership challenges and industry context of your organization.
The Open GMP program is offered exclusively in German. Customized GMP programs can be delivered in either German or English, depending on your organization's needs.
Kick-off - Strategy & Management
Learners develop an understanding of managerial thinking and decision-making in organizational contexts, including strategic analysis, stakeholder-oriented perspectives, and key principles of management in an international environment.
- Foundations of strategic management:
- Understanding the basics of strategic planning and analysis
- Strategic analysis tools: Techniques for analyzing market trends and a company´s internal capabilities
- Systems thinking & stakeholder management: Approaches to managing complex systems and engaging stakeholders effectively
- Reflection on the initial strategic challenge and its potential reframing
- Formation of peer groups for collaborative learning and support
Finances & Controlling
Learners develop an understanding of financial decision-making processes within organizations, including corporate finance structures, budgeting and forecasting approaches, and the integration of sustainability considerations into financial management.
- Financial decision-making: Techniques for making informed financial decisions, including budgeting and forecasting
- Corporate turnaround & restructuring
- Corporate finance: Corporate lending, acquisition finance (leveraged finance)
- Sustainable finance: Integrating sustainability into financial decision-making
Customer & Market Perspective
Learners develop an understanding of customer-centric management and market-driven decision-making, including methods for generating customer insight, frameworks for analyzing market dynamics, principles of value creation, and strategies for achieving sustainable customer-centric growth.
- Customer insight: Methods for understanding customer needs, behaviors, and expectations as a foundation for managerial decision-making
- Market understanding: Frameworks for analyzing market dynamics, competitive forces, and emerging trends
- Value creation: Designing and communicating compelling value propositions that align customer needs with organizational capabilities
- Customer-centric growth: Strategies for driving sustainable growth through customer orientation, retention, and lifetime value optimization
Leading and Managing Innovation - AI Literacy
Learners are able to analyze innovation processes and emerging business models, apply creative and agile approaches to problem-solving, and evaluate the strategic relevance and practical application of AI in organizational contexts.
- Innovation landscape and strategy: Understanding the innovation ecosystem
- Design thinking: Techniques for fostering creativity and solving complex problems
- New business models: Exploring innovative business models and their financial implications
- Agile methods for innovation: Applying agile methodologies to drive innovation effectively
- Strategic understanding of AI: Overview of AI technologies and their strategic implications
- Immediate practical applicability: Application of AI concepts in real-world scenarios
Leadership, Culture, and Communication Graduation Ceremony
Learners are able to apply core leadership principles to guide and motivate teams, reflect on and develop personal leadership qualities such as resilience and adaptability, communicate effectively with self-awareness in professional contexts, and present integrated capstone projects demonstrating strategic and financial decision-making competencies.
- Leading people: Developing leadership skills to inspire and motivate teams
- Leader as a person: Exploring personal attributes such as resilience, flexibility, and agility. Self-awareness and engaged communication. Enhancing self-awareness and communication skills for effective leadership
- Capstone Project: Presentation of group capstone projects showcasing a structured methodology that applies newly acquired strategic and financial decision-making skills to address a strategic challenge the group has been working on
Overview
Schedule for the upcoming academic year
Start 15. October 2026
Module 1 15.-16.10.2026
Module 2 02.-04.12.2026
Module 3 20.-22.02.2027
Module 4 17.-19.02.2027
Presentation 19.02.2027
The total program fee amounts to €12,500.
This service is exempt from VAT in accordance with § 4 No. 21 a) bb) of the German VAT Act (UStG).
Relevant for you
I will be happy to help you
Dr. André Hollstein
Head of EBS Executive School