Global Online MBA

Designed for rising professionals who want to effectively navigate the complex business context of today, this world-class program empowers you to unlock value and drive impact. You’ll boost your employability and grow your network of international business leaders. Plus, the program is delivered in a flexible blended format designed to be perfectly paired with your work life over the course of 17, 24, or 30 months.

The Global Online MBA is a consistently top-ranked program for global business leaders, as its specialized approach is designed to help you progress in both your professional and personal life, using agile techniques to sharpen your mindset.

Our three face-to-face residential weeks in bustling Madrid provide our students with valuable and actionable insights directly from top industry leaders and organizations. However, if you can’t make it to the in-person weeks, you can choose to attend them virtually.

5 reasons to study our global MBA

Speed up your professional career

Grow within your current organization. Start your own business. Discover a new challenge. Whatever your specific goal, the Global Online MBA will help you to stand out from the competition. Blend academic concepts with real-world business applications in top global companies, while personalizing your academic journey with the Career Transformation program. Further, enhance your professional potential with the IE Talent & Careers individual coaching sessions.

Boost your career

At IE Business School, we align and combine the best technologies, methodologies, and faculty, while giving you control of the duration and content of your course—providing you with a world-class education that adapts to the needs of your modern life. The Global Online MBA will provide you with innovative leadership skills, a global mindset, and the cutting-edge tools you need for career transformation. We prime the engine. We hand you the keys. You take it from there.

Customize your learning journey

The Global Online MBA is inherently customizable. Before you begin, you can choose to complete it in 17, 24, or 30 months. Then, the third term offers increased specialization, with a choice of up to six dynamic electives and the opportunity to take part in the Entrepreneurship or Intrapreneurship track for your final project. Finally, top off your journey with Global Immersion Week, previously held in San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Miami, Shanghai and Mumbai.

Join an international network

The clue is in the name—the Global Online MBA welcomes participants from over 50 countries and a variety of sectors. Thanks to our future-forward virtual classrooms, you’ll be able to form personal and professional connections with people from all over the world, an invaluable asset on a personal and professional level. Beyond traveling and experiencing new cultures, you’ll open the door to interesting business opportunities all over the world.

Learn to thrive in digital communities

Today’s “new normal” is defined by digital environments that blend seamlessly with physical spaces. Thanks to the Global Online MBA’s strong digital component, you will hone the skills necessary to interact and flourish in digital communities both during the program and after graduation.

• 1st worldwide Online MBA - QS 2022
• 3rd worldwide Online MBA - Financial Times 2022
• 6th for Europe Best B-Schools - Bloomberg Businessweek 2020-2021

The Global Online MBA is made up of a diverse community that reflects the multifaceted nature of the program itself. Not only do the students and alumni comprise professionals from a range of backgrounds, but the faculty also represent unique, international contexts that further enhance the program dynamic. This inherent diversity is united by one factor—a shared interest in driving transformation across digital and in-person environments.

Who is this program for?

Participants in the program have at least three years of experience and typically occupy mid or top-level managerial positions. Eager to expand their global perspective and enhance their professional trajectory in real-time, they look for a best-in-class online program that provides the flexibility to immediately put new tools into practice in their professional environments.

Transformation is the result of a profound personal and professional process and requires us to move ahead one step at a time. The program’s content, teaching methodologies, sector-leading faculty, and diverse classrooms will blend with your natural talent, interests, and experience, empowering you to follow the path that suits you best.

Following IE Business School’s unique approach to learning, our expert professors deliver a wide range of simulations, videos, multimedia, exercises, group, and individual sessions, and high-impact modules within their online courses. This way, you’ll benefit from an enriching learning environment, being exposed to different formats, pedagogies, and class dynamics—mirroring the real business world.

The program can be completed in 17, 24, or 30 months and begins with everyone completing the core period together. Once you enter the specializations, we offer more flexibility so you can choose your intensity.

Program Structure

Our Global Online MBA program is available in both a blended format, which combines the best of in-person and online learning and an online format.

When you select the fully blended format, you’ll participate in three face-to-face periods on our lively Madrid campus and three online periods. Kicking off with an immersive on-campus period, you’ll move on to develop key competencies in the second period before bringing everything together in the third. If you need even more flexibility, you can opt for a mostly online or 100% online experience where you can take part in some—or all—kick-off, face-to-face, and wrap-up periods online. It’s up to you!

The online sessions consist of eight modules over three periods. Combining real-time videoconferences and asynchronous forums, you will engage in group discussions in a dynamic educational environment of diverse, international professionals.

If you find that your work commitments make it impossible for you to complete the program in the standard 17-month time frame, we also offer the possibility of extending it to 24 months or 30 months, allowing you to spread out the electives of the third period to suit your schedule.

Pre-programs

IE Business School’s unique approach to virtual, multi-platform learning consists of a variety of simulations, multimedia, exercises, and interactive group and individual sessions to help you make the most of your educational experience.

Three weeks before the first face-to-face period in Madrid, you will participate in a pre-program on the online campus to familiarize yourself with basic business concepts. To help students better prepare for the Global Online MBA, the pre-program consists of Financial Accounting & Analysis and an Introduction to Managerial Economics and is available 3 weeks prior to the program opening.

1st Term

The first period begins with a face-to-face week in Madrid, and then we take things online. The face-to-face weeks are intensive seven-day periods of transformational learning. Through seminars, forums, workshops, and conferences you’ll solidify acquired knowledge and techniques while opening yourself up to a whole new world of disruptive innovation.

Those who are 100% online will participate in the face-to-face week activities virtually from wherever they are.

Residential Period: First Face-to-Face Week

In the first face-to-face week, we welcome you and your classmates with an Opening Ceremony. This is an opportunity to network with your cohort and build the foundations for a life-changing, 17-month journey. You will lay the groundwork for intense leadership transformation through immersive workshops, gaining key skills such as effective communication and team building, which you will utilize throughout the program.

During this week you’ll participate in workshops such as:

• Team Building
• Personal Communication
• Managing People in the Digital Era
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Change Management
• Industry-Specialized Conferences

Core Virtual Period One

The core virtual periods are designed to take you out of your comfort zone. Asynchronous online discussions and live, interactive video conferences allow you to engage with new ideas and other program participants. This flexible and dynamic format is the perfect platform to explore, challenge, and debate.

The academic component begins with SETTING THE CORE. You will start with Financial Reporting and Analysis and Economics to understand the macro environment and financial analysis essentials. This will be followed by courses on Strategic Management and Marketing Management, which will act as a foundation to build your own strategy based on customer insights and needs. Finally, you will enhance your managerial capabilities by learning how to manage people and change. This last module will be complemented by conferences that allow you to explore different industries and regions for your future professional growth.

• Financial Reporting and Analysis
• Economic Environment and Country Economic Analysis
• Management Accounting
• Leading People and Change
• Marketing Management
• Strategy

2nd Term

Residential Period: Second Face-to-Face Week

During the second residential week, you will return to Madrid to continue developing your leadership abilities, with a strong focus on onboarding new people and driving change. These skills will be further enhanced with workshops on influence, persuasion, and negotiation, alongside training on effective collaboration with diverse teams.

Other courses and workshops include creativity, ideation, and leading change, as well as a strategic module on business, government, and sustainability. Moreover, this residential week offers a great opportunity to expand your network by attending masterclasses delivered by top executives from a variety of industries.

Finally, you will have the chance to take part in personalized career coaching sessions, connecting with a coach who will shine a light on where you currently stand, your career goals, and the next steps moving forward.

• Negotiation
• Creativity & Ideation
• Influence & Persuasion
• Leading People & Change
• Business, Government, and Sustainability

2nd Term

Core Virtual Period Two

Once the residential period comes to a close, you will return to an online learning environment. There, you’ll start things off with a course on Digital Transformation and another on Finance, before discovering how to set up and run operations in a business.

Next, you’ll take part in a two-part Entrepreneurship course, where you’ll look at startup creation before diving into the world of corporate entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneurship course will also act as a foundation for the final project. Finally, you will participate in a four-session module that introduces you to the basics of data analysis.

• Digital Transformation
• Finance
• Creating Value Through Operations
• Data Analytics Module
• Entrepreneurial Venturing Final Project

3rd Term

Core Virtual Period Three

The last core virtual period will build upon the Entrepreneurial course in the second period, where you began working on a startup or a corporate entrepreneurship project. Now, in the Entrepreneurship and specialization Project module, you will join a team and be assigned a coach as you begin learning how to scale up a business.

This period also offers unrivaled opportunities for specialization with a choice of three tracks (Marketing, Finance, or General Management) or the option to pick from a pool of electives. If you opt for one of the established tracks, you will take three modules from that track with the rest comprising your own personal choices. Otherwise, you will be able to choose from six modules in total.

• Concentration Areas (Tracks)
• Electives
• Final Exam Preparation
• Scale-up Fundamentals
• Entrepreneurial Venturing Coaching
• Module Data Analytics for Decision Making

3rd Term

Third Face-to-Face Week

The third and final residential week will take place once again in Madrid. You will round off your learning experience with additional modules on leadership and career management, as well as gain access to next-level networking opportunities with executives from various industries.

The term—and program as a whole—will culminate with the Entrepreneurship and specialization Project. After a mock session to finetune your pitch, you and your team will have to present it in front of a panel of expert judges.

• Mock Pitch
• Final Exam
• Leadership in Uncertain Times
• Careers
• Industry Specialized Conferences

Transforming a business is about shifting your mindset and being able to make an impact, both in digital and physical environments. The Global Online MBA prepares you for this, and for what comes next.

The Global Online MBA provides you with career-boosting initiatives: From networking opportunities and exposure to top companies and executives, to access to career-advancement and transformation resources, that will equip you with the skills needed to drive change in any business.

Whether you want to rise in your current organization or start up your own company, we will provide you with the tools, resources, and support to maximize your potential.

Upon graduation you will be able to:

• Make your mark as an agile and informed decision-maker and driver of transformation.
• Collaborate and manage diverse teams across digital and physical environments.
• Pursue the professional path you choose with an enhanced profile.

The program’s shortest version will begin in September or February and finish 17 months later. However, participants can also opt to lighten their workload after two terms and pick up the third term later on. Alternatively, with the third option, you don’t have to pause ou simply spread the course out over 24 months, selecting just three electives in your third period and taking the other three in an additional fourth period. By moving your electives and extending your studies, not only do you ease up the workload, but you also expand your network as you will start your fourth-period electives with a new intake. And here’s the key part: Participants, no matter their course duration, always graduate together.