Year Two - Executive Edge Track

PICK UP WHERE MOST EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMS LEAVE OFF.

If you choose Vanderbilt’s Executive Edge Track, your curriculum in year 2 will focus on the strategic aspects of managing a successful organization in a competitive environment. You’ll take a deeper dive into such key areas as strategic alignment of human capital, negotiation, managing the global enterprise and risk, and corporate financial policy.

The yearlong strategy sequence begins with a comprehensive strategy course and culminates with 2 immersion that constitute the hallmarks of the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program.

1 2

Creating and Launching New Ventures.

You and your C-Team will create and present a business plan, either for a startup or an expansion into new areas.

Capstone Strategy Project.

You and your C-Team will integrate everything you’ve learned to build a strategic plan for a real client company.

INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY

During this immersion experience, you will visit up to 10 corporations in the host country. There, you will meet with executives (often Vanderbilt Business alumni) to discuss global business challenges ranging from staffing and financial issues, to legal and political structures, economics, social customs, and career issues for expats. During the evenings, you and your classmates will experience the culture and cuisine of the host country.

With input from students, our Executive Program team determines the location of each year’s international residency based on: n relevance to the students in the class n access to Vanderbilt alumni and corporate executives n current political and economic events

EMBA STUDENTS HELP THE NASHVILLE SOUNDS DEVELOP DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING THROUGH CAPSTONE PROJECT.

One of the most distinctive experiences in year 2 of the Executive Edge Track is a Capstone Strategy Project, a total immersive experience in which you and your C-Team apply and integrate all of the tools and concepts you’ve learned to date. Working directly with the executive team of a business client facing real challenges, you and your team will analyze the situation as part of a project with welldefined parameters and make recommendations to the organization’s leadership about strategies for moving forward.

Project: The capstone team used data analysis and market research to devise customer outreach strategies for the minor league baseball team

Project Perspective: Scooter Kramer (Vanderbilt EMBA, Executive Edge) Manager, Corporate Planning at Bridgestone Americas

“The Capstone class gave our team the chance to work with a highly visible client in Nashville and gain real-world experience. The opportunity to see our work used by the Sounds was very rewarding.”

SCOOTER KRAMER

The Origins

Scooter Kramer, a self-proclaimed data nerd and former baseball intern, proposed a capstone project idea that centered around data from the Nashville Sounds’ ticket sales and compared their marketing practices to those of other successful minor league teams.

Kramer had connections with the Nashville Sounds’ general manager and COO at the time, who was interested in pursuing the idea.

The Project

The EMBA capstone team—which included Scooter Kramer, Emily Deal, Brian Martin, Ian Morrison, and Anna Myint—built a predictive regression model that anticipates what attendance should be based on the day of the week, the time of the game, and weather reports. The model helps the Sounds better staff the stadium for an improved fan experience and make strategic ticketing price decisions.

The team discovered that neither giveaway promotions nor conflicts with major events like the CMAs or Predator playoff games had much effect on attendance. This suggests that the Sounds have a strong fan base with a specific interest in baseball. The capstone team used that information, along with some benchmarking, to recommend a broader range of season passes.

The capstone team also made recommendations about the Sounds’ email marketing. Morrison, who has a background in strategic communications, contributed key insights about simplifying emails and creating customer personas. The team coupled these practices with the data to propose customized email experiences.

The capstone team used the data to improve the Sounds’ dynamic ticket pricing and recommend some targeted marketing approaches.