Abstract:

The future of today’s organizations largely depends on the creativity and innovation capacity of business management students. The Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) of EAE Business School is a transformative program designed to meet the development needs of experienced, mid-career managers.

During the EMBA program and based on their own ideas, participants propose a business plan for a start-up or an expansion to a current business. We believe that business plans developed by EMBA students can be significant to know the vision of the future generation of executive business leaders, as they reflect how they embrace change and how they demonstrate an ability to reinvent their business models.

In this article, we list and classify the business proposals developed by the EMBA students according to the different aspects involved in relation to business solutions: value offering, target market and kind of innovation. An analysis of the characteristics of the business opportunities addressed and the proposed solutions is performed. Tentative conclusions about future executives thinking and their approaches are obtained. The insights acquired from this study can suggest areas for further research.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship, innovation, business plan, executive management education.