• Skip to Content

Kelley School of Business Indiana University
  • Programs
    • Undergraduate
    • Full-Time +Flex MBA
    • Kelley Direct Online MBA
    • Online Master's Degrees & Certificates
    • +Kelley
    • 3/2 MBA
    • MS in Accounting with Data and Analytics
    • MS in Finance
    • MS in Healthcare Management
    • MS in Information Systems
    • MS in Management
    • PhD
    • Executive Education
    • Indianapolis Programs
    • International Programs
  • Faculty & Research
    • Research & Publications
    • Faculty Directory
    • Departments & Majors
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Courses
  • Recruiters & Corporate Relations
    • Graduate Career Services
    • Undergraduate Career Services
    • Indianapolis Career Services
    • Alumni Career Resources
    • Corporate & Foundation Relations
    • Indianapolis Corporate & Foundation Relations
  • Alumni
    • Who We Are
    • Get Involved
    • Career & Professional Development
    • Awards
    • Alumni Legacies
    • Events
    • Giving
    • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • Dean's Welcome
    • Administration
    • Kelley Women
    • School Profile
    • History
    • Visit Bloomington
    • Visit Kelley Indianapolis
    • Contact
    • Directory
    • Social Media Directory
    • Rankings
  • More
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Directory
    • News & Events
    • Give
    • Kelley Store
Executive Education
  • Partnerships
    • Booz | Allen | Hamilton
    • General Motors
    • IU School of Optometry
    • MLB Players Association
    • MLS Players Association
    • NFL Players Association
    • USR Players Association
    • WNBPA
    • Purdue University
    • Indiana Kelley–SKK GSB Executive MBA
    • RTX
    • Thompson Thrift
  • Case Studies
    • IU Health South Central Region KEEP Partnership
    • Meeting Professionals International Case Study
  • Professional Development
  • Meet Us
  • Info

Your organization is one-of-a-kind. Your leadership and executive training should be too.

Attract and retain top talent, develop expertise within your organization, and reach business goals more efficiently with custom executive education programs led by top business school faculty. Our team will work closely with you to tailor solutions to your business strategy, learning strategy, and talent development goals.

Let's get started

40+ years of experience

designing, developing, and deploying custom executive education programs

Proven executive education formats, tailored to your business

Our team can deliver what your organization needs, from a single certificate program to a fully customized, credit-earning path to an online MS or partner MBA degree. We offer several building blocks for your ideal solution, including:

As a leader in the field of management and executive development, we understand that every organization has a unique set of environmental variables and characteristics. That’s why we approach design, development, and delivery of executive education programs with contextual analysis: to build bridges between structured learning experiences and the corporate operating environment of our clients.

Clients will collaborate with Kelley faculty and staff in course development, depending on the degree of customization desired.

Custom program prototype

An example of our custom education process is illustrated in a program we designed, developed, and delivered with a large service firm. The program was well attended, highly rated, and embraced by the headquarters.

A program is successfully designed when the end-user specifications are defined and the company’s performance objectives for those groups are imbedded within the educational curriculum.  The design process is accelerated when these objectives are defined early, eliminating revisions due to misplaced assumptions or expectations.  Another critical element to the overall success of a program is faculty knowledge of the corporation, which develops through regular communication with the client firm.

The leadership development program we delivered received the highest rating for a first-run program ever offered by an outside vendor. Overall, participants rated the program in the top 10% of all programs.

Customization process overview

Create a project team

  • Kelley School of Business Executive Education: 2 to 3 individuals (including faculty from the Kelley School of Business)
  • Client firm: 1 to 2 individuals

Perform a needs assessment

  • Client firm’s original business case for the program is evaluated.
  • Additional questions surface in discussions among the project team.
  • A follow-up assessment is performed, as required, via interviews and/or focus groups.

Curriculum proposal developed

  • Kelley team takes the lead in developing the first draft.
  • The curriculum is reviewed and modified, as necessary, by the project team.
  • Presentation to a final approving authority: individual(s) within client firm/organization.
  • Modifications, as required, and sign-off by final approving authority.

Curriculum development

Subject matter experts identified within client firm/organization will work with faculty in course development, depending on the degree of customization required.

If a teaching case were to be developed, a Kelley case writing team would work with the appropriate individual(s) within client firm/organization to both research and write the case.

Online course syllabus with attached readings, exercises, and projects would be the final output.

Process overview

  • Our client did a thorough internal assessment, including a survey of employee professional development needs that was bundled with individual performance data to determine competency gaps.
  • An internal team was chartered to address the results and to build a case for an educational intervention. An RFP process followed, and a university partner was selected.
  • A new team was chartered composed of the client firm and the educational partner (Kelley School of Business Executive Education). Roles were clarified; expectations were set, and an action plan was devised.
  • Focus groups were held with potential participants, and a series of individual meetings were held with senior members in the firm and program faculty.
  • A program design document was finalized.  Materials for the program were then developed in parallel with the development and deployment of an internal communications plan to market the program. 

Material development

  • Subject matter experts (SME) at our client’s firm were identified to work with the program faculty.
  • Client firm coordinated internal resource identification and scheduling meetings with program faculty to ensure timely completion of all teaching materials.
  • Client firm SMEs provided program faculty with firm specific examples and data to enrich program topics.

Internal communication plan

The internal communication plan raised awareness and reinforced corporate support of the program.

  • A briefing document was written about the program, outlining the process used for determining the needs of the program, explaining how the university partner was selected, and defining the program objectives and desired outputs. The document was intended to create senior leadership buy-in.
  • An internal brochure was printed that outlined the objectives of the program and was distributed to all potential program participants.
  • Postcards profiling and quoting faculty members were sent to the participant pool.
  • A letter was sent to potential participants from a senior leader in support of the program. The senior leader described the program’s purpose and the importance of participating.

Participant selection process

The client firm was purposeful in its selection process.  The client firm gave participants the opportunity to list their preference of attendance by program dates and then finalized a list of participants for each class to insure a diverse group.

Program duration

The program was one week with 30 to 38 participants per program.  It was repeated six times over the course of 18 months.  The program was then converted from a field-sponsored program to a corporate-sponsored program.

We have a proven record of providing successful, customized programs for a wide range of corporate partners in Indiana and worldwide.

Our partners want to work with a university to:

  • Advance business acumen and skill sets
  • Recruit top talent with career advancement benefits
  • Lead with a corporate retention strategy that provides growth opportunities
  • Create a unique culture of learning and engage in company team building
  • Provide flexible and inclusive educational opportunities and advancements for all employees
  • Develop the future leaders of your organization

Why Kelley?

  • Customizable curriculum: Kelley faculty work with partners to identify core needs within the organization.
  • Online learning: While we may supplement a corporate partner's experience with in-person sessions, most of the program is completed online.
  • Flexibility in scheduling: Students can take up to five years to complete their MBA, adjusting their class schedule to accommodate workload and other commitments.
  • Expert faculty: Kelley’s world-renowned faculty are equipped to tackle real-world issues that apply to your employees and organization.

Notable partners include General Motors, GE Appliances, MLB Players Association, and more.

Our team of executive coaches build custom packages that work for professionals in all stages of their career, focused on personal reflection and developing real-world leadership opportunities.

Learn more about executive coaching

Upskill or reskill your team to become more effective. Kelley Executive Education Programs offers certificates and short courses covering a wide range of topics, including:

  • AI
  • Business skills development
  • Finance
  • Leadership and management
  • Project management
  • Technical skills

Options for courses include both online and in-residence programs spanning from one day to 16 weeks.

Custom programs for critical business priorities

Cultivate more effective leaders, optimize business operations, leverage data more strategically, attract and retain the best talent, and more.

We provide customized solutions for:

  • Leadership training and development
  • Marketing and brand management
  • Finance and accounting
  • Operations and decision technologies
  • Business communications
  • Your organization’s unique training and development priority

Let's start the conversation

Tell us about your goals

Learning designed for convenience

Our custom programs can be delivered on-site at your facility, on multiple IU campuses, fully online, or in a blended online/in-person format. We’ll work with you to determine the learning environment that works best for your team and your program structure.

A business professional is working on a laptop computer as she participates in an executive education program.

Led by top business school faculty

Our custom programs are taught by full-time Kelley School of Business faculty and industry experts, all with extensive teaching experience and deep resumes in a variety of industries and verticals. We’ll hand-select your dedicated faculty program manager to fit your learning objectives, and they will communicate regularly with you to deepen their organizational knowledge and optimize their instructional approach.

Meet Kelley faculty

Offer best-in-class degree programs for your team

Become a Kelley partner to gain access to our online business graduate degree programs and create an exclusive cohort for your organization.

Contact us

  • WNBA logo

    Partner spotlight

    Kelley Executive Education Programs teamed up with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, which represents the current WNBA players, to offer players the chance to pursue a graduate education.

    Read the story

  • We’ve provided educational solutions for leading organizations

    National Council of State Housing Agencies logoGeneral Motors logoIngersoll Rand logoMLSPA LogoNLFPA logo

Looking for a program through your workplace or organization?

Does your employer or professional association already offer online degree or certificate programs with the Kelley School of Business? Visit our partner page to locate your organization and get more information.

Find your program

Two business professionals in conversation during an executive education program.

An experienced approach to transformational learning

Each company and organization has a unique culture and confronts a specific set of challenges. With our decades of experience in customizing executive training programs for a wide spectrum of businesses, we’ve finely tuned our approach to ensure your curriculum supports real working dynamics and real performance objectives.

Our process

  1. Conduct a needs assessment
    We’ll assemble a full project team to discuss your needs, ask additional questions, and hold interviews and focus groups to hone in on our objectives.

  2. Develop a custom curriculum
    We’ll first align on your ideal curriculum structure, then pair your subject matter experts with our faculty to design a full curriculum and program materials.

  3. Deliver and deploy your program

We’ll implement a pilot program, then evaluate and modify your curriculum and program structure based on learnings and feedback.

Let's get started

The Kelley School of Business is home to:

#1 online MBA program

U.S. News & World Report, Poets&Quants, 2024

#1 online MS programs

U.S. News & World Report, 2023

#20 full-time MBA program

U.S. News & World Report, 2024

#15 part-time MBA program

U.S. News & World Report, 2024

Accelerate your learning objectives

Our open-enrollment professional certificate programs and courses offer quick and easy access to learning, so you can start building momentum while also trying out our offerings. 

Explore open-enrollment options

Interested in sending your employees to a short course or certificate program?

Let’s talk

Get personalized executive coaching

Need more individualized, one-on-one support? We’ll match you with experienced, ICF-certified coaches from the Kelley School of Business faculty and staff to deliver leadership coaching, communication coaching, team and group coaching, and more.

Let's talk

Ready to take the next step?

We’d love to hear more about your organization’s needs and goals. Contact us to start the conversation about building a custom program tailored to your business strategy and talent development objectives.

Let's get started

A business professional participating in an executive education program.

Social media

  • Linkedin for the Kelley School of Business Executive Education Program
  • Blog for the Kelley School of Business Executive Education Program
  • Accessibility
  • College Scorecard
  • Privacy Notice
  • Copyright © 2025 The Trustees of Indiana University