Program details
This program is designed for experienced professionals who want to move from functional strength to enterprise leadership. It is particularly well suited to leaders taking on broader mandates where strategy, execution, people and governance intersect.
Program delivery
- Cohort based program delivered in person in Montreal
- Classes are held one full day per week, alternating Fridays and Saturdays
- Hybrid capable classroom that supports remote participation when needed, while the program remains designed for an in-person cohort experience
Our differentiators
- Enterprise level integration across finance, strategy, operations, digital, and leadership
- Applied executive judgement through real constraints and real tradeoffs
- Quebec rooted learning with a global perspective and diverse cohort
- Leadership development built into the program through structured feedback and coaching
Curriculum
A Living Enterprise
The John Molson EMBA is designed as a “living enterprise journey,” reflecting how organizations actually work. Inspired by the four act structure of storytelling, each term of the program corresponds to four executive acts: Diagnose, Design, Stress Test and Steward. Participants learn the functional disciplines and build a single enterprise storyline that grows term by term.
Before an executive can change an organization, they have to read its vital signs. In Term 1 | Act 1, students learn to see the enterprise clearly and identify the friction that is holding it back.
- Assess economic viability in EMBA 610: Measuring and Reporting Financial Performance
- Measure organizational capacity in EMBA 611: Managing Talent
- Test the value proposition in EMBA 612: Marketing Management
- Surface cultural and institutional context in EMBA 623: Managing in a Global Environment
At the end of the term, students present what the program refers to as a "friction map." This is where they lay out and defend where the market promise, financial constraints, organizational capacity and context are colliding, and what that implies for action.
Once you know where the enterprise is stuck, you can design a coherent operating model to address the underlying constraints.
- Define the strategic intent and choices in EMBA 642: Crafting and Implementing a Winning Strategy
- Build the operating backbone in EMBA 620: Business Process Analytics and Supply Chain Strategy
- Design the digital and data architecture in EMBA 621: Information Technology and Digital Strategy
At the end of the term, students demonstrate and defend a target operating model and prove that the strategy is supported by operations and digital architecture.
Term 3 is about stress testing the operating model under uncertainty and constraint.
- Test capital market feasibility in EMBA 613: Capital Markets and Financial Management
- Build early warning and performance systems in EMBA 631: Strategic Management Accounting
- Test climate and transition exposure in EMBA 636: Climate Risk - Strategic Transformation for Sustainability
- Test legitimacy and social context in Indigenous EMBA 626: Business Opportunities and Cultural Immersion - Indigenous Perspectives
Students are introduced to a major external shock, testing the entreprise story they've been building over the last two terms. They must demonstrate resilience under volatility and respond in real time, recalibrating financial implications, operational responses and stakeholder risk. The goal is to hone executive judgement under pressure.
Running parallel to Acts 3 and 4, students add a growth or impact engine through EMBA 635: Innovation and Venture Creation or EMBA 659: Community Impact.
The final test of an executive is not just building the system, but governing it responsibly and sustainably.
- Design board level oversight in EMBA 637: Corporate Governance
- Mobilize human energy and leadership credibility in EMBA 640: Leadership
- Secure license to operate in EMBA 622: Business, Government and the Economy
The Board Defense
Synthesis 4 is a formal Board style defence of the two year transformation plan. To pass, students also complete the EMBA 670: Transformational Insight, demonstrating the self awareness, credibility and agency required to execute the mandate they are requesting.
Integration that is visible, tested and defended
Each term culminates in a live, faculty evaluated defense where participants must connect finance, strategy, operations, digital and leadership into a coherent plan and defend real tradeoffs.
Instead of preparing for multiple siloed finals and isolated term papers, participant effort is consolidated into one coherent storyline and one integrated term end performance standard.
Rooted in Quebec, globally connected
The program is delivered in English and deeply anchored in the Quebec ecosystem. Many faculty and speakers operate comfortably in both English and French, reflecting the reality of executive work here. At the same time, the program builds the capacity to lead across borders, cultures, and institutional contexts.
Leadership as a measurable outcome
Participants receive structured feedback and reflection that helps them identify blind spots, strengthen executive presence and build the credibility required to lead change. The capstone is a Board style defense where participants demonstrate not only what they would do, but how they would execute it.
Term 1 - August - December
Theme: Mastering Fundamentals (11.5 credits)
- EMBA 610 Measuring and Reporting Financial Performance (3 credits)
- EMBA 611 Managing Talent (3 credits)
- EMBA 612 Marketing Management (3 credits)
- EMBA 622 Business, Government and the Economy (1.5 credits)
- EMBA 615 Live JMSB Experience (1 credit)
Term 2 - January - May
Theme: Global Leadership (13 credits)
- EMBA 613 Capital Markets and Financial Management (3 credits)
- EMBA 621 Information Technology and Digital Strategy (3 credits)
- EMBA 640 Leadership (3 credits)
- EMBA 623 Managing in a Global Environment (3 credits)
- EMBA 625 Business Opportunities and Cultural Immersion - International Study Trip (1 credit)
Term 3 August - December
Theme: Thinking Outside the Box (9.5 credits)
- EMBA 642 Crafting and Implementing a Winning Strategy (3 credits)
- EMBA 620 Business Process Analytics and Supply Chain Strategy (3 credits)
- EMBA 635 Innovation & Venture Creation (3 credits - offered over Terms 3 and 4)
- EMBA 646 Applied Field Project (3 credits - offered over Terms 3 and 4)
- EMBA 636 Climate Risk: Strategic Transformation for Sustainability (3 credits)
- EMBA 626 Business Opportunities and Cultural Immersion - Indigenous Perspective (0.5 credit)
Term 4 January - April
Theme: Leading Change (12 credits)
- EMBA 631 Strategic Management Accounting (3 credits)
- EMBA 637 Corporate Governance (3 credits)
- EMBA 635 Innovation & Venture Creation (3 credits - offered over Terms 3 and 4)
- EMBA 646 Applied Field Project (3.5 credits - offered over Terms 3 and 4)
- EMBA 670 Transformational Insight - Two-Day Residential Module (0 credit)
