Companies today are having to respond to rapid changes in business and society amid increasing competitive threats but also business opportunities for companies bold enough to shape their market. 

Happily, there are a wide range of executive education courses in strategy or strategic management offered by some of the world’s leading business schools around the world. On these courses, participants learn how to assess threats and opportunities, and build a compelling vision for transformation based on the broader environmental, political and social landscape. 

In these strategy-oriented executive courses, participants discover how to choose the right team members and nurture the best ideas, putting together a strategic plan of action. Then, the executives enrolled in these 10 leading programs learn how to build innovation capability and lead change management. They come away with the confidence to take on tough challenges and develop solutions that drive organizational performance. 

The best executive courses in strategy cover a wide range of topics that are important for managers with increasing responsibility.

See the top 10 executive courses in strategy below.

Corporate surveys continually show that soft skills — including communication, leadership, team working and emotional intelligence — continue to be critical to career success. Today, this is as true in office settings as it is in the virtual world, where video conferences, chats, and emails require different sets of soft skills. 

Fortunately, there are a number of great executive education programs that help leaders to hone these important abilities. Many of the programs help executives to sharpen their communication skills to deliver praise, build rapport and become more persuasive. 

Many of the soft skill-oriented executive courses focus on interpersonal dynamics. People skills are vital to developing strong business relationships and to engage with others more deeply. Participants in these executive programs in soft skills also hone their leadership abilities, learning how to help others realize their potential or confront poor performance or toxic behavior. 

Many of the courses are about leading with purpose, authenticity and humanity, putting employee wellbeing at front of mind. Leading with empathy, communication and engagement can improve organizational performance. 

Other executive programs focus on emotional intelligence, with participants learning skills for building high performance teams, resolving conflict and managing effectively.

See below for the Top 10 Executive Courses to Improve Your Soft Skills.

Design thinking is all the rage in executive circles. This innovative approach to problem-solving puts executives in their customers’ shoes, so that they can better understand their unmet, or unarticulated, needs. The approach has been used with great success in many companies such as Apple, Samsung and Nike.

And for that reason, other organizations are looking to implement design thinking methodologies in their organizations. A number of executive education programs have been created by business schools to help guide managers and leaders through the design thinking process. This typically involves testing concepts for rapid feedback, and iterating those ideas until a successful solution emerges.

The participants will return to work ready to push and sustain innovation efforts within their organizations, and therefore generate lasting value.

Effective leadership is ever more crucial for organizations. Recognizing the significance of nurturing good leaders, business schools across the globe have crafted executive education courses specifically designed to cultivate the next generation.

These programs, offered by world-class institutions, can have a transformative impact on participants, equipping them with key insights, strategic thinking and other leadership skills.

Below, we list 10 of the very best executive education courses on leadership offered at prestigious business schools worldwide -- from the hallowed halls of Harvard to the inspiring campuses of Oxford. On these elite programs, executive participants not only discover their true leadership potential, but also forge lifelong connections with an influential alumni network.