Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme
Pause. Reflect. Invest in yourself and prepare to lead into the future with the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme. Suitable for senior executives.
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Dates:
Duration:
Fees:
Face-to-face
1-20 Jun 2025
3 weeks
£28,000 + VAT
Face-to-face
2-21 Nov 2025
3 weeks
£28,000 + VAT
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
1-20 Jun 2025
Duration:
3 weeks
Fees:
£28,000 + VAT
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
2-21 Nov 2025
Duration:
3 weeks
Fees:
£28,000 + VAT
Overview
Test yourself. Challenge yourself. Taught over 3 intensive weeks, the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme (ALP) gives senior executives time to step back, reassess and explore new ways of thinking.
During this programme you will have the opportunity to gain a fresh perspective. Learn to respond and adapt to rapid economic and technological change, maintain competitive advantage, mitigate challenge, and recognise opportunity. Developing your own personal leadership style, you’ll return to your organisation primed to lead change.
Refresh your thinking and fine-tune your leadership agenda. Be inspired.
Benefits and career impact
Science parks. Incubators. Innovation centres. Cambridge Judge Business School makes the most of the Cambridge Phenomenon.
A refreshed leadership mindset benefits both you and your organisation.
- Revitalise your leadership approach for future success.
- Revisit your professional and personal ambitions.
- Exchange ideas and engage with an outstanding faculty and cohort.
- Learn to lead change, develop high-performing teams and operate across geographical boundaries.
- Grow your network of senior executives individually selected for admission and make friends for life.
- Gain a digital attendance certificate from Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education.
- On completing the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme you will be eligible to become an associate alumnus of Cambridge Judge Business School, a global network of business people.
- Ensure your senior executives are refreshed, recharged and ready for greater leadership responsibilities.
- Create ‘agents of change’ – leaders who will cascade learning throughout your organisation.
- Gain a better-networked resource for tackling future organisational challenges.
- Invest in the long-term future of your business.
The world is changing in fundamental ways compared to what it used to be. There is a multitude of different and interdependent trends out there, social trends, climate level trends, trends in technologies, digitisation, which leads to automation, but also political changes. And while we can understand the individual trends, they produce interactions. And so all of a sudden, we see unexpected events, which develop into crises, which throw us into turmoil.rnrnStandard assumptions that leaders used to operate under are no longer viable. The ten-year strategic plans of the past are gone. The only answer to this is being responsive and adaptive in order to track a world that is running in cycles around you.rnrnThe Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme is really a programme that will help delegates find the answers to their challenges as opposed to supply the answers to their challenges.rnrnThis is as far as it could get from a cookie cutter style programme. This is about crafting, producing the right solution, which means taking a step back, thinking through all the information that’s being supplied, but internalising the information, assimilating it, and then turning it into something that makes sense for their context.rnrnThe lineup consists of, obviously, some of the best faculty in business school. But also at the same time, outside experts that we bring in to enrich the understanding of the participants. And they can open up a completely different way of what leadership means in different contexts.rnrnTaking them away from the classroom helps spark different ways by which they will learn about specific topics. If we want to be discussing how do you manage high performance teams, holding the discussion in an environment where every year a new high performance team is created and winning a cup, like the Cambridge Bowl.rnrnWhen participants join the Cambridge ALP they will be in a group of no more than 25 people. They get to know each other extremely well. They have a personal relationship with the faculty members who are working with them. And we believe that in this small group, their learning is deeper and more intense.rnrnIt’s a city that inspires you. It’s really conducive to wanting to open your mind to curiosity and to asking yourself some life questions.rnrnWe’re looking into a place that has shaped in many ways the current world that we’re living in. Through the innovations that have emerged, through the fact that they have been tackling systematically big questions, big problems in very efficient ways. That’s what characterises Cambridge as a university and as an academic spirit. So that transcends into the programme.rnrnThe delegates walk away with the self-confidence to have identified their individual personal leadership style, a thoughtful leadership style that will enable them to take their organisation forward in the right direction in such a volatile world.
Watch the video to learn about the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme (with transcript)
The world is changing in fundamental ways and at an ever increasing pace. Long-term strategic plans which leaders used in the past are no longer viable. The Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme will help you to find the answers to your challenges, craft a new direction and provide you with the confidence and capabilities to deliver it.
Where I think Cambridge excelled was really starting with this global macro approach to potential issues and challenges we're all facing in the world today, and then began to cascade that down and give me as a leader a tool kit that I could use for forming a strategic response to some of these challenges.
Programme content
Chart your next strategic moves. Three inter-connected themes encourage vibrant discussion and debate.
Making sense of turbulent times
- Learn new ways of thinking – how to navigate global financial crises, cyber security threats trade wars and economic sanctions.
- Develop innovative strategic responses to adapt to rapid economic and technological change.
- Understand an increasingly complex global financial system
- Achieve long-term sustainability for your organisation.
Building organisational and personal capabilities
- Become an agile and smart leader.
- Know how to establish an ‘ecosystem’ of partners.
- Learn to manage in a networked or matrix environment.
- Explore scientific and technological developments to transform your organisation.
- Ensure local success in a global world – understand how to successfully confront local opponents.
Leading into the
future
- Examine your personal leadership style.
- Learn to adapt – but remain authentic to who you are.
- Explore innovative ways of motivating people in a difficult economic climate.
- Examine how reporting systems need to change to remain relevant in today’s globalised environment.
How you learn: Face-to-face
Benefit from the power of small. Each ALP cohort is limited to a small number of carefully selected participants. Face-to-face, you’ll enjoy a challenging mix of lectures, debates, simulations, presentations, role play, coaching and group work in an environment that has created learning for 800 years. You’ll also explore fresh insights from guest speakers, leading business practitioners and world-class faculty, like the Cambridge ALP’s Academic Director, Professor Stelios Kavadias.
Who attends
The Cambridge ALP is only as good as the quality of its participants. This programme is for you if:
- you are a managing director or head of a business unit with at least 5 years’ experience in this role and P&L responsibility
- you work within small, medium and large organisations in the public or private sector
- you are an executive from the non-profit sector
- you head a corporate function
- you contribute to organisational strategy.
Reserve your place on the Advanced Leadership Programme
Demand for the Cambridge Advanced Leadership programme is high and we encourage prospective candidates to reserve a place; this ensures we hold a provisional place whilst allowing time to complete the application documents.
My challenge was really that I’d been working for quite some time at executive level, and it felt like I needed to change things up and really interrupt my own thinking. So having the opportunity to meet new people from different cultural backgrounds, different industries, different countries, to spend time immersing yourself in learning rather than worrying about that next deadline that you’ve got to do in the next hour or day or week, it was a real privilege to be able to just soak up the learning and to take on board some different models and toolkits that I could use in the future.
The ALP programme for me came along at a really great time in my career because directionally, I could have gone in a couple of different directions. The ALP and the coaching that I got along the way actually helped me to get really clear about what I really wanted to do next. And that is to run my own business for some of the time, but to work as an executive in an organisation for the other part of the time.
So the impact of going on the ALP programme was, first of all, that it opened my mind to the connectivity of everything. So we went from talking about strategy in uncertainty to understanding the ecosystem that you work within. All of those things connected together for me into a new remit in an organisation that I never thought that I’d be a part of. My opportunity to make a difference in a very purposeful organisation was something that I really got the clarity and the motivation to do as part of that ALP journey that I was on.
Now, moving to a completely different sector was something that I feel was made more possible through my experience at the ALP programme, because it gives you mental models and frameworks that you can use in almost any situation. So, it’s been really fantastic in opening up my mind, my networks, and my career opportunities.
So it gave me the courage to actually ask for what was going to make me feel challenged and satisfied in my career for my next stage. And I would encourage people, if they have the opportunity to do this, is to just step back and say, where do I want to be in 10 years’ time?
And what do I need to do to get there? And how do I take time out of my busy schedule and my personal commitments and my work commitments to make sure I’m ready for that next thing in 10 years’ time? Because otherwise, 10 years will be here, and you won’t be ready.
I’m surprised, actually, at the amount of time through my day-to-day work that I reference back to the things that I learnt through the ALP programme. And whether it’s asking my team to think more broadly about something or giving people the confidence to actually get started on something that’s complex and uncertain, sharing my knowledge about some of the models and the readings that we had the opportunity to spend time with, there are all the things that I impart on a day-to-day basis.
Learn more about Jo Fox's experience on the ALP
I hardly ever have witnessed an atmosphere of trust and learning as intense… I have grown as a human and as a leader and it was possible only because of the Cambridge ALP.
Faculty and speakers
Learn from our world-class faculty who bring fresh insights from their leading-edge research into all of our Executive Education programmes. The Academic Programme Director (APD) for the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme is Professor Stelios Kavadias.
Stylianos (Stelios) Kavadias
Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies in Innovation and GrowthCo-Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre
PhD (INSEAD)
PhD (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise
Vice-Dean for Faculty
Director of the Centre for India and Global Business (CIGB)
PhD (University of Southern California)
PhD (Aston University)
PhD (HEC Paris)
MPhil, PhD (School of Management, Fudan University)
Director of the Master of Finance (MFin) Programme
BA (IBMEC Business School), MSc (Fundação Getulio Vargas (EPGE)), PhD (London Business School)
Director of the MPhil in Technology Policy Programme
PhD (London Business School)
Founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Finance, Technology and Regulation (CCFTR)
PhD (University of Pennsylvania)
Vice Dean for Research and Impact
Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation
PhD (Stirling University)
PhD (University of Michigan)
Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Management
Fellow (Finance)
PhD (Harvard University)
PhD (University of Cambridge)
PhD (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
PhD (HEC Paris)
Director of the MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation Programme
Co-Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre
A selection of contributors
Professor Julian A Dowdeswell
Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute
Professor of Physical Geography, Fellow of Jesus College
Jonathan Haslam CBE
Former Director of Communications, Prime Minister’s Office at 10 Downing Street
Lord Wilson of Dinton
Former Master, Emmanuel College
LLM (University of Cambridge)
Professor William Hurst
Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development
Deputy Director, Centre for Geopolitics
Neil Lawrence
The DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning
Suzanne Weeks
Global leadership development professional
Suzanne is a global leadership development professional with experience in multinational companies, family businesses, NGOs and not-for-profit organisations.
Suzanne designs and delivers leadership and personal development initiatives for teams and individuals at all levels of management, including executives and boards. Suzanne left corporate life in 2006, after almost 20 years in senior management roles on three continents, and has 10 years’ experience in coaching and consulting to organisations, teams, and leaders. She is an experienced facilitator and trainer.
Much of her work is with small groups and intact teams, developing their leadership capabilities and helping them move from good to great performance. Suzanne has worked extensively in cross-cultural teams, both as a line manager and as a consultant. Much of her work uses a psychodynamic approach, achieving sustainable improvement and lasting change in behaviour by identifying root causes. Suzanne defines success as helping clients increase both their performance and the satisfaction of the people who work for them by increasing trust and respect, developing effective processes and improving relationships.
Suzanne holds a Diploma in Coaching and Consulting for Change, from INSEAD, a Masters in Management from the University of Oxford, and a Bachelors in Geology. She has continued her own learning and development by attending many trainings and workshops and is qualified in a range of tools including coaching, leadership development, emotional intelligence and various psychometric instruments.
She lives in Switzerland and maintains roots also in France and the UK, where her two children are at university.
Professor Amanda Prorok
Professor of Collective Intelligence and Robotics
Dr Alison Ming
NERC Senior Research Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
Why Cambridge Judge Business School?
Related programmes
The Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme belongs to our Leadership executive education programmes. Here is a selection of related programmes:
Cambridge Senior Management Programme
Engage with world-renowned Cambridge faculty and interact with an exceptional peer group. The Cambridge Senior Management Programme is a uniquely transformative learning journey covering 4 key themes: Strategy, Digital Innovation, Organisational Transformation and Business Analytics. Building confidence and expertise, you’ll enhance your strategic leadership perspective in preparation for the next step in your career.
Cambridge General Management Programme
Broaden your perspective, create new connections and gain a deeper understanding of key management disciplines, including Finance, Marketing, Operations and Innovation. The Cambridge General Management Programme is an intensive 2-week programme that will stretch your thinking and increase your confidence. Designed to support your transition to a broader management role, you’ll improve your decision-making abilities and get ready to accelerate your career.
Transformational Leadership
Leading through rapid change is a huge and complex challenge. Move beyond the ordinary, developing a flexible leadership style that strikes the right balance between inspirational leadership and results-oriented management.
Speak to a programme advisor
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how this programme could benefit you or your organisation, please get in touch with the programme advisor.
