Organisations today are navigating a business environment shaped by rapid technological shifts, changing workforce expectations, digital transformation, and increasing leadership complexity.

As a result, learning and development are no longer viewed simply as an HR function. Increasingly, it is becoming a strategic business priority tied directly to leadership capability, organisational resilience, and long-term growth.

But as organisations invest more intentionally in executive education and leadership development, one question continues to emerge:

Should organisations invest in customised Management Development Programmes (MDPs) tailored to their business needs, or should they leverage open programmes designed for professionals across industries?

The answer depends less on the format itself and more on the business challenge the organisation is trying to solve.

The shift from training to capability building

Traditional corporate training programmes often focused on short-term knowledge transfer through standardised workshops and generic functional sessions. Today, organisations are solving for something far more complex. Leadership development increasingly involves:

This shift has fundamentally changed how organisations evaluate learning interventions.

The question is no longer simply whether employees attended a programme. It is whether the learning intervention strengthened organisational capability in meaningful and measurable ways.

What are open MDPs?

Open Management Development Programmes are designed for professionals from multiple organisations, industries, and functional backgrounds.

Participants typically learn alongside peers facing different business realities, leadership challenges, and organisational contexts.

This diversity becomes one of the defining strengths of open programmes.

Professionals are exposed not only to faculty insights and frameworks, but also to cross-industry perspectives that often challenge existing assumptions and expand managerial thinking.

Open MDPs are particularly valuable when organisations want to:

• Broaden leadership perspectives
• Expose employees to external best practices
• Strengthen strategic and managerial capability
• Develop emerging leaders
• Support individual career growth and leadership readiness

For participants, peer learning often becomes one of the most valuable aspects of the experience. Conversations across industries frequently create insights that may not emerge within organisation-specific programmes alone.

What are customised MDPs?

Customised MDPs are designed specifically around an organisation’s business priorities, leadership context, and capability-building needs.

Rather than delivering standardised content, these programmes are typically co-created between the learning institution and the organisation to address specific strategic challenges.

These interventions are often used for succession planning, leadership pipeline development, digital transformation initiatives, organisational culture change, business transformation programmes or function-specific capability development.

The primary advantage of customised programmes is contextual relevance.

Because the learning is closely aligned to organisational realities, participants can directly connect classroom discussions to actual business situations, leadership challenges, and strategic priorities.

This often enables stronger alignment between learning outcomes and organisational objectives.

Open MDPs vs customised MDPs: understanding the difference

The effectiveness of a learning intervention often depends less on the programme format itself and more on how closely it aligns with the organisation’s strategic objectives.

Why many organisations increasingly use both approaches

In practice, many organisations do not treat open and customised programmes as mutually exclusive options.

Instead, they use both formats for different leadership and workforce needs.

For example:

This blended approach allows organisations to balance external learning with internal alignment.

It also reflects a broader shift in executive education: Organisations increasingly recognise that leadership capability development requires multiple forms of learning at different career stages.

How SPJIMR approaches Management Development Programmes

At S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Management Development Programmes are designed around the idea that leadership development should remain closely connected to evolving business realities. SPJIMR offers both open MDPs and customised corporate learning interventions for organisations across sectors.

Its open programmes bring together professionals from diverse industries and functional backgrounds, enabling participants to engage with varied business perspectives, leadership experiences, and contemporary management challenges.

The programmes focus on themes such as:

Alongside open programmes, SPJIMR partners with corporations and public sector organisations to co-create customised learning interventions aligned to organisational priorities and workforce capability requirements.

These programmes are contextualised around specific business challenges and often integrate:

This emphasis on application-oriented learning enables organisations to connect leadership development more directly with business outcomes and transformation priorities.

A real-world example: How Microsoft approaches leadership learning

Microsoft has long invested in a combination of internal leadership development and external executive education partnerships to strengthen leadership capability across levels.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, the organisation placed strong emphasis on creating a ‘learn-it-all’ culture rather than a ‘know-it-all’ culture, encouraging continuous learning, adaptability, and cross-functional collaboration across leadership teams.

This approach combined organisation-specific cultural transformation with exposure to broader leadership thinking and external learning ecosystems.

Image credit: Fortune India

The example highlights an important reality for organisations today: leadership capability development is rarely solved through a single intervention. It often requires a combination of contextual internal learning and broader external exposure.

What organisations should evaluate before choosing an MDP format

Before selecting between open and customised programmes, organisations should first define the business outcome they are trying to achieve.

Important questions include:

The answers to these questions often determine which learning approach will create the strongest long-term impact.

Choosing the right learning approach

There is no universally superior learning format.

Open programmes and customised interventions solve different organisational problems and create different forms of value.

The most effective organisations are rarely those that invest the most in learning. They are the ones that align learning most closely with business strategy, leadership priorities, and workforce capability needs.

Explore how Management Development Programmes (MDPs) at SPJIMR support organisations through both customised learning interventions and open executive programmes.