Cambridge General Management Programme
Develop the clarity, confidence and perspective to lead across the business in complex and uncertain environments.
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Dates:
Duration:
Fees:
Face-to-face
11-23 Oct 2026
2 weeks
£20,500 + VAT
Face-to-face
9-21 May 2027
2 weeks
£20,500 + VAT
Face-to-face
10-22 Oct 2027
2 weeks
£20,500 + VAT
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
11-23 Oct 2026
Duration:
2 weeks
Fees:
£20,500 + VAT
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
9-21 May 2027
Duration:
2 weeks
Fees:
£20,500 + VAT
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
10-22 Oct 2027
Duration:
2 weeks
Fees:
£20,500 + VAT
Overview
Designed for experienced functional leaders stepping into broader leadership responsibility, the Cambridge General Management Programme helps you make the transition from specialist expertise to leading across the business.
You will develop the strategic, commercial and leadership capabilities needed to make decisions across functions, influence senior stakeholders and contribute to organisational strategy.
Through an integrated exploration of strategy, finance, operations, leadership and organisational performance, you will gain the confidence to lead beyond your area of expertise and navigate increasingly complex organisational challenges.
Unlike a traditional standalone executive education course, the programme combines an immersive 2 week experience in Cambridge with personalised support before and after your time on campus. Learning is grounded in your own leadership context, helping you apply new ideas directly to the challenges and opportunities you face.
You will learn alongside a global cohort of experienced executives, work one-to-one with a dedicated Learning Partner, and take part in structured reflection designed to connect the programme to your individual development goals and organisational priorities.
By the end of the programme, you will have a personalised leadership action plan, ongoing support from your Learning Partner and executive coach, and access to a global alumni network that extends your learning long after the programme ends.
The result is a focused, relevant and measurable development journey that helps you become a more effective enterprise leader while creating value for your team and organisation.
Benefits and career impact
As your responsibilities grow, success depends on more than technical expertise. The General Management Programme helps you develop the broader perspective needed to lead across functions, make confident strategic decisions and influence organisational performance. You’ll leave with the knowledge, networks and confidence to take on greater leadership responsibility.
- Personalised, ‘human-centred’ experience that drives meaningful change beyond the classroom.
- Dedicated one-on-one support before, during and after the programme to maximise the value and impact of your learning.
- Learn alongside experienced leaders from diverse industries, gaining new perspectives and constructive challenge.
- Learning is aligned to your organisational priorities, enabling immediate application to real business challenges.
- We measure your confidence and behavioural change, and your aims achieved after the programme, alongside your subsequent organisational impact so you can demonstrate your progress over time.
- Access to health and wellbeing support from our training coach, equipping leaders with tools to manage stress, enhance resilience, and maintain a balanced life.
- Equips top talent with skills and tools to navigate internal and external organisational challenges in today’s dynamic business environment.
- The programme provides a structured development journey that connects individual learning to your business priorities.
- Through engagement with a sponsor from your organisation, goal alignment, and workplace application, the programme helps organisations support leadership development in a more focused and accountable way.
Hello, I’m Shasha LU, Associate Professor in Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School and the Academic Director of the Cambridge General Management Programme. My research interests are in the areas of artificial empathy, which is a subdomain of artificial intelligence. It focuses on applying machine learning techniques in developing models and methods to gain better customer insights and improve business practises in the digital era. The Cambridge General Management Programme is designed for executives who are interested in taking their careers, teams, and businesses to the next level. The GMP participants yearly have gained rich experience and achieved success in their fields of expertise and are transitioning into the next level of management.
Moving into higher leadership positions means that you will face greater levels of expectation and decision-making responsibilities. It requires an end-to-end view of the organisation, an in-depth understanding of key business disciplines, and highly effective decision-making and leadership skills. If you have at least five years executive experience and are looking for accelerating your transition to the next stage, then the Cambridge General Management Programme is for you. The Cambridge General Management Programme is a 2 week Programme that’s designed to broaden your business management perspective and knowledge base, strengthen your decision-making and leadership skills, and stretch your strategic thinking. It is an intense learning experience, which gives you the opportunity to step away from daily routines and immerse yourself in an environment that will inspire and challenge you.
Designed to prepare you for the next stages of your career and your business, the Programme focuses on core disciplines in business management, alongside decision-making and leadership skills. Knowing how the fundamentals interact and align with each other leads to a more strategic mindset, better problem solving, and more effective decision making. This all around and skill-based management education is crucial to improving as a manager and emerging as a leader. The Programme will help you become a highly effective decision-maker and business leader at 3 levels: individual, team and organisation.
At the individual level, it will help you examine your leadership journey and nurture your leadership style, develop leadership skills and resources, and maximise your impact as a leader. At the team level, it will provide you the necessary skill sets for building and managing highly effective teams and improve team performance. At the organisation level, you will understand the core pillars of business growth and how to align them in building competitive advantages. You will also gain insights into the evolving business environment at both the micro and the macro level, and learn how to manage risks and uncertainty, and identify growth opportunities.
The Programme is outward looking and internally focused. We offer a practical and skills based approach through integrative and experiential learning. Over the course of the Programme, you will listen to, learn, discuss, and debate with Cambridge academic faculty and our international and diverse peer group. You will also expand your professional and personal network that you would otherwise unlikely to do. The University of Cambridge is known for its academic excellence and traditional scholarly values and for its global impact as one of the world’s top innovation hubs.
Research is at the centre of what we do here in Cambridge. And the Cambridge Judge Business School is ranked first in REF 2021 for its global impact of research. Our faculty is known for their cutting edge research and deep engagement with the state-of-art of the practise. I’m looking forward to seeing you at the next Cambridge General Management Programme.
Learn more about the General Management Programme from our faculty, Shasha Lu
One of the most valuable outcomes of this experience was a deep learning journey about myself as a leader. I gained a much clearer understanding of the kind of leader I want to be and how I want to evolve and move forward alongside my teams and colleagues. My overall approach and strategy in handling challenges, communication, and decision-making have further evolved. I developed new skills and perspectives that I intend to apply going forward, with an even stronger focus on impact, collaboration, and authentic leadership. June 2026
“If you are looking to accelerate your transition to the next stage, then the Cambridge General Management Programme is for you. It is designed to broaden your business management perspective and knowledge base, strengthen your decision-making and leadership skills, and stretch your strategic thinking, and to prepare you for the next stages of your career and your business.”
Programme content
The Cambridge General Management Programme adopts a multidisciplinary and skill-based learning approach that’s outward-looking and internally focused. It consists of 3 intrinsically connected components.
Core organisational disciplines
- Strategy and Strategic Execution
- Marketing and customer value creation
- Financial reporting and business performance
- Finance, cash flow and working capital
- Operations excellence
- Economics and firm behaviour
Leadership & Management skill acquisition
- Leading through complexity, change, and uncertainty
- Persuasion, influence, and stakeholder alignment
- Executive presence
- Evidence-based strategic decision-making
- Building and leading high-performing teams
- Managing talent and organisational capability
Future-facing strategic insights
- AI in the business
- Macroeconomic change and policy uncertainty
- Sustainable business
- Global disruption, complexity, and uncertainty
- Innovation, resilience, and long-term strategic adaptation
This programme is for you if you want to:
1
Step up beyond your specialism: move from functional or technical expertise into broader leadership responsibility – influencing across functions, contributing to strategy and making decisions in complex environments beyond your specialism.
2
Lead with clarity and confidence in complexity: leaders operate in complex, uncertain and fast-moving environments. We give you space to think, reflect and make sense of your competing demands.
3
Apply learning to real organisational priorities: we connect your learning directly to real business challenges, not abstract theory.
4
Experience personalised support before, during and after the programme: you need more than a classroom experience. You will have one-to-one support to clarify your goals, make sense of your learning and sustain progress after the programme.
5
Create measurable individual and organisational impact: we work with you to measure the impact your learning has on your business, so you can demonstrate the value of your time investment.
How you learn: Face-to-face
Learn the Cambridge way. Face-to-face, you’ll enjoy a challenging mix of interactive learning with faculty and peers. Engage in lectures, debates, group work and discussion in a world-renowned centre of collaborative, cutting-edge knowledge creation. Sharing ideas and networking with your cohort, you’ll experience the strength of the enterprising Cambridge ecosystem, the most successful technology and innovation cluster in Europe.
Programme features
Set in the heart of Cambridge, the Cambridge General Management Programme blends the rigorous academic insights you’d expect from the University of Cambridge with practical experiences designed to ensure our participants are well-prepared to lead, inspire and thrive in the modern business landscape. The programme commits to a holistic and transformative learning experience that has the following unique features:
Every participant is supported by a dedicated Learning Partner who acts as a trusted advisor before, during and after the programme.
Your Learning Partner helps you clarify your goals, connect learning to your professional challenges and maximise the value and impact of your experience. They work closely with faculty to personalise the learning journey, support reflection and action planning, and help ensure that learning is translated into meaningful change within your organisation.
We firmly believe in the power of experiential learning. The hands-on exercises are designed to move participants from theoretical understanding to practical application, ensuring they can implement their new-found knowledge in real-world scenarios.
Drawing from a rich repository of global business scenarios, the case studies offer participants a deep dive into real-world challenges and successes. These studies foster critical thinking, analytical prowess, and decision-making skills.
In the ever-evolving business landscape, agility and adaptability are paramount. The immersive simulations place participants in dynamic business environments, challenging them to navigate complexities and make strategic decisions in real-time.
Our delegates come from all over the world and from a variety of industries. Their diverse backgrounds adds a rich layer to the learning experience. Through group discussions, projects, and collaborative tasks, peer learning fosters a culture of shared knowledge, diverse perspectives, and mutual growth.
Personal growth is as crucial as professional development. Our one-on-one professional coaching sessions are tailored to address individual challenges, aspirations, and growth trajectories, ensuring participants are equipped to lead with confidence and clarity.
Recognising the intrinsic link between a sound mind and effective leadership, our programme integrates health and wellbeing sessions. These sessions aim to equip leaders with tools to manage stress, enhance resilience, and maintain a balanced life, essential for sustained success in today’s demanding world.
At the core of our programme is the principle of lifelong learning. By fostering continuous professional growth, we aim to prepare leaders to not just succeed today but to remain relevant and effective throughout their careers.
Having reviewed a number of general management programmes, the Cambridge offering was the best fit with our organisational needs. It covers a range of topics in the depth required to broaden the horizons.
Who attends
This programme is designed for experienced leaders who are stepping into broader responsibility and need to operate beyond their functional or technical expertise.
It is particularly relevant for Directors, Heads of Function, Partners and senior managers who are leading teams, functions or major initiatives and are ready to strengthen their strategic, cross-functional and enterprise leadership capability.
You may be:
- taking on broader commercial, strategic or organisational responsibilities
- expected to influence senior stakeholders beyond your area of expertise
- looking for a structured leadership and general management foundation
- considering an MBA-style learning experience in an accelerated face-to-face setting
- seeking confidence, credibility and practical tools to operate at the next level
The Nicola Moore Scholarship
Nicola Moore was a valued colleague and team member at Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education who sadly passed away in the Summer of 2023. We are proud to offer a new scholarship to the Cambridge General Management Programme in her name.
Please note scholarship applications open for the October 2026 cohort on Monday 15 June 2026 and close on 6 July 2026.
Reserve a place
Demand for this 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.
This was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far in my career development. I not only appreciated that I could learn the mind and skillset needed for business, but also the fact that each session had clear messages to understand the idea and principal, which can be applied to our daily/future business. Now I am back in my office feeling fresh, and with confidence, ready to tackle the issues I need to overcome to develop our business further.
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 General Management Programme is Dr Shasha Lu.
MPhil, PhD (School of Management, Fudan University)
PhD (University of Cambridge)
PhD (HEC Paris)
Assistant Director of the Centre for Business Research (CBR)
Director of the Management Studies Tripos
PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
PhD (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (University Community and Engagement)
PhD (McGill University)
PhD (HEC Paris)
PhD (Aston University)
PhD (HEC Paris)
Pedro holds an honorary title from Cambridge Judge Business School.
Alberto holds an honorary title from Cambridge Judge Business School.
Academic Director of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre
PhD (Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University)
Deputy Director of the Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability (CFRA)
PhD (University of California, Berkeley)
Director of the Executive Master of Accounting Programme
PhD (Wharton School of Business)
Academic Director of the Psychometrics Centre
PhD (University of Nottingham)
PhD (Georgia Institute of Technology)
PhD (Washington University in St Louis)
Member of the Advisory Board, Cambridge Judge Business School
Fellow (Organisational Theory and Information Systems)
Director of the Global Executive MBA Programme
Deputy Director of the Cambridge Executive MBA Programme
PhD (University of Cambridge)
A selection of guest speakers
Leandra Ashton
Founder, Flying Cloud Theatre
Leandra is an actress, writer, director and communication workshop facilitator. She founded Flying Cloud Theatre in 2009, bringing the communication and storytelling skills refined in theatre to business, government and education.
Flying Cloud has produced and toured two new plays, run extensive outreach work and delivered innovative training experiences for businesses and organisations across the UK, Europe, USA and Middle East.
Clients include: Ahli United Bank, Champagne Bollinger, Essence Digital, Lindum Group, The Samaritans, Taylor’s Port and University of York. She has worked with diplomats, entrepreneurs, board directors, MBA students and school children, helping them all to express themselves with authenticity and confidence.
As an actress Leandra has taken various lead roles for the BBC, ITV and major theatres across the UK and abroad. She read Modern and Medieval Languages (Spanish and Italian) at Newnham College, Cambridge before earning a scholarship to train on the three year acting degree at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2004. At the heart of everything she does is her belief in the power of creativity and communication to transform lives.
Mark Smith
Fellow and Senior Advisor
Mark is a Fellow and Senior Advisor for the professional service firm programmes where he designs and delivers executive education content to hep clients identify and develop competitive advantage. Mark has over two decades of experience in the legal profession including 10 years as a practising lawyer (national and City firms and leading an international in-house legal team) and 10 years of commercial strategy experience (working for listed information, technology and outsourcing businesses serving the legal sector). Mark holds an MBA and MSc in behavioural change and also works as an executive coach to the leadership of some of the UK’s leading law firms. This blend of experience provides Mark with a unique perspective on the challenges facing today’s leaders.
Why Cambridge Judge Business School?
Related programmes
The Cambridge General Management 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 Advanced Leadership Programme
Refresh your thinking and fine-tune your leadership agenda. The Cambridge ALP is a challenging, immersive programme designed for senior leaders and executives looking to revitalise their leadership strategies. Weaving together vibrant debate, deep experience and leading-edge thinking, you’ll gain new skills, confidence and networks.
Step back. Take stock. Then return, ready to move forward and create immediate impact.
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.
