Strategic Leadership Programme for Women Executives

Keeping the corporate sector’s demands in mind, the objective of the ‘Strategic Leadership Program for Women Executives’ is to empower and equip women professionals with appropriate strategy tools, a growth-oriented strategic mindset and strong networks that will enable them to navigate workplace challenges and achieve top leadership positions in organizations. In doing this, the program also strives to contribute to creating diverse top management teams and board rooms in the future.

Prof. Chitra Singla (Faculty Co-chair)

Prof. Lakshmi Goyal (Faculty Co-chair)

Description

Over the last couple of decades, women leaders such as Indra Nooyi, Leena Nair, Jacinda Ardern, Sheryl Sandberg, Falguni Nayar, Sudha Murthy, and Kamala Harris among others have made headlines for breaking ‘glass ceiling’ in their respective domains. While we celebrate these successful stories of women leadership, one needs to be reminded that these success stories are far and few. The narrative is not very different for middle and senior-levels managers at workplace.

Lack of sound training and mentorship, and systemic gender-based barriers often limit women executives’ rise to leadership positions. Academic research has shown that gender- diverse leadership promotes stakeholder management, collaborative and empathetic approaches to strategic decision-making, and fosters innovation and better business outcomes. Having said that, several women executives can capitalize on and harness their inherent strengths in a more effective way by gaining the necessary knowledge, skills and exposure to strategy tools. This is needed to realize better career growth and outcomes.

Discussions held with the top management and the board members of some organizations have revealed that women executives can do better if they further sharpen their high-level thinking. These discussions have emphasized the need to curate specialized programs that can upskill women executives who are currently in middle and senior management positions, and who aspire to occupy top leadership positions in organizations. A specialized program is desirable for women executives that, while keeping their unique challenges in mind, can prepare them as management thinkers and simultaneously nurture their leadership style as per their values and strengths.

Programme Objectives

The overarching objective of this programme is to assist women executives upskill themselves as they stive to achieve top leadership positions in organisations by:

(i) Developing their strategic mindset via learning building blocks of strategy.

(ii) Nurturing the strategic leader within them by exposing them to relevant tools and techniques and by understanding the role of cognition in strategy.

(iii) Preparing them to be a leader of the modern world by understanding role of digital and AI in strategy formulation of a firm Enhancing their financial acumen for strategic decision making.

(iv)Helping them to navigate gender-related challenges in workplace to break the glass ceiling.

(v)Developing strategic communication and storytelling skills to build personal leadership brand.

Eligibility and Admission Criteria

(i) Educational Qualification: Applicants must be working women professionals with a graduate degree (10+2+3 or equivalent) in any discipline, with a minimum of 50% marks.

(ii) Work Experience: Women executives with minimum of 5 years of work experience after graduation are eligible to apply.

(iii) The eligible candidates will be selected based on their educational and professional background and motivation based on the application form submitted.

(iv) Applications with Credentials & Corporate Nominations – Selections will be based on a detailed Profile of Candidate in her own words elaborating her Academic record, Profile, Designation, Salary, Roles, Responsibilities, Job Description, and a write-up on “Expectations from the Programme”.

Course Duration:

Spread over 6-7 Months

Mode of Delivery:

It’s a blended learning programme. Two modules of 3 days each (one at the start of the programme and one at the end of the programme) will be conducted at IIM Ahmedabad campus. Remaining sessions will be conducted online on JITMRL (JARO) platform through direct-to-desktop [D2D] mode. Online classes will be held once a week over the weekend. Please note that the online sessions will not be recorded.

Date and Module Details

Online Session Schedule:Every Sunday from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

First Campus Module: October 23-25, 2025

Online Session Starts: November 2, 2025 (Tentative)

Final Campus Module: April 2026 (Tentative)

Invitation Price

INR 3,00,000/- + GST

Evaluation Methodology

IIM Ahmedabad shall carry out the examinations, group assignments, and evaluation required for certification.

Participants are evaluated based on examinations for all the courses. Participants will be given any one of the following grades: “Satisfactory Plus” (S+); “Satisfactory” (S); “Unsatisfactory” (U). A participant will be asked to leave the programme and the fees will then be forfeited in any of the following cases:

(i) If a participant gets 2nd “U” for academic indiscipline wherein Academic Indiscipline includes cheating/copying/plagiarism in assignments and examinations and facilitating cheating in any way or is found having integrity issue during the programme.

(ii) If a participant gets 3rd “U” for under-performance.

(iii) If a participant gets 1 “U” for academic indiscipline and 2 “U” s for underperformance.

(iv) The norms of the programme require a participant to attend at least 80% of attendance to become eligible to receive the certificate, failing which a participant won't be awarded the certificate.

Certification

At the end of the Programme, eligible participants will receive a Certificate of Completion (CoC) of the Programme from IIM Ahmedabad subject to the assessment and fulfilment of attaining overall 80% attendance and evaluation criteria.

IIMA Alumni Status

Participants who are attending short-duration Executive Education Programmes for the first time, on or after April 1, 2012, will have to attend for a total of 21 days in one or more programmes in order to be eligible for alumni status and alumni identity card, both of which will be awarded on the payment of a one-time alumni fee of INR 10,000/- + GST.