It is also known as ‘management development’ or ‘executive development’. It is one of the fastestdeveloping areas in personnel. It is realized that an effective management team may be as important to the survival of an organization as any tangible item on the balance sheet. Interest in management development is great partly due to the shortage of well-trained managers. Executive development or management development is a systematic process of learning and growth by which managerial personnel gain and apply knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights to manage the work in their organization effectively and efficiently.

The program of executive development aims at achieving following purposes: - 

• To sustain good performance of managers throughout their careers by exploiting their full potential.
• To understand economic, technical, and institutional forces in order to solve business problems. 
• To acquire knowledge about problems of human resources. 
• To think through problems this may confront the organization now or in the future. 
• To develop responsible leaders. 
• To inculcate knowledge of human motivation and human relationships. 
• To increase proficiency in management techniques such as work study, inventory control, operations research and quality control. 

Johnson and Sorcher write, “Management development focuses on developing in a systematic manner, the knowledge base, attitudes, basic skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills of the managerial cadre.”

According to Flippo “executive development includes the process by which managers and executives acquire not only skills and competency in their present job but also capabilities for future managerial tasks of increasing difficulty and scope.”

The characteristics of executive development are as following: 

• Executive development is a planned and organized process of learning. 
• It is an ongoing and never ending exercise. 
• Executive development is a long term process as managerial skills cannot be developed overnight. 
• It aims at preparing managers for managers.

Today, it is the growth that makes one person stay at the company. The opportunity and challenges is what keeps a person satisfied and charmed with his job. Companies have understood this fact and therefore are forming policies and procedures to develop their employees.

Executive development Program (EDP) is one such program. With Human resource making a move from a welfare department to a strategic partner, more and more companies are undertaking this program. We at Career Solutions provide you the opportunity of developing a specific EDP for your company.

There are four major steps to be covered during the EDP-

1) Problem Assessment: the experts along with the concerned employees and CEO shall begin with an assessment of the company’s current problem and owner’s plans of the future.

2) Management Audit and Appraisal: there shall be regular feedback sessions to check as to whether we are reaching where we are supposed to reach.

3) Analysis of Development Needs: here the problem that has been uncovered shall be tried to and remedied via a development program.

4) Identify Replacement Needs: the assessment may uncover a need to recruit and select new management talent. The format of EDP will vary with company’s size and nature of operation so as to provide optimum result.