Since gaining its independence in 1999, Latvia has become an acknowledged leader in economic advancement among the former Soviet states. To enhance the business acumen of its people, the country invited the Stockholm School of Economics to open a branch in the capital city of Riga. In 2007, SSE Riga turned to WDI to deliver its first foray into executive education: the Strategic Management Program (SMP) for high-potential and senior-level managers. The program and four other Institute-branded offerings taught by WDI faculty affiliates give Baltic managers, including entrepreneurs, the skills needed to scale their businesses. The SMP, also known as a “mini MBA” program, is delivered over 10 days while most other WDI/SSE Riga courses are taught over two days. The topics covered during the modules and the cutting-edge approaches to them allow managers to update their knowledge on the most relevant issues facing their organization. Many of the cases and examples used in teaching are based on WDI’s experiences with companies that operate in emerging and transitional markets around the world. Dovilė Pranckevičienė, co-founder and director of a foreign language training school in Lithuania, is a recent graduate of the Riga strategic management course. Attending the training “was really an eye-opener for me,” she noted. “I gained a lot of knowledge in a short period of time.” Santa Krastiņa, a leader of an environmental NGO in Latvia, attended another WDI offering — a strategic thinking program — at SSE Riga. When she returned to her organization, she shared her training with colleagues, and expects that their new knowledge will positively impact how they work with partners and how they approach new markets. “We have a lot to think through about our future: how we will fund ourselves and how we will survive,” she said. “Together, we will find a solution.” New features have been added to the Strategic Management Program over the past few years, positioning it at the forefront in the executive education field. Online modules in finance and competition are now completed by all participants prior to in-person training. The program is also now hosted on WDI’s ExtendEd portal, which supports learning before, during and after the training experience. This helps attendees to better retain information and apply what they have learned. “The partnership with SSE Riga has been very successful,” said Amy Gillett, vice president of WDI’s Education Initiative. “And driving that success is the executive education team at SSE Riga. They combine keen insights into the local market with an entrepreneurial spirit.” Such partnerships benefit WDI as well. An alliance with the top business school in Latvia positions the Institute’s executive education programs to be well received in neighboring markets such as Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine as well as Russia and central Asia. The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Education Workshop participants discuss a topic at a WDI Education program at SSE Riga. 25th Anniversary 27