What Is a DBA Degree, and Why Should You Earn One?
Being a business professional means dealing with a new challenge every day, having the confidence to make quick decisions, and taking bold action that gets results, all while managing a team and keeping your eye on the bottom line. But where do you go when you’ve already mastered the daily grind but find yourself craving something deeper? What do you do when you aren’t just looking to manage a business, but to redefine how it operates?
You earn your DBA.
A Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree program is designed for the professional practitioner and gives executives the skills to connect theory, research, and strategy to real solutions. For the right person, it’s the added alchemy that elevates your mindset, leadership, and career.
What Do You Need to Enroll in a DBA Program?
In addition to tenacity, curiosity, and a willingness to be challenged, DBA programs typically require candidates to have a few standard qualifications to enroll. First, you’ll need to submit transcripts verifying that you’ve earned a master’s degree. Because DBA programs are geared toward seasoned business leaders, you’ll likely need to submit a resume demonstrating your management experience and professional background. Selective programs may also require letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and a portfolio of professional written materials with your application.
4 Reasons to Earn a DBA Degree
Whatever motivates you, you’ll find that stronger leadership skills, a larger network, and higher-level strategic ability aren’t just reasons to earn your doctorate—they’re at the core of the DBA experience.
Champion Change
A DBA degree program is rigorous, but the research you do is never a purely academic exercise. Throughout your program, you’ll develop workable methodologies in real time that shift you from a consumer of business trends to a creator of sustainable change that succeeds from all angles.
Lead Through Challenges
The challenges a modern leader faces are ambiguous, interconnected, and ever evolving. When there is no established playbook, a DBA equips you with strategies you can tailor to your leadership style that help you guide your business through challenges with nuance, ethics, and confidence.
Expand Your Network
Whom you earn your DBA with can be just as impactful as the degree itself. DBAs attract a diverse group of students, and the collaborative nature of the program means that diversity of knowledge and experience becomes your own. You’ll graduate with not only your doctorate but also potential mentors, business partners, and lifelong professional contacts.
Claim Your Authority
Whether you’re a consultant, an entrepreneur, or a part of a large organization, earning your DBA shows the world that you have the credentials and the credibility to back up your recommendations and decisions. It’s an achievement that earns you a seat at any table.
What Can You Expect in a DBA Degree Program?
A DBA is an experiential degree, which means that part of your work will be applying what you’re learning to the professional world. Most DBA programs include short, in-person residences where you can collaborate with your program peers, present and receive feedback on your research, and meet one-on-one with faculty. In addition to your dissertation, which you’ll work on from the start of the program, DBA courses are focused on a few core study areas, with opportunities for you to concentrate on specific areas that support your goals.
Core Study Areas
You can expect the core of DBA study to expand on the skills learned in your master’s program and help you build a holistic view of organizational strategy and leadership with courses that can examine:
- Business theory
- Consulting
- Strategic development
- Financial management
- Marketing
Concentrations or Areas of Focus
Choosing one or multiple concentrations can help develop your areas of professional interest and enhance your doctoral research. Concentrations in a DBA degree program often focus on a specific industry like cybersecurity, health care, or finance, or a facet of business management like data analytics, sustainability, or leadership strategy.
Excelsior’s Doctor of Business Administration Program
Excelsior University’s DBA program empowers you to create the change you want under the expert mentorship of our faculty, who are experienced scholar-practitioners themselves.
Designed for maximum flexibility for working professionals, you’ll collaborate with a diverse residency group of your fellow students both online and during two weeklong in-person residencies that focus on refining your dissertation. You may choose between two formats for your dissertation: designing a considered solution for an organization or writing three interconnected papers addressing an aspect of your research focus.
Although the prestige of adding “Dr.” to your email signature is a definite perk, the lasting value of earning this doctorate is the confidence with change, challenge, and critical thinking that only a DBA can impart. It’s about leaving a legacy that others notice immediately and that you feel forever.
Are you ready to take the next step in the evolution of your leadership? Start exploring Excelsior’s DBA program.
