The recent years have seen a proliferation of corporate universities in organisations around the world. Thereby executive education has become a strategic function for many corporations. Business schools and consultants have benefited from the growing demand for customised management development. With the growing investment in executive education companies today are asking for more substantial ways to evaluate the effects of management development programs.

Axel Müller-Hofvenschiöld presents a new evaluation approach for executive education. His Strategic Tool for Evaluating Educational Returns (STEER) combines ideas from controlling and psychology in order to measure the added-value of face-to-face business school programs to an organisation. The author compares the effects of customised executive education programs in the framework of a corporate university with open programs on the market. A special focus is laid on the ability of "teaching strategy" to executives.