Organisations in the UK are wasting up to £75 million a year due to poorly conceived executive education strategies, new research claims.

Inefficient planning and delivery of executive training programmes is costing millions and failing to achieve key goals, the University of Oxford’s Said Business School reports.

Sixty-one per cent of businesses train their senior staff using individually styled programmes, yet only 21% of executives believe they are meeting strategic aims.

The market is worth around £120 million per year, and almost seven out of ten (69%) of senior executives quizzed view executive education as very important or critical to business success.

David Feeny, Director of Executive Education at the Said Business School, said that despite significant financial investment, businesses were failing to focus training properly.

“The programme should address the right issue in the first place; it should be tailored precisely to the needs of the commissioning organisation; and its success (or otherwise) should be properly evaluated.

“Our report suggests that most organisations are failing in at least one, if not all three of these respects.”