Why Senior Executives Are Turning to Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) for Career Growth?
By upGrad
Updated on Aug 21, 2025 | 8 min read | 1.74K+ views
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By upGrad
Updated on Aug 21, 2025 | 8 min read | 1.74K+ views
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Did You Know? The employment rate for executive roles is expected to grow by 6% from 2023 to 2033, with around 348,000 openings per year. |
In 2025, businesses and leadership are taking new turns. It is not sufficient to follow age-old leadership and management practices. The best way to tackle an evolving business scene is to stay relevant with updated skills and knowledge. This is the reason many senior executives are pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) to tackle complex business challenges.
Senior executives can be seen turning to a DBA degree to gain advanced knowledge from a research-driven doctorate program. But what are the reasons behind this? Let’s find out!
In this blog, we will take a deeper look at why a DBA program for senior executives is becoming a new norm, why it matters and how it is beneficial. So read along to know more.
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In the face of innovation, senior executives are increasingly choosing a DBA degree to be able to scale their existing skills to adapt to modern business problems and tech advancement. Let’s understand this further.
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A Doctor of Business Administration is becoming a top choice for senior executives due to a series of reasons listed below:
Guess what? After a Doctor of Business Administration degree, you can aim for top C-suite roles across sectors and earn a salary of 1 crore and more.
And this is not all, a DBA degree proves to be worthy for existing professionals due to its impact beyond just salary. With professional credibility and top-level positions, you can largely impact the way businesses run, operate and thrive to improve.
You can go on to extend your expertise by consulting others and gaining recognition among your network and industry.
Mid-level managers and senior-level managers can especially benefit from a Doctor of Business Administration program, as it can help them tackle various challenges and problems they may usually encounter. Let’s understand how below:
The biggest reason to pursue a Doctor of Business Administration for business leaders is that it accelerates career growth. Mid-level leaders can move to higher management roles and top managers can go on to secure even senior positions in organizations. Let’s find out why and how
In most cases, people pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration already have years of experience and strong educational qualifications. With a DBA degree, they go beyond just theoretical learnings and get into an in-depth understanding of how applied solutions can be inculcated to make better decisions, assess problems based on actual data and finally improve overall business processes.
This helps leaders use their doctorate and experience-backed skills to enter top leadership roles, such as in executive boards, consulting and even academia. A DBA degree provides these leaders with a dual qualification of educational credentials and updated skills to take business decision-making to the next level.
Yes, as mentioned previously, with a Doctor of Business Administration qualification, senior executives become eligible for careers in consulting and academics. They can act as external or in-house consultants for firms looking for credible and experienced experts. As for academia, after a DBA degree, executives can transition into entry-level faculty roles or research supervisors for business schools and programs.
Know What is the Scope of a DBA in India & Abroad?
Advanced business degrees such as MBA, Executive MBA or PhD are also common options for business careers. But how do these compare with a Doctor of Business Administration? Let’s understand further:
An executive should ideally choose a Doctor of Business Administration program over an EMBA or PhD as a DBA degree is better aligned with their career goals and provides a unique blend of applied research and leadership development.
See this table to better compare these different programs with a DBA degree:
Factor | EMBA | PhD | DBA |
Main Focus | Practical management training for working professionals | Deep academic research and theory building | Applied research that blends theory with real-world business problems |
Who is it Suited For? | Mid-to-senior managers wanting faster career progression | Academics and researchers aiming for teaching or scholarly work | Senior leaders who want both advanced knowledge and direct business impact |
Learning Benefits | Better leadership and operational efficiency | Academic recognition, research publications, teaching roles | Strategic edge, thought leadership, and pathways to C-suite, consulting, or academia |
Course Structure | Shorter, flexible, often modular | Long, research-intensive, usually full-time | Flexible, designed for executives, focused on business applications |
How Relevant is it? | Valuable but can be limited for top leadership roles | Respected but less practical in corporate boardrooms | Becoming more popular among top executives as the next big step after MBA or EMBA |
You may want to know about the Key Differences between DBA and PhD in Business Administration
Between a Doctor of Business Administration and an MBA, experienced professionals will certainly benefit more from a DBA more as a DBA is specifically designed for these very professionals who already bring in years of experience with them and want to go for something that can make a larger impact on their career. An MBA would better suit early or mid-career professionals.
Take a look at the following table to further highlight different factors that make DBA well-suited for experienced professionals as compared to an MBA:
Aspect |
MBA |
DBA |
Who it suits | Early to mid-career professionals | Senior executives with years of experience |
Focus | Broad management knowledge | Advanced strategy, research, and leadership |
Outcome | Career growth into mid-level roles | C-suite opportunities, consulting, and thought leadership |
Value for veterans | Might feel repetitive for experienced leaders | Adds more depth and credibility to your profile in the industry you are working in |
Yes, a Doctor of Business Administration is more relevant for business leaders than a PhD in Management. A PhD in Management would better suit those who want to enter the realm of academics and contribute to theory and the subject with more findings. A DBA degree, on the other hand, is a professional doctorate that is designed for working professionals looking to establish further credibility with higher education and qualifications.
Want to know the DBA degree earning potential? Read: Salary of DBA Graduates in 2025 (India vs International)
A Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) gives leaders essential skills and tools that they can use to solve real business challenges and drive growth. Let’s expand on this more.
Although senior executives are already established professionals in their own space, they can advance further with a DBA degree. A Doctor of Business Administration for senior executives helps them to learn new skills that are relevant to stay updated with evolving business norms and methods.
Here are a few skills that they can develop through a DBA program:
Skill | How does this skill help senior executives? |
Advanced Problem-Solving | Enables senior executives to address complex business challenges effectively |
Data-Driven Decision-Making | Supports making informed choices and reduces risks |
Strategic Thinking and Growth | Helps executives plan for long-term growth and identify opportunities |
Effective Team Leadership | Strengthens ability to guide diverse teams toward results |
Driving Research into Action | Converts complex studies into practical strategies with real-world impact |
In a DBA degree, learners study case studies and apply research and analysis methodologies to reach effective solutions. These solutions are backed by data-driven insights and past instances. Executives eventually learn how to assess risks, find opportunities, and eventually make strategic decisions to reach business goals. In this way, their strategic thinking and decision-making skills are enhanced.
Usually, a Doctor of Business Administration inculcates both research and practical business applications. But it tends to lean more towards actually applying research to reach solutions to existing challenges and issues. Based on existing theories, senior executives experiment with different solutions in different situations and see what their outcome is. So, the focus is clearly more towards practical business applications.
Also Read: Doctor of Business Administration (DBA): Roles and Responsibilities
If you want to succeed as a business leader or a managerial head on the world platform, a global DBA from upGrad can highly benefit you. We offer DBA programs in partnership with global universities. These courses help you hone your managerial and leadership skills and help you scale your career.
Here are some of our DBA program highlights:
Want to explore your DBA degree options? Book a free one-on-one career counseling session, or you may visit your nearest upGrad offline center for in-person advice.
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