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Recruiters and hiring managers say that the demand for executives to globalize business operations and tap worldwide markets has exceeded the supply of globally experienced executives - at least in America.

As business schools race to add global curriculum, dozens of new alumni-education programs and executive education courses suggest that there is a market waiting to be served - expensively and immediately.

One of the more interesting new programs stems from a firm that has been evangelizing the discipline of global leadership for years, the Center for Creative Leadership, a non-profit executive education group. CCL, as it is known, is launching a program in October called Advancing Global Leadership.

“What makes this program unique is a business simulation,” says Mike Kossler, CCL Senior Enterprise Associate. He says the US$3,500 program will run simultaneously in Brussels, Greensboro, N.C. and Singapore. The three sites will collaborate to “simulate what it’s like to work in a global environment and lead a dispersed team.”

This won’t be just another day at the MNC office. The simulated company will be in a crisis and the teams will have to respond in real-time - distributing the workload as needed.

As CCL’s own research illustrates, global business might better be called undomesticated for the stresses it places on participants. I don’t think organizations prepare their managers and leaders to be effective global leaders,” asserts Kossler, who consults on global leadership issues, often for MNCs. “A lot of people learn their global roles by trial and error.”

Of course, as we have reported, there are other intriguing global executive programs available. The Global Leaders Program: Growing and Innovating in a Flat World is a global executive leadership program launching this summer in India and the U.S. Produced by two of the world’s top business schools, Global Leaders is staffed by professors from the Indian Institute of Management - (IIM-A) and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Students will spend eight days in Ahmedabad, India, followed by eight days in North Carolina.

Sounds cool but the price tag is a lofty US$19,000. Do you have that much headroom on your AmEx?

For more information about global careers, check out our free Global Ready? skills assessment test, and Global Virtual Management, a free, self-guided Careers Primer that identifies best practices in globally-distributed enterprise.