The report from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford UK says that  organisations are wasting up to £75 million a year on poorly conceived and delivered executive education programmes.

Sixty-one per cent of organisations surveyed developed senior staff through individually tailored courses, a market estimated to be worth around £120 million a year. But only 35 per cent of HR directors and 21 per cent of other executives believed their training and development programmes were meeting strategic objectives.

"Over 40 years of experience have taught us that there are three factors crucial to developing an effective programme," said David Feeny, director of executive education at Saïd. "It should address the right issue in the first place; it should be tailored precisely to the needs of the organisation; and its success (or otherwise) should be properly evaluated. Our report suggests that most firms are failing in at least one, if not all three, of these respects."