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International Institute for Management Development

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IMD, located in Lausanne, Switzerland, is a leading global Business School IMD was formed through the merger in January 1990 of two independent management education centers created respectively by Alcan and Nestlé: IMI in Geneva (1946) and IMEDE in Lausanne (1957). The school traditionally has strong ties with the European business sector. It has been set up as a business school that solely provides executive education; it is determinedly not part of a university and there are no academic departments, but just one integrated multidisciplinary faculty. The professors do not have a lifelong tenure, but work under one year contracts and a performance based pay package. The faculty consiststs of 60 full-time members, made up of 22 different nationalities. The current President, Peter Lorange, came to the school in 1993 and is due to retire in 2008. He has been widely credited with having established this institute as one of the world's leading business schools.

IMD has a strong focus on training and developing general management and leadership skills. IMD selects therefore experienced candidates for both the MBA (average age 31) and the EMBA (average age 39). Its other focus is to have a broad international group of participants attending the courses so that no specific nationality dominates. It intentionally doesn't set up auxiliary branches in other countries or continents, but wants to bring the participants together in Lausanne to stimulate cross-cultural interaction. Every year, some 8,000 executives, representing over 98 nationalities, visit the campus to attend one of the programs.

Programs

IMD has two main educational offerings:

  • Degree programs: the MBA and the EMBA program
  • Executive education: open enrollment and customized courses. This is a fundamental part of the school activities and caters among other to the needs of its large partner network of major global corporations IMD also has an exclusive alliance with the MIT Sloan Business school. The two schools offer jointly developed programs at both their campuses.

MBA program

The school's MBA program is a one-year program that offers the full curriculum commonly offered by 2-year MBA programs. The program runs from January through December, with a short summer break. Classes are held 6 days per week, with one full weekend off each month. The school typically admits 90 students, and each class includes participants from many countries. The MBA program focuses strongly on general management, and as a result 70% of the graduates typically get recruited within the industry sector versus with investment banks and consulting firms, as is the case with the other major schools. Regular recruiters are Shell, Philips, Nestlé, Unilever, Novartis. The curriculum is designed to focus on real business experience.

EMBA program

IMD doesn't make a distinction between an EMBA or a Global EMBA. It offers one Global program. The curriculum is different from the MBA, because it targets experienced managers that are at a different point in their career. It has a strong focus on leadership skills, integrated business themes instead of functional expertise and on the immediate practical application of the subject matter. The 70 selected candidates, which average age is 39, typically have broad international business experience. They stay on campus in Lausanne for certain periods, visit Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Ireland and Romania and do in-company assignments. During the first two modules participants follow one of IMD's open enrollment flagship programs called Program for Executive Development (PED). Companies that frequently send their employees to the EMBA program are Shell, Maersk, Novartis, Nokia and UBS.

Rankings

  • Financial Times - "Ranking of the Rankings" combines results of all major MBA rankings (alternate years):

    • 2006: #1 in Europe & Internationally
  • Financial Times - Executive Education: non degree programs:

    • 2007: #1 Europe and # 3 worldwide for open enrollment programs
    • 2007: #1 Europe for customized courses
  • The Economist - MBA, Surveys current participants and alumni about career opportunities; personal development & educational experience; salary increase; and potential to network:

    • 2007: # 2 in Europe
  • Business Week - MBA,Surveys both MBA alumni and the recruiters who hire them (alternate years):

    • 2006: #1 among non-US business schools
  • Wall Street Journal - MBA,Surveys recruiters about their perception of the school’s graduates and the career services support:

    • 2007: #2 Internationally
  • Forbes - MBA,Surveys alumni to measure return on investment (alternate years):

    • 2007: #1 among 1 year programs

IMD Alumni

External links



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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 14:37:12 PDT (GMT -0700)
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