International Institute for Management Development

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) was founded in 1990 as the successor to Alcan and Lausanne Business Schools and is known as an institution that provides real-world learning experience in an international business education environment.

IMD is a top-ranked business school that focuses on developing global leaders through high-impact action. The business school is focused on real-world executive development and offers a customised, effective approach that is flexible to the needs of students and executives.  IMD has an alumni network of 75,000 participants from over 120 different global companies and countries.

The vision of the school is to be the leading organisiation in developing successful, global leaders for teams and organisations. Every year, 8,000 executives from over 98 nationalities participate in the executive enrollment programmes directed by the diverse, expert faculty at the university.  IMD is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality education and spend a considerable amount of resources on developing valuable networks and promoting innovative research activities. IMD has also created a Partnership Programme with a select group of global organisations that address specific objectives algined with IMD’s educational focus.  The programmes blend academic expertise with hands-on implementations of real-world business situations and are designed to promote learning and internalisation of up-to-date business knowledge.

The Full-time MBA Programme gives students a personal learning approach that combines classes and real company projects to give them the skills and knowledge needed to operate a business and lead people in an organisation.  The class sizes are 90 participants deep and are focused on leadership, innovation and social responsibility. Personal end-of-module debriefs are provided to assess students performance both within the class as well as individual projects. The evaluation covers class participation, group work, group presentations and exams.  A diagram of the learning methods used in the programme is presented below, provided by IMD.

The Executive MBA Programme is for fast-rising, internationally focused executives that are looking to sharpen their leadership skills, share their knowledge with their company and reach their full potential.  It is a flexible programme with less time spent in the classroom and more time spent on distance learning. The programme curriculum is spread across 10.5 weeks of courses and about 50 weeks of distance learning for a minimum of 15 months.  Course materials are presented through case studies, guest presentation featuring real-life challenges, exercises and role-plays, problem-solving and conflict resolution, management simulation, company assignments, personal coaching and visits to fast-growing companies and regions.  It is a modular programme that consists of two stages:

• The Foundation Stage, where students are presented with core concepts to build a strong management and leadership foundation
• The Mastery Stage, which is focused on leadership, globalisation and company assignment through five face-to-face modules and five e-modules

Below is a the course structure and calendar of the executive MBA programme, provided by IMD.

IMD also provides five different leadership open-enrollment programmes that help executives develop individual leadership capabilities in the key aspects of business, such as cross-function management, significant organizational change and mobilizing people.  The courses offered are:

• The Leadership Challenge
• High Performance Leadership
• Advanced High Performance Leadership
• Mobilizing People
• Strategies for Leadership

Although Forbes and US News do not rank MBAs globally, they were included for their impact in the US

• Chamber of Commerce Rank – 7
• Financial Times European Business School Rank – 7
• Bloomberg Businessweek Rank – 9
• The Economist Rank – 10

According to Bloomberg Businessweek’s International Business School Ranking

• High:  91% job offer three months post-graduation

IMD Ch de Bellerive 23 P.O: Box 915 1001 Lausanne Switzerland