International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

What Is the International Institute for Management Development?

The International Institute for Management Development is one of the top graduate business schools in the world, located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is not affiliated with a university and offers only MBA and executive MBA degree programs along with a Master of Science in Sustainable Management and Technology (MSc).

Understanding the International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

The International Institute for Management Development is an independent business school expert in developing leaders and transforming organizations to create ongoing impact. For nine consecutive years, 2012-2020, the Financial Times has ranked the International Institute for Management Development in the top three in executive education worldwide.

History of the International Institute for Management Development

The International Institute for Management Development was formed in 1990 through the merger of independent management education centers International Management Institute, established in 1946 by Alcan, and Institut pour l'Etude des Méthodes de Direction de l'Entreprise Lausanne, established in 1956 by Nestlé. The new organization settled in Lausanne.

The International Institute for Management Development is set up to be primarily an executive education center and offers no university courses or affiliations. The professors do not have permanent academic tenure but work under one-year contracts and a performance-based pay package. The faculty consists of 75 experts, made up of 25 different nationalities. The current president is Jean-François Manzoni, who follows Dominique Turpin, John R. Wells, and Peter Lorange. The latter ran the school from 1993 till 2008 and has been widely credited with having established it as one of the world's leading business schools.

International Institute for Management Development’s Programs

The International Institute for Management Development offers both an MBA and EMBA (for more experienced professionals) degree as well as an open executive education program which offers customizable courses. The International Institute for Management Development deliberately keeps enrollment numbers very low and recruits applicants from around the world to ensure diverse classroom settings. The institute also publishes the "World Competitiveness Yearbook" which measures the overall economic competitiveness of the world's leading economic nations.

The school's MBA program is a one-year full-time program. The program runs from January through December without any break (summer is dedicated to a Company Engagement Project). The class of 2021 included 98 participants from various countries.

The MBA program focuses strongly on personal development, leadership, and general management instead of functional expertise, and as a result, the majority (71%) of graduates get positions in the industrial rather than the financial sector, unlike other major schools.

The curriculum of the EMBA is different from the MBA because it targets experienced managers with at least 10 years of experience who seek to strengthen their careers without leaving their jobs. The average class size is around 55 participants. The program has three components: the foundations for business leadership, the advanced management concepts, and the mastery stage.