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Consistently top ranked for executive leadership development, IMD International business school ensures every senior executive who joins goes on a profound transformational journey that’s flexible, experiential, and full of impact.
Founded 75 years ago by business leaders for business leaders, the school has gone from strength to strength in providing real learning with real impact. In fact, the school has been in the top five of the Financial Times’s Executive Education Global Ranking for more than 15 years – a guarantee of the life-changing rewards for you ahead. “The quality and diversity of class members — both in terms of culture and industry — was truly exceptional,” says IMD Executive MBA graduate Sibongile Gumbi, who is currently the CEO and founder of Smart Biotech in South Africa.
Would you like a sneak peak of the IMD EMBA experience? Click here to learn more!
The EMBA is a program where fast-rising, internationally experienced managers experience the most impactful learning with a truly diverse group of global peers. Peers come from 30 industries and nationalities representing the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. You’ll work with executives with mid-level, senior executive and C-suite experience in a wide range of sectors, from automotive, banking and IT to manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and philanthropy. “Together, we shared an amazing wealth of experience. And each of us was always ready to push boundaries — both in the classroom and on discovery expeditions,” says Gumbi.
The program starts with a Foundation Stage followed by a Mastery Stage. The latter is spread over 12 months, with participants engaging in six one-week modules. This blended modular curriculum allows you to combine personal development with daily life.
Throughout this journey, you’ll have the guidance of faculty members who are award-winning experts in executive education. Their experience and insight ensure you receive hyper-relevant and impactful learning. This is paired with industry exposure through company visits, themed immersion weeks, cutting-edge case studies, personal introductions, in-company consulting opportunities and much more.
Source: Mark Henley/IMD International Business School
Support is available if you’re seeking to start new ventures too. Professors and staff here champion entrepreneurial mindsets — you may even find yourself flying to Silicon Valley to pitch to VCs and angels, plus work with promising start-ups, analysing, challenging and shaping business strategies.
The goal is to evolve you into powerfully effective and reflective leaders, at the personal and professional levels and beyond. Much of this is possible due to the program’s unique flexibility. It starts with a Foundation Stage, which can either be taken as a 20-day on-campus program plus five weeks online, or 17-week online/liVe virtual program plus five weeks online. This is followed by the Mastery Stage, which comprises six one-week modules spread over 12 months.
Disruption is minimal. Your total out-of-office time to complete the EMBA ranges from seven to nine weeks depending on your Foundation Stage format choice. And with six start dates throughout the year, you can also join the program when it aligns best with your calendar, rather than being bound by a single annual intake.
Thais Carpenedo was able to balance being pregnant with completing an EMBA and getting promoted to Deputy CEO in the cement industry, which is mostly male-dominated. “I asked myself this question many times and doubted if I – if we – would make it through this journey. I say we because I have not juggled alone. I had my bosses, my team, my cohort members, my friends and family by my side,” she says. “We had to adjust, compromise, and believe that there was value in this academic project. I had to learn to fail and move on, not before learning from every mistake I made.”
Source: Mark Henley/IMD International Business School
However you structure your EMBA, your IMD journey will be as full of support as your classes will be filled with experience — 60% of your peers at IMD are at the director level. . Clementine Vervelde-Murekatete notes how each individual thrives in IMD. “Seeing the other participants and how they changed from line managers to senior managers and how they somehow participate in different streams is amazing,” says the current CEO and founder of Limitless Mind Africa. “I think career-wise, I have seen people coming from the finance side, and then you see them becoming future CEOs of the companies.”
The EMBA sets out to help students like Vervelde-Murekatete master management skills in diversified business, social and political environments; develop an entrepreneurial mindset that is creative and confident; become self-aware impact leaders; and grow their careers, while boosting the value of their organisations. There is a litany of benefits — as graduate Pablo Percelsi can attest to. The ICRC’s Deputy Head of Delegation, Lebanon found the EMBA to be a rewarding marathon. “It needs discipline but is extremely rewarding for many reasons,” he says. “The learning, the knowledge that it brings but as well the network and diversity of the school and the quality of the program.”
Source: Mark Henley/IMD International Business School
To Taras Panasenko, the biggest lesson he gained from the EMBA came from a case assignment that became the foundation for the e-commerce in Avrora chain of stores. “Additionally, my Strategy B assignment laid the groundwork for Avrora’s expansion into Romania, which we are now successfully implementing,” the co-founder says. “I can confidently say that every subject and every experience gained has been useful to me in real business to varying degrees.”
If you are convinced by the prowess and quality of IMD’s EMBA, download the brochure to get an overview and schedule a consultation session with the program advisors. For more information, meet the team.
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