IMD Annual Report 2019

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At the same time, the raison d’être that led to our creation and our continuous connections with the world of practice also enables us to emulate professional service firms in what they do best: a keen understanding of context and of the problems that this executive or that organization are trying to address, a hands-on, no-nonsense, needs-based, practical approach and a willingness and ability to

support executives and organizations over time as they try to implement some of their new ideas.

Clearly, though, being able to bring to bear the best of these two very different worlds requires some underlying enablers, some pretty unique conditions. We have identified four such enabling factors:

Executive and organizational development is our core business

One integrated faculty team – No silo, no solo

Our world-class MBA and EMBA programs are dear to our heart and receive our full commitment. They also represent less than 20 percent of our activities, whichmeans that unlike any other top business school, non-degree activities are our core business. For us, executive and organizational development is not an add-on or a sideline. It is what we do.

All the business schools we know have set up departments or areas that gather faculty members hailing from the same academic discipline. We do not. At IMD, there are no silos between departments or academic sub-groups trying to defend their own interests. There is but one very international teamof 50 facultymembers cooperating to create value for executives, teams and organizations.

We are an independent academic institution

We operate as a not-for-profit organization

The academic world has its own set of rules, and business schools that are part of larger academic institutions are bound by these rules. IMD is bound by Swiss foundation law and has a streamlined governance structure with a Supervisory Board mandated by a Foundation Board. This very customized governance enables us to be more focused, flexibleandagile thanmost otherbusiness schools. Inaddition,ourdependencyonnon-degree program revenues, which are notoriously more volatile than degree program revenues, forces us to remain very grounded and relevant.

As a not-for-profit organization, our goal is not to maximize the value of anyone’s “stake” in the organization. There is no such stake. Our only financial goal is to generate enough revenues to be able to continue to develop the institute and invest for the future. This not-for-profit status enables us to have more courageous conversationswith executives and organizations. It makes it easier to discuss their challenges and how to address them with honesty and objectivity.