IMD Annual Report 2019

89

Since its creation, IMD has been a pioneering force in developing leaders who transform organizations and contribute to society. We believe that this consistency at the forefront of our industry is grounded in our unique approach to creating real learning and impact. Rankings are by nomeans the only way of assessing one’s position vs. competitors. They can also be fickle and changing. In this context, it is remarkable that IMD is but one of two schools that have been ranked in the top five of the FT’s Global Executive Education ranking for more than 15 consecutive years. IMD’s pioneering approach to leadership development and organizational transformation is based on a framework that features three interdependent elements that, when working together seamlessly, create a virtuous spiral. These three elements are: a deep understanding of the client needs and context, cutting-edge thought leadership and research, and innovation in pedagogy and interactions. 1. Understanding client needs and context Any measure of impact must start with a set of expectations, or at a minimum a framework to assess impact. So, everything IMD does starts with a set of simple questions: What purpose are we trying to achieve through this intervention? Which skills, capabilities, mindsets are intended to be enhanced? What are the desired outcomes? These questions, which apply equally well to degree programs and open executive programs as they do to customprograms designed for, or in partnership, with an organization, require a deep understanding of, and interest for, the world of practice. IMD’s connections with the world of practice stem back to its founding by executives, for executives, and they

are nurtured every day through ongoing interactions with executives and organizations.

In addition, IMD’s nature as an independent academic institution encourages it to engage executives and organizations in courageous conversations about their objectives and expectations. These conversations require IMD to find the right combination of customer-orientation and assertive expertise. IMD strives to co-create interventions with its partners, but it also believes that it owes these partners its honest advice, based on past and current faculty’s hundreds of decades of accumulated experience. To be able to add value to smart executives and effective organizations, IMD must be able to bring to bear world-class thought leadership. Many of these ideas, frameworks and research findings are developed at IMD by its world-class faculty and excellent research staff. IMD research is published in some of the world’s top journals and in award-winning books, and the pedagogical material it develops continues to win awards and to be used by other schools all over the world. IMD is also not shy about using ideas, frameworks and findings developed by other good researchers and organizations. Today, a lot of state-of-the-art knowledge is readily accessible and can hence be easily brought to bear beyond its authors. As an academic institution, IMD believes that thought leadership must be rigorous: if it’s not rigorous enough, it’s not reliable and generalizable and nobody should be making decisions on that basis. But IMD’s connection to the world of practice also leads us to value thought leadership that is relevant, insightful and actionable. 2. Rigorous, relevant, insightful and actionable thought leadership