IMD Annual Report 2021

Special features 12

IMD at 75

In 2021, IMD celebrated its 75th anniversary, tracing its roots back to pioneering educators in post-war Geneva right through to the present day.

A brief history In 1946, as Europe began to emerge from the aftermath of the Second World War, Canadian aluminium producer Alcan (now Rio Tinto Aluminium Division) founded the Centre d’ Études Industrielles (CEI) in Geneva, with an inaugural class including many Chinese and North American participants, to train young executives in industrial management. The composition of that first cohort at CEI, later to become the International Management Institute (IMI), revealed what would prove to be the enduring and defining values of IMD – an open, internationalist and pioneering spirit of collaboration in pursuit of development and progress. The aim of that first post-war class was to develop leaders who understood one another and would build a better future together. As the origin story of IMD, this initial ambition of a globally-minded institute founded by business, for business, has also remained a central and unique thread. In 1957, Swiss multinational Nestlé established its own management training center – the Institut pour l’Étude des Méthodes de Direction de l’Enterprise (IMEDE) in Lausanne in coordination with Harvard Business School. Inspired by the new management training styles of North American university-based business schools in the post- war era, the decision by Alcan and Nestlé to establish their own schools was an exceptional one at the time.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants. Standing on those shoulders is humbling, but it is also incredibly inspiring, because from that height you get to look into the future, and you see how much more we can do together to live IMD’s purpose; to contribute in a small way, but hopefully in a very real way, to a more prosperous, sustainable and inclusive world.”

JEAN-FRANÇOIS MANZONI PRESIDENT, IMD