Topical Challenges Sought by IMD MBA and Other MBA News Snippets

IMD MBA seeks to chart a passage for progress

The IMD MBA has announced the official introduction of a new poll-based program element that seeks to bring MBA students up to speed with the latest trends and challenges affecting modern business.

“By keeping abreast of topical issues, 'Navigating the Future' ensures that our MBA graduates will be ready for tomorrow,” said Ralf Boscheck, director of the IMD MBA, in a press release.

‘Navigating the Future’ first establishes trends from a poll of industry practitioners and MBA students who, in an average cohort, will boast experience across a wide array of industries.

Once identified, the trends are to form the focus of research and project analysis, with findings to be presented by IMD MBAs at an open annual conference, before going on the road to audiences around the world.

Piloted last year, topics under consideration this year include the impact of digitalization and sources of energy constraints:

As well as bringing MBAs into close contact with industry practitioners, the idea behind the new component is to help IMD MBA students learn how challenges, and envisioning the worst-case scenario, can ultimately spur on businesses to back innovative methods in the search for solutions.

 "When we back business leaders into a corner with no way out, it creates an opportunity to change their way of thinking," Boscheck added.

Ivey Business School in case study alliance with IIM-A

Western University’s Ivey Business School and IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have signed a three-year partnership agreement, relating to the popular MBA teaching tool, the business case study.

The deal should bring IIM Ahmedabad’s case studies to a wider international audience, especially for those looking to learn about business practices and innovation in India as well as the emerging market’s complexities.  

For Ivey Business School, the move represents an extension of its existing collection of Indian case studies, said to be used by 300 universities around the world.

“The partnership is a natural fit for Ivey as IIM-A is well-known for producing excellent materials relevant for teaching business decision-making skills,” Ivey Business School’s dean, Robert Kennedy, in a press release.

Highlighting the growing reception for Indian case studies, a faculty member of an Indian business school was recently the recipient of a lifetime achievement accolade in The Case Centre’s annual awards for the case study method.

Could MBA students learn from organized crime?

You would have thought we’d reached the point where transparency, ethical considerations and the constant reappraisal of practices are central tenets of business education.

But no, crime pays, apparently, and organized crime in particular offers lessons aplenty for MBA students looking to chart their own business’ long-term success, according to a report penned by a business ethics lecturer at Cardiff University.

Before we get too carried away, the point made by Mike Marinetto is that those who engage in organized crime must pay particular heed to risk assessment and have often found that the benefits of a long-term approach featuring smaller, yet safer, endeavors far outweigh a ‘go for broke’ attitude that pins success on one solitary operation. The same logic, according to Marinetto, might help the budding entrepreneur to better assess how to maximize the fruits of their innovative labor.  

INSEAD MBA is new Credit Suisse CEO

An MBA alumnus of INSEAD has been appointed as the new CEO for Credit Suisse. The choice of Tidjane Thiam, born in Ivory Coast and raised in France, has already struck a positive chord among industry experts and was greeted by a surge in shares of 7.5% on Tuesday, according to CNBC.

The INSEAD MBA has a strong background in insurance and wealth management that includes McKinsey, Aviva and Prudential – where he became the chief executive in 2009. With Thiam at the helm, Prudential’s share price tripled while Credit Suisse’s shares have more than halved, according to a report in the Guardian.

“I’m really pleased to be able to step down at a time when everything is going well. It’s a rare privilege for a CEO and I’m very fortunate,” said the INSEAD MBA graduate.