(Part 2)
Since 1958, more than 59,000 IESE* Business School alumni from all over the world have experienced the integrative, people-centered, and socially responsible approach to decision making in business and organizations. Its programs are transformative journeys towards personal and professional growth.
As I personally verified during my stint there as a Visiting Professor during the School Years 2006 to 2008, IESE’s professors, advisors (especially from leading business schools like the Harvard Business School), and partners from all over the world, are active at the highest levels of business and academia. Those who participate in their numerous management development programs are invariably challenged by its rigorous research and state-of-the art teaching methodologies.
IESE Business School is truly global. Its unique reach goes beyond its five international campuses and over 50 alliances with top universities. Populating its classrooms are among the brightest of over 150 nations. Anyone who attends a program at IESE becomes part of its highly global community of partner companies, alumni, and friends.
In the last five years or so, IESE has been accepting aspiring managers in their early twenties in an innovative program that jibes well with what as early as 1989 we at the University of Asia and the Pacific already considered as an alternative to the traditional MBA program made famous by the Harvard Business School. We were the first university in the Philippines that offered a Master in Science in Management that does not require years of work experience as a pre-requisite for admission.
That is exactly what the IESE Master in Management (MiM) is all about. It prepares recent college graduates to join a masteral program in management which enables them to start their first job in management and to make a lasting mark. During the program, which is open to graduates in engineering, the social sciences, law, humanities, and other disciplines, the participants are helped to develop the essential analytical skills and knowledge one needs to succeed in entry-level management roles. The participants in the program will also learn what it means to be an inspirational leader who puts people first — and take their initial steps toward having a positive impact on the world.
The MiM takes into account that, in comparison with the typical MBA program in the best schools here or abroad, the participants will be less mature and less experienced in the world of work, because they are just out of college. The advantage of MBA students is that they can identify more with the so-called business cases, hundreds of which they will be discussing, because most of them have had an average of three or four years of working experience. That is why the MiM is structured so that it can help the students who are in their early twenties, with very little or no work experience, to go further through:
Great guidance. Their professors and mentors are experts in their respective fields. Some 95% of them have PhDs, and there are IESE faculty members from almost half the countries of the world. The participants will be helped to develop new perspectives and opportunities, despite their young ages.
Great peers. They will learn from, and alongside diverse, talented classmates as they share a transformative journey together. They will develop a network of friends and contacts that will last a lifetime.
Great content. They will acquire the tools to take on any challenge. They will learn to think critically, backed by solid fundamental knowledge. They will sharpen their skills by applying them to hands-on experiences and real case studies. Upon graduation, they will have the ability to analyze business problems, tackle real-life complexity and make informed decisions — ready for the first role in management.
Great career support. IESE’s experienced Career Development Center team will connect them with the best recruiters and help them prepare to land their dream job. With their support, they will be confident and ready to show the best of themselves in interviews, on their CVs, at networking events, and in society.
Even at this very early stage of the MiM, IESE already has attracted a very diverse student body which contributes to the formative nature of the course. Students come from all walks of life. A typical class profile is as follows: 10% are from America, 5% from Africa and the Middle East, 3% from Spain, 35% from the Rest of Europe, and 10% from Asia. In fact, UA&P already had a representative in the first few classes and more graduates from Ateneo, UP, and De La Salle have sent their applications. Undergraduate background consists of 40% from business courses, 40% from engineering, 10% from the humanities, and 10% others.
The rationale behind introducing an alternative to the traditional MBA in building the foundation for a lifetime of growing in the science and art of management is the greater demand in this age of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 for constant reskilling, upskilling, and retooling made necessary by the vertiginous changes in technology.
The sooner a college graduate can build the foundations of a lifelong career, the better are his or her chances of rising on the management ladder. At IESE, the MiM participant will be stretched, pushed, and challenged to master the essentials. During the MiM program, the recent college graduate will have his or her entrepreneurial skills honed and will be exposed to business concepts in different sectors, markets, and regions — across five continents.
During the MiM program, the participant can join an optional team-building journey on the famous Camino de Santiago (the road to the city of Santiago de Compostella) in order to experience cultural immersion and personal growth while strengthening bonds with classmates. This unforgettable adventure, experienced by people from all over the world over several centuries, is meant to enhance leadership skills and to foster resilience, creating lasting memories and connections.
The topics to be covered for the whole 11-month course are financial accounting, excel and python datacamp; capital markets, critical business thinking, financial accounting, marketing management; anthropology and ethics, decision analysis, operational finance, marketing implementation, and operations; business analytics, corporate finance, managerial accounting, operations II, and strategy; fintech, macroeconomics and geopolitics; managerial economics; negotiations; new venture creation; understanding the world: present and future; business ethics, and digital company.
As in the longer MBA program at IESE and a few more business schools in the US and Europe, the MiM uses the case method whenever it can be used because it has been found to be the most effective way to leverage each classroom’s immense diversity. All the cases are taught in alignment with the Harvard Business School’s teaching method, which enables discussion of real business situations from a general management perspective under the expert guidance of a world class faculty.
During the MiM Program, the participants will be connected with many career opportunities via career fora, recruiting activities, company presentations and networking events. Some of the top recruiters are Accenture, Amazon, Axon Partners, Bain & Co., BNP Paribas, General Electric, Iberdrola, KPMG, P&G, PwC, Red Bull, and Roland Berger.
* Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa
Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.
