Jean-François Manzoni
Jean-François Manzoni (JFM) is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development at IMD, where he served as President and Nestlé Professor from 2017 to 2024.
His research, teaching, and consulting activities are focused on leadership, the development of high-performance organizations, and corporate governance.
In recent years he has also been increasingly focused on finding ways to ensure leadership programs have lasting impact, particularly through the use of technology-mediated approaches, and on closing the growing the managerial “knowing-doing gap”, i.e., the gap between what managers kind of know they should be doing and the extend to which they behave that way in practice.
At an organizational level, JFM studies the content of change (including the use of levers such as strategy, structure, and systems), the management of the change process, and the role of leaders therein. His work in this area has appeared in several books, articles, and over 30 cases – four of which received Case of the Year awards. He also acted as content expert in the development of the Change Pro Simulation®, a groundbreaking computer-based change management simulation.
At an individual level, he studies how leaders can create a caring, high-performance work environment. This stream of research has led to several articles and a book entitled The Set-Up to Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People to Fail (with Jean-Louis Barsoux). The book, which builds on Manzoni’s and Barsoux’s initial Harvard Business Review article introducing the term “set-up-to-fail syndrome”, received two Book of the Year awards, and is discussed in undergraduate, MBA, and executive development programs all over the world.
On the corporate governance side, JFM focuses on interpersonal dynamics within the boardroom and between management and the board. His research examining the impact of interpersonal dynamics on increasingly diverse boards of directors received the Research Award on Leadership and Corporate Governance from the Association of Executive Search Consultants.
A Fellow and Senior Accredited Board Director of the Singapore Institute of Directors, he served (2018-2024) on the board of Keppel Ltd., much of this time serving on the Remuneration Committee and chairing the Nominations Committee. Over that period, Keppel transformed from an internationally diversified group to a global asset manager and operator and received the Best Managed Board Award among large listed companies at the 2023 Singapore Corporate Awards. JFM also previously served on the Boards of AACSB International (the world’s largest business education alliance) and Singapore’s Civil Service College, among others.
The recipient of several awards for excellence in teaching, JFM has continued to teach in a number of programs while President, including High Performance Leadership (HPL) and the Executive MBA (EMBA) course.
In addition to his years at IMD (2004-2010 and 2016-2024), JFM previously served on the faculty of INSEAD (in Fontainebleau and Singapore), where he founded and directed for four years the PwC Research Initiative on High Performance Organizations. He later directed INSEAD’s Global Leadership Centre, supporting leadership-related coaching, teaching, and research activities throughout the world.
A citizen of Canada and France, JFM received his doctorate from Harvard Business School. He had earlier graduated from L’École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal and worked with Ernst and Young in Montreal before receiving an MBA from McGill University.
JFM is a frequent keynote speaker and discussion partner for business leaders, including through the IMD CEO Dialogue Series in which he holds frank and insightful discussions with CEOs of various organizations. He has also performed consulting, top management team support, and leadership development work for several international organizations, which has led him to work in more than 30 countries over the years.
He serves or served on a number of International Advisory Panels of industry bodies (e.g., digitalswitzerland), academic institutions (e.g., EHL Hospitality Business School) and corporations (e.g., Novartis Culture Leadership Advisory Board).
