Foundations for Business Leadership - Your learning journey

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Your learning journey

Experience the program

Focus on intensive skills-building over 20 days. When you arrive at Foundations for Business Leadership, you intensely focus on the cross-functional skills that leaders must possess to be a General Manager.

Specifically you reinforce and integrate skills in marketing, finance and accounting, entrepreneurship, business model innovation, sustainability, operations, supply chain management, and more. Then you apply to your biggest business challenges such as:

Leading through uncertainty, change, and disruption.
Responding to shifts in customer needs.
Driving business model innovation.
Managing complex organizations.
Leveraging globalization.
Identifying industry and business trends.
Integrating new technologies.
Applying financial tools across your organization.

Example of topics addressed per key themes:

Finance & value creation	Business model & entrepreneurship	Strategy	Marketing & digital	Supply chain & operations	Teams
- Financial statements - Value creation through operations - Industry structure and value creation	- Making the business case - Designing the business system for sustainable development - Corporate entrepreneurship	- Resource-based view of strategy - Dynamic nature of strategy - Global strategy	- Digital marketing pathways to create new value to customers - Navigating market shifts - Data driven insights and platforms	- Introduction to operations management - Competing on information flows - Digitally enabled supply chains	- Team effectiveness - Personalized coaching

A unique, immersive learning methodology

Case studies

Award-winning case studies from IMD faculty.

Live case presentation

Live case presentations with CEOs, venture founders, and leaders.

Business simulations

Dynamic business simulations to develop your agility and decision making.

Integrative exercises

Integrative exercises to boost your team and leadership performance.

Alumni support

Peer learning and alumni support for your career development.

Practice while you learn with integrative exercises

Two weeks through the program, you take part in a two-day business simulation which integrates your learning and gives you greater insight into your business performance.

During this dynamic, integrative exercise, you bring together all the new general management skills you have learned on Foundations for Business Leadership and put them into practice by simulating the running and growing of a company. You improve your decision-making skills and overall performance as you see how your decisions impact company results over two years.

For the last two days of the program, you prepare an integrative team exercise to bring all the threads of the program together. You present your learning to a panel of judges of alumni and receive your final evaluation.

Throughout the program, you receive feedback as you develop as an effective individual and team member. You will be challenged by the work, by the faculty, and by your peers to ensure that you reach the high standards set by IMD.

Diploma – Program for Executive Development (PED)

Foundations for Business Leadership is the first stage of IMD’s Program for Executive Development (PED). To complete PED, your second step is to take IMD’s Transition to Business Leadership program. Successful completion of both programs and exams leads to the Program for Executive Development (PED) diploma.

Degree – Executive MBA

Foundations for Business Leadership is also the first step towards IMD’s Executive MBA. Participants wishing to complete the EMBA then follow a five-week distance learning module and a twelve-month mastery stage leading to the EMBA degree. More details on the Executive MBA can be found here.

Get a personal recommendation

Schedule a call with a Program Advisor to discuss your professional development and see if this is the program for you.

Join a free information session

Join online and experience a walkthrough of the General Management programs, how they work, what you can expect, and how it will impact your career.

Discover our Executive MBA

Thinking of a degree in the long-term? Completing Foundations for Business Leadership is your first step towards IMD’s Executive MBA program.

Become the 360° business leader

Foundations for Business Leadership is the first stage of IMD’s Program for Executive Development Diploma, certifying your professional development in business management and leadership.