IMD business school for management and leadership courses
Our year of learning
IMD continues to be the trusted learning partner for ambitious individuals and organizations. In 2024, we welcomed over 21,000 participants from across the globe to our programs, as we continued to evolve and innovate our offering and learning tools. Our executive education and degree programs are consistently ranked among the world’s best by the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Forbes, and continue to win awards around the world.
To meet business leaders’ growing demand for certification, we launched a new range of executive certificates with an in-depth focus on digital and sustainability transformations. The inaugural session of our open program Leading Skills for Sustainable Change ran in 2024 to help leaders accelerate their ability to drive sustainability transformations. Additionally, 2024 saw the launch of an online program with Coursera – Sustainability for Business: ESG Fundamentals.
We further strengthened our portfolio of online programs and saw record growth in open enrollment, while the scale of our custom programs continued to expand. Strategic Talent Solutions launched 543 personalized learning journeys, developed six cutting-edge diagnostic tools, and nine high-potential talent development programs.
Our Sprint programs have gone from strength to strength: IMD won the 2024 Learning in Practice Gold Award for the custom Sprint program we ran for pharmaceutical and biotech multinational Bayer. Our colleagues Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior Jennifer Jordan, Professor of Strategy and Leadership Michael Yaziji, and IMD’s Director of Programs and Learning Design Paul Hunter received a Gold Award in Excellence in Executive Education for this transformative collaboration. And in spring, we added the Business Creativity and Innovation Sprint to this highly successful format.
During 2024, we redesigned both our degree programs. Having celebrated its milestone 25th anniversary in 2024, we announced the new future-focused, flexible Executive MBA which will offer two distinct formats as of 2025. The revamped AI-rich MBA program for 2025 is designed to equip our MBAs with the experiences, skills, and tools to help them navigate in a data-driven world.
First unveiled at Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) in Singapore in 2023, and since implemented also in Lausanne, our ground-breaking interactive learning tool SpheriCO2 won gold in the Immersive Experiential Learning category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards. This is a testament to the impact we have had on executive education by leveraging cutting-edge technologies.
To ensure we deliver real impact, in 2024 we executed 665 immediate impact assessments, 471 post-program assessments, and approximately 12 custom program business impact and ROI assessments. In our ROI studies, the results varied from 66% ROI in online Sprint programs to an impressive 1,150% in longer learning journeys with enterprise projects.
Read on to discover just some of the highlights of our year or find out more in our full report.
Total participants
Custom programs delivered
Participants in online programs
Participants in open programs
MBA and EMBA graduates
Executives at OWP Lausanne and Singapore
Our Degree programs
2024 was a remarkable year for our MBA program. With a wealth of diversity and cultural experience in their class, 101 MBAs graduated in December. The program evolved to include new, future-oriented elements, course content was updated to include techniques for leveraging generative AI technologies on assignments, and a summer internship option was introduced. The revamped AI-rich program for 2025 was announced in June to equip participants with the experiences, skills, and tools to help them navigate in a data-driven world.
The Executive MBA program celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024 while we also announced a revamped program, which now offers two distinct formats that maximize return on learning investment. We welcomed 124 participants across two cohorts, and 70 EMBAs graduated from the program. IMD EMBAs participated in Global Network Weeks for the first time where participants and faculty have the opportunity to pursue intensive study at another network school. We introduced Global Immersion Weeks in Japan and Singapore and also returned to China.
In 2024, the Master of Science in Sustainable Management and Technology introduced a new set of electives to enable students to explore topics aligned with their personal interests. In October, 34 students graduated with a ceremony on the IMD campus and 90% found employment within three months of graduation. The third cohort successfully completed nine impactful projects for various organizations whereas the students of the fourth cohort conducted a live consulting project working for IMD.
Executive & Organizational Development programs
Custom programs had yet another excellent year with revenues equaling those of 2023. We delivered over 372 programs to 197 global organizations and continued to leverage technology to deliver even more impactful and sustainable custom programs. We continued to deepen relationships with key clients, as many chose IMD for additional custom programs and diversified services such as open programs, coaching, advisory, and talent assessment. The scale of programs continued to expand as clients sought greater impact for their initiatives. IMD earned two prestigious gold medals in the EFMD Excellence in Practice awards: for our custom program for global security specialist Securitas and for the Bayer Sprint program which upskilled 12,826 leaders globally. Additionally, we garnered five awards at the Brandon Hall Group Human Capital Management Excellence Awards.
2024 saw another record year of growth for IMD’s Open program enrollment. Our new executive certificates were launched, the Global Management Foundations program was redesigned, and to meet growing demand, we ran short accelerator programs focusing on key areas of sustainability. Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) – our signature program – once again ran in Singapore and Lausanne and explored how to master future readiness in a world of constant flux. The Singapore edition welcomed 222 executives from 25 countries, representing 123 companies across 16 industries while 470 senior executives, from 172 companies and 63 countries, joined the Lausanne edition. First unveiled at OWP in Singapore in 2023, one of our latest innovations – the immersive Learning Theatre Experience SpheriCO2 – won gold at the 2024 QS Reimagine Education Awards.
As we celebrated a decade of Online programs in 2024, our portfolio – 23 online programs and four Sprints – now covers a broad range of topics encompassing multiple aspects of leadership. We introduced a new version of our Strategic Thinking program and with an NPS of more than 70%, participants clearly appreciated this new program. 2024 also saw the launch of the new Business Creativity and Innovation Sprint and we deployed four iterations of our Generative AI Sprint due to popular demand. We were also delighted to see increased strong growth in our online program Mastering Board Governance. During the year, we introduced more self-evaluation opportunities, leveraged AI tools to create bespoke journeys for participants, and sought to further expand their learning journeys through the introduction of new IMD Sparks – concise, targeted post-program engagement materials.
Coaching and Talent
The Strategic Talent Lab enables opportunities for greater collaboration to reinforce IMD’s position as a leader in utilizing new technology and the latest thinking in diagnostics and talent development. The team has three core elements: Talent programs, Talent diagnostics, and Digital journey coordination. During 2024, we conducted 4,281 assessments, launched 543 personalized learning journeys, and developed six cutting-edge diagnostic tools and nine high-potential talent development programs. We launched four innovations in 2024: Accelerator, an interactive multi-rater tool; Strategic Thinking, an interactive multi-media assessment tool framed around a business simulation; Situational Judgement, the first validated game-based assessment; and Personalized Learning Journeys, where the prioritized recommendations from the diagnostics are translated into a digital learning journey for each person.
In 2024, the Center for Coaching Excellence again saw substantial growth in requests for executive coaching services as well as an increase in the number of IMD programs leveraging our offering. To respond to this demand, we further built up our ecosystem and expanded our services to offer Virtual Executive Coaching. We also strengthened our global Coaching Community, composed of a world-class pool of experienced independent executive coaches. 20% of IMD custom, open, online and degree programs leveraged coaching in 2024 with over 300 coaches involved and an average impact score of 4.5. We also saw high demand for our Executive Coaching Certificate program with two cohorts during the year.
Rankings
For decades, we have consistently been highly ranked by the most influential business publications across our Degree and Executive Education programs.
In 2024, IMD was ranked in the top 10 for both open and custom programs worldwide. It was ranked #3 for custom programs and #9 for open programs.
The IMD MBA was ranked #1 in Europe in the 2024-25 Best European Business School rankings by Bloomberg.
Poets & Quants named the IMD MBA its Program of the Year for 2024. The program was also placed at #9 in its International MBA Programs of 2024-2025 list.
The IMD MBA was ranked #11 in Europe and #36 worldwide. At the criteria level, it ranked #1 in international faculty, international students, and faculty with doctorates and #2 in international mobility.
In 2024, the IMD EMBA was ranked #8 in Europe and #17 worldwide by the Financial Times. It was also ranked #1 in the criteria for international faculty and faculty with doctorates and #5 in work experience.
