IMD business school for management and leadership courses
Advances in geographical diversity
IMD’s success has been rooted in the international diversity of our faculty, staff, and participants, yet diversity has often been limited to Europe and Western countries. Across all our programs, faculty and staff report that the diversity of enrolments results in rich classroom conversations and transformative experiences. Exchanges between participants of varied cultural, educational, and life experience backgrounds are a distinguishing feature of IMD programs.
We continue to focus on broadening the diversity of nationalities and cultures in our MBA and EMBA programs. Between 2019 and 2024, MBA enrolment from Africa and the Middle East increased from 3% to 11%. In 2023, Cameroon was represented for the first time in the MBA program and Uganda in the EMBA program. Further, in IMD’s new Master of Science in Sustainable Management and Technology program, almost half of the participants hail from abroad.
“By 2075, one in three working-age people will be from Africa. In that respect, the continent very much holds the future in its hands.”
Absa Leadership Academy accelerates African leadership
The Absa Leadership Academy’s Accelerated Development Program is a purposefully designed learning journey that aims to accelerate the leadership potential of the African banking giant’s top talent. Started in 2019, it addresses the unique needs of the African banking giant’s top talent.
In 2023, Absa IMD’s alumni gathered to assess the program’s impact, and 462 Absa leaders have attended since its inception. A highlight of the forum was the alumni presenting their learning and impact projects that link Absa’s purpose with performance; several have been adopted and rolled out by the bank.
Motshelo Community Group Saving initiative, a group savings and lending project, is one such project. Launched by Absa in June 2023, the product is the first of its kind in Botswana. In this market, traditional credit policies had failed to acknowledge informal savings groups as legal parties to a credit facility.
Members’ saving patterns are used to determine credit affordability and accrued savings are saved in an interest-bearing account and used as surety for credit. Their accrued savings are safeguarded and interest-bearing.
The product is lauded as a key sustainability initiative under the bank’s pillar of being an ‘Active Force for Good,’ and it promotes sustainable development in the communities it operates in.
Another widely acclaimed project that meets Absa’s environmentally sustainable goals is a waste bank solution. It allows the informal waste sector to benefit from the country’s economy and contribute to its GDP.
Nadia Osman, from Sudan, was awarded the BackPack-Excellence Scholarship for Women in 2023. The scholarship provides a transformational experience to talented and driven women for whom an MBA program may have been out of reach due to limitations and disruptions in their professional paths due to family obligations, forced migration, and financial constraints.
“I envision a world society driven by innovation, where I can support the ecosystem and assist in developing policies to support the economy. These challenges have led me to pursue this MBA to equip me with the knowledge to help build an inclusive and resilient society.”
Our substantial investments in technology have enabled companies to decide whether an on-campus pedagogical learning experience is required or whether online learning better suits their needs. We offer in-person learning, online learning, and hybrid programs. These investments in technology have also allowed us to reach learners in new geographic regions and to penetrate deeper into organizations. We added two new online programs in 2023, the Change Management program and the Resilient Leadership program, attended by more than 350 participants worldwide.
