In a letter last week, Ralf Boscheck, the Program Director of the IMD MBA Program, announced that the school has “decided to realign the MBA Office with our new MBA program starting in January 2015.” He goes on to bid farewell to five long-time officials of the program, Claire Lecoq, Lisa Piguet, Janet Shaner, Marine Frey, and Simone Kuhn.
Their resignations follow a controversial move by IMD to begin reporting career stats every three years, rather than annually. After the new approach was announced, there was an uproar among alumni and applicants, especially when it became clear that this change covered up deteriorating salary and placement results for MBA graduates. The school explains, as noted in a September Poets & Quants article, that the declining salary stats are due to other changes made by the program, in particular a smaller class size, and currency fluctuations.
In a second Poets & Quants article chronicling the IMD saga, Boscheck says, “I would like to sidestep the commoditization of this industry and have a program that prepares 90 selected students not having to worry about being compared to other MBA programs that are less differentiated. These are not typical MBAs. They are junior executives and you can learn with them. It’s a senior, more experienced group. This school is an executive development network. We have 8,000 executives every year on campus and the trick is to bring the MBA program back into the core of the school and leverage what we have best which is our executive development.”
I was interviewed for the most recent Poets & Quants article on the IMD shake-up. My take on the turmoil:
“I don’t know who was behind that decision, but I do know there is a new program director and he probably wants ‘his people’ in positions that affect recruiting both of new students and potential employers. Either the old staff wasn’t comfortable with his approach and resigned, or they saw handwriting on the wall about their futures and resigned.
“I think IMD is going to struggle until the changes the new program director wants to make are implemented and prove popular with recruiters and students. If the changes are successful and the results are realized quickly, IMD will bounce back stronger than ever.
“If the changes prove unpopular or the results take a long time to be seen, IMD will decline until the new program director is replaced. In the latter case, its reputation and brand will be weakened.”
By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.
Related Resources:
• Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right Ones
• 2014 Virtual Panel: Exploring European B-Schools
• Business and Science Meet: Insights of an IMD Grad and Former Medical Doctor
Hello Linda, How are you? Could you please update the advice on IMD versus your neighbor USC IBEAR MBA ? Which one is better?
In general consider the firms you would like to work for and where you would like to work. Are those companies recruiting at one school more than the other? Are they sending more grads to the region where you want to live?
Thank you very much Linda. I will be back to my company, in the strategy department. I thought about IBEAR because it is for people like my age 33, and in better place, LA is much livable than Lausanne, and affiliation with a university vs the standalone IMD. I am aware that IMD is higher ranked, but I also, believe that there is quality education in the IBEAR program. Which one would you recommend? and why the IBEAR did not get much attention from applicants? and what is your thought on IMD these days.
KATIB,
Where are you located? Can you tell whether IMD or IBEAR has more alumni in the region where your company does business?
I am from Tunisia but working in Dubai. As long as I am aware there is few alumni from both schools. I heard USC alumni are supportive.
Katib,
I’m really not sure what to advise. I would probably lean to IMD given your location, but first check IMD’s latest recruiting stats, salaries at graduation, and current student and recent alumni satisfaction. If you have to, do searches in LinkedIn to connect with current students and recent grads from IMD.
Thank you Linda. Indeed many people recommended IMD. USC IBEAR is lower quality program.
I do not follow the rankings but what I can tell is that IMD is a very strong executive education school whereas Cambridge is more for undergrad. For MBA, I would go for IMD. they have a better and long-lasting reputation
well, to be frank, I believe linda judgement and expectations, she was right in predicting the strong decline of IMD MBA, beside slide in Forbes ranking, one fact is really worrying, on Forbes ranking, it is stated that the number of applicants for the current class was just 327! decline from 444 in 2013 and decline from 500s something in 2012. And now guess what IMD did last month, they extended the last round for ONE month from 1 of Sep to 30 of Sep! I guess most likely the reason is the dramatic decline in applicants.
I got the IMD offer for 2016. I did my assessment day in Aug. From what I understand, there are still big group of students applying IMD, and some of the groups during the assessment received high rejection rate. I talked with some of the batchmates who received offers from IMD but eventually decided to go to other schools (Mainly Insead), one of the major reasons is that this year IMD program cost is 20% higher due to the appreciation in the Swiss Franc. I admit that IMD needs a change or an improvement, but it is still a very top school.
Cheers
I completely disagree with Linda where she has recommended someone to choose Cambridge over IMD. Not withstanding the recent changes and associated issues in IMD, IMD still is one of the best out there for general management programs. I think people who really understand go much beyond the rankings. IMD, INSEAD, LBS are talked about in the same breath. You cannot go wrong by choosing any one of the three
Linda, Good day,
My name is Saleh from UAE. I am looking for your wisdom and opinion to help me decide and get out of the dilemma I am in. I was lucky enough to get offers of admissions from Cambridge University MBA and IMD in switzerland. I am in big dilemma on which one to go to. My main aim is management education and brand of my alma mater. In my country Cambridge university is super brand and very prestigious university, but when talking to people in consulting and business they prefer IMD as better MBA program. I am fully sponsored and will be back to my company with promotion. I do care about alumni, networking, and long term benefits. I see both programs similar in size, curriculum as project based learning, but Cambridge stand out as big and very known university, on the other side IMD stands out as mature MBA program and well known as business institution. I am not addict to ranking as I consider them as subjective and vary based on methodology, however, it is interesting that Cambridge is ranked higher in FT recently. and it seems raising up year after year. In Cambridge I will be affiliated with one of their historical colleges, which is very “romantic” thing to have despite irrelevance to management education, but exposure to another things in life. What you think is better for me. ? Many thanks in advance for your advise.
I think Cambridge is better. IMD is not what it used to be.
Saleh,
Congratulations on the acceptances! At this point in time I’d go with Cambridge.
Dear Linda,
greetings from Egypt,
Thank you for all the help you offer here to the applicants, it is really so kind of you. I’d like to have your advice on Cornell one year MBA compared to IMD MBA? at this time, do you also recommend it over IMD? for someone in his early thirty, with no major career change, most likely to back to the same company? Why the one year MBA at top schools in US such as Kellogg, Cornell, Emory didn’t get the attention?
Ayman,
Greetings from Los Angeles.
I’m sorry I don’t understand the question. Are you accepted to both IMD and Cornell Tech? Have you applied to these programs already?
Thank you very much Linda for the reply,
I have an offer from IMD, but not sure about the program after the latest changes. I’ll apply for Cornell One Year MBA in Ithaca not the Cornell Tech in NYC. I noticed the impressive performance of the Cornell program in the job market and almost 50% of its student are internationals. I am looking for solid educational and life experience with strong alumni base.
The accelerate program at Cornell is for people with a advanced degrees or professional certificates. It is an excellent option if you meet the requirements.
Yes, I did my Master of Engineering in a top Swedish university. So, you would recommend it over IMD?
Ayman,
I would try to contact recent IMD grads (Class of 2014) and current students. Are they happy with the school? Are they getting the career and leadership support they want and need and came for?
Also analyze your competitiveness at Cornell. If you are competitive and the students you talk to aren’t happy, go to Cornell. If you do not feel you have a decent chance to attend Cornell and the students aren’t satisfied with their IMD experience, then look for other programs that will help you achieve your goals.
Best,
Linda
What do you want to do after you earn your MBA? Are you confident you can get in?
Thank you very much Linda. Nothing guaranteed but I’ll try my best. I believe I have solid credentials to present. I’ll be back to my company with promotion. That is why I look for good one year program. So, the career side is not a major concern. I got concerned because of your recommendation to someone above (and you are who you are in MBA industry) to pick Cambridge over IMD. As long as I am aware is that Cornell is much better than Cambridge. I talked to some recent grads from IMD and they did quite well, don’t know about the current class.
Saleh, as an MBA, IMD is one of the best worldwide irrespective of ranking. Cambridge and Oxford are not known as postgraduate universities for business or management. Their programs are not accredited by AACSB. they are the best in undergraduate teaching, but when it comes to pure business education, IMD along with INSEAD and London are far far ahead of them.