IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland, has the No. 9 open-enrollment executive education program in The Financial Times‘ 2024 ranking. IMD photo
IMD’s EMBA was ranked No. 17 in the world in 2024 by FT. The Swiss B-school’s redesigned program can be completed in one of two formats: Modular, which builds on the current program design and takes 18 months; and Elective, which takes between 18 and 48 months. Both cost CHF125,000, or about $140,000, same cost as the current EMBA.
“What we are doing is introducing a second pathway — blended learning, more personalization — to offer more flexibility to our participants,” IMD President David Bach says. The commercial launch date is December 2, he says: two days after IMD celebrates the 25th anniversary of its EMBA at a gala event in Lausanne.
“We’re making our entire IMD EMBA program more flexible to adapt to our participants’ personal and professional needs, enable them to personalize the learning journey, and thereby maximize their potential for impact on business and society,” Bach tells P&Q.
LEVERAGE & SPECIALIZATION
IMD’s David Bach: “Candidates don’t want a one-size-fits-all offering. They want to personalize the curriculum. They want to leverage multiple learning modes. They want the flexibility to adapt the learning journey”
Bach says IMD’s approach is even more flexible than INSEAD’s. Like the latter, IMD will enable participants to spread out their learning journey as their personal or professional circumstances might require; but among IMD’s innovations, it will allow participants in either the Modular Flex or Elective Flex program to leverage executive education programs and have them count toward their IMD EMBA.
The new Modular Flex format will build on the current program design and add flexibility by allowing participants to space modules according to their preferences or circumstances, Bach says. “In Modular Flex, it’s about management foundations at the start. We currently offer three distinct executive education programs that count as the start module for our EMBA and we will consider those of other top business schools if they meet certain requirements. By making our program stackable, we are responding to clear market demand for personalization and individual learning journey design.”
The new Elective Flex program, meanwhile, “provides flexibility through the learning format — blended with much of the learning happening live virtually and online — and by letting participants personalize their learning journey by choosing electives from the unmatched IMD executive education portfolio,” Bach says. “This will enable participants to specialize in AI, sustainability, entrepreneurship or a number of other areas.”
‘THE LATEST EXAMPLE OF THE VIBRANCY OF THIS MARKET’
Bach says IMD is targeting two cohorts per year of 60 participants for its Modular Flex program, and a single cohort of 40 in Elective Flex, “but we are confident we can grow it to a cohort size of 60 over time.” The Modular Flex program will be between 15% and 30% live virtual and asynchronous online, depending on participants’ chosen path, while Elective Flex will be between 50% and 65% live virtual or asynchronous online.
Candidates for executive MBAs today “don’t want a one-size-fits-all offering,” he says. “They want to personalize the curriculum. They want to leverage multiple learning modes. They want the flexibility to adapt the learning journey as their personal or professional circumstances require. They don’t see the distinction between ‘degree’ and ‘executive education’ that business schools have long imposed. It’s about lifelong learning.
“There are only a handful of schools with the resources and breadth of offerings who can respond to this changing demand. The EMBA market has long been the place where top business schools have been most innovative, be it through partnerships, double degrees, or online offerings. The emphasis on flexibility is the latest example of the vibrancy of this market.”
