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Jim Pulcrano, IMD

The great divide between the corporate and NGO worlds (non-governmental organizations) closed a bit 3 February when Lausanne’s business school, IMD, pulled together executives from the two groups, whose paths don’t often cross. They met for a three-day summit on responsible leadership where they were told by John R Wells, IMD’s new president, “Now is the time to re-double our efforts and put responsible leadership to the front and centre.”
John Well’s speech on responsible leadership

IMD has moved it to the centre of its agenda for executive training, but not just in response to the current economic crisis, Jim Pulcrano, executive director at IMD says. The school is determined “to  have a real and positive impact on society through rewarding relationships.”

Photo, IMD on flickr: Responsible leadership summit

The summit was a great success, Pulcrano last week told a group from the American International Club of Geneva. “The mix of people was pretty good – and there was a lot of mixing.”

After the Lausanne summit IMD will set up a series of summits in Asia, the Gulf and the Americas, a move designed to ensure that it listens to stakeholders in different parts of the world.

The summit series is linked to IMD’s continuing growth from a Euro-centric to an international business school, Pulcrano says, a change that gathered speed perhaps 10 years ago and that has been made easier, somewhat ironically, because the school is unfettered by having other campuses or a main sponsor. No one company dominates the student body, with 3% the maximum. “We’re independent. We get no subsidiaries from the government.” Despite its relatively small size, with 56 fulltime professors, IMD was named number one in the world by the Economist for its MBA rankings.

Business schools mean MBA programmes to many minds, Pulcrano notes, but at IMD the MBAs are only 5% of the student population. The rest is a mix of executive education programmes, 40% open enrollment, 40% programmes tailored for partner companies and 15% what IMD calls its corporate learning network. The companies it works with are located around the world.

The school is well placed, therefore, Pulcrano notes, to work with the world’s top executives to focus more on developing responsible leadership.

At the summit, Wells, who stepped into his job 1 April 2008, upon Peter Lorange’s retirement, expanded on the phrase. “Getting results the right way means treating people and institutions fairly, taking the long view. Remember that business is a multi-round game. Fairness builds trust and loyalty which is key to good business. It means being honest: don’t steal from your firm’s long term assets to create the impression of short term profits that are not there.

“It means taking a broader view of the impact of a firm’s choices on local communities, society and the environment. And it means looking for investment opportunities to help solve critical issues such as the poor-rich divide, bringing the power of enlightened self-interest to bear on some of the world’s toughest problems.”

Quotes from IMD summit participants on how responsible leadership will shape the future of business and society.

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Ed. note: Jim Pulcrano addressed the American International Club of Geneva 6 February. At the lunch where he spoke AICG’s president, John Silver, announced that the club’s 2009 charity recipient is the English Speaking Cancer Association.