Partnerships & Outreach

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

IMD and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2021 to collaborate on the most sustainability-centered MBA program in the world.

IMD will also explore ways to further expand Vision 2050 - WBCSD’s vision of a world in which more than nine billion people live well, within planetary boundaries, by 2050 – by developing short programs targeting business executives.

Business Schools for Climate Leadership

IMD is one of the founding members of Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL), a group of eight European business schools joining together to help business leaders combat the climate crisis facing the planet. The partnership, established in 2021, comprises IMD, Cambridge Judge Business School, HEC Paris, IE Business School, IESE Business School, INSEAD, London Business School and Oxford Saïd Business School.

Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL) published a digital toolkit for business leaders at the Sustainable Innovation Forum alongside COP26. Ahead of the toolkit launch, the member schools collaborated on a series of webinars to introduce the various topics covered. IMD hosted a joint webinar with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford on the topic of climate change, business transformation and risk management. Professors Knut Haanaes and Julia Binder, and Head of Sustainability Natalia Olynec, explored why companies should integrate sustainability into their strategy and examined best case practices from DSM, Nestlé and Maersk.

“The BS4CL collaboration unites our deans, faculty, staff and alumni in a common mission – to mobilize business to address climate change,” said Professor Haanaes. “By bringing together leading business schools for this purpose, IMD’s voice on sustainability is amplified and our opportunity for cross learning, collaboration, and engagement is strengthened.”

Enterprise for Society (E4S)

IMD partners with the University of Lausanne (UNIL-HEC) and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) as part of the Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center to shape the transition to a more resilient, responsible, and inclusive economy through teaching, research and outreach.

Master of Science in Sustainable Management & Technology

The E4S Center welcomed in 2021 the first cohort of the Master of Science in Sustainable Management & Technology, delivered jointly by UNIL-HEC, IMD and EPFL.

“We aim to train a new generation of responsible leaders to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges,” said Jean-Pierre Danthine, Co-Managing Director of the E4S Center, as he welcomed the 32 students.

The two-year Master program is built around three pillars: sustainability, technology and management, covering subjects such as the science of climate change, robotics, leadership, and sustainable finance. One-third of the cohort is made up of engineering students and two-thirds are economics and management students.

Research

In 2021, E4S produced a series of white papers and hosted a number of academic roundtables on topics such as responsible consumption and carbon pricing, featuring contributions from IMD professors and researchers.

Outreach

The second E4S summit in 2021 brought together more than 40 business leaders and 200 participants from academia, business, NGOs and public policymaking to explore cross-sector collaboration for a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy.

“The challenges faced by society are so paramount that, if the private sector continues on a business-as-usual trajectory, intrusive government intervention will be needed,” said Professor Jean-Pierre Danthine in his opening address. “In order to avoid this, the only solutions are public–private partnerships, where government and business meet halfway,” he explained. “Academia and institutions like E4S are here to act as intermediaries.”

The E4S Center hosted four panel discussions on sustainable mobility and logistics, sustainable finance, corporate purpose and activism, and the interface between government, business, and academia.

The discussions featured experts such as Mirjam Staub-Bisang, Country Manager of BlackRock Switzerland; Paul Bulcke, Chairman of Nestlé; Roberto Cirillo, CEO of Swiss Post; Patrick Odier, Senior Managing Partner at Lombard Odier.

IMD-Pictet Sustainability in Family Business Award

IMD announced in 2021 that J.M. Huber Corporation, one of the United States’ largest privately-held businesses, won the 2020 IMD-Pictet Sustainability in Family Business Award for its holistic and long-term approach to embedding sustainability across its operations.

The award acknowledges and motivates family-owned enterprises that strive to excel in corporate sustainability and impact.

“As a family-owned business that thinks in terms of generations rather than years, sustainability is fundamental in supporting our long-term view,” said Molly Heaney, a fifth generation Huber family member and director of the company. “While this recognition reminds us of what we have done well, it drives us to continue to do better, thinking always of future generations and the world that they will inherit.”

Supporting Sustainable Startups

Some of the most successful startups in Switzerland have worked directly with IMD alumni and were recognized by the Top 100 Startups of 2021. About 40 percent of these companies have collaborated with MBAs and EMBAs on a variety of projects that have a heavy focus on sustainability. Five of IMD’s alumni-led startups appeared on the top 25 list.

IMD’s annual Startup Competition selects up to 38 Swiss-based startups to work with IMD MBA and EMBA participants on strategy and business model design. In the 2021 competition, several winning startups such as Perovskia Solar, SmartHelio, and Enerdrape, focused on sustainability. Many also were led by women.

“The winners were picked to provide the greatest possible learning experiences for our participants, to discover entrepreneurship from the inside,” said Professor Benoît Leleux. “Eight of the projects selected for 2022 were championed by women, and six of them have female CEOs, a proportion rarely attained in the past.”