IMD's 2012 placement report

Today I noticed IMD has posted the 2012 career statistics/placement report.

You can find it here.

The most glaring observation is that the average IMD graduate's salary actually went down for the class of 2012. In dollar terms, the average salary decreased from $142,412 to $131,566, or 7.6%. However, this drop seems to be exacerbated by exchange rates - in Euros, the decline was much smaller - from €103,355 to €102,104, or 1.2%. 

See below for a side-by-side comparison of the placement report for the class of 2012 against the one for the class of 2011.

IMD in the rankings - Financial Times 2013

This is the second post in the "series" where I analyze IMD's placement in various MBA rankings. Today I'll take a look at how IMD fares in the Financial Times's 2013 global ranking. Here is a link to the first post, breaking down the Economist's ranking:

IMD in the raknings, part I - the Economist

In the FT ranking IMD has one of its poorest showings, coming in at #19 for the year, and at #15 for the "3-year average" rank. IMD is behind schools such as HKUST, Ceibs, Cambridge (Judge) and Berkeley (Haas), which IMD tends to place ahead of in other rankings.
The complete ranking is available here.

Seeing the trees vs seeing the forest

Saw this article from the BBC today about a Belizean construction crew bulldozing one of the country's largest Mayan temples, estimated to be 2,300 years old. The reason? They were extracting materials for gravel to use as road fillers. Unbelievable! 

(picture goes to the BBC article):

IMD in the rankings - The Economist 2012

Since there is so much importance placed on MBA rankings, I figured it would be interesting to take a deeper look at IMD's position in each of the major rankings out there and see how it fared. There may be some unexpected findings behind each ranking's methodology.

I will start by looking at the Economist's ranking, where IMD occupies a respectable 10th place in the latest installment (2012). IMD placed ahead of some heavyweights like London Business School, INSEAD, Wharton and Kellogg.

Of course, each business school is so different that I don't believe there is a perfect way to really compare them all, so their ranking should be taken with a grain of salt. To me rankings are most useful for candidates to identify a school's strengths and weaknesses, and use that information to evaluate how good a fit it would be with their individual goals.

Notes from the Q&A with Ralf Boscheck

Earlier this week I attended the Q&A event with IMD's new MBA program director, Ralf Boscheck. It was a pretty informative session, and I was able to get a sense of the things that are changing in the MBA program.

Ralf started the session talking about the things that will not change. IMD continues to stand behind the slogans "The skills to know, the confidence to act, the humility to lead" and "Real world, Real learning."

What that tells me is that IMD's personality and program objectives seem to be staying the same. IMD will continue developing students in the following ways: technical expertise/business acumen; understanding oneself and one's context; and building strong values, i.e. the ability to navigate moral dilemmas and ambiguity. There will still be a strong emphasis on self-awareness and leadership development. I'm happy the focus will stay the same.

What will change is the program structure. There is also a new effort to leverage IMD's strength as an executive education powerhouse. The idea is to enrich the education experience for the MBAs by providing more exposure to high level executives from the IMD network and executive program participants, and also promote more contact with external stakeholders.

Why I chose IMD

Going to business school is a big decision. It is an incredible opportunity and I am very very excited, but I can't help but feel a little anxiety about how big a life change it is. I will be leaving a solid job where I've done really well, and will be giving up all my income for the year. I will be moving to a totally different country and uprooting not just my life, but Ashley's as well. Big stuff!

I have no doubt it will be worth it - I fully expect to come out of my MBA a better person and a better professional - more knowledgeable, more strategic, more well-rounded, more self-aware, better able to influence and lead, and better connected. I really believe IMD will provide me the best chance to accomplish all these expectations and I plan to work my butt off to take advantage of the opportunity. 

Here are my reasons why IMD is my top choice: