IMD MBA Looking to 2015 Amid Rumors of Discontent | TopMBA.com

IMD MBA Looking to 2015 Amid Rumors of Discontent

By Tim Dhoul

Updated June 3, 2016 Updated June 3, 2016

The IMD MBA program is to undergo an overhaul at the turn of the year ahead of the start of its 2015 intake.

Five experienced officials are calling time on their work with the school. The departures encompass three members of its MBA admissions team, including director, Claire Lecoq, and associate director, Lisa Piguet.

The news, particularly the number of departures, has sparked rumors of discontent within the IMD MBA camp, with a suggestion that Ralf Boscheck, IMD MBA program director for the last ten months, may be the source of conflict.  

‘It is normal for people to seek new challenges’ says IMD

However, the school – while not rejecting the speculation out of hand – has suggested that change is to be expected in any walk of professional life, and that the school remains committed to its preparations for the incoming class of 2015. 

“In all companies and institutions it is normal for people to seek new challenges elsewhere from time to time. We are coming to the end of the academic year for IMD’s 2014 MBA. Our colleagues are very professional and have decided to leave once they have accomplished their mission for this year,” said Richard Eames of IMD communications, adding that the school wouldn’t comment on individual decisions.

School ‘fully mobilized’ for 2015’s MBA program

“The 2015 MBA class is full, the program director is finalizing the curriculum, and placement is well under way,” Eames continues, before moving to reassure the school’s incoming intake: “We’re in regular contact with the class of 2015. IMD is fully mobilized to make 2015 a positive and memorable experience for this new class, as we’ve always done.”  

A ‘realignment’ of the IMD MBA program was the message portrayed in an email attributed to the IMD MBA program’s new director Ralf Boscheck, according to Poets & Quants. This revelation caused the site to brand it an “unprecedented shakeup” to IMD’s MBA program and to speculate whether changes implemented and planned by Boscheck, as well as his relative inexperience in the role, could have provoked the departures.   

Eames says that several changes have indeed taken place in 2014, but that these have nothing to do with internal reasons. Instead, he says changes thus far have been designed simply to give IMD MBA students greater exposure to influential executives around the world.

One such change saw this year’s class take part in expeditions and company visits in Singapore, Sao Paulo and New York.

IMD campus image source.

This article was originally published in October 2014 . It was last updated in June 2016

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