True, Spain (together with Portugal) was the last Western European country to industrialize. It had one of the lowest per capita incomes in Western Europe after the Second World War. But that was more than 40 years ago. Today, with a per capita income of more than US$20,000, Spain is a full-fledged industrial power, leading in such heavy industries as shipbuilding, airplane and automotive manufacturing, steel and chemicals. It is also a world leader in medical research, biotech, tourism, the fashion industry, urban-renewal, and as this article will show business education.
Recently, Spain was in the international business limelight when one of its top business schools, University of Navarre’s IESE Business School in Barcelona, was ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)—sister organization of the prestigious weekly magazine The Economist—as the Numero Uno business school in the world, outranking such older American universities as Northwestern, Stanford, Chicago, and the University of California (Berkeley). Harvard and Wharton were excluded from the ranking because they chose not to give EIU access to the sources it needed to make the rankings.
What the report did not say is that for more than twenty years now, IESE has been outranking American business schools, including Harvard, in Executive Education or Advanced Management Programs, which are in separate categories from MBA programs. IESE has almost fifty years of experience in training CEOs, middle-level managers and junior executives in varying programs that make full use of the case method originally developed by the Harvard Business School, which to its credit helped IESE in its initial stages in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As an example of a child surpassing the accomplishments of a father, IESE went further and developed its own unique programs in executive education which have been replicated in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and other Latin American countries as well as China, where IESE helped the Chinese Government establish the China-European International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. Filipino-Chinese executives should consider taking their MBAs at CEIBS.
In addition to IESE, there are two worldclass business schools in Spain. Instituto de Empresa was started 30 years ago in Madrid. ESADE in Barcelona was founded by the Jesuits. All three business schools teach in English and Spanish and are willing to admit students who still do not speak Spanish but are willing to work hard to learn it. Among the famous Filipino graduates of IESE are Dr. Thomas Aquino, the most senior of the Undersecretaries in the Department of Trade and Industry and who is the government’s leading expert on globalization and international economic issues. Dr. Aquino holds a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from IESE. Another IESE graduate is Ambassador Joseph Delano Bernardo, Philippine Ambassador to Spain.
Filipino executives who have the resources to go abroad for business education programs should increasingly choose Spain and other European countries (INSEAD in France and IMD in Switzerland) instead of being fixated on U.S. business schools. Besides being less costly than the leading U.S. schools, European business schools have more international and multi-cultural curricula, student bodies, and faculties, which can prepare Filipino managers and entrepreneurs for a more global business environment and to more effectively network with their counterparts in different countries of the world. American schools still tend to be too insular and U.S.-focused.
Business school hunters from the Philippines, or all over Asia for that matter, should consider the following results of the EIU ranking that placed IESE on top of all business schools in the world. The EIU ranking measures the way schools meet the demands students have of an MBA programme in four areas which form the basis for the ranking:
to open new career opportunities and/or further current career (35%);
personal development and educational experience (35%);
to increase salary (20%); and
the potential to network (10%)
The article accompanying the ranking lauds IESE’s careers placement, able to find 96% of students a job within three months after graduation. On the list of top programs by category, IESE appears 5th for opening new career opportunities, and 3rd for salary increase.
In today’s international business environment in which there is increasing clamor for ethical behavior, another distinct advantage of a business school like IESE is the integral role of ethics in its programs and curricula. As Ms. Mireia Rius, Admissions Director of IESE, said in a Business Week (online) interview: "Ethics and corporate social responsibility have been central to IESE’s mission since the school’s founding in 1958. Students are obliged to do a course in the first year called Ethics, Leadership, and Values, and may choose from a range of electives (e.g., Global Business Ethics, Business in Society, Ethics in Marketing, Christian Humanism in Management, and Social Entrepreneurship) during the second year.
"IESE integrates ethical considerations into all aspects of its teaching. At the end of the day, a course in corporate finance is a course in corporate finance. But at IESE, a professor would also try to inculcate the idea of ethical behavior. We at least encourage students to reflect on the consequences of their decisions and how these may affect the lives of people they work with. The emphasis is: Management is about people, leaders lead by example, and true leadership means service.
"We also organize a biennial symposium called Business, Ethics, and Society and an annual forum on international business and sustainable development. Students also have an active Responsible Business Club, which just hosted a conference called Doing Good and Doing Well."
The next time you think of Spain, in addition to having images of Real Madrid and the San Fermin bull run in Pamplona, make sure you consider the brain power that the Peninsulares are now famous for, especially in the training of the executives, managers, and leaders of the world. For those interested in the programs of IESE, visit the website _ HYPERLINK http://www.iese.edu www.iese.edu_. For comments, my email is _ HYPERLINK mailto:bvillegas@uap.edu.ph bvillegas@uap.edu.ph_.
