IESE is nested in the beautiful hills of suburban Barcelona — a compact and delightful campus which is part of the University of Navarra. http://www.unav.es/english/
I was privileged to be connected to Dr. Christoph Zott — a Professor of Entrepreneurship and, coincidentally a Sauder Business School Alumni. http://www.iese.edu/aplicaciones/faculty/facultyDetail.asp?lang=en&prof=CZ
Chris kindly toured me around the IESE campus — the intimate and welcoming older campus where the Dean resides, as do many of the faculty offices.
Older IESE Campus in Barcelona
And the newer campus — farther up the hill with a striking new building with amazing views of Barcelona.
New Building at IESE Campus
Chris and I had a wide-ranging discussion about business education, design, entrepreneurship and the future of the world as we know it! I was especially struck by some of his explanations about the approach at IESE — partly because of its roots in the University of Navarra. The full-time MBA is two years at IESE — which in itself is unusual. And there is an emphasis on reflection — and on values. There are several key values noted in the Mission Statement of the business school — Chris emphasized 3 of them: integrity, professionalism and the spirit of service.
From their web site:
• Respect for others
• Professionalism
• Spirit of service
• Integrity
• Commitment to the common good of companies and society
• Humility
• Learning and listening
• Teamwork
Chris said that “reflection” was in the DNA of the School – where implications of actions are keenly followed. We also discussed the fact that it seems that many MBA students (especially new ones) have the idea that accounting and finance are the key learning outcomes for their time in school. IESE invites alumni to meet with new students to provide a perspective that is a bit broader — the need for leadership skills, HR/people skills and for thinking in an integrated and holistic manner.
Chris Zott -- Professor of Entrepreneurship at IESE
I also found our discussion on entrepreneurship helpful. It is a young discipline and is emerging with legitimacy in the last decade. We talked about how design thinking/systems thinking and entrepreneurship fit well together. It made me think I need to pick the brains of Dean Dan Muzyka and Professor Jim Brander about their views of around innovation and new business models.
Finally — we discovered that we had a friend in common. When Chris lived in Vancouver he got to know planner/urban designer Paul Rosenau very well. And of course, Paul was one of our stars in the UBC Landscape Architecture Program many years ago. The Global Village.