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University of Navarra
IESE Business School

Avenida Pearson, 21
Barcelona, Catalonia 08034
Spain

In the school's own words...

IESE Business School is committed to the development of leaders who can have a positive, deep, and lasting impact on people, firms, and society through professionalism, integrity and spirit of service. IESE believes that companies are communities of people and management should be centered around people. The ethical and moral values that the school draws on stem from the Christian tradition and humanistic principles, a perspective that has been at the roots of social and human progress in Europe and in many other countries around the world. These values emphasize the intrinsic rights and above all the dignity of every person. Therefore the school is convinced that human and ethical values are essential to IESE´s student development. "At IESE, we seek to transmit a spirit of service, placing a special emphasis on human, ethical, and social aspects of business management." (Jordi Canals, Dean of IESE) The centrality of the person, and what we now call the ethical and humanistic dimension of management, was already present in IESE´s first brochure published in November 1958. In fact, the school has had a core business ethics course since 1964 and an official business ethics department from the very beginning. Finally, IESE faculty was the first to author a book published in 1980, on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Spanish language.

IESE aspires to be a world-class and truly global business school, seeking teaching excellence and research impact, with an international campus in Barcelona-Madrid, and executive programs in key countries or regions around the world, including Germany, Eastern Europe, the United States, Brazil, and China. IESE is also setting up schools in developing countries and the faculty participates on their boards. The proof of the success of IESE is in the 30,000 alumni working in more than 100 countries around the world. We hope that our alumni embody our people-centered approach reflecting our belief that the aim of managers must be to serve people and society via professional excellence and integrity of character.

IESE’s commitment to business ethics and corporate social responsibility is reflected by its two research centers (Center for Business in Society and ICWF International Center of Work and Family), three chairs ('la Caixa' Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance, "Crèdit Andorrà" Chair Markets, Organizations and Humanism, and Chair of Business Ethics) and strong publishing record in the business and society field from faculty across all managerial disciplines within the school. Moreover, some of our academic activity highlights are: Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory, the Symposium on Business Ethics and Society, and being the host of major international business ethics conferences. In 2008, in order to reflect the core values of IESE a new bi-annual conference entitled “Humanizing the Firm and the Management Profession” was launched. In addition IESE is one of the founding members the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), The European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) and has signed the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) where it actively participates in the Working Group on “Curriculum Change and the PRME”. In addition, our dean sits on the Special Commission for Market Transparency and Security, made up of national leaders from private and public sectors.

Academic activity is complemented by extracurricular activities and international student involvement initiatives. Throughout the year a number of IESE professors have been working on a project with the Global Business School Network of International Finance Corp, part of the World Bank Group on creating public-private partnerships to strengthen the skills of managers in Africa. Also, this summer IESE faculty once again worked with Asia Link, an initiative by the European Commission to promote sustainable regional and multilateral networking between higher education institutions in EU Member States and South Asia, South-East Asia, and China. The student social venture, Club Solidario, is dedicated to fund raising and involvement in social welfare. The Responsible Business Club organizes conferences, keynote speakers, and corporate internships, while maintaining a link to NET IMPACT, a global network of MBAs and business professionals committed to using business to create a better world through lasting social and economic change. Our students also organize the leading student conference on responsible business in Europe "Doing Good, Doing Well Conference". In our dedication to integrating business ethics and corporate social responsibility, both internally and in the management profession as a whole, we aspire to work towards a world where meeting the minimum standard is not enough; we are striving for excellence in the management profession.

School Demographic Information