The Straits Times / The Business Times News on OSIM

Top Swiss business school picks Singapore for its inaugural overseas programme

SWISS business school, IMD, one of the world's leading management and executive education institutions, has picked Singapore as the first offshore location for its popular programme for senior company executives, "The Job of the CEO".

This programme, which has been running for more than 25 years at the headquarters of the IMD (International Institute of Management Development) in Lausanne, was condensed into a two-day seminar, from the original week-long one, for senior executives who are too busy to take a week off from work.

"Our immensely popular programme has been attended by well over 1,000 CEOs from the region, including many from here in Singapore," said Dr Dominique Turpin, the Dentsu Professor in Japanese Management at IMD, who was in town earlier this month.

"We find that some top-level executives are unable to take a week off from work to come to IMD. Therefore, to meet the need, we decided to run a two-day brisk seminar in Singapore," Dr Turpin told AsiaOne in an interview at the Oriental Hotel.

Twenty-five participants at chief executive and managing director levels from South-east Asian countries were selected for the inaugural run of the international seminar. Judging from the success of the programme conducted here in Singapore, it is likely to become a permanent feature on the IMD calendar, said Dr Turpin.

The programme participants explored and discussed some of the major challenges and opportunities of leading growth in a dynamic environment.

Dr Turpin, who specialises in strategy and marketing, said a key challenge for top executives "is how you change the rules of the game in the industry to grow your business".

He cited the example of Starbucks having successfully refined the proposition to make its coffee offerings a preferred lifestyle choice around the world. Closer home, he said Singapore's home-grown company, Osim, similarly had the potential to become a global brand name.

Since the participants of IMD's inaugural Singapore seminar were from the region, another key focus was the session on what the Chinese companies were doing to go global.

On the second day, the top executives discussed the art of branding. "Businesses are realising that it is increasingly becoming difficult to compete with China on costs. So they have to build brands.

"Asian companies need to pay more attention on building their brands if they wish to grow their business in the global market place. Why is it that Samsung is the only non-Japanese company among the top 25?" Dr Turpin asked.

The fourth key topic for the Singapore seminar was leadership and people development. "That is what you bet on for your business to prosper," stressed Dr Turpin.

The IMD don said the business school had been highly successful as "we keep the big picture in focus and do not believe in high degree of specialising, as is done in many in the leading United States business schools resulting in faculty living in silos, which we think does not work".

But above all, "IMD does not preach or prescribe what is good or bad. We adopt a unique interactive system. We present different perspectives and do not defend a particular model," said Dr Turpin. IMD's special strength is its international faculty. The business school's 50 professors represent 27 different nationalities.

Even as the Swiss business school has over 1,000 alumni in Singapore, it is on a new drive to encourage more senior Singapore-based executives to join its programmes ranging from a week to 10 weeks.

IMD says its highly experienced international faculty and the global mix of participants in its programmes provide a unique opportunity for Singaporeans to learn and participate in cross-cultural experiences as businesses in the Republic step up the drive to globalise their operations.