IMD Tops List of International MBA Programs, According to Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Survey

Business Wire, Sept 22, 2004

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Corporate recruiters rate IMD as having the best international MBA program, according to the fourth annual 2005 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive global business school survey of corporate recruiters.

According to Professor Sean Meehan, IMD MBA Program Director: "The Wall Street Journal's focus on recruiters specifically is particularly helpful because recruiters provide the ultimate market test of MBA programs. Prospective MBA candidates should hear their view. At IMD we know the importance of recruiters and focus accordingly. It's great to see our investments in our admissions process and our placement process so publicly acknowledged. Our commitment to all recruiters is to continue to focus on these basics - one best group of 90; unrivalled focus on leadership development; and a real world experience providing unprecedented challenge."

"We need business leaders, and what sets IMD students apart is a mature self-awareness and greater depth of managerial experience," says Pim van Wesel, business development manager in Switzerland for Medtronic Inc. "They bring a grounding in real life, not simply academics."

The top five international MBA programs as ranked by the 2005 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of corporate recruiters are:

1. IMD International
    2. University of London (London Business School)
    3. Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas
       (ESADE)
    4. HEC School of Management, Paris
    5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

The survey of 2,849 MBA recruiters was conducted online between December 2, 2003, and March 31, 2004, with respondents rating only schools where they said they had recent recruiting experience. To qualify for the ranking, a school had to receive at least 20 recruiter ratings.

The ranking is based on recruiters' perceptions of the schools and students on 20 key attributes, such as leadership potential, teamwork skills and interpersonal qualities, and the school's "mass appeal," or the number of recruiters that it attracts. A revised and expanded part of the ranking formula is "supportive behavior," defined as the recruiters' intention to return to a particular school and the likelihood of making job offers to its graduates in the next two years. The ranking gives equal weight to perception, mass appeal and supportive behavior.

About The IMD MBA Program

IMD is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. IMD's unique Real World, Real Learning(R) instructional approach prepares its MBA participants for future business success. IMD's state-of-the-art learning facilities and market-driven faculty provide MBA participants the necessary speed and intellectual rigor to address complex business and management issues. IMD is the global meeting place for leadership and has more than 50,000 alumni in over 140 countries. Visit www.imd.ch/mba.>

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