Celebrating a landmark

They both had a vision and a purpose that were way ahead of their time. To set up a business school to train managers in the ways of international business. Alcan (now Rio Tinto Alcan, Inc) established the Centre d’Études Industrielles (CEI) in Geneva in 1946, which was later renamed the International Management Institute (IMI).

 

Move forward ten years. Nestlè calls on the Harvard Business School to coordinate the setting up of the Institut pour l'Etude des Méthodes de Direction de l'Entreprise (IMEDE) in Lausanne.

 

The Swiss roots are firmly established.

 

In 1990, IMI merged with IMEDE to create IMD – International Institute for Management Development based in Lausanne. Founded by business for business, the pioneering sprit lives on 75 years later.

 

There’s a lot more to discover in Chapter 1 of IMD 75 years

 

Let’s drop some names. Dr. Paul Haenni. Edward K. Davis. And look

more closely at a date: 1946.

 

Dr. Paul Haenni was chosen by Edward K. Davis, President of Alcan,

to start an international training center for young managers. The

Centre d’Études Industrielles (CEI) in Geneva.

 

Just how did that come about?

 

 

 

 

Obituary for Dr Paul Haenni, Founder of the Centre d’Études Industrielles (CEI), in IMI Report, Winter 1981

 

The US State Dept were grateful and thanked Edward K. Davis, who was similarly impressed. Largely as a result of this event Davis decided to give Haenni $300,000 to create an international training center for Alcan’s young managers (aged up to 40) that would replicate the teaching that the Chinese students had enjoyed.

CEI’s 25th anniversary in 1971 was celebrated with 500 senior business leaders, Presidents and CEOs from 32 countries attending the First European Management Symposium in Davos. The event, which took place between January 24th and February 7th, was designed to highlight CEI’s journey to a fully developed “Centre for Education in International Management”. Interestingly the venue was chosen because of its seclusion: senior executives were much less likely to be absent or distracted in Davos than in a commercial centre such as Geneva, New York or London. The venue even had a nuclear bunker in the basement where sessions could take place, ideal for avoiding unwanted interruptions, and the timing was also relevant. 500 executives together with support staff could be comfortably accommodated in a quiet resort at the end of the traditional skiing season.

 

Speakers included thought leaders who have a lasting place in the history of management thinking: Igor Ansoff, John Kenneth Galbraith, Herman Kahn, and Aurelio Peccei to name but a few.

 

The Secretary-General of the European Management Symposium, the man leading the CEI team who delivered the event was Dr Klaus Schwab. The Symposium was a major success.

 

 

Remember how in 1946 Paul Haenni took under his wing a group of young managers from China’s Natural Resources Commission? There’s more. And it happened many years later.

 

In 1982 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, at that time Director of the IMI, was invited to lecture to a group of Chinese military officers in Shanghai. After the lecture Hawrylyshyn decided to catch the bus back to his hotel so he could see a little of the city of Shanghai. After two stops a Chinese man boarded the bus and sat next to him. The two men fell into conversation, and the man asked Hawrylyshyn where he was from and what he did.

 

The IMI Director explained that he was a Professor of Management, based in Geneva, and then told the man the story about the Chinese students studying in Switzerland with Alcan in 1946. The Chinese man went pale, his mouth opened and his eyes widened, and then he smiled. “I did my MBA at Wharton”, he said, “And for that reason I was hired by the Natural Resources Commission to be the liaison for that group. I knew the students – and Dr Haenni – very well. They highlighted in their reports how incredibly valuable the experience was, how it provided a broad education and perspective.”

 

Needless to say, Hawrylyshyn was amazed. The statistical probability of meeting someone, randomly, who knew of this event so far removed in time and place from their current location was incredible. IMD networks, connections and memories are incredibly durable.

 

In June 1955 in Frankfurt, West Germany, several of Nestlé’s senior international executives and leadership team met to discuss how the Group was structured, and in particular how to address problems with the performance of the sales organization. They asked a group of young men who already had responsibility in the organization to share their views on how to better prepare their colleagues for the future.