Peter Lorange

Professor Emeritus of Strategy and Honorary President of IMD

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Peter Lorange is Professor Emeritus of Strategy and Honorary President of IMD.

A strategy expert whose areas of special interest include global strategic management and strategic planning and entrepreneurship for growth, Lorange has conducted extensive research on multinational management, planning processes, and internally generated growth processes. He has written or edited more than 30 books and 120 articles on these subjects.

As a key architect of the 1990 merger between the International Management Institute (IMI) and Nestlé’s Institut pour l’Etude des Méthodes de Direction de l’Entreprise (IMEDE), he was central to the development of IMD. This merger produced the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in its current form. As President of IMD, a position he held from 1993 to 2008, Lorange played a significant role in shaping the Lausanne campus by commissioning most of its new buildings. He was also Professor of Strategy, held the Nestlé Chair for Strategy, and then held the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair for International Shipping.

Among IMD’s pioneering work over the past 75 years has been the Institute’s contribution to the world of family business, where it was one of the first academic organizations to offer dedicated programs to business-owning families. To build on this global legacy, IMD established the Peter Lorange Chair in Family Business.

In addition to his academic work, Lorange was founder, sole owner, Chairman and CEO of the Lorange Network, where he led digital business knowledge transfer for business owners, entrepreneurial families, and investors. He was formerly owner and President of the Lorange Institute of Business and the owner and Chairman of S. Ugelstad Invest, a large investment company. He was also owner of S. Ugelstad’s Rederi, which was sold in 2006.

Lorange was formerly President of BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo. Before that leadership role, he was affiliated with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for more than a decade in various assignments, including serving as head of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies and The William H. Wurster Center for International Management Studies. At Wharton, he was also the William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management. He also taught for eight years at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In addition to his academic work, Lorange has extensive experience in shipping, having served as director on several boards (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Kvaerner and Seaspan, ISS, Keystone Solutions, Globalpraxis, Copenhagen Business School and many others).

Lorange earned his undergraduate degree from the Norwegian School of Economics, received a master’s degree in operations management from Yale University, and a doctorate in business administration from Harvard Business School. In addition, he is the recipient of six honorary doctorates.

Academic publications
Book
Profit or growth?: Why you don't have to choose
This book provides tools and a framework for successfully sustaining profitable growth. The book is organized in two parts: Part I devoted to strategy and part II to execution. The author's begin b...
Published 18 August 2007
Article
A strategic human resource perspective applied to multinational cooperative ventures
Human resource management has increasingly been recognized as a critical dimension of strategic management. Above all, it is becoming clearer that the human resource is a strategic resource that sh...
Published 1 April 1996
Article
Strategy means choice: Also for today's business school!
This article purpose is to share some key strategic paradigms for business schools with leading educators, academic administrators and executives.
Published 1 January 2005
Article
The cooperative venture formation process: A latent variable structural modeling approach
This article addresses management process issues for forming cooperative ventures with an increased likelihood of subsequent success. Based on Roos (1989) the cooperative venture formation process ...
Published 1 January 1990
Article
Strategic planning for rapid and profitable growth
The strategic planning process has been used and appreciated for many years, and there is a well established body of knowledge regarding how this process supports conventional business operations. ...
Published 1 June 1996
Article
A performance-based, minimalist human resource management approach in business schools
This article examines the professorial human resource base in academic institutions. More specifically, the author focuses on professors in business schools. All academic institutions, business sch...
Published 1 February 2006
Article
Continuous renewal, and how Best Buy did it
As an alternative to the two extremes of protecting and extending the core business versus transforming it, the article aims to propose two other renewal strategies, “leverage” and “build,” that to...
Published 1 January 2007
Insight for Executives
“Conducting the virtual orchestra” -The future of management education
Article
“Conducting the virtual orchestra” -The future of management education
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of technology in management education. IMD Honorary President Peter Lorange discusses the impact of hybrid learning on leadership training and shares his t...
Published 16 September 2022
Evolution from a family-owned company to a family-owned investment portfolio
Article
Evolution from a family-owned company to a family-owned investment portfolio
When deciding whether to sell your family-owned business, the choice for many families comes down to a number of factors – some of which will be uncontrollable. Peter Lorange, Emeritus Professor of...
Published 10 May 2022
Article
Optimisten gaan de strijd winnen
Published 31 March 2009
Article
Optimists have a bright future
There is much doomsday talk amid the global economic slowdown but managers should look at turbulent times for what they are: opportunities. There needs to be a fundamental change of mindset in how ...
Published 30 January 2009
Article
Videnoverførsel styrker konkurrenceevnen
Det er ikke den højere videnskab, men et enkelt regnestykke, som undervisere, erhvervsledere og politikere bør huske på: Et land, hvor videnoverførsel er højt udviklet, scorer højere i de samlede r...
Published 14 March 2008
Article
Driving renewal: The entrepreneur-manager
The article focuses on renewal strategies, a means to protect and extend the core business of a firm. Renewal strategies transform the core through a series of leverage and building of business str...
Published 29 February 2008
Article
No place for tenure in today's business school
Some might ask if tenure leads to more stability within the professorial staff. Again, IMD's experience would indicate that it doesn't make a difference. IMD has the same level of academic staffing...
Published 3 November 2007
Article
Sponsoring renewal
Entrepreneur-managers are highly desired in the corporate world. But few are successful unless they have an executive sponsor. The context that he/she sets for the shaping and implementation of a r...
Published 1 November 2007
Article
Explorer still offers lessons for business
As I reflect on my years as president of IMD and approach retirement in the spring of 2008, I am cognisant more than ever that success within a business school, or any organisation for that matter,...
Published 22 October 2007
Article
Was ist gute Führung?
Published 24 January 2007
Article
One way to renew a firm's competencies is to connect with external constituencies - other firms, research centres and academic institutions
Sustaining profitable growth is becoming a daunting task for many firms, especially in today's dynamic environment. Market opportunities may be fleeting, and strategies are quickly made obsolete th...
Published 1 December 2005
Article
Bringing the college inside
Academic-industry alliances have been around long enough to sprout their own ivy, yet these staples of technology innovation have undergone little innovation themselves. Now a few companies are pio...
Published 1 December 2005
Article
Memo to marketing
The marketing function has been under increasing pressure to deliver. Its challenge is to see new business opportunities before they become obvious, to lead the market and not be led, to have a pro...
Published 1 February 2005
Article
Culture shock
Nestlé helped open up the European yogurt market when a few inspired employees combined the science of nutrition with a tasty product and launched a new "phood".
Published 1 September 2004
Article
How Japan can grow
Japan's economy has been in the doldrums for so long that many Japanese seem to have adopted a resigned attitute of Sho ga nai ("that's life") toward it. But Japan, of course, can become competitiv...
Published 1 February 2004
Article
Developing global leaders
To teach globally, educators must think globally, replacing long-held regional mindsets with expanded international perspectives.
Published 1 October 2003
Article
Opportunity - and a threat: Corporate universities and business schools can learn to cohabit
Over the last years, corporate universities have come into full bloom. They take many approaches to executive development. However, they all speak loudly of a particular company's wish to strengthe...
Published 26 March 2001
Article
Mit den Arbeitern zum Erfolg: Das Personalmanagement muss den Wachstumsphasen eines Unternehmens angepasst sein
Published 1 January 1997
Article
Back to school: Executive education in the U.S.
Many US business schools have failed to respond to the needs of their customers - businesses and students. This has led to declining enrollment and to a more general discussion about the relevance ...
Published 1 March 1994