Ricardo Bosshard has held leadership positions for nearly 20 years. At 27, he was the general manager of a distribution centre, then he was the Sustainability Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now he has been Director of WWF Chile for the past seven years.
Ricardo had wanted to study at IMD for a long time before getting an opportunity through the One Planet Leaders partnership IMD had with WWF. He began with IMD’s Program for Executive Development (PED) and most recently completed Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) in 2014.
“TBL made me think about who I am as a leader, and how I impact people,” Ricardo said. “It was really a road to myself. It helped me become who I needed to be, but much faster than if I had been on the path on my own.”
Ricardo not only appreciated the results of the program, but also its methods including study, personal coaching, and other diverse activities which he said helped tailor the experience so it was right for him.
“As a leader, I had been through the process of making a culture change in offices before. But after learning the methodology at IMD, changing the culture in my office at WWF was more efficient, quicker and less messy,” Ricardo said.
Ricardo also pointed out that all types of organizations can benefit from programs at IMD. “Every organization has to be managed, whether it is a company, a non-governmental organization or a government. The management programs I took at IMD were excellent,” he said.
During the program, Ricardo made great contacts with leaders from other sectors and said they all learned from each other. But, Ricardo said his bonds with other IMD Alumni in Chile are even stronger than with those he was actually in programs with.
In addition, Ricardo greatly appreciated IMD’s awareness of busy executive schedules and its ability to adapt to today’s realities. He said the time required away from the office and from family to complete TBL was manageable and would have been difficult if it was longer.
Transition to Business Leadership is designed for experienced functional managers who either have recently transitioned or will soon transition into a business leadership position.
The Program for Executive Development (PED) comprises two parts, Foundations for Business Leadership (FBL) and Transition to Business Leadership (TBL), each of which can also be taken as stand-alone programs.
