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Report

IMD Sustainability Report 2019

Challenging what is and inspiring what could be

84 pages

July 2020

PRINTABLE PDF – 51MB

IMD’s inaugural Sustainability Report highlights our approach and contributions to a sustainable future. Through innovative pedagogy, actionable research, unique partnerships and cross-sector dialogue, IMD is driven to develop responsible leaders who build successful businesses that also deliver a positive impact on society and our planet.

As an Advanced Signatory of the Principles for Responsible Management Education, we share in this report our progress both in the way we influence global leaders and in the way we adapt our own practices to contribute to a more sustainable world.

Over the two years the report covers, we continued to strengthen our contribution to sustainability through our world-class faculty, programs, advisory services, research, culture and operations.

Highlights include:

Updated purpose, sustainability policy, and materiality framework
New research chairs
Books published on sustainability-related topics
Award-winning cases on sustainability
Sustainability in Family Business Award launched
Future of Our Planet alumni event
Enterprise for Society Center – joint venture with UNIL and EPFL
Silver rating awarded by Ecovadis

IMD will continue to encourage and help leaders and organizations to integrate both social and environmental considerations in their decision-making and actions to build more sustainable economies around the world.

IMD Chairman Michel Demaré and IMD President Jean-Francois Manzoni

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Clean winners: Sustainability strategy that puts customers first

By Goutam Challagalla and Frédéric Dalsace
Published by Harvard Business Review Press ©2026

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Available Languages English

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How to scale with purpose: 5 lessons from Vinted

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By Michael D. Watkins
Case reference: IMD-2750 ©2026

Summary

This technical note introduces a framework for understanding why effective leaders sometimes act in ways that undermine their own goals. Moving beyond traditional style models that treat leaders as relatively consistent, the note presents 'leadership modes' – coherent states defined by configurations of Affects, Behaviors, Cognitions and Desires (ABCD). Drawing on Schema Therapy, the framework identifies eight modes in three categories: three high-performance modes (Visionary, Driver and Connector) representing optimal functioning oriented toward possibility, action and people; four reactive modes (Controller, Defender, Avoider and Pleaser) that activate as automatic self-protective responses to perceived threats; and a Grounded Leader mode that enables self-observation and deliberate choice. The note details each mode's internal logic, explains how modes interact and cascade under pressure and outlines a three-stage development path – recognizing and labeling modes, proactively anticipating reactive episodes, and responding and recovering afterward. Integrating Susan David's emotional agility framework, it provides practical strategies for reducing the grip of reactive patterns and gaining consistent access to high-performance states. Designed for executive education and leadership development, the note equips leaders with a diagnostic lens for understanding their functioning and the capacity to choose how to lead rather than lead reactively.

Reference IMD-2750

Available Languages English

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By Shlomo Ben-Hur and Ivy Buche
Case reference: IMD-7-1673-P ©2026

Summary

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Reference IMD-7-1673-P

Organization Hong Kong Broadband Network

Industry Services, Telecommunications

Available Languages English

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