This autumn, I had a great opportunity to participate in a 5-day excursion to Barcelona with Tampere Entrepreneurship Society. The trip was very insightful and provided plenty of new perspectives on the topics of entrepreneurial mindset, which left a lasting impression.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the IESE Business School’s campuses in Barcelona. Visiting the campuses and learning of their history was especially impactful as during the presentation, I was impressed by how much of their learnings and actions were incorporated into our studies at Proakatemia. The experience evoked a sense of confidence and belief into our study programme: while it is incredibly easy to question and challenge our system, seeing that we are using same methodologies was encouraging to contribute more to Proakatemia.

Welcome to IESE.

The IESE Business School is a graduate business school of the University of Navarra. The institute offers various highly recognized degrees on Executive Education and on a Master’s level. The institute was established in Barcelona in 1958 and has remarkable accomplishments: they offered the first two-year MBA programme in Europe, have set up or supported the creation of multiple recognized business schools around the world, have been ranked first in Executive Education by Financial Times for 6 years in a row (Financial Times, 2023) and their Global Full-Time MBA programme is the #3 best in the world (Financial Times, 2023).

The mission of IESE Business School is to develop leaders who strive to have a deep, positive and lasting impact on people, companies and society through professional excellence, integrity and spirit of service (IESE). The integral part of the learning happening at the graduate school is through various methodologies focused on discussion, which aims to create dynamic co-operation among the teams and allows attendees to develop insights, reflect and debate upon the challenges presented and learn in unison through mutual contribution.

This is something that our study programme is also focusing on: In Proakatemia, upon accepting the teampreneurs into the programme, people are separated into study teams and expected to gather knowledge through various projects, books et cetera, which will then be brought into the team. While IESE’s methods of learning are similar and they are also encouraging group work and being in teams, they are more theory -based and encourage learning more through writings and papers.

Their other methods of learning include coaching and mentoring, simulations, lectures and action-based learning, which focuses on bringing real-time problems needing solutions to the groups and aid in connecting problem-solving with relevant and realistic approaches.

The Case Study method integrating theory and practice.

As stated by an IESE Professor Edu Calvo in their introductory video Case study method: the art of discussion, “One does not learn to make better decisions by simply deciding many times, by making plenty of decisions but by enriching the quality of judgement.”

IESE prides themselves on the case study method, which is their primary teaching method and aims to showcase and hone the skills of dynamic discussions, quick thinking, mutual contribution and experiential learning. The method of the case study is 102 years old and first came to use in Harvard Business School’s management classes in 1921.

The Case Study method used in IESE focuses on four steps:

1. Individual study and analysis of the case.
In the first step, the students are presented with impartial and possibly inaccurate information about the company, where they are expected to focus on researching the company and the case presented by also focus on empathising with the case above all, approaching it from the angle of a future business owner and showing their prior skills or cultural background to reach viewpoints.

2. Small group discussion of the case.
In teams, the students are expected to engage in a discussion focused on the case presented. This allows them to work in teams and bring various perspectives to the discussion, which aids in more refined solutions and multiple solutions.

3. Classroom discussion.
The third step is a discussion facilitated by the professor, where the students are expected to bring their learnings, present their prognosis of tackling the business case and explain the concepts in further detail to open up what their propositions are based on. The discussion is lively and the attendees need to be prepared to be challenged by other attendees or the professor.

4. Conclusions and lessons learned as distilled by the professor.

The professor challenges the concepts and together with the attendees, discusses which would be the most viable solutions.

Attendees are expected to receive and do their research on a presented and relevant research-based business case, which is then discussed in teams and finally, engage in a debate. The entire process allows the teammates to analyse business problems, talk through various perspectives and find multiple viable solutions while connecting theory to relevant practice. The professor is expected to facilitate the discussion and maintain the balance of the attendees participation while the solutions provided should be unique to the case but universally applicable around the globe, not focusing on a separate culture. Plausible questions include viewpoints on managerial skills such as a successful expansion of company’s revenue streams in a more competitive environment or possible incentive policies working in a set industry.

In an article written by a professor and the former dean at Harvard Business School, Mr Nitin Nohria, the readers can learn of the benefits that frequent users of the case method receive. In addition to the exceptional analysis skills, the practitioners of the method receive a set of meta-skills, which are defined as a group of long-lasting abilities allowing someone to learn new things more quickly.

As outlined in the article, the attendees gain experience on preparation, performance skills, discernment and prioritising, recognition and correction of bias, practicing good judgement, collaborative discussions, healthy curiosity and self confidence.

These skills are necessary in life as the skills help one move forward, practice active problem-solving and stand their ground regardless of the field they’ll be pursuing.

Discussion.
During the tour and the introduction of IESE, I was particularly interested in the topic of the case study method. While our programme teaches us all of the aforementioned meta-skills and encourages us to practice through projects, I believe that the use of business cases would benefit us as we would learn practical managerial skills, quick thinking, problem-solving skills and learn financial skills and strategies in the process. Through relevant and fresh business cases, the attendees of the business case method training sessions would be able to learn concepts and strategies more effectively and through a more engaging method, which would in turn add confidence in the financial education, enabling the attendees to also take back key learnings and strategies to develop their projects and enable the projects to be more scalable.

In the event you wish to learn more, IESE actively publishes their articles, books and cases to a virtual platform, through which students and institutes can purchase them for use in their programmes: https://www.iesepublishing.com/

IESE also offers Massive Open Online Courses through Coursera, which are a warm recommendation to look into: https://www.iese.edu/moocs/

Sources:
History of IESE. https://www.iese.edu/about/history/
Article. FT Ranks IESE MBA no.3 in the World. 13.02.2023 https://www.iese.edu/stories/ft-ranks-iese-mba-3-world/
Ranking. 2023. Ranking of IESE Business School’s Executive Education programme. Financial Times.
https://rankings.ft.com/schools/130/iese-business-school/rankings/2944/executive-education-open-2023/ranking-data

Ranking. 2023. Ranking of IESE Business School’s Global MBA Programme. Financial Times, 2023. https://rankings.ft.com/schools/130/iese-business-school/rankings/2909/mba-2023/ranking-data

Mission of IESE. https://www.iese.edu/about/mission-values/#:~:text=We%20develop%20leaders%20who%20strive,integrity%20and%20spirit%20of%20service.

Learning methodologies of IESE. https://www.iese.edu/faculty-research/learning-methodologies/

Video. Case study method: the art of discussion. IESE Business School. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFHohrEbVTk&t=41s

Article. Nohria, N. What the Case Study Method Really Teaches. 21.12.2021. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/12/what-the-case-study-method-really-teaches

MOOC offered by IESE. https://www.iese.edu/moocs/

Meeting and tour of the campuses of IESE in Barcelona, 10.10.2023