Martha Rivera, IPADE
Release Date: 0000-00-00
I would like to start this interview with a rather broad question but one that would help our readers position IPADE versus all the American Institutions for example, that they surely know very well... How would you describe the positioning of IPADE within Mexico, LatAm and the world? And what would you say make IPADE such a unique institution?IPADE was the first business school in Mexico and is ranked as the first business school in Latin America. This is very well known through the international rankings, for example, the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. In fact, recently we were ranked as the number seven international MBA by Forbes magazine. IPADE was founded, in 1967, by prominent Mexican businessmen. The main reason of its foundation was because they felt there was a need to professionalize and corporatize business in Mexico. In those days there was no formal training for businessmen and they thought that it was something that the Mexican business community needed. One thing that I would like to highlight is that the foundation of the school has been influenced by a Catholic spirit that says: “How can we help human beings become saints through their work?” Hence, the most important thing at this institution is the person. A lot of human values are surrounding the facilities and the way we are treated and the way we are trained. At IPADE the human values are primordial. As said before, since 1967 we have been training businessmen and that’s the difference between our business school and others. We did not start with an MBA. We did not start by being a university. We started from the business community.As you just said, IPADE is the leading BS in Mexico, however the supply of MBA is considerable not only in Mexico but around the world. The top list is actually dominated with Western world institutions: London Business School, Wharton, Harvard and Stanford. It is believe that doing an MBA in such places is far much profitable and worldwide recognize than doing one in the developing countries.
How has the perception of doing an MBA in an emerging country change in the past six years? First of all the world is changing dramatically. Now, because many of the developed countries have found they cannot grow more within their consumer base or their markets, they have to go abroad. Hence business schools in emerging countries have become very important, we have become competition for these other top-ranked business schools because they are trying to attract talent from our countries. Those are the challenges that the business schools are facing now. They are coming to Mexico, to Argentina and Asia, to recruit talent to enrich theirs. What would you say are the main benefits of doing an MBA in an emerging country like Mexico? If you want to do business in Mexico, the best way to learn about Mexico is to study here. When you go abroad you can learn from what is going on in the developed economies and in the developed countries, but it won’t be easy to find the network, to do business in Mexico, that we got here. They will have the opportunity not only to get the best network in Mexico but also travel for a few weeks to participate in programs in other top universities around the world. Indeed, our MBA program was ranked one of the most interesting MBAs in terms of international approach. This is because in the first year we give participants the basis of the core courses. In the second year all of our participants in the MBA go abroad for an exchange program. They spend from 4 to 6 months in another business school. Then they return to Mexico and receive students from business schools from other countries. As a result they gain an international scope in terms of what is going on in the world.It is important to highlight that the second year is completely in English, and in order to internationalize it the moreinternationalize, in 2012 we shall have an MBA program totally in English. As you can see, having an international perspective in our MBA is crucial for us.
How would you say that IPADE is perceived outside of Mexico and how has the school built its international recognition? We have relationships with many schools. Every two years we have an Advisory Committee with Harvard Business School and with IESE. We also have a corporation agreement with IAE in Argentina. We have international programs with some other business schools. We are launching a new program with INSPER, the Brazilian business school. We have different agreements and we participate in other programs. For example, many of our professors go to Colombia to teach, to Peru, and to Spain. Hence we are very well known internationally and we are still working on that. As I mentioned before, we are recognized through the rankings of prestigious business publications such as Financial Times and Forbes, as well as national rankings here in Mexico. In building our own reputation we want to be loyal and stick to our own mission, which is the formation of leaders, as well as having a global mission, social responsibility and commitment. The way we want to differentiate ourselves from other business schools is by being very human, because in the end what the companies are is what its people are. To have a successful company you need successful people. And we define “success” as being a better person. IPADE has been highly successful in attracting CEOs to excel their management abilities. More than 22 000 top executives which represents not less than 25% of the CEOs and MDs of Mexico!
What would you say are the school educational strengths and values that make your graduates so successful in business?One is what I previously mentioned: being a human institution. Another thing is that we do not like to say “teach” but use the case method. We try to have a dialog with the CEOs. We try to discuss the cases with them and learn from them. The perspective of our sessions is from that of a CEO. We have frameworks, concepts and academic backgrounds but what we try to do is figure out how we can help them solve real problems by asking questions and make them think. We want them to reflex and be the owners of a problem. Hence, we focus discussion sessions through a dialog, discussions, and a more Socratic methodology.
Madame, aside of being the Secretary General and the Head of the Marketing Management Department, you are the President of the Board of the Research Center for Women in Senior Management. Where did idea to form such a Center come from? The Research Center for Women in Senior Management is a very interesting initiative, it started from our alumni. There were five or six CEOs women that came to our program and, at the end, they realized that women must overcome many problems to achieve the position they have as CEOs. So they approached us and asked for help. After two years of discussions they had a meeting with, Alfonso Bolio, IPADE´s Dean in which they presented their interest in promoting and helping women to reach top management positions without sacrificing their personal and family lives. The work-balance issue became front and center.After the meeting the Dean agreed to support them so we start with the project. In order to learn more about the issues executive women face. So in 2008 we launched the center and since then we have been doing research from an inter-disciplinary perspective.
There are very few women CEOs in Mexico. Why is that?
Today we are in a transition. We have very well prepared women in Mexico, and we are really conscious that women can offer companies a very high talent standard. But of course we still have to face some cultural issues, to a point we are still combating a mentality which says that engineering is for men and that cooking is for women. So we have to transform that, and it will take time. Companies are also realizing that women can bring a lot of talent to their firms. The other thing is that inside the companies, to go up the ladder, you also need more women to help you. We have been hearing for many years about coaching and mentoring, but one important question is whether there is sponsorship inside the companies. Sponsorship is having someone inside the company that really wants to help you and backs you up inside the company in order to be promoted. When men seek sponsorships in male dominated companies, they have it. But for women that is not happening. Sponsorship is very important. So there are three issues: we need sponsorship, we need to change the culture mind set, and we need to encourage the talent.
To conclude and coming back to IPADE, looking towards the future, what are the school ambitions?We have a very clear vision. That vision has to do with being the number one business school in Latin America and to keep that position. What we want to stress is how can we make companies more human? How can we help men and women to be better people, better humans, while they are become working? When we stress human factor in our courses and our programs, in every class and in every session that we have, it does not mean that we are not helping participants and companies to become profitable. Of course one of our goals is that companies become profitable. If they do not have profits they cannot be sustainable, they cannot be socially responsible, and they cannot help their employees. Being profitable is a must but it has to be combined with a human touch.
On a more personal level, where are you heading?
I have a lot of responsibilities. I am a marketing professor and researcher. I teach on all the programs that IPADE offers. So I always have to be up-to-date on what is new on the subject. From the marketing perspective I have to study and prepare cases. I also have to be very close to companies because we do not teach academics but businessmen. To achieve that I also do consultancy work for companies and I belong to some of their Boards. From a researcher perspective my main area of interest is sales force management. And I do some research projects with some colleges outside of Mexico. As Secretary General of IPADE Business School I have a lot of responsibilities. First of all I am in charge of following and helping the rest of the institution to implement the decisions that are taken at the different levels of government inside the institution – along with the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. I also participate on the Advisory Committees with Harvard and IESE. That is from the Secretary General’s perspective.I am also in charge of four departments, which are more operative: Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Operations and Technology, and one called Integral Formation. The four of them are service areas, which complement the Secretary General, which, finally, is also a service area – a facilitator. That is basically my job and I really love and enjoy it.
| Company: | IPADE |
| Country: | 墨西哥 |