Execs Head to the Swiss Alps for Specialized Business Degrees

In 2022 the board that governs IMD, the independent business school based in Lausanne, Switzerland, laid a challenge at the feet of its managers. The school’s total tuition revenue had grown 62 million Swiss francs ($72.1 million), nearly doubling from two years earlier. But it had fallen by almost as much in the year before that, when the pandemic sent everyone home.

“Our board said, ‘You know, the schools that have a greater footprint in the degree program space, they’ve been a little bit more resilient,’” says David Bach, IMD’s president. The school’s prestigious, though small, MBA programs held their ...