The IPADE Executive MBA Program (MEDEX) hosted the 19th Annual International Week from October 4th-7th. Every year, an elite group of business leaders enrolled in Executive MBA Programs from around the world gathers at IPADE Business School to share experiences and knowledge, enrich management practices, and discover new business models to help people lift themselves out of poverty and create wealth in a sustainable way. This event brings together distinguished faculty members from several programs, as well as renowned lecturers and international experts. During the 2016 edition, students from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Vietnam came together to engage with the theme ‘Entrepreneurial Solutions to Poverty.’
The MEDEX International Week is structured around a series of ten academic sessions given by IPADE faculty and invited guest faculty, six talks from prominent guest speakers from different sectors and companies, visits to leading companies in Mexico, and team assignments. In 2016, invited guest speakers included Mario Šilar, General Manager at European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) and Senior Researcher at Acton Institute Argentina; Cristóbal Colón, Founder and President of La Fageda, a Spanish dairy cooperative that employs work-capable mentally ill people; James Tooley, Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University and author of The Beautiful Tree: A personal journey into how the world’s poorest are educating themselves; and Sharon Zaga, President and Founder of Mexico City’s Museo Memoria y Tolerancia [The Museum of Memory and Tolerance].
Invited speakers and professors challenged the audience to consider truly difficult aspects of society and human nature, and inspired them to re-evaluate their responsibilities as business leaders, breaking away from a single-minded focus on short-term profit maximization in a search for long-term value creation for the most vulnerable members of society.
Participant responses were extremely positive, and students concluded the week motivated after a week of engaging topics that are not often included in standard business school curricula. In addition to the academic sessions held during the week, participants conducted site visits to top Mexican companies Kidzania and Reintegra, along with tourist visits to the Historic Downtown of Mexico City and the pyramids at Teotihuacan.
As invited speaker Mario Šilar said, “The potential of what we can do with the people we’re connected with has exploded.” IPADE is proud to continue to foster connections among students around the world while continuing to emphasize the humanistic aspects of business, a fundamental aspect of our mission.
