IMD Business School and Cisco Join Forces on Digital Business Transformation

LAUSANNE/SAN JOSE (26 MARCH 2015)—IMD, the top-ranked business school focused on executive education, announced today a contribution valued at $US 10 million from Cisco to become the world leading destination for research, innovation and leadership to drive digital transformation to all aspects of enterprises, in every industry.

Cisco intends to fund the Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation and create the IMD/Cisco Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, to be located on IMD’s campus in Lausanne, Switzerland, and fully operational by summer 2015.

The collaboration will combine Cisco’s leadership in providing technology solutions for the Internet of Everything (IoE) with IMD’s expertise in developing global leaders. According to Gartner Research, by 2020, 75 percent of businesses will be a digital business or will be preparing to become one, yet only 30 percent of these efforts will be successful due to lack of talent and technical expertise. Gartner reveals the number one reason companies fail in digital transformation efforts is a failure to re-imagine and reinvent the business from top to bottom before they begin.

The partnership between Cisco and IMD will combine original research and Cisco Consulting’s open innovation approach in order to generate practical insights that executives can apply directly to their businesses. By conducting original research, the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation will work to define digital business transformation, what it means for companies today, and how to stay relevant in today’s competitive marketplace.

The Global Center aims to become a world-leading hub of research and innovation, helping executives take advantage of digital opportunities and neutralize digital threats. Employing full-time researchers from both IMD and Cisco, the Center will produce cutting-edge thought leadership and organize learning events. It will also collaborate with Cisco’s existing network of innovation centers around the world.
QUOTES

Dominique Turpin, IMD President

“IMD has had an excellent relationship with Cisco and its top executives for many years. We are extremely grateful to Cisco for funding this new initiative so generously, and are excited about the research to come. I would like to thank Cisco’s leaders for the trust they have put in IMD, particularly Thierry Maupilé, an IMD MBA alumnus and Head of the Strategic Ecosystem Group at Cisco, for his crucial role in making this happen.”

Michael Wade, Professor of Innovation and Strategic Information Management at IMD

“This new Global Center will operate at the intersection of technology and organizations. Its main goal is to help executives who are struggling with the ‘how’ of digital business transformation. These executives know that they must change and adapt to digital opportunities and threats, but they don’t know how.”

Edzard Overbeek, Senior Vice President, Cisco Services

“We are excited to be partnering with IMD, the prestigious school of business management, which attracts thousands of executives to its campus each year.  IMD stands out among the top global business schools because of its unique applied model of management education, which will be instrumental as we seek to help our customers manage through rapid market changes due to digitization.  Together, Cisco and IMD will ‘write the book’ on managing transformation in the new digital age.”

Stephan Strauss, Division President, DB Schenker, Germany 

“As a business leader in a traditional industry who needs to take his company on the journey of digital transformation, it is a challenge to take the best route.  How to leverage digital technologies to create sustainable competitive advantage? In which way transform our business model and what should be the focus? How can we transform our culture and take our organization with us on that journey? What is the right pace?  The IMD/Cisco Global Center for Digital Business Transformation will be a most valuable asset to work on addressing these challenges.”

Frank Vivier, Richemont Group Director of eBusiness, Switzerland
Thomas Lindemann, Richemont Group HR Director, Switzerland 

“Richemont (the owner of several luxury brands, including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, etc) congratulates IMD on its new Global Research Center on Digital Business Transformation.  The digitization of the luxury goods industry worldwide is presenting significant change management challenges and opportunities.  IMD’s digital research and education initiative will provide a very timely contribution to the development of organizational competencies and leadership skills to both local and global luxury groups, thus benefitting the industry’s competitiveness and growth.”

Tom Touchet, CEO, Smart City Media, USA

We are in a period of prolific and profound change, driven by digital disruption and accelerated by the Internet of Things. That opportunity is the focus of virtually all business leaders. Understanding and leveraging and leveraging the impact of these new business models and their competitive dynamics is instrumental to our success. The creation of the Cisco-IMD Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, which is dedicated to tackling these issues, and to creating roadmaps for organizational change, is an important step towards this goal.

Aparna M. Dogra, Temasek Management Services Pte Ltd, Singapore 

We are very excited to hear about the new IMD-Cisco partnered research centre on Global Digital Transformation. Forward looking companies that invest in new technologies and embrace digitally driven processes and business models are better positioned to compete in the fast paced digital age. We are confident that the cutting edge research coming out of the IMD-Cisco Research Centre will serve companies well in making such investment decisions and transformational changes to ensure that their businesses stay relevant and competitive.

About IMD:

IMD is the top-ranked business school, recognized as the expert in developing global leaders through high-impact executive education. The school is 100% focused on real-world executive development; offers Swiss excellence with a global perspective; and has a flexible, customized and effective approach.

IMD is ranked FIRST in executive education worldwide (Financial Times 2008-2014) and FIRST in open programs worldwide (Financial Times 2012, 2013 & 2014).

IMD is based in Lausanne (Switzerland) and has an Executive Learning Center in Singapore.

www.imd.org

About Cisco:

Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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