Why build a campus in a digital age?

Why build a campus in a digital age?

If you follow news from IESE, you’ll have seen that this fall we are inaugurating our new Madrid campus, tripling the size of our facilities in the Spanish capital, increasing our activities there by 50% and renewing our focus on entrepreneurship.

Why is IESE opening a new campus? It’s a question I have been asked a few times over the last several months. Beneath this question is the assumption that in a world that is moving online, physical spaces matter less to us than virtual ones, and that a global school like IESE should place its bets entirely on remote learning.

In a previous article I discussed how, over the last 18 months, we have learned as an institution both the potential and the limits of online learning for executives. ?

So why a new campus?

The idea of the university campus began in Europe with the founding of the University of Bologna and the University of Oxford in the late 11th century, with the goal of “cloistering” students and teachers together.

Anyone who has visited the campus of a leading university has experienced the special kind of energy you find there. Bright people come together, disconnect from other things and focus on studying and working together. Some of the world’s most innovative businesses recognize the value of this as well: companies such as Apple and Microsoft have built their own campuses – clusters of buildings surrounded by green space, living factories of ideas.

For IESE, the main reason to build a new campus is to achieve the thought-provoking interactions and the intense learning you get when you gather smart people in a place that invites collaboration and cooperative work. Our Madrid campus will be a place for creating bonds – between IESE professors and students, between the executives who study there, between alumni, between their companies and all the people who participate in the learning process. For me, building and maintaining those bonds is at the heart of what we believe education can do.

Our new campus will also be a place of profound thought on the role of business in our world. We find that when you are in a classroom setting, removed from the obligations of home and work, it allows for the sort of deeper thinking not only about how to run a business well – which is vitally important – but also how to make sure that the work you do benefits all stakeholders. Beyond shareholders, that means improving the lives of employees, customers, suppliers and the community: being, in essence, a force for good in society. And all this, with a clear focus on sustainability. That of course includes being environmentally friendly, but it also means understanding and teaching sustainability along the lines of the UN’s definition of sustainable development: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The initial idea behind university campuses centuries ago was to bring students and teachers together, away from the outside world. That still rings true, but the possibilities of doing the reverse have changed. Thanks in part to technology, we can bring the world to our campuses, so that global business can be analyzed and understood with the perspective you get from taking a few steps back. We hope that, among other things, our new Madrid campus will be a place to form deep links and to reimagine business as a powerful force for generating sustainable, positive impact in society.?

Carolina Morales Palacios

Senior Office Manager at Superstruct Iberia SL

3 年

Totally true and totally agree. Wonderful reading! with a clear message that invites reflexión especially in these times of teleworking and thinking that everything can already be done online, without taking into account what you describe and that was the origin and spirit of the university campuses "Anyone who has visited the campus of a leading university has experienced the special kind of energy you find there. Bright people come together, disconnect from other things and focus on studying and working together"... Food for thought!!! Thank you for sharing Franz

回复
Martin Lehnert

European by nature, global citizen by heart and entrepreneurial adventurer passionate for innovation & partnerships

3 年

Can’t wait to see the new campus!!!!

Ignacio López Eguilaz

DKV | Director Seguros Generales y Vida | Comité de Dirección de DKV

3 年

He tenido la ocasión de visitarlo…impresionante. Y es que el contacto humeno sigue siendo clave para el futuro de los negocios.

Toni Solanilla

Director at Executive Education | Learning & Talent expert / Building Capabilities

3 年

A way to learn! Unique! Vielen dank Franz Heukamp

Patricia Freitas Silva

Talent & Culture Dev. Consultant at Caterpillar Inc.

3 年

One of the reasons why I selected the #PMD at IESE Business School was that it combined virtual with face-to-face. It made it possible for me, who live in Panama, to go through the program. And the residential weeks were certainly the best part!! Looking forward to visiting the Madrid Campus. #IESEisMAD

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Franz Heukamp的更多文章

  • Larga vida al aprendizaje para toda la vida

    Larga vida al aprendizaje para toda la vida

    Los que nos dedicamos a la educación estamos de enhorabuena. Numerosos estudios apuntan que la velocidad de los cambios…

    9 条评论
  • A long life for lifelong learning

    A long life for lifelong learning

    Those of us who work in education have much to celebrate. Numerous studies have shown that the pace of technological…

    9 条评论
  • La inteligencia puede ser artificial. La ética debe ser real.

    La inteligencia puede ser artificial. La ética debe ser real.

    A medida que crece el uso de la inteligencia artificial, depende más de los líderes aplicar la ética empresarial. Hace…

    35 条评论
  • The Intelligence Can Be Artificial. The Ethics Have to Be Real.

    The Intelligence Can Be Artificial. The Ethics Have to Be Real.

    As the use of artificial intelligence grows, it’s up to business leaders to bring ethics to bear. A Google engineer…

    2 条评论
  • ?Qué nos dice Wordle sobre el management?

    ?Qué nos dice Wordle sobre el management?

    ?Juegas a Wordle? En caso de que no te suene, Wordle es un juego que se ha hecho muy popular, y que consiste en…

    19 条评论
  • What Wordle Teaches You About Management

    What Wordle Teaches You About Management

    Are you playing Wordle? In the unlikely case that you’ve never heard of it, Wordle is the wildly popular word game that…

    11 条评论
  • ?Tiene solución “La Gran Dimisión”?

    ?Tiene solución “La Gran Dimisión”?

    Donde quiera que miremos, vemos historias sobre "La Gran Dimisión". La pandemia del COVID ha dejado tras de sí…

    9 条评论
  • Is there a cure for the Great Resignation?

    Is there a cure for the Great Resignation?

    Everywhere we look, we see stories of the Great Resignation. Emerging from the COVID pandemic burned out and eager for…

    25 条评论
  • ?Por qué un campus en la era digital?

    ?Por qué un campus en la era digital?

    Quien siga noticias del IESE, habrá visto que este oto?o estamos poniendo en marcha nuestro nuevo campus en Madrid…

    81 条评论
  • Digitalización, adaptabilidad y cómo aprenden los directivos

    Digitalización, adaptabilidad y cómo aprenden los directivos

    Hoy en día, las empresas no sólo deben aceptar el cambio, sino que deben pensar en cómo pueden utilizar las…

    100 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了