The 23rd International Faculty Program (IFP) opened this week in Barcelona with the participation of 27 professors of economics and business management from 17 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Over the course of three weeks, the IFP will explore business management teaching methodology, introduce professors to the case study method and help them draw up study plans for the preparation of new case studies.
Ebenezer Adaku, who has a PhD in business management from the University of Stuttgart and is a professor at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, hopes that by the end of the program "I will have mastered the case study teaching method, which is a very good technique for business education. I also want to develop new case studies that are suited to different courses and teaching aims."
All of the IFP participants are professors of economics or business management. However, they have distinct professional careers, ranging from an Associate Director of the Bank of Pakistan to academics who have dedicated their careers to teaching and research. The group also includes experienced directors of multinationals who, after 30 years as senior executives, have decided to work with a business school to teach new generations of business leaders.
Among those taking part this year are Hellen Otieno, Head of Research at Strathmore University; Piotr Olaf Zylicz, Associate Dean of Warsaw University of Technology Business School; and Zhan Videnov, Secretary General of the European College of Economy and Management in Bulgaria. Other professors hail from the State University of Saint Petersburg, IPADE - Universidad Panamericana (Mexico), HEC Montréal (Canada) and CEIBS (China).
IESE has been offering this program for 23 years, during which time around 500 economics and business management professors from more than 70 countries have participated. The program is led by Prof. Javier Santomá.