By Dora Koop
McGill’s International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM), founded by Professor Henry Mintzberg 22 years ago, continues to change and evolve. An international program for senior managers and leaders, it is delivered at top schools in five different countries worldwide – Lancaster University in England, McGill in Canada, IIMB in India, FGV/EPABE in Brazil and, new this year, Yokohama National University (YNU) in Japan. Located just outside Tokyo, YNU has been committed to playing a global role with a long-term perspective that is fitting for Yokohama, the nation’s second largest city and key gateway to modern Japan.
Each of these business schools delivers a 10-day module based on a different Managerial Mindset, with YNU running the Collaborative Mindset Module. In this module, aside from focusing on the different forms of collaboration and alternative models of human behaviour, the role of trust and culture in collaboration and how it is created in companies is explored. Taking advantage of the proximity to China and Korea, input from these countries expands the East Asian experience of the participants.
Co-directing the Collaborative Mindset Module with Daniel Heller, an Associate Dean at YNU, is Kentaro Iijima, an alumnus of the IMPM’s first class in 1996. Recently retired from the Fujitsu Group where he worked as a senior executive in Human Resources and Strategy, Kentaro says, “The IMPM had a big impact on my leadership capability. I was fortunate that I was chosen by Fujitsu to attend this program. The results of the program can be seen in the commitment of Fujitsu, which has sent over 30 managers to the program over the years.”
Mintzberg is thrilled about the new partnership with YNU. “It is not surprising that Japan is where we probe into managing relationships through the Collaborative Mindset. It is the perfect place to run this module as collaboration is in the genes of Japan,” he says, “Our team at YNU is already recruiting from some of the best known Japanese companies.”
Get more information about the program online.