IE Business School launches Next Best You, a revolutionary paradigm for curated and transformational educational experiences

Lee Newman, Dean of IE Business School, today presented Next Best You, a new educational paradigm focused on creating profoundly transformational experiences for every student. The school serves as a curator actively devoted to helping students discover and pursue the next best version of themselves with the goal of preparing them for successful and responsible business careers. Next Best You is based on three strategic pillars: Your Career, Your Impact, and Your Purpose.

Supporting the launch, IE Business School’s new audiovisual campaign Keep Chasing the Next Best You features students and graduates sharing the game-changing moments and educational experiences at IE Business School that led to deep personal and professional transformation.

Next Best You

Appointed dean in 2021 with a mandate for innovation, Lee Newman believes that the future of business education is about finding ways to deliver transformational experiences for students that not only accelerate their careers but also help them attain better versions of themselves.

“Our mission as a business school is first to help students understand the current version of themselves – their unique aspirations, strengths, and areas for growth. We then help them define and pursue the next best version of themselves. This is the transformation we seek to catalyze,” said Newman.“It’s about getting on the right career path, acquiring the skills needed to have impact in real workplaces, and being a business professional motivated by purpose.”

1. Your Career. IE Business School’s team has designed curated career pathways in a wide range of areas such as Marketing & Communication, Strategy & Business Transformation, Business Technology & Analytics, Finance & Investments, and Entrepreneurship & Corporate Innovation. A career plan is the centering element for students in every IE Business School undergraduate and postgraduate program. Students have access to content and curation advisors to help them evolve and pursue their career plan throughout their studies. “We spend considerable effort talking to companies and analyzing employment data to understand the evolution of major job categories and the specific skills each requires. Once our students have chosen a career pathway, we ensure that they acquire exactly the skills they will need to succeed after graduation,” explained Newman. “However, the transformational experience is not only about career-specific skills.”
2. Your Impact. Students need more than career-specific skills, they also need what IE Business School refers to as Impact Skills which confer an ability to work effectively in difficult workplace situations. “What is important is that we create a safe learning environment that produces ‘turbulence’,” explains Newman. “It is in these moments of turbulence – such as working on a difficult problem, in a highly diverse team, under extreme time pressure – when critical thinking wanes and unproductive behaviors emerge. This is when there is potential for self-reflection and self-transformation, and why we are investing in new methodologies for developing the deeper and more durable skills that students will need to be effective as professionals.” For example, as part its commitment to liquid learning, IE Business School is launching innovative new courses in problem-solving, critical thinking and team dynamics.
3. Your Purpose. “We are forging a new generation of purpose-driven business professionals who carry with them a deep sense of responsibility to the planet, to society, and to the well-being of others in the workplace,” commented Newman. “It is purpose that helps us understand who we are and how we can use our business skills to drive positive change.” IE Business School has created a new certificate in Sustainability, has a Center for Social Innovation and Sustainability, and is currently designing a core module on Business with Purpose. Students across programs have increasing opportunities to participate in purpose-driven business projects, for example microfinance projects in Ghana and social consulting projects in Colombia. “During purpose-driven projects, our students go through transformative experiences on both a professional and personal level. Their lives change and their next best you emerges,” said Newman.