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Program Durations
*Please note that our program content is continually updated to remain in sync with market demands. Therefore, we advise you that the content is subject to change and it can be dependent on student demand.
- International MBA Program Specialists
NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHAT DURATION BEST FITS YOUR PATH?
“I’m good with words, obsessed with green tech and currently working in finance. I desperately need a change, but I don’t know what I should do with my life. Help!” If this sounds even vaguely like you, get in touch. We’d be happy to help you begin exploring career options. We know what jobs are out there and the skills recruiters want. Reach out, no strings attached.
11 months
Advance your career growth and gain the necessary skills and knowledge quickly to move ahead in your field of expertise and get on track to landing the best job for you.
*Please note that our program content is continually updated to remain in sync with market demands. Therefore, we advise you that the content is subject to change and it can be dependent on student demand.
Pre-program- Bridge to business
Pre-program- Bridge to business
We offer you a way for you to solidify the basics prior to the formal start of classes to help you get a leg up on a range of subjects, from financial accounting to quantitative methods, so that you can hit the ground running when the program officially starts. This foundation consists of a series of asynchronous components to be completed at your own pace. This "Bridge to Business" is designed to level out the playing field, ensuring every student starts off the program with the same foundation. And while it is intended for those without a prior background in business, accounting and/or some of the basic foundational elements and methods, everyone who joins the program is welcome to do this module.
Term 1
Business Foundations I
This module addresses all the core, foundational subjects in business:
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial markets
- Financial reporting and analysis
- Innovation in digital world
- Marketing management
- Operations management
- Strategy
Business Foundations II
During this period, you'll delve into diverse courses covering strategy, operations, finance, and technology, offering a prime opportunity to envision your career trajectory post-International MBA at IE Business School and refine your skills for future impact
- Business, government & sustainability
- Data analytics for managers
- Digital transformation
- Leading people & change
- Managerial accounting
- Supply chain management
- Managerial economics
- Corporate finance
IMPACT SKILLS ACCELERATOR
Seamlessly integrated into your academic journey, the Impact Skills Accelerator is an essential facet of your MBA. This accelerator serves to hone and refine a distinctive set of impact skills through comprehensive training. It will help you develop a core toolset that enables you to structure problems effectively, think on your feet, listen actively, hack your learning, communicate, negotiate, collaborate, persuade, understand and develop yourself and others to succeed in any workplace. We will also make sure these competences are not studied in a vacuum but applied in your day-to-day classes, assignments and project work.
CAREER DISCOVERY ACCELERATOR
Step into a world where career exploration becomes a transformative journey. Introducing the Career Discovery Accelerator, an essential component of your MBA, that is meticulously designed to help you figure out where you’re going in your career so you can make the best choices about your concentration, electives and other program options. It consists of a series of hands-on workshops, held in small groups, to help you discover where you want to focus your future career beyond IE Business School. You will have a chance to talk to and engage with professionals in different fields, discovering what a day in the life looks like for them and what it takes to get a job in a given sector.
Divided into three transformative phases (Launch, Explore and Decide), the Career Discovery Accelerator equips you with insights and strategies to make informed decisions about your future.
Job Prep & search
At IE Business School, we do not take job preparation or the job search for granted. It is an integral part of developing future-proof leaders.
Studies show you need to devote around four to five hours every week to looking for a job and preparing for interviews throughout your International MBA experience. We do not leave this to chance, but rather embed it as an integral part of the program.
You will be working very closely with our Talent & Careers department to make sure you take full advantage of all career fairs, interview preparation boot camps and other activities we have to ensure you can maximize your chances of landing your dream job beyond IE Business School.
Term 2
Concentrations
The Concentration period is made up of 12 intense weeks where you deep dive into the concentration area most aligned with the career path you wish to pursue. Each consists of six courses, all of which are mandatory for any given concentration area.
*Offering will be subject to student demand
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & CORPORATE INNOVATION
- Scale ups
- Intrapreneurship & Business Innovation
- Advanced Entrepreneurship
- Corporate Venturing & Ecosystem Development
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Social Entrepreneurship
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT & SERVICE DESIGN
- Product Lifecycle Management
- UX/UI and Prototyping
- Trends and Technologies in Product and Customer Management
- Human Preferences and Behavior
- Service And Business Design
- Customer Research And Analysis Methods
STRATEGY, ORGanization & TRANSFORMATION
- Competing in Platform Markets
- Strategic Foresight: Navigating Uncertainty
- Business Transformation
- Strategy Implementation
- Corporate Strategy
- Digital Transformation
FINANCE & INVESTMENTS
- Financial Modelling
- Fintech, Digital Finance & DeFi
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Real Estate Finance
- Asset Management & Global Markets
- Corporate Finance & Investment Banking
BRANDING, MARKETING & SALES
- Digital Marketing, Social Media, Mobile & Analytics
- Marketing Strategy for Sustainability
- Customer Experience
- Accelerating Business Development & Sales in a Digital World
- Brand Management
- Neuromarketing: What Happens in our Customer’s Mind
DIGITAL BUSINESS, ANALYTICS, & OPERATIONS
- Digital Marketing, Social Media, Mobile & Analytics
- Digital Services Design
- Operational Excellence and Digitalization
- Digital Business Strategy
- Artificial Intelligence for Business
- Technology Product Management
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
- Challenges Of Decarbonizing World Economy By 2050
- China: Economy, Technology & Geopolitics
- How To Expand Internationally: Managing Economic Risks
- Geopolitics For Business People
- Country Economic Analysis
- Regional & Urban Economics and Development
SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY
- Marketing Strategy for Sustainability
- Challenges of Decarbonizing World Economy By 2050
- ESG Performance Reporting
- Sustainable Finance and Impact Investing
- Sustainability Through Supply Chain Management
- Technology & Innovation for Sustainability
Term 3
lab
As an alternative to doing an Internship, you have the choice to engage in the Lab program during this period. The Lab Period stands as one of the most successful learning experiences that the International MBA has consistently offered over the years. Together with your assigned team, you will work on a real business problem that a company is facing. You will be briefed directly from company management itself and have a chance to interview and interact with them throughout the five-week-long module. The goal is to apply what you have learned so far in the program to tackle the given challenge. The Lab Period offers a variety of options to select from:
Social Impact Lab
Work with local communities in either South Africa or Brazil to help address a pressing issue—such as microfinance, SME entrepreneuring, local education, local healthcare and more—and improve the community you are working with in the process.
Startup Lab
If you want to start your own business, this is your chance to delve more deeply into it. You will focus on developing your business idea more fully with a complete business plan. You may take the work you do here onto the Venture Lab, if your startup is selected, to work on it further during the free electives period at the end of the program.
Tech Lab
A pivotal component of the International MBA, the five-week Tech Lab empowers students to recognize and harness disruptive technologies that are reshaping traditional business models. Through hands-on challenges presented by tech industry leaders, participants develop innovative applications, bridging theory with real-world proficiency.
Busines Impact Lab
Blending academic rigor with hands-on experience, the Business Impact Lab propels participants into the role of Corporate Transformers. Students working in teams, whether Intrapreneurs, career-changers, or aspiring consultants, function as consultants addressing real corporate challenges presented by partner companies, showcasing their creativity and talent to drive transformative business solutions.
INTERNSHIP
As an alternative to participating in Labs, you have the option to pursue an Internship, providing you with a practical, on-the-job experience in your chosen field. This opportunity allows you to delve into an area of interest before making a commitment to a full-time position. It is critical that, within the first month after beginning the program, you start preparing for interviews with the employers that offer these internships, which come to IE Business School during career fairs.
While no one is guaranteed a spot to complete an internship as the employer selects ideal candidates, you will be included in the recruitment process and given every chance to get your resume ready, attend relevant career fair sessions and learn more about potential internship experiences. This will be the first opportunity to make full use of the time you have invested in the Career Discovery and the Job Preparation and Search modules in the program.
Students also have the option to search for internships on their own. Should this be the case, we ask you to please coordinate closely with the Talent & Careers team to ensure we maximize the benefit of a well-aligned approach between your efforts and those of the school.
Final Integrative Exercise
This is your final project for the International MBA. The idea is to utilize all you have learned to crack a problem of your own choosing and present a credible approach to solving it. It can be any relevant topic—from sustainability and social impact to product development, disrupting the fintech value chain, implementing strategy at a large corporation, or building on a new startup idea that you have developed further through the Venture Lab and now wish to make a reality beyond the program.
15 months
Provides ample time for career exploration and more in-depth specialization. It’s beneficial to pivot career paths, explore new career options, or develop skills and gain the experience needed to enter today’s competitive job market or start up your company with confidence.
*Please note that our program content is continually updated to remain in sync with market demands. Therefore, we advise you that the content is subject to change and it can be dependent on student demand.
Pre-program- Bridge to business
Pre-program- Bridge to business
We offer you a way for you to solidify the basics prior to the formal start of classes to help you get a leg up on a range of subjects, from financial accounting to quantitative methods, so that you can hit the ground running when the program officially starts. This foundation consists of a series of asynchronous components to be completed at your own pace. This "Bridge to Business" is designed to level out the playing field, ensuring every student starts off the program with the same foundation. And while it is intended for those without a prior background in business, accounting and/or some of the basic foundational elements and methods, everyone who joins the program is welcome to do this module.
Term 1
Business Foundations I
This module addresses all the core, foundational subjects in business:
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial markets
- Financial reporting and analysis
- Innovation in digital world
- Marketing management
- Operations management
- Strategy
Business Foundations II
During this period, you'll delve into diverse courses covering strategy, operations, finance, and technology, offering a prime opportunity to envision your career trajectory post-International MBA at IE Business School and refine your skills for future impact.
- Business, government & sustainability
- Data analytics for managers
- Digital transformation
- Leading people & change
- Managerial accounting
- Supply chain management
- Managerial economics
- Corporate finance
IMPACT SKILLS ACCELERATOR
Seamlessly integrated into your academic journey, the Impact Skills Accelerator is an essential facet of your MBA. This accelerator serves to hone and refine a distinctive set of impact skills through comprehensive training. It will help you develop a core toolset that enables you to structure problems effectively, think on your feet, listen actively, hack your learning, communicate, negotiate, collaborate, persuade, understand and develop yourself and others to succeed in any workplace. We will also make sure these competences are not studied in a vacuum but applied in your day-to-day classes, assignments and project work.
CAREER DISCOVERY ACCELERATOR
Step into a world where career exploration becomes a transformative journey. Introducing the Career Discovery Accelerator, an essential component of your MBA, that is meticulously designed to help you figure out where you’re going in your career so you can make the best choices about your concentration, electives and other program options. It consists of a series of hands-on workshops, held in small groups, to help you discover where you want to focus your future career beyond IE Business School. You will have a chance to talk to and engage with professionals in different fields, discovering what a day in the life looks like for them and what it takes to get a job in a given sector.
Divided into three transformative phases (Launch, Explore and Decide), the Career Discovery Accelerator equips you with insights and strategies to make informed decisions about your future.
Job Prep & search
At IE Business School, we do not take job preparation or the job search for granted. It is an integral part of developing future-proof leaders.
Studies show you need to devote around four to five hours every week to looking for a job and preparing for interviews throughout your International MBA experience. We do not leave this to chance, but rather embed it as an integral part of the program.
You will be working very closely with our Talent & Careers department to make sure you take full advantage of all career fairs, interview preparation boot camps and other activities we have to ensure you can maximize your chances of landing your dream job beyond IE Business School.
Term 2
Concentrations
The Concentration period is made up of 12 intense weeks where you deep dive into the concentration area most aligned with the career path you wish to pursue. Each consists of six courses, all of which are mandatory for any given concentration area. If you wish to deepen your concentration beyond these six courses, you are free to do so during the free electives period toward the end of the program.
*Offering will be subject to student demand
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & CORPORATE INNOVATION
- Scale ups
- Intrapreneurship & Business Innovation
- Advanced Entrepreneurship
- Corporate Venturing & Ecosystem Development
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Social Entrepreneurship
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT & SERVICE DESIGN
- Product Lifecycle Management
- UX/UI and Prototyping
- Trends and Technologies in Product and Customer Management
- Human Preferences and Behavior
- Service And Business Design
- Customer Research And Analysis Methods
STRATEGY, ORGanization & TRANSFORMATION
- Competing in Platform Markets
- Strategic Foresight: Navigating Uncertainty
- Business Transformation
- Strategy Implementation
- Corporate Strategy
- Digital Transformation
FINANCE & INVESTMENTS
- Financial Modelling
- Fintech, Digital Finance & DeFi
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Real Estate Finance
- Asset Management & Global Markets
- Corporate Finance & Investment Banking
BRANDING, MARKETING & SALES
- Digital Marketing, Social Media, Mobile & Analytics
- Marketing Strategy for Sustainability
- Customer Experience
- Accelerating Business Development & Sales in a Digital World
- Brand Management
- Neuromarketing: What Happens in our Customer’s Mind
DIGITAL BUSINESS, ANALYTICS, & OPERATIONS
- Digital Marketing, Social Media, Mobile & Analytics
- Digital Services Design
- Operational Excellence and Digitalization
- Digital Business Strategy
- Artificial Intelligence for Business
- Technology Product Management
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
- Challenges Of Decarbonizing World Economy By 2050
- China: Economy, Technology & Geopolitics
- How To Expand Internationally: Managing Economic Risks
- Geopolitics For Business People
- Country Economic Analysis
- Regional & Urban Economics and Development
SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY
- Marketing Strategy for Sustainability
- Challenges of Decarbonizing World Economy By 2050
- ESG Performance Reporting
- Sustainable Finance and Impact Investing
- Sustainability Through Supply Chain Management
- Technology & Innovation for Sustainability
Term 3
lab
As an alternative to doing an Internship, you have the choice to engage in the Lab program during this period. The Lab Period stands as one of the most successful learning experiences that the International MBA has consistently offered over the years. Together with your assigned team, you will work on a real business problem that a company is facing. You will be briefed directly from company management itself and have a chance to interview and interact with them throughout the five-week-long module. The goal is to apply what you have learned so far in the program to tackle the given challenge. The Lab Period offers a variety of options to select from:
Social Impact Lab
Work with local communities in either South Africa or Brazil to help address a pressing issue—such as microfinance, SME entrepreneuring, local education, local healthcare and more—and improve the community you are working with in the process.
Startup Lab
If you want to start your own business, this is your chance to delve more deeply into it. You will focus on developing your business idea more fully with a complete business plan. You may take the work you do here onto the Venture Lab, if your startup is selected, to work on it further during the free electives period at the end of the program.
Tech Lab
A pivotal component of the International MBA, the five-week Tech Lab empowers students to recognize and harness disruptive technologies that are reshaping traditional business models. Through hands-on challenges presented by tech industry leaders, participants develop innovative applications, bridging theory with real-world proficiency.
Busines Impact Lab
Blending academic rigor with hands-on experience, the Business Impact Lab propels participants into the role of Corporate Transformers. Students working in teams, whether Intrapreneurs, career-changers, or aspiring consultants, function as consultants addressing real corporate challenges presented by partner companies, showcasing their creativity and talent to drive transformative business solutions.
Internship
As an alternative to participating in Labs, you have the option to pursue an Internship, providing you with a practical, on-the-job experience in your chosen field. This opportunity allows you to delve into an area of interest before making a commitment to a full-time position. It is critical that, within the first month after beginning the program, you start preparing for interviews with the employers that offer these internships, which come to IE Business School during career fairs.
While no one is guaranteed a spot to complete an internship as the employer selects ideal candidates, you will be included in the recruitment process and given every chance to get your resume ready, attend relevant career fair sessions and learn more about potential internship experiences. This will be the first opportunity to make full use of the time you have invested in the Career Discovery and the Job Preparation and Search modules in the program.
Students also have the option to search for internships on their own. Should this be the case, we ask you to please coordinate closely with the Talent & Careers team to ensure we maximize the benefit of a well-aligned approach between your efforts and those of the school.
Term 4
GLOBAL IMMERSION MONTH
At this stage, you have the option of participating in our Global Immersion Month—a learning experience in which you will travel to a destination city in Europe, Asia or America for 1 month to work with local companies to help them solve specific business issues. There will also be exposure to local culture, people and history, allowing you to immerse yourself in the local community. There will be specific IE Business School and project-related modules, as well as exposure to local schools, where you can share your experience in the world of work and serve as an inspiration for future generations. The destination cities will vary from year to year.
Please note that the GIM is completely optional and there is limited capacity. Additional fees will apply for students who participate, and specific visa requirements and/or travel restrictions may apply.
ELECTIVES
In this term, you also have the option to enroll in Electives. If you opt for this path, you'll have access to over 50 diverse courses offered within the International MBA program. This period allows you the flexibility to either delve deeper into your concentration area or explore beyond it. You'll have the opportunity to select up to five elective courses during this timeframe.
International Exchange
Another alternative is to participate in an International Exchange. During this period, you'll have the opportunity to travel abroad to one of IE Business School’s esteemed academic partner institutions. We encourage you to select an exchange institution that aligns with your thematic or regional career objectives. Discover our partner institutions here.
Final Integrative Exercise
this is your final project for the International MBA. The idea is to utilize all you have learned to crack a problem of your own choosing and present a credible approach to solving it. It can be any relevant topic—from sustainability and social impact to product development, disrupting the fintech value chain, implementing strategy at a large corporation, or building on a new startup idea that you have developed further through the Venture Lab and now wish to make a reality beyond the program.
19 months - DUAL DEGREES
Obtain a Dual Degree in less than two years to sharpen your leadership skills and business acumen in the International MBA and gain deep expertise in a specific field with a specialized Masters Degree.
*Please note that our program content is continually updated to remain in sync with market demands. Therefore, we advise you that the content is subject to change and it can be dependent on student demand.
Pre-program- Bridge to business
Pre-program bridge to business
We offer you a way for you to solidify the basics prior to the formal start of classes to help you get a leg up on a range of subjects, from financial accounting to quantitative methods, so that you can hit the ground running when the program officially starts. This foundation consists of a series of asynchronous components to be completed at your own pace. This "Bridge to Business" is designed to level out the playing field, ensuring every student starts off the program with the same foundation. And while it is intended for those without a prior background in business, accounting and/or some of the basic foundational elements and methods, everyone who joins the program is welcome to do this module.
Term 1
Business Foundations I
This module addresses all the core, foundational subjects in business:
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial markets
- Financial reporting and analysis
- Innovation in digital world
- Marketing management
- Operations management
- Strategy
Business Foundations II
During this period, you'll delve into diverse courses covering strategy, operations, finance, and technology, offering a prime opportunity to envision your career trajectory post-International MBA at IE Business School and refine your skills for future impact.
- Business, government & sustainability
- Data analytics for managers
- Digital transformation
- Leading people & change
- Managerial accounting
- Supply chain management
- Managerial economics
- Corporate finance
Impact skills accelerator
Seamlessly integrated into your academic journey, the Impact Skills Accelerator is an essential facet of your MBA. This accelerator serves to hone and refine a distinctive set of impact skills through comprehensive training. It will help you develop a core toolset that enables you to structure problems effectively, think on your feet, listen actively, hack your learning, communicate, negotiate, collaborate, persuade, understand and develop yourself and others to succeed in any workplace. We will also make sure these competences are not studied in a vacuum but applied in your day-to-day classes, assignments and project work.
* This module extends on to Term 2
Career Discovery accelerator
Step into a world where career exploration becomes a transformative journey. Introducing the Career Discovery Accelerator, an essential component of your MBA, that is meticulously designed to help you figure out where you’re going in your career so you can make the best choices about your concentration, electives and other program options. It consists of a series of hands-on workshops, held in small groups, to help you discover where you want to focus your future career beyond IE Business School. You will have a chance to talk to and engage with professionals in different fields, discovering what a day in the life looks like for them and what it takes to get a job in a given sector.
Divided into three transformative phases (Launch, Explore and Decide), the Career Discovery Accelerator equips you with insights and strategies to make informed decisions about your future.
Job Prep & search
At IE Business School, we do not take job preparation or the job search for granted. It is an integral part of developing future-proof leaders. Studies show you need to devote around four to five hours every week to looking for a job and preparing for interviews throughout your International MBA experience. We do not leave this to chance, but rather embed it as an integral part of the program. You will be working very closely with our Talent & Careers department to make sure you take full advantage of all career fairs, interview preparation boot camps and other activities we have to ensure you can maximize your chances of landing your dream job beyond IE Business School.
Term 2
Independent ProjectFor students pursuing a second degree combined with their IMBA experience, there will be an independent, individual project to be carried out at the end of term 2. The project is the student´s own choosing, and should seek to investigate a particular business challenge in depth. It can be focused on a single company or group of companies, at different stages of their lifecycle (from start-up, to scale-up, to well-established organizations, of different sizes, as well as geographic footprints, sectors, product and customer portfolios). The project topic will be discussed and approved by an academic counselor appointed for this purpose, and should bring in and integrate multiple disciplines studied through the MBA to date. A more detailed grading rubric will also be provided once enrolled. The project is to be carried out in the intervening period of 2-3 weeks between the end of Term 2 of the IMBA, and the beginning of their second Masters Degree.
Second Master Degree
Choose your second master's degree and craft your expertise by selecting from a variety of complementary career paths, giving you an edge in the competitive job market as a well-rounded professional.
Science, Technology And Data
Marketing, Communication & Sales
Architecture & Design
Law, International Affairs & Public Policy
Finance, Trade & Economics
Talent And Leadership Development
Business & Management
Your choice of intake will determine the range of combinations and durations available to you; for further details on Dual Degrees, please visit our Dual Degree website .