
From the classroom to the boardroom – why do IMD alumni lead differently?
Three alumni. Three decades. One question: What makes IMD’s leadership journey so lasting? ...
March 2, 2023 in CEO Dialogue podcast series
Rakuten CEO Mickey Mikitani tells IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how – by challenging conventional wisdom and encouraging all staff to tidy their own offices – he has grown his company from an...
Apple Google SpotifyTwenty-six years ago, Mickey Mikitani quit his position at the Industrial Bank of Japan – an unusual move in the traditional world of Japanese corporate culture. Even more surprisingly, he left not to join another large institution but to pursue an idea he had for an e-commerce startup.
Today, from humble beginnings with just six employees and a single server, his idea has mushroomed into Rakuten (meaning optimism in Japanese), a business ecosystem with 31,000 employees and revenues last year of about $15bn.
In conversation with IMD President Jean-François Manzoni, Mikitani describes his journey; and how an e-commerce startup grew into an online giant, spanning internet services, fintech, and mobile.
June 2, 2025 • by David Bach, Felix Zeltner in Podcasts
Three alumni. Three decades. One question: What makes IMD’s leadership journey so lasting? ...
May 19, 2025 • by David Bach, Felix Zeltner in Podcasts
Global deans Catherine Duggan and Darren Dahl on leading through turbulence — and why optimism, not certainty, is the real power in today’s business education....
May 1, 2025 • by David Bach, Felix Zeltner in Podcasts
In the latest episode, IMD President David Bach explains the vital importance of the partnership between the US government and the elite research universities, what we can learn from the vibrancy of...
April 17, 2025 • by David Bach, Felix Zeltner in Podcasts
This episode takes you behind the scenes of a recent gathering led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development together with IMD, where David Bach sat down with two sustainability leaders....
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