Brdo pri Kranju (Slovenia), 14 October 2011
More than 450 business and political leaders, professors, alumni and friends of IEDC-Bled School of Management from 36 countries attended the IEDC Presidents’ Forum and ceremony dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the School, opened by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr. Danilo Türk. In the frame of the international conference Creating the Future, IEDC awarded honorary doctoral titles to Prof. Edgar Schein and Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries, while on the occasion of its 25th anniversary the School issued a book The vision and voices of IEDC-Bled School of Management, authored by Dr. Phil Mirvis, renowned expert on organizational psychology from the USA.
In her introductory speech, Prof. Danica Purg, who has been leading the IEDC for the past twenty-five years, stressed that “the IEDC has a mission and a duty to promote and to stimulate creativity and responsibility, to make it possible for the leaders to be successful in a fast changing environment”, adding that “in these new times of big changes and uncertainty in the social, economic and political setting, we need positive, creative and energetic leaders.” According to Dr. Erhard Busek, President of IEDC’s international Supervisory Board, Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe and former Vice-chancellor of Austria, “IEDC is an outstanding contribution to business community, Slovenia and Europe, thus everybody should contribute to its future development.”
Honorary speaker Dr. Danilo Türk, President of the Republic of Slovenia, pointed out that the Slovenians can be pleased to have IEDC as it has helped many generations of managers; in his view, knowing the present and readiness for change are key conditions for the ability to “create the future”, while educational systems have to adjust to changed realities.
Prof. Edgar Schein, considered one of the original 'founders' of organizational psychology, and Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries, world-class authority on global leadership and a clinical professor of leadership development, were conferred “doctor honoris causa” by IEDC, for their outstanding contribution to creation and integration of knowledge and leadership development for a better world. In his address, Prof. Schein stressed that “currently there is too much preoccupation with competence, motivation and will, and at the same time not enough focus on values, ethics and humanity”, and Prof. Kets de Vries set out that “in this age of greed and anxiety, short-term expediency prevails, while bold, imaginative leadership, taking the kinds of action that will benefit the next generation is sorely missing.”
In his keynote speech “The Courage to Change”, Dr. Ichak Adizes, one of the leading management experts in the world, USA, emphasized that “we need a new breed of leaders, ‘social leaders’ that have the courage to change society driven by materialism to a society driven by values.”
In the frame of the “Creating the Future” panel, Prof. Aleksandra Kornhauser Frazer, internationally respected authority in chemistry, Prof. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, respected management thinker who focuses on globalization and the role of business in reduction of poverty and inequality, Prof. Hermann Simon, one of the most prominent management thinkers in Europe, and Dr. Horst Weitzmann, long-serving President of the Badische Stahlwerke corporation, agreed that future success significantly relies on continuous education, creative thinking and humanity.
The anniversary event concluded by an inspiring address by a foremost authority on cross-cultural management and women’s global leadership Prof. Nancy Adler, who believes that »the ugliness of the 21st century requires leaders who have the ability to see and to care (just like great artists) and can create options worth choosing, not simply those who can analyze and decide among yesterday’s options.«
Additional images are available in the event's web gallery.
