INTRODUCTION
When we feel driven toward improvement, leaving behind mediocrity and conformism,
then we are on our way to excellence. It is not just a matter of going beyond
our environment's standards, but rather of continuously setting higher goals.
Instead of following established rules, we create them. Rather than comparing
ourselves to others, we become the standard for others to evaluate us. Instead
of proclaiming that we are the best at what we do, we demonstrate it through
our daily actions. In our view, this is what excellence and leadership means.
This is what we understand INCAE is.
INCAE's 40th. ANNIVERSARY
We often lose sight of things that have become familiar to us through daily
contact. As a result of their constant presence, we come to take things for
granted. Something of this sort is what occurs in the case of INCAE. After 40
years of being a source of innovation, managerial training, institutional model,
commitment to development and impact on performance, INCAE has become a part
of the region's daily landscape. For that reason, it seems to me of particular
significance to recollect the different stages and contributions of INCAE in
this 40th. anniversary.
As a source of innovation, INCAE brought the first executive management programs
to Central and South America as well as the first MBA program. Thanks to the
work of those who preceded me at the Rector's Office, to a faculty with extraordinary
perseverance and dedication, and to a staff with total commitment to our mission,
INCAE has been able to serve as the fountainhead of significant innovation.
This includes the introduction of agribusiness logic in the early 70s; professional
finance and banking management in the middle 70s; public management based on
sound administrative practice by the late 70s; export management starting in
the 80s; business economics from 1987 on, not-for-profit organization management
since 1988; eco-efficiency and environmental management starting in 1992; business
and sector management driven by competitive advantage beginning in 1996 and,
more recently, corporate social responsibility. However, INCAE has not restricted
itself to introducing conceptual frameworks and management methods. In 1964
it offered the first series of executive management programs in Central America.
In 1967 it introduced the first MBA program in the region, 20 years before the
market doing so. By 1972, in response to the earthquake that hit Managua, INCAE
developed the first think tank focused on contributing to solving the huge challenges
from our social and economic development process. The Advisory Center in Managua
was followed by the Non-Traditional Exports Center, designed to contribute to
market and export diversification in Central America. Other centers that followed
included the Policy Center, established to meet economic planning needs in the
middle of the worst economic crisis in many years, and the Center for Competitiveness
and Sustainable Development, with a mission to drive change in production capacity
and competitiveness in the region, its key sectors and its companies. In the
last few years, the Social Entrepreneurialism Development Program is one of
our main current interests and this will be even more so in the future. These
centers are the chief examples of the INCAE's adaptability to the current and
future needs of the region and its businesspeople.
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| Roberto
Artavia Loría (Rector). |
Some of the chief executives in Central America received their MBA degree from
INCAE. The same is true for Ecuador, Paraguay and several other Latin American
countries. INCAE's executive programs have contributed to changing management
practices, attitudes and values and, through these, the competitiveness and
modern nature of large, middle-sized and small enterprises. Our institutional
model has developed a lively, competitive market of business management education
in the region, with many other schools participating in addition to INCAE.
INCAE's impact can be seen in government action as well as in the coordination
of regional efforts, the competitiveness of sectors and companies in our economies,
and the personal leadership of our graduates in a large variety of activities
in their countries as well as in the region as a whole. Also, it can be observed
in our continuous commitment to the values guiding our decision processes, such
as academic excellence, regional integration, ethics and justice, freedom of
thought and action, commitment to dialogue and the multinational nature of our
activities, all of which are clearly expressed in the Institute's decisions
and activities.
INCAE has developed itself around one of the highest-level faculty in Latin
America, according to industry analysts and international accreditation organizations.
It is supported by an administrative staff in twelve Latin American countries
with extraordinary creativity and commitment, plus the region's business leaders.
All of this, added to over 10,000 graduates and more than 140,000 executives
who have participated in our seminars, results in INCAE transcending, by far,
its premises, to become an international network with a goal of economic development,
with sustainability and social justice, in each country where it operates.
Forty years after the historical meeting of Central American Presidents and
business leaders with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, INCAE is, in year 2003,
an organization maintaining its commitment, enthusiasm, leadership, and creativity
on behalf of a Latin American region committed to taking advantage of the opportunities
offered by the 21st. century.
INCAE: A Mission of Excellence
Our mission is to actively promote the comprehensive development of countries
served by developing key-sector leaders and by improving their practices, attitudes
and values through research, teaching, and the dissemination of up-to-date management
concepts and techniques; reinforcement of analytical capabilities and understanding
of economic, political, and social phenomena, as well as facilitation of dialogue,
understanding and cooperation between individuals, sectors and countries.
