Five 10-day modules delivered at five leading business schools around the world.
Co-founded by Henry Mintzberg.
Option to top up to a PhD in Theory and Practice of Management upon completion.
Five leading global business schools. 18 months. Five 10-day modules. The International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM) programme breaks the mould to create leaders who can develop people and shape business in a complex and changing global context.
Today’s senior managers must be negotiators, problem solvers, entrepreneurs, and more. Iconic management thinker Henry Mintzberg co-founded this course 20 years ago to teach these qualities. His ethos is shared by the 75 international faculty members who bring their research and academic concepts to this programme.
Traditional learning approaches are complemented by cultural experiences such as a yoga class in India or a Zen monastery in Japan, which are designed to help you unlearn behaviours, break down silo mentality and develop new mindsets.
You will focus on how to combine your significant functional experience with the ability to pause and reflect, turning that experience into new knowledge. You will also become comfortable with the uncertainty and complexity that accompanies senior positions.
Contributions are made on an equal basis between faculty and students. You are not passive receivers but co-creators. You are also encouraged to share your learning with a project team of up to ten colleagues in your own organisation. After graduation, you can return for two to three days on modules to build another layer of learning. On completion of the programme, there is the option to progress to a Theory and Practice of Management PhD.
Participants come from a wide range of industry backgrounds such as engineering, media, telecoms, IT and transport.
The IMPM breaks the mould to create world-class executives who can lead their business in a complex and disruptive global context. Today’s senior managers must be astute negotiators, creative problem solvers, discern business trends, act entrepreneurially, and more. Iconic management thinker Henry Mintzberg founded the programme over 20 years ago to help managers think differently, develop their purpose and act wisely.
Key facts
The programme is taught by 75 international faculty from five leading global business schools worldwide with five 1½ week mindset modules over 18 months.
Breakthrough perspectives
Authentically international, this advanced management programme is designed around management mindsets and business challenges. You will gain breakthrough perspectives and develop enriched capabilities to engage with the uncertainty and dynamism that accompanies senior management positions.
Participants from various sectors
Our participants come from a range of sectors such as engineering, finance, manufacturing, media, telecoms and transport. The IMPM programme is designed to encourage sharing experiences and insights with peers so our participants are typically 35-55 years of age. After graduation, you can continue to learn and develop your professional network by returning to the program as an alumni participant.
Large alumni network
The true value of the IMPM programme is best described by members of our extensive alumni network of over 500 members who, since completing the programme, have applied their knowledge within their own organisations and discovered a new perspective on their approaches to life and work.
Entry requirements
Requirements
Minimum of 10 years' work experience, including extensive managerial experience.
We may also consider non-standard applicants. Please contact us for information.
Pre-master’s programmes
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master’s pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master’s degrees. Visit the INTO Lancaster University website for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Course structure
You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
The Action Mindset expands assumptions, frameworks and perspectives on personal, professional, organisational and societal change and continuity. In Rio de Janeiro, at Brazil’s renowned FGV-EBAPE, the focus is on catalytic change and how business and global dynamics interact with management and organisational action. To develop an advanced and incisive perspective on managerial action, there are sessions on change management, processual perspectives on change and continuity, managing hierarchies for action, governance and knowledge for action across businesses and societal contexts.
Visits to companies and public sector enterprises, a school for youth development and workshops on diversity and gender, refresh and extend the scope for managerial and organisational action. Enriching concepts and understanding of change and continuity, the module also focuses on learning innovative practices of management and organisational action, with advanced action inquiry techniques such as Friendly Consulting and In-Reach for organisational action learning and impact.
Module Two - Managing Organisations: The Analytic Mindset
Understanding the role and value of analysis in organisations is a vital capability for senior executives. McGill, one of the world’s top universities, hosts the Analytic Mindset in Montreal, one of North America’s most dynamic and engaging cities. Faculty sessions focus on the role of evidence and experience in business and management, examining how decisions are made and negotiations take place, financial management and business valuation, emerging innovations in artificial intelligence and global cross-cultural awareness.
The Analytic Mindset provides techniques for analysing organisations and equips participants with a deep knowledge of different management concepts in relation to strategic thinking. Analysing evidence and experience in strategic thinking and in organisations, workshops on eco-cycle management and the theory of constraints expand analysis beyond function to fusion. Along with taught sessions, visits to companies create a unique learning community of participants dedicated to exploring management mindsets, analytical judgement and impact.
Module Three - Managing Relationships: The Collaborative Mindset
Relationships are at the centre of successful managerial practice as organisations accomplish purpose and goals in groups, cross-functional teams and with other organisations. Iconic managers and organisations build relationships and learn through others. The third module, the Collaborative Mindset, is provided by Yokohama National University. Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, was one of the first ports in Japan which opened to foreign trade. Drawing on a wealth of management expertise in Japan and East Asia, the module focuses on managing relationships between individuals, within teams and across businesses, with strategic alliances, joint ventures and supply chains.
Participants learn about world-famous contributions to management thinking such as knowledge creation, wisdom and kaizen in relation to collaboration. Workshops on cross-sector collaboration as well as insights into relationships with nature and new technologies connect to contemporary innovations in robotics and machine learning. Visiting organisations in the private, public and plural sectors sharpen insights into collaboration within and between organisations and across sectors.
Module One - Managing Self: The Reflective Mindset
Lancaster University Management School
Senior management development needs to incorporate individuals’ experiences and develop the capability to learn from cycles of experience and reflection. In the first module, the program seeks to expand horizons and perspectives, turning personal, professional and business experience into new practices of thinking and acting. Lancaster and the Lake District in north-western England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, is the perfect setting for thoughtful reflection on your personal trajectory, role as a senior manager and the business context of your organisation.
Faculty sessions include the nature of reflective and engaging management, action inquiry, the art, craft and science of management practice, virtue ethics and responsibility, and business as practical wisdom. Faculty workshops at a historic cotton mill bring alive the role of business models over the long wave of commerce, practising a deliberative corporate business meeting demonstrates group decision-making, and walking in the footsteps of poet William Wordsworth evokes the importance of vision, community and place for creativity and insight in management. Exploring cycles of personal and professional experience, reflection and insight for engaged managing, participants also visit a range of companies to undertake a reflective analysis and learn about managerial values, responsibility and ethics.
Module Five - Managing Context: The Worldly Mindset
The final module capstones the cycles of learning from experience and reflection while continuing to broaden contemporary business expertise and management judgment. Enhancing strategic insight and capabilities for worldly action and impact culminates with the Worldly Mindset at the IIM Bangalore. India is the ideal environment to learn about other people’s mindsets in order to better understand our own and to learn to act in entrepreneurial and worldly ways. Creating worldly managers, leaders and organisations for the future, faculty sessions focus on political dynamics in diverse settings, non-market strategic management, the bottom-of-the-pyramid markets, the role of religious and societal values in business, frugal innovation and inclusive market development, managing sustainably and digitalisation, and sustaining business growth.
To cultivate a worldly mindset, participants visit companies focused on technology consulting, digital business, medical innovation and social entrepreneurship to integrate insights from all modules. Field study visits to a microfinance institution and an orchard farm connect learning from nature to network business models and digital platforms. The diversity of the faculty sessions throughout this and other modules, combined with the unique program design, makes for a rich and highly developmental experience which transforms participants and prepares them for senior and wider roles in business and society.
Optional
optional modules accordion
The major paper is the culmination of the IMPM programme. The major paper allows you to demonstrate the key learning outcomes of the IMPM programme through undertaking a major piece of organisational-based research. It provides you with the opportunity to further utilise the key concepts theories and practices introduced during the IMPM and continue to develop your own critical thinking and reflective skills in relation to existing management theories and frameworks and your own practice.
Fees and funding
For information about the fees, please visit the IMPM website
For those who wish to complete the requirements of the Master's Degree at Lancaster, there will be an additional fee of $9,000 USD
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2025, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
For most taught postgraduate applications there is a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
IMPM graduate Damiano explains his motivation for choosing the International Masters Program for Managers, and what he enjoyed most about his studies.
Growing successful enterprise to achieve proven results
Lili Hall is the founder, president and CEO of KNOCK Inc., a brand design creative agency based in Minneapolis, and a graduate of the International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM). Thanks to her IMPM experience, Lili was able to put a new lens on how to run her business and since graduation, she has grown KNOCK Inc. by 78% in revenue and has increased employees by 44%. She has also inspired two of her managers to enrol on the programme.
Lufthansa has been collaborating with the International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM) for over 20 years. Martin Schamberg, Senior Director at Lufthansa Technik and IMPM alumnus, reflects on his experience on the program and how this changed his practice of managing "from stewardship to authentic leadership" and created impact at Lufthansa.
The information on this site relates primarily to 2025/2026 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
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We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.
