IE Business School shapes leaders who promote innovation and change in organisations, equipping directors with an entrepreneurial mindset that generates employment, wealth and social wellbeing. Since its inception, IE Business School has embraced the entrepreneurial spirit as a core value, and is now an international reference in the field of entrepreneurship. The School’s International Centre for Entrepreneurial Management serves as a hub for all activities related to the field, both academic and corporate.

Entrepreneurship forms an integral part of IE master programs, which means that more than 1,500 of our students study entrepreneurship as a core course of these programs each year.  Students learn how to identify business opportunities, develop business plans and access the resources they need to launch the plan. They can also opt to further deepen their entrepreneurial skills though elective courses specialized in fields such as family business, franchises, social entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, finance for entrepreneurs and Venture Lab. The latter is an initiative that affords a unique opportunity for those students interested in setting their own business, by enabling them to develop a business plan under personalized tutorship provided by IE alumni with experience in entrepreneurship or investment. The plans are submitted to a committee to undergo a strict selection process, and the winning projects are presented at an investors’ forum that meets for this specific purpose. 

In terms of corporate initiatives, IE Business School is a leader in the field of entrepreneurship with projects like the Banespyme-Orange business plan competition held in the Spanish market for over a decade, or the GEM Report, an unprecedented initiative that has culminated in the creation of the most ambitious observatory to date of entrepreneurial activity worldwide. IE Business School has served as the Spanish arm of the initiative since the second edition of the report was published in 2000. Moreover, further programs and mentoring initiatives developed in collaboration with an extensive range of institutions foster entrepreneurial activities in society and the corporate world, in both multinationals and SMEs.

The activities undertaken by the Centre play a key role in maintaining IE Business School at the forefront of management education and the field of entrepreneurship from a dual perspective of academic excellence and the development of initiatives which provide growth and social wellbeing.