Center for Public Leadership and Government (CPLG)

IESE has a long tradition of training public executives. Among all of its initiatives, one that stands out is the creation of the Public Management Leadership Forum in 2004, which marked a turning point.

From the moment it was created, the Forum allowed IESE to establish a smooth relationship with the Harvard Kennedy School, which has given rise to the Academic Advisory Board and the Driving Government Performance Program, which addresses leadership strategies to evaluate and improve public policy.

All of the participants in the Public Management Leadership Program have prepared case studies relating to their area of public service, resulting in a library of 500 public administration cases.

The quality of the program is vouched for by the trust placed in us by top agencies and administrations, such as the World Bank, the Spanish Prime Minister’s Office, the Bank of Spain, the Spanish Port Authority, the Community of Madrid and the Government of Catalonia, who send their top executives to IESE for training.

To improve the results obtained by training and research activities geared toward the public sector, a process has been established that allows academic innovation to be combined with practical activities.

The process is based on the organization of seminars on specific topics, to which leading international experts in the fields are invited. With a multidisciplinary and eminently practical approach, the seminars are led by an IESE professor, who will later head up the chosen line of research, the final product of which is a white paper compiling all of the contributions.

The seminars are also attended by other professors, research assistants and experts who will develop the government case studies. For its part, the focused program on that same topic will be coordinated by the same IESE professor who, with the help of some of the seminar attendees, will lead a group of senior executives and public leaders. Finally, government case studies will be based on a conceptual model specific to the case study methodology and specific content obtained at each seminar and focused program.

Alumni who participate in the PMLP have the opportunity to address current issues at sessions of the IESE Alumni Association’s Alumni Learning Program. In addition, the Public Management Leadership Program provides a chance to meet and share experiences.

At IESE, we employ active learning methodologies that invite public executives to distance themselves from their everyday reality to gain deeper knowledge, convictions and insights, and to understand the challenges they face by placing them at the center of major decisions.

Using some 300 public administration case studies, IESE employs the case study methodology in a unique and distinctive way, which can be divided into three phases:

1. Individual Study. Personal analysis of critical current situations faced by executives allows them to cultivate strategic management skills.
2. Teamwork. After individual study, participants contrast their analyses, action plans and conclusions with those of their colleagues, thus allowing them to bring together their various perspectives and experiences and reach the best solution.
3. General Session. During this phase, under the guidance of a professor who moderates in an orderly and methodologically rigorous manner, there is debate on problems, proposed solutions and the consequences of their implementation. In this way, participants learn from the criteria of the professor and the new perspectives offered by their colleagues.