The Woman Who Brought Management To Slovenia

IEDC Bled School of Management

If the first phase of building IEDC Bled was fighting for existence in an anti-management society, and the second phase was filling the school with foreign faculty, Purg says the school now is in its third phase: becoming one of the most innovative schools in the world.

They are innovative, she says, in the way they integrate the studies of art and leadership.

“I think that our school is still really influenced by me, and that means we are concerned about ethical issues, sustainable development, and art,” she says. “It is not enough that people learn. They must get inspired, motivated, and they must be willing to work together.”

The school itself is practically an art gallery, with hundreds of paintings and sculptures. “Art is shocking, provoking, and inspiring,” Purg says. “We build quite a lot on emotions and experiential learning. What can one learn from music to become a better listener? What can someone learn from visual art, from theater, from film?”

The emphasis on art goes back to socialist times, she says, when the Slovenian people were more equal. She believes that business and management are about more than just money, and management education is more than just rankings and how much you earn after you graduate. To become a better leader, you should be changing society for the better, Purg says, not just for your own profit, and you should have a high respect for everyone, whether it’s a manager or a street cleaner.

“The best compliment I ever got was when an alumnus went home and gave an interview at his local newspaper,” Purg says. “He said when he came back from Bled in Slovenia, everyone in his company noticed that he had learned a lot. But his family said that he had also become a better human being.”

A SCHOOL WITH A VIEW

IEDC Bled is situated on a beautiful and quiet lake, a perfect place for reflection, Purg says. Several years ago, a magazine called it “a school with a view” because of its picturesque setting. Purg took the nickname to heart, adding it under the school’s name on Bled’s official website. But to her, “a school with a view” has a double meaning. It also means “a school with a vision.”

Her vision extends beyond IEDC Bled and even beyond the hundreds of schools in CEEMAN, to what she hopes management education will become worldwide.

“What I would like to see in management education in the future is more innovation,” she says. “These accreditations and these standards, they are making everyone the same. I think we should look to variety, specialization, and responding properly to the specific needs of the places where we live.”

And at her own school, Purg says they don’t enter any rankings, at first because they were too small a school to qualify, and later because they didn’t believe in rankings where a prominent criteria is the salary of graduates. They have, however, won international recognition for innovation by AMBA and Aspen Institute, and in 2010 Purg was named the International Educator of the Year by the Academy of International Business.

Rather than focusing on the future salaries of her students, Purg says her goal is for as many students as possible to understand what IEDC Bled stands for — maintaining a high respect for everyone, regardless of social class.

“I believe about one third of the students come in with immediately accepting and open minds,” she says. “Another third learn that through the program. And then the last third we are leaving … quite untouched. We have to work on that more.”

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