SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS
Guadalajara’s Iteso University Business School offers a centuries-old educational tradition against the backdrop of Mexico’s Silicon Valley. Tim Banerjee Dhoul takes a look at this recent addition to the AMBA network
HISTORY Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (Iteso) is the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, Mexico and was founded in 1957. At the time of its foundation, it offered courses focused on business skills, but expanded its academic range rapidly after moving to its current campus in 1962. Fast-forward to today and Iteso University Business School represents the triumvirate of an academic department at the university (the Department of Economics, Administration and Marketing), a tech scale-up and consultancy centre (the Centre for Innovation and Technology Management) and a platform for the sustainable development of SMEs (the University Business Centre).
COURSES
In April, Iteso celebrated 35 years since the launch of its MBA programme alongside the achievement of its
accreditation with AMBA. Since its inception in 1988, the programme has strived to integrate the principles of Jesuit education with the needs of the business environment and a commitment to society. Offered in a blended format, the Iteso MBA is designed to allow students to build their own curricular route. In the elective segment of the programme, for example, students can take courses from the wider university’s postgraduate offerings. When following the school’s suggested study plan, the programme takes two and a half years to complete. At postgraduate level, Iteso also offers master’s degrees in global marketing and in engineering and quality management.
LOCATION Iteso is based in Guadalajara – Mexico’s third-largest metropolitan area and the
capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Referred to as the country’s ‘Silicon Valley’, Guadalajara is Mexico’s leading producer of software, electronic and digital components. Its economy also has an established strength in commerce and manufacturing, placing among the top 10 cities in Latin America for GDP. Iteso’s campus is in Tlaquepaque, a city in its own right that is located a few kilometres south of Guadalajara’s centre and has been absorbed by the outward growth of the state capital’s metro area.
46 | Ambition JULY/AUGUST 2023
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