LFGSM MBA

Lake Forest Graduate School MBA Program

 

WE ARE PROVEN
BUSINESS LEADERS

Lake Forest Graduate School CampusWe care about the impact our programs have and results. We believe that leadership is not simply a product of authority. Leadership is about trust.

Our Graduate School program faculty are successful business people. They are CEOs, CFOs, Vice Presidents, Partners, and entrepreneurs, but most of all they are leaders. Our Business Leader Faculty® have been in the trenches of business and have the practical hands-on knowledge of what makes a great leader.

Our Mission

 

Our mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development. Leadership impact does not just touch teams and organizations, it changes families and communities for the better. Leaders don’t stop being leaders when they leave their work for the day. Our learning experiences explore how to be agile, innovative, strategic, and inspirational. This kind of education is not only found on a syllabus; it is absorbed and cultivated in our unique environment.

Our students emerge with expanded knowledge and skills that they can immediately apply in the workplace. They develop into leaders people want to follow with the essential qualities that prepare them to solve business challenges. They understand how to propel employees and organizations to anticipate, respond and succeed in today’s complex business environment.

Business education should be practical,
it should embrace mentorship and apprenticeship,
and it should provide working professionals with maximum flexibility.

Our Position

 

You don’t need leaders who cite yesterday’s theories. You need leaders who solve tomorrow’s problems. We believe business education requires senior business professionals who see beyond the textbook to practical solutions. That’s why our education builds upon decades of real-world application: because you need a committed partner who gets you. We’ve been in your shoes and have the hands-on experience of what it takes to succeed in business.

Why Choose Lake Forest?

 

It takes a leader to make a leader. The judgment and skills of our faculty have been tested by the most important test: the market. A book cannot replace the business knowledge and successes they share with students and attendees. They've been there… done that. They know the latest thinking and industry trends, have years of real-world experience, practical perspectives, and industry insights. They also have a passion for mentoring working professionals. They understand what businesses go through and take the time to understand what you need.

Practical working professionals want to impact their organizations. They need to make critical decisions to drive the business forward, which requires more than just knowledge. They need a guide, a real person they can talk to about the situations they face at work.

​These mentors are found not only in our unique business leader faculty but also in the colleagues they meet in the classroom or online. These classmates are like-minded, practical working professionals themselves with years of experience in real-world businesses. That’s what makes us different.

Our Leadership Model

 

We’ve built a leadership model over decades that has taken proven business practices — from our own businesses — and put them in real-world, practical applications. You can take what you learn today and execute on it tomorrow.

Our model has five principles:

Agility

An agile leader must be resourceful, flexible, and resilient in the face of change.

Innovation

Innovative leaders think creatively, question assumptions, defy limitations, and are willing to take risks. Innovative leaders push change on a number of fronts.

Strategic Vision

Goals can only be achieved by leaders who develop an inspirational yet practical vision, and can implement that vision to achieve success.

Self-awareness

Self-aware leaders must be able to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and use that knowledge to do what is best for their organization.

Engaging Others

Leaders who truly change lives have the extraordinary ability to engage others by embracing differences and forming strong connections with employees.

This process has developed thousands of broad thinkers and strong leaders, leaders who have gone on to change the lives of thousands of people and businesses across the globe.

Our History

 

Since 1946, we’ve been partnering with corporations to build strong leaders and broad thinkers. In that year, Lake Forest College launched the Industrial Management Institute, an evening continuing education program initially aimed at updating men returning from the service to the rapidly changing fields they had left a few years earlier. Lake Forest College founded the program with the support of several Lake County manufacturing companies. It introduced a revolutionary educational approach incorporating a practical business model taught by instructors who were themselves business leaders.

In 1965, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management became an independent, nonprofit organization which has continued to build its high-performance, results-oriented, leadership approach to learning.

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management is uniquely positioned at the intersection of business and education. We are fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), an organization authorized by the US Department of Education to rigorously evaluate and endorse degree-granting educational institutions. Lake Forest Graduate School of Management is also licensed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Real world business education for today's business leaders.

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Learn more about our Leadership MBA, Graduate Certificate or Single Leadership Upskilling Courses.