Rethinking Executive Education: Learning to Lead Through Inquiry

How should experienced leaders learn today?

At IFM, executive education is designed as a space for exploration rather than prescription. Within the Executive MSc in Strategic Management of Fashion & Luxury and the Advanced Management Programme in Fashion & Luxury (AMP), participants do not receive ready-made answers. They engage with complex, real-world strategic challenges in which solutions are not delivered; they are constructed collectively.

In an industry undergoing profound transformation, the capacity to formulate the right questions has become a core leadership competency. The fashion and luxury sectors are navigating structural shifts: evolving consumer expectations, technological acceleration, sustainability imperatives, and geopolitical uncertainty. In such an environment, expertise alone is insufficient. What distinguishes effective leaders is their ability to interrogate assumptions, reframe problems and orchestrate collective intelligence.

For decades, executive education has largely relied on expert-led, example-driven pedagogy, a vertical transmission of knowledge from specialist to audience. At IFM, we adopt a different approach: inquiry-based learning.

Rooted in constructive pedagogy and inspired by the scientific method, inquiry-based learning positions participants as active agents in the production of knowledge. Through questioning, investigation and structured dialogue, executives examine complex strategic situations in depth. Learning becomes dynamic, collaborative and directly anchored in the realities they face within their organisations.

By placing inquiry at the core of the learning experience, we equip leaders in fashion and luxury not merely to apply frameworks, but to navigate ambiguity, challenge conventions and build informed strategic responses in environments where certainty is no longer the norm.

Rethinking executive education means rethinking how leaders think.

To learn more about the Executive MSc, join our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, February 25 at 1:00 pm, with Xavier Romatet, Dean of IFM, alongside the program team and two current participants who will share their experience and insights. Register here