The 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding

The end of empire not only reconfigured Asia's political life, it also changed its business and industry. As Asians asserted their leadership, foreign managers departed, bureaucrats and military men found themselves managing important resources and assets, and family-owned firms began to transform themselves into professionally managed corporations. Yet competent managers were in short supply. For young Asians seeking formal business training there were few options, all the more so for the vast majority who could not afford to study in the West.

Responding to this need were Philippine businessmen Washington SyCip and Ramon V. del Rosario. With Harvard professor Stephen Fuller, they broached in 1956 the idea of pooling institutional resources to create a single superior business school for Asia. This idea bore fruit in 1968 when Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle Universities joined forces to establish the Asian Institute of Management, or AIM. Fuller became the founding president; SyCip, chairman of the board—a post he holds until now. Early financial support came from the Ford Foundation, USAID, and, most importantly, Filipino industrialist Eugenio Lopez, Sr. The Ayala Corporation provided land in the burgeoning business district of Makati for a new campus, which opened in 1970.

AIM's original course was the two-year Masters in Business Management. Instruction was based on the famous case method developed at Harvard Business School. In the beginning, AIM functioned primarily to transfer Western management principles and techniques to Asia. An early objective of the Institute, however, was to expand its bank of Asian cases to present its students with authentically Asian solutions to the region's management problems. Guided both by a local board of trustees and an international board of governors, AIM has been striving in this direction ever since.

A one-year Master in Management Program, inaugurated in 1974, was the first of AIM's innovations in response to the fast-changing needs of the region. New programs soon followed tailored especially for air transport managers, marketing managers, bank managers, and, since 1985, for rural and general development managers—an endeavor that reflects the Institute's commitment to "the disadvantaged, the underprivileged, and the poor." There also came short courses for middle and senior executives and workshops for government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and women in business. Many of these are offered outside the Philippines. Today, AIM executes some twenty distinct programs each year.

Like the business of Asia, the impact of AIM transcends national borders. To date, some twenty thousand individuals have received AIM training, more than half from dozens of neighboring countries, conspicuously Indonesia and Malaysia. Through its business magazine and management awards, as well as offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, AIM maintains a high profile throughout Asia. Most importantly, its graduates fill the senior and middle ranks of some of the region's best-run companies and serve widely in government. Research and consulting complement the work of teaching for AIM's international faculty, and keep the Institute's "case bank" abreast of the latest trends and problems. Although foundation and development agency grants provide welcome support for AIM's research, the school relies largely on the marketability of its programs and services to pay the bills.

Since 1972, when Sixto Roxas became president, Filipinos have led AIM. Today the president is long-time AIM faculty member, Felipe B. Alfonso. Under his direction, AIM looks pragmatically ahead, keeping its courses and programs fresh and anticipating an ever greater need for astute, well-trained, and Asia-sensitive managers as the Pacific Century approaches.

In electing the ASIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT to receive the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the board of trustees recognizes its setting regionwide standards for excellence and relevance in training Asians to manage Asia’s business and development.