Asian Institute of Management

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) was established in 1968 in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines, as a joint initiative between the Philippine business community and Harvard Business School — a founding story that explains both its case-method pedagogy and its unapologetic ambition. It operates as a private, graduate-level management institution independent of any university, with a mandate that has always linked business performance to inclusive development across Asia. The school confers degrees and certificates ranging from its flagship MBA to executive and development programs, and its academic philosophy centres on the idea that good management in Asia must account for institutional fragility, demographic scale, and the social contract in ways that Western frameworks rarely do. Today AIM draws faculty and participants from across the Asia-Pacific, maintaining a campus culture that is deliberately regional in outlook but globally literate in method.

Accreditations and Rankings

Accreditations

• AACSB accredited
• AMBA accredited

Rankings

• QS World University Rankings: Business & Management — ranked among Top 100 in Asia (2024)
• Eduniversal Best Masters Rankings — AIM's MBA and executive programs consistently ranked among the best in Southeast Asia (2023)
• Recognised by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as a Center of Excellence in Business Education

Executive Education at a Glance

AIM's Executive Education portfolio is one of the most established in Southeast Asia, drawing professionals from across the Philippines, ASEAN, South Asia, and the broader Pacific. The school runs both open enrollment and custom corporate programs, with open programs covering leadership, corporate governance, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, family business management, and public sector leadership — reflecting the mixed-ownership economies that dominate the region. Program formats span intensive residential modules (typically two to five days for shorter certificates, up to several weeks for the more comprehensive Management Development Program), as well as online and blended options that were significantly expanded post-2020. The flagship Management Development Program (MDP), now more than four decades old, remains a benchmark for general management development in the Philippines and is regularly attended by directors and senior managers from the country's largest conglomerates. Open program fees for shorter workshops typically range from PHP 20,000 to PHP 80,000 (approximately USD 350–1,400), with the longer residential programs priced higher; corporate custom engagements are scoped separately. AIM also periodically offers partial scholarships and sponsorship arrangements for participants from non-governmental and development-sector organisations, consistent with its founding social mandate.

Campus and Facilities

AIM's campus sits in the heart of Makati's central business district — the financial and corporate capital of the Philippines — placing executive participants quite literally inside the ecosystem they are studying. The campus includes dedicated executive learning facilities, syndicate rooms built for case-method small-group work, and residential accommodation for out-of-town and international participants attending intensive programs. The Makati location is not incidental: participants step out of the classroom into a city where family conglomerates, multinational regional headquarters, and fast-growth startups coexist within a few city blocks, making informal learning and networking a natural extension of the program schedule. The proximity to major Philippine corporations and government agencies also supports AIM's tradition of bringing practitioners — not just academics — into the classroom.

Faculty and Research

AIM's faculty is drawn from across Asia, North America, and Europe, with a deliberate emphasis on scholars and practitioners who have spent meaningful time working in developing-economy contexts rather than simply parachuting in from Western institutions. Research strengths with direct relevance to executive education include corporate governance in family-owned enterprises (a dominant business form across Southeast Asia), social entrepreneurship, public policy and regulatory management, and digital economy transitions in emerging markets. The school's Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Family Enterprise is one of the few dedicated research centres in Asia focused on the governance and succession challenges facing family-controlled conglomerates — a topic that is professionally urgent for a significant share of AIM's executive participants. Faculty regularly publish in international peer-reviewed journals while maintaining consulting and advisory relationships with Philippine and regional firms, keeping classroom content grounded in live business problems rather than historical cases alone.

Student Body, Alumni, and Career Outcomes

AIM's executive education cohorts are predominantly drawn from the Philippines and ASEAN, with regular participation from executives in Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, reflecting the school's regional identity rather than a global-generalist positioning. The broader AIM alumni network numbers over 90,000 graduates and program participants across more than 70 countries, with particular density in the Philippines, where alumni hold senior positions in banking, energy, consumer goods, telecommunications, and government. Notable alumni include current and former ministers, central bank officials, and chief executives of some of the Philippines' largest publicly listed companies. For executive participants specifically, the value of AIM's network is less about placement services and more about peer access — cohorts typically include sitting vice presidents, board directors, and government agency heads, making the classroom itself a high-quality professional network.