Advantere in Spain: Building Careers With Purpose
Modern business is increasingly influenced by the pressure to achieve short-term financial success. The challenge of navigating turbulent economic times has resulted in widespread prioritizing of profit over purpose, often at the expense of environmental and societal well-being.
Which leads us to the question: Can ethical leadership gain a foothold in the future of business?
If you ask Jaime Castelló, Academic Director at Advantere School of Management, the answer is an emphatic yes. For him and his team at the Madrid-based business school, ethical leadership is not just important; in today’s world, it’s essential to success.
“What we say at Advantere is that we want to educate [and] train the best people for the world, and not just the best people in the world,” he says. (04:39)
These ‘best people for the world’ are affectionately named “re-solutionaries”, a term that blends ‘resolution’ with ‘solutions.’ The school’s philosophy is to lead with courage, creativity, and purpose at the forefront. A win in the Education and Culture category at the Positive Awards 2025 is a testament to these re-solutionaries and the school’s mission to help them create meaningful change in the world.
The Philosophy Behind the Advantere MIM
Advantere’s Master in International Management (MIM) program offers a values-based business education. The curriculum merges themes of ethics, sustainability, and social impact with foundational business management principles. This empowers students to become confident, responsible leaders, capable of driving positive change in the world.
The MIM is a one-year, full-time master’s program taught entirely in English. As a student, you will develop your technical knowledge while honing important soft skills such as teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and decision-making.
Advantere’s curriculum was created with the support and strategic partnership of Georgetown University (USA) and Comillas Pontifical University (Spain). The aim from the outset was to create something unique.
“They asked us to do something different,” says Jaime. “And that something different was project-based learning.” (00:44)
The chance to get hands-on experience with social impact projects is perhaps the program’s unique element. It’s certainly in keeping with the school’s motto, “learning by doing.”
The Project-Based Learning Concept Central to Advantere’s MIM Program
The school’s project-based learning involves students working on real-world challenges. The school’s ethical principles were key to the decision to take on social projects, in addition to business projects.
Students work with NGOs and other organizations across Spain, from Madrid and Murcia to Seville and Valladolid. They use their creativity and problem-solving skills to propose innovative solutions to complex problems.
The projects begin at the start of the second term, after the students have found their feet over nearly a full semester. By then, they’ve acquired the skills and knowledge needed to tackle the projects. They’ve also become comfortable with the school and feel ready to take on a radical proposal.
“It totally changes them, and we see [the difference] afterwards when they develop their own custom projects,” says Jaime. (09:22)
As Jaime points out, these projects require empathy; the kind you can’t cultivate with classroom presentations or online meetings. This leads their perspectives on purposeful leadership to undergo a massive transformation as they grow over the course of the year.
The Impact of the ECCA Social Project
One of the most influential projects was carried out with ECCA Social, an organization that supports women who have experienced domestic abuse. The project could have overwhelmed the students, many of whom had never met people who had undergone such hardships. Yet, as Jaime explains, the students rose to the occasion.
“What surprises us is the way in which they engage,” says Jaime. “We had set the meetings to be more neutral, so the interaction… would not be that direct. Actually, the reaction of the students and the way in which [they] behaved… made those meetings more intimate and close.” (05:18)
The students approached the project with enthusiasm and empathy. The hallmarks of ethical leadership.
“You could see the positive impact … the energy and the attention,” Jaime adds. (05:44) “That was very surprising to us… the way in which they were able to engage, and also the way in which they were able to not sugar-coat the situations and try to find more radical solutions.” (05:54)
This forward-thinking approach was appreciated by ECCA Social. “The feedback was amazing. It was overwhelming,” enthuses Jaime. “They were so happy with us. (08:02)
With such successful results, it’s no surprise that Advantere’s next cohort has been invited back, establishing a long-term collaboration that Jaime hopes will prove mutually beneficial.
Balancing Academic Rigor with Social Responsibility
Besides the ECCA Social project, Advantere students have previously collaborated with UNICEF Spain, designed migrant employment integration strategies, and worked with companies to reduce their carbon footprint. These are intended to give students a well-rounded skill set.
“When we do social impact projects, we work with two types of skills,” says Jaime. “ [Hard skills like] business planning, strategy, data analytics … but also, we want them to use other skills. We want them to practice their empathy and how they relate to the world.” (03:38)
Each project runs in collaboration with the program’s academic fundamentals. As Jaime explains, “When you develop a project, you use all the academic content as a scaffold for you to climb higher in the development of the project.” (07:50)
This way, students can focus on the technical aspects of business while developing their understanding of social responsibility.
Master the Art of Ethical Leadership With the Advantere MIM
The Advantere MIM program takes students on a leadership journey that blends business fundamentals with purpose-driven, hands-on learning. Advantere stands out as a beacon of change in a world that requires bold decision-makers with strong ethical principles. As such, an institution with such human-centered values should be a major draw for anyone looking to challenge limitations and drive meaningful change.
The next cohort is forming. Could it be you? If you feel ready to make an impact and want the support to grow into the leader you’re meant to be, you might just be a re-solutionary in the making.
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