Xavier Gimbert Ràfols

Education

• Doctor en Administración y Dirección de Empresas. ESADE - Universitat Ramon Llull
• Máster en Dirección y Administración de Empresas. ESADE

• Licenciado en Farmacia. Universitat de Barcelona Areas of interest

• Strategic management

• Strategic analysis

• Reflection and strategic decision-making processes

• Competitive strategy

• Balanced scorecard Biography

Xavier Gimbert is professor and director of the Strategy and General Management department of ESADE. He is a specialist in strategic management, strategic analysis and strategic thinking and decision making processes. He teaches on the Undergraduate University programs, the MBA program and Executive Education programs, Open and Custom ones. He was Director of the latter for four years
He has extensive experience as a consultant for companies, advising on issues such as strategic analysis and management as well as participating in processes of strategic thinking. He has also participated as a member on several boards of directors.
He has been a visiting scholar of the Kelley Business School at the Indiana University. He also has been professor of the PHARE programme of the European Commission for Eastern European countries as well professor in the ''Instituto Empresarial Portuense'' (Oporto, Portugal), the ''Facultad Católica de Administração e Economia'' (Curitiba, Brazil), the UCA of Managua (Nicaragua), the Universidad del Pacífico of Lima (Perú) and ORT of Montevideo (Uruguay).
Prior to joining ESADE in 1989, he worked for eight years in the pharmaceutical industry and four years in the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona.
He is the author of the GIB (General, Integrative, Basic) model of strategic thinking, published in his book "El enfoque estratégico de la empresa. Principios y esquemas básicos" (Ed. Deusto, 1998). He also wrote "Cómo elaborar un plan estratégico en la empresa" (''Cinco Dias'', 1999) or "El futur de l''empresa" (Proa-Columna Ed., 1998). In addition, he has also written several chapters for books including three chapters written in 2009 for the "Master en Negocios" published by Clarín-iEco, Buenos Aires, Argentina; as well as the strategy chapter of the book "The MBA of ESADE" in 2010.
His most recent management model is the "Strategic Core" in which he has made a great effort to synthesize key aspects of business strategy in order to allow for its constant monitoring. This model was published in his article ''El núcleo estratégico como modelo de gestión ante la complejidad'' (''The strategic core as a management model to cope with complexity'') in "Harvard Deusto Business Review". September 2009 (n. 182). In August 2010 published in Long Range Planning (n. 43) "The Role of Performance Measurement Systems in Strategy Formulation Processes" with professors Bisbe and Mendoza. Also in December 2010 published "La selección francesa de fútbol, crónica de un desastre de management anunciado" (The French national soccer team in the 2010 World Cup. Chronicle of a Management Disaster) in "Harvard Deusto Business Review" (nº 196) with professor Ast.
He regularly writes articles in the Argentinean and Spanish media. He has also written many cases.
In the year 2010 he published the book, "Pensar Estratégicamente. Modelos, conceptos y reflexiones. Ed. Deusto, in various models, perspectives, and strategic thinking are developed and adapted to since then the current business reality. In June 2011 he published in English the book "Think Strategically" published by Palgrave Macmillan.
From January 2012 is the director of the Strategy and General Management department of ESADE.