By Egbert F “Burt” Bhatty in Washington Hotwire. Burt has worked 30 years as an analyst at the American Embassy, New Delhi, and at British Dunlop and American Chase Manhattan multinationals.
Opus Dei.
Isn’t that the powerful, evil, Catholic group in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown in 2003?
No. Opus Dei is nothing like this bizarre creation of Dan Brown’s overwrought imagination.
In reality, Opus Dei, which is Latin for “Work of God”, runs educational institutions and agricultural training centers. In more than 90 countries across 4 continents.
One such educational Institution is IESE.
The initials IESE stands for “Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa” in Spanish.
In English, IESE translates as “Institute of Higher Business Studies”, or “International Graduate School of Management”.
And, The Economist ranks the IESE Business School’s MBA the # 1 in the world in 2009. A rank it, also, attained in 2005 and 2006.
The ability of the IESE MBA program to progress careers, open new opportunities, develop personal and work-related skills, were factors that The Economist considered in its rankings.
But, IESE students get more than just these secular capabilities.
Being students in a Catholic-driven Institution they get the whole Catholic shebang.
But, lightly.
Ever so lightly.
They assimilate the fundamental Catholic belief that each one of us, in our own way, is called to holiness.
That the very quotidian of our lives is the way to Goodness and Godliness.
Or, as Opus Dei founder, St Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, put it — “There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”
Discovering the Divine is what IESE’s MBA students are taught to do.
But, where is the Divine to be found?
In Man. In men.
Which is why IESE states that its mission is to teach students “to serve society…..”
Quite unlike American Business Schools which teach students to screw people if necessary to guarantee profits.
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