I feel that the occasion is such that it merits a few words about our early days and in particular, about those who were responsible for establishing the principles and policies under which we have, and continue to operate.

An old photograph of a much younger Chairman

The original ICM team consisted of four individuals, Joe Chilver, Arthur Parr, Phillip Mewis and myself and although we had great expectations and considerable passion for our small venture, I don’t think that any of us had any idea as to where the road would eventually lead.

Joe, Arthur and Phillip were ‘old school’ traditional educationalists. Great humanitarians and characters in their own right, they were also men of outstanding integrity and ability.

Arthur had left his village school at the age of 14, with no qualifications. Unusually tall for his age, he managed to sign up as a merchant seaman at the outbreak of the First World War. He spent his war years on the northern convoys, one of the most dangerous of all the wartime activities.

Encouraged by his superiors and with time on his hands on the long sea voyages, he  enrolled for a London University external course in basic electronics. An avid student with a thirst for knowledge, within ten years Arthur held degrees in Commerce, Accounting, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Agriculture and Horticulture.

After the war he became a teacher and finally retired as Principal of a large northern Technical College.  

ICM House - the original business school in Bournemouth

Joe Chilver’s name is of course well known to the many thousands of business students, from a great many countries, who had the benefit and privilege of studying under him in what was then the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, now Bournemouth University. A prolific author and an exceptionally gifted teacher, Joe was one of the world’s greatest authorities on the subject of business education. An advisor to a great many professional bodies, he was the architect of the structure of the former Chartered Institute of Banker’s programmes.

An avowed pacifist he abhorred man’s inhumanity to man and promoted the need for young people to appreciate, understand and tolerate the religious and cultural differences of different nations.

Phillip Mewis also had a distinguished war record and became a lecturer at the end of the Second World War. A genius at all mathematical subjects and devoted to all things numerate, he was always prepared to spend hours with those who had difficulty with numbers.

Like Arthur Parr, Phillip ended his career as Principal of a large Technical College.

The general plan was that Joe, Arthur and Phillip would design the programmes and I would promote them. Six months later the ICM portfolio consisted of three business studies Awards which I then had to promote.

The Chairman presenting an award in Hong Kong, 1993

The problem was, as we all soon discovered, that no one was particularly interested in the Awards from an unknown Institute, no matter how good they might be!

After a year of fruitless toil it was back to the drawing board for us all. Clearly, a new strategy was required – we would open a Business School in Bournemouth and offer free full-time education to any individual student, from anywhere in the world, who was prepared to study for one or more of our three Awards.

Our thinking was that we could both promote and create awareness of the Institute if we could generate a large enough cohort of students who held an ICM Award.

The strategy was an expensive one but it worked. Within five years many hundreds of ICM graduates, from all over the world, were either in employment in the UK, had gone on to university or were back home in their own countries.

We had effectively created an external ‘sales force’ and it wasn’t long before schools and colleges both in the UK and overseas were expressing an interest in offering tuition leading to the Institute’s examinations.

Building the brand saw travel to many fascinating places

The initiative had a number of additional benefits. Bournemouth had a large academic community of both serving and retired HE sector lecturers and this provided us with teaching staff for the school as well as a large panel of Examiners for the Institute, many of whom, I’m delighted to say, are still with us.

In the mid 1980s we recognised the fact that the channels of distribution for the programmes were schools and colleges and that there would be a conflict of interest were we to continue to ‘compete’ with them through our own Centre.

The role played by the school had however achieved its objective and in the late 1980s the decision was taken to cease its operations and focus all efforts on the role of assessment and programme development.

As a team, all four of us had a very clear idea as to what it was that we hoped and wanted to achieve in respect of business education for young people.

The policies which we adopted in the early days have not changed. Our view was that our activities should never focus on profit. Rather, we should ensure that young people from all levels and social backgrounds had an equal opportunity to obtain a meaningful qualification.

We also recognised that we had a wider social responsibility and as our income has increased over the years so has our involvement in, and support for, social and economic development projects all over the world.

Building relationships around the world

Sadly, Joe, Arthur and Phillip are no longer with us but I am confident that they would be both proud and delighted at our progress over the past 30 years.

For my part, it’s been an extraordinary journey but also a long and hard road!

Over the course of the last thirty years I’ve travelled to more than 100 countries, have met countless people from many different walks of life, made a great many friends and have been privileged to experience, at first hand, the diversity of a great many different cultures. 

I’m also working with an exceptional team of dedicated people without whom we would not be where we are today.

By Alistair Somerville Ford, ICM Chairman