Fado, the Portuguese folk music with the same raw essence as blues and flamenco, moves with the times. But it fell to Lisbon MBA students to create, as part of their programme, a fado song to address the global financial crisis.

“The Madoff Fado”, written and performed in English by the first cohort of students on the new Lisbon programme, was produced at a “Friday Forum”, an innovation that Belén de Vicente, the course's executive director, sees as a key distinction from other MBA programmes.

“We determined from the outset to focus on interpersonal skills in a different and more holistic way,” she says. “The way a job candidate has learnt to lead, communicate and manage conflicts can make a fundamental difference between two people with an otherwise similar education.”