"Founded in 1946, Nyenrode was the first business school to be financed by the business community. In setting up the school, the founding fathers meant to realize an entirely new concept, to enrich the Dutch educational scene with an institution capable of producing talented and internationally-oriented people to help rebuild the national post-war economy. A strong character and an entrepreneurial spirit were essential ingredients with which to achieve the objective.

Building character and teaching a habitus were therefore the central objectives of the educational program. Young people not only had to be up to date with knowledge, they also had to be trained to develop the skills needed to ensure their knowledge made a difference. Either by applying this knowledge and drawing conclusions that lead to decisions or by deriving from this knowledge certain new insights to open new roads to companies and organizations. This was to be facilitated by strong international focus.