At the start of the next academic year, Strat Me Up will be back for a brand new edition and will again mobilize students in the last year of the Grande Ecole Program as well as students of the Montpellier Business School Masters of Science courses who have more international expertise; it will be the opportunity to rediscover this free program specifically designed to help companies.

A free strategic diagnosis resulting in concrete recommendations

Every year, Strat Me Up recruits regional and international companies to challenge the students of the Grande Ecole Program and the Masters of Science with 360 issues involving all fields of education (marketing, management, supply chain, finance …). After carrying out an analysis of the environment and the business model accompanied by a coach teacher, the students give a series of concrete recommendations to business leaders.

Annabelle Boynard, Associate of My Wonderful Kids, participated in the last edition of this service: “The students intervened at a pivotal moment for My Wonderful Kids; initially this shop was created in 2016 to offer the sale and rental of childcare products. In the course of 2018, we made the decision to separate the two activities, keep the sale pivoting on Zero Waste, and develop an independent application for rental. We have given the choice to the students to work either on the “ecological” pivot of My Wonderful Kids, or to work on the issue of the new platform, called Kid & trip. They chose the rental subject which was the more innovative subject. ” 

The reality of the field and the expertise at the heart of the recommendations

The students base their recommendations on the concrete data of the field. “Kid & Trip is a digital platform for renting baby carriers for individuals. The students mainly focused on a version intended for tourism professionals. After contacting venues in Montpellier as well as their potential visitors, they were able to confirm the interest an interest for the service”, says Annabelle.

“We were fortunate enough to work with a small group of motivated, curious students who really dug up the subject. They were up to the task from start to finish and were a real asset for us“, concludes the head of the company.

Export: the specific expertise of international students from 70 countries

International MBS Masters of Science students taking part in the project bring their specific expertise to companies that encounter international challenges such as those related to the implementation in a new country.

If you also wish to participate with your company and challenge the students, you can contact the team before September 2019:

• By mail : stratmeup@montpellier-bs.com
• By phone : 04 67 10 27 42

Montpellier Business School in France has officially received accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA), one of the world’s leading authorities on post-graduate business education, for its Grand École programme.

The School has received accreditation from AMBA for its Master of Business Management (MBM) programme (known as its Program Grande Ecole (PGE) Master). This is in addition to its MBA programme’s AMBA accreditation, which is already held.

On receiving AMBA accreditation, all current students and recent graduates of the PGE – as well as the MBA – are invited to join AMBA’s global member community of 45,000 students and alumni in more than 150 countries, which brings networking, thought leadership and career development opportunities, and a variety of additional perks and benefits.

AMBA’s accreditation panel commended the School on its growth in several areas in recent years, including faculty numbers and research culture, as well as output and student numbers. Diversity is a core value of the School and this was demonstrated to be authentic and impactful across a number of important metrics.

The panel also noted that employers, with which the School works, were clear about the relevant soft skills developed by the PGE which were relevant to the contemporary workplace, in particular adaptability and agility.

AMBA accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement in post-graduate business education and is earned only by the best post-graduate management programmes. AMBA accredits Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Business Management (MBM) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) courses available at only the top 2% of the world’s Business Schools.

AMBA’s rigorous assessment criteria ensure that only the highest-calibre programmes which demonstrate the best standards in teaching, curricula, and student interaction achieve AMBA accreditation. AMBA accreditation is international in scope and reach, and the organisation works with senior academics at top educational institutions around the world to continuously update accreditation criteria and maintain one unique, in-depth and detailed approach. AMBA believes accredited programmes should be of the highest standard and reflect changing trends and innovation in post-graduate management education and, as such, the accreditation process reflects this commitment to fostering innovation and challenges Business Schools to continuously perform at the highest level.

Bruno Ducasse, Dean of Montpellier Business School, declares: “Obtaining for the Grande Ecole program the AMBA accreditation, which MBS already holds for its Executive MBA, is essential to our strategy of continuous curriculum improvement.  The reinforced relationship with AMBA will also be a powerful asset for MBS in accelerating its international deployment.”

Andrew Main Wilson, Chief Executive of AMBA & the Business Graduates Association (BGA), added: ‘We look forward to continuing and developing our close relationship with colleagues at Montpellier Business School – and its students and graduates – to ensure that outstanding post-graduate management education continues to be the top priority for employers, governments, and ambitious executives who are destined to become the global business leaders of the future.’

ESport: a unifying discipline with great potential

According to France Esports, more than 5 million people in France have watched at least once a video game competition on the internet. With the development of rebroadcasting platforms like Twitch, the ESport is experiencing a real economic expansion and is organizing events worthy of the biggest sports events.

Montpellier Business School students were able to identify this opportunity and managed to integrate the whole Gaming universe to the school’s campus by creating the Arcadia student association. The activities offered by the association (escape games, life-size treasure hunts, and of course ESport) surf on the flourishing 2.0 leisure market and bring together an eclectic audience.

Associative experience: Arcadia, a professional approach to the discipline

League of Legends, Hearthstone, FIFA or Fortnite, all the best known titles of the ESport scene were programed by Arcadia. Louis Alesi, Treasurer of the Association, who wishes to continue his career in ESport said: “We have created teams to participate in some official tournaments. We have also launched competitions for Montpellier Business School students, the Arcadiennes, who should gather more and more participants in the coming months.”

Driven by a team of enthusiasts, Arcadia was launched in 2019.”I chose to invest in this association because there was everything to do and everything to write. Together with the team, we managed to create an identity and a project. It was very rewarding. “Says Guillaume Meyer, Event Manager of Arcadia. “I am a semi-professional competitive player of Hearthstone, the game is my world and I wanted to showcase its many facets to students and show that, professionally speaking, this sector can be an inexhaustible source of opportunity. “

Arcadia: a first entrepreneurial experience in the gaming sector that breaks the stereotypes

Christophe Gil, communication manager of Arcadia, has a very creative profile: “I took advantage of my role and this associative field to try new things, to propose new ideas and ways to bring our projects to the forefront. The goal was also to change the stereotypes that people may have of gamers. We are not reclusive, introverted or narrow-minded people. This is something that the other students understood very well. I was able to give life to many ideas and discover great people.”Like these enthusiasts, some graduates are already evolving in the ESport sector, as is the case for Robin DUCLERC, a 2015 graduate who holds the position of Professional Esport Caster within 3DMAX. Montpellier Business School and Arcadia should therefore recruit new gamers as soon as next fall. To be continued.

Contact : https://www.facebook.com/ArcadiaMBS/

€ 10,000 to finance a responsible start-up

On June 7th was held the Young Innovative and Responsible Company Award of the Montpellier Business School Foundation for Equal Opportunities. Aimed at student entrepreneurs and graduates since less than three years, this competition evaluates the financial realism, the quality of the business plan, the innovative character and the contribution to the defence of the values ​​of openness, overall responsibility and performance of the project. During this 11th edition, Pia and Valentin, 2018 graduates of the Grande Ecole Program and creators of Panzi and Panzi, won the prize of € 10,000 in funding. 

What is “Panzi and Panzi”?

“The idea behind Panzi and Panzi is to try to imagine the street food of tomorrow and contribute to a better world.” says Valentin, co-creator of the concept. “A Panzi is a kind of « chausson »: a hybrid sandwich composed of pizza dough, served hot, easy to eat and especially made entirely in Occitanie.” says Pia.

The recipes are handmade, customizable and offered as a turnkey solution to restaurateurs in the region. “We are not just suppliers and deliverers for our restaurant clients. The idea is to offer a 360° strategic support, based on the subjects that were taught at Montpellier Business School. We analyze the needs, in terms of volume, frequency and marketing, and thus offer distributors a real complete solution to deliver the best possible service, “says Pia.

A 100% local responsible creation

“Today, more and more consumers are concerned about the origins of the products they consume, and this vigilance is also reflected in the foods we eat on the run.” says Valentin. “We offer people a quality street food with an important social and responsible dimension. The goal is to share our Panzi with as many people as possible while keeping in mind our promise: local products made by local people. “The contribution to the local ecosystem with the use of 100% Occitan raw materials and the bias of favouring a healthy, home-made, without preservatives or food colouring product seduced the jury of this 11th edition which also detected a strong societal commitment within local producers.”We will be present on major events in the Eastern Pyrenees in 2019. Our ambition for the coming years is to contribute to the innovation of the regional street food and we have at heart to be a leading player in the promotion of our beautiful Occitan region.” concludes Valentin. 

Contact:

Montpellier Business School Foundation: Sophie Gosselin, General Delegate of the Montpellier Business School Foundation for the equality of chances: s.gosselin@montpellier-bs.com

To support the Foundation:

https://dons.fondationdefrance.org/FONDATION_MONTPELLIER_BUSINESS_SCHOOL/~mon-don?_cv=1

Panzi and Panzi:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/panzietpanzi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PanzietPanzi/

The 5^th edition of Start-Up Week was held from May 13^th to the 17^th on the Montpellier Business School (MBS) campus. This team business game challenges all of the 800 final year students in the Grande Ecole Program to create a business. This year, the 100 projects developed aim the revitalization of the wine sector: digital distribution, original packaging, wine tourism, immersion games…in this edition, the entrepreneurial creativity of future graduates has hugely impressed the jury.

A challenge based on the complementarity and professionalism of students

Start-Up Week brings together more than 800 students over 5 days around a unique theme: creating an innovative start-up offering a new line of services on the wine market. Supervised by a dozen coaches who are experts in the field and guided by 7 conferences of entrepreneurship professionals, the 100 or so teams compete all week long around complete daily exercises. “This last week allowed us to apply what we learned throughout the course: Business Strategy, Management, Marketing, Finance…” says Juliette, a student in the in the field of web marketing and CRM.

These teams are composed of students representing each of the different specializations taught in the final year. “We especially appreciated the fact that we mixed the profiles in the teams. It was really the most complementary and realistic thing.” explain Laura, Julie and Tiffany, finalists of the event.

The wine sector in the spotlight

Among all the sectors and issues available, it is the wine sector that has been selected by the Montpellier Business School Entrepreneurship Centre, a team whose mission is to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship in all its diversity. “It is no coincidence that we have chosen this market. The wine sector has historically found in Occitania a large pool of world-renowned producers”, explains Katherine Gundolf, Director of Montpellier Business School Entrepreneurship Centre.

In recent years, the same market has been experiencing economic upheavals that are forcing professionals to find innovative solutions: climate change may lead to a shift in the places where vines are grown, practitioners close to retirement have difficulty finding buyers, and there is a rise wine consumption in new areas such as China and the United States.

The 1^st prize of the jury

Faced with these challenges, three groups with radically different projects managed to make their mark, relying on the latest digital technologies. In third place, the group of start-up apprentices opted for a 100% B to B solution to connect independent producers with RMCs (Cafés, Hotels, Restaurants). They have thus devised a responsible digital platform enabling producers to deliver their wine “in bulk” directly to catering professionals. At the second step of the podium, the students decided to surf on the trend of professional seminars and wine tourism. Their project was therefore based on the concept of a digital travel agency allowing prospects to create their own tourist tour in the vineyards via a mobile application.

“But if you can’t visit the vines, the vines will come to you,” pitches the winning group of the event. Also based on tourism but also tasting, the strong bias of the winning project consists in the “vinification of Parisian rooftops”. Thus, still with the objective of making Paris’ roofs greener, the project is setting up “Discovery of the winemaking process” workshops in a festive, modern setting that is closer to the consumers. The event ended with an emotional award ceremony. Indeed, for the vast majority of students, Start-up Week was also their last week on campus, leaving room for the writing of their final thesis. Fyrthermore, this Business Game results from the school’s desire to conclude the students’ training by making them realize that each one of them is a potential future entrepreneur, which is proof of the importance given to entrepreneurship among the major axes of his teaching.

Published on May 14^th, 2019 by Le Parisien Etudiant, the list of the grandes Ecoles de Commerce awarding the Master’s Degree has placed Montpellier Business School 12^th in the general ranking.

This annual ranking is based on an analysis of 16 major characteristics of the Grandes Ecoles de Commerce, amongst which are labels, attractiveness, research, international dimension, entrepreneurship…..

Maintaining its place in the national Top 12 according to Le Parisien, Montpellier Business School stands out with a maximum rating for its research and excellent ratings for the international and entrepreneurship sectors. This distinction reinforces the values in which Montpellier Business School believes and invests: academic excellence, professionalization and diversity.

Soft skills are the personal and social skills that showcase the unique and singular value of an individual. During an interview, they are generally unspoken (and generally unannounced in the job ad) but are nevertheless the most sought-after features today by recruiters. Long-term oriented, these skills will allow the manager to evaluate the ease of integration and fulfilment of the candidate within his team and the company.

Establishing methods to identify and value soft skills in a job interview

The rise of the digital age and the development of artificial intelligence have made the hard skills (technical or academic skills acquired by an individual during his career) somewhat volatile. On the other hand, soft skills, which are sustainable over time, have become a reference and a reliable recruiting tool.

Empathy, responsiveness, stress management, cognitive flexibility, the ability to stand back or sensitivity are qualities that allow the candidate to stand out today; but the difficulty is that the recognition of such skills cannot be done in declarative form. It must be shown or in some cases deduced from an experience or a concrete case. Claiming these soft skills is not enough to convince, it is a matter of establishing methods in order to identify them and value them. With this in mind, the first workshop focused on these specific human skills was organized by the Montpellier Business School Career Centre within its “Premier Emploi” (first job) program.

This workshop was intended for final year students who are preparing for their arrival on the job market and also for career coaches, who accompany all of the alternates of the campus in their professional project approach. Several exercises were put in place to learn how to identify soft skills. In one of them, the students were asked to play the role of recruiters: the participants had to identify a list of soft skills induced by the context of a job advertisement for a commercial position. For many, the initial assumption was that these sought-after skills were intrinsically job-related and therefore all skill lists would be composed of the same elements. But during the restitution, the students were surprised to discover that none were identical. “In fact, if the title and the job description were the same, each student had a specific paragraph that was different from the others in the exercise statement,” explains Jean Lefebvre, Ph.D. in Human Sciences in “la Curieuse Agence”. “This allowed us to demonstrate the singularity of a profile within the same profession.”

“The external point of view is important to understand what is emerging from us”

The workshop continued with several scenarios executed. Rémy, Alternate Efficiency Manager at Schneider Electric, was the first to intervene in front of the group. The exercise required telling a personal life story in which the candidate was emotionally involved. This emotion guarantees a better fluidity, which allowed the audience to deduce a list of 15 soft skills from Rémy’s anecdote. “This is where the interest of this kind of workshop lies. It is difficult to do this exercise alone. The external point of view is essential to understand what emerges from us, “says Kévin, Sales Assistant at Maisons Guitard.

The feedback on this workshop was very positive. “The exercise deals tangibly and concretely with a notion that until then was rather vague,” said Rémy after his interview. “I really appreciated the confidence that the quizmaster was able to instil in the group of participants. This allows you to freely express yourself and to identify the soft skills that are unique to us.” Camille-Chloé, Intermarché Alternate Department Manager, was pleased by this collective social intelligence:” I draw lessons from this workshop that go beyond the professional sphere. I also plan to apply these new concepts in my daily life. “

Structuring recruitment around soft skills proves to be the most sustainable and efficient solution for a company. Students of MBS are thus prepared to value these personal skills throughout their curriculum, and it starts with the admission’s personality test interview.

On January 9^th, ASICS joined the MBS Advisory Board after many years of collaboration. Today, the brand is once again committing to student training by partnering with the 6^th edition of the Mark Up project. The objective is to share a concrete business issue with the MBS Grande Ecole M1 students and collect their recommendations.

Launched in 2013, this educational project is a challenge that aims to confront students with a company’s global strategic marketing issue, thus drawing on all the skills taught within MBS. The particular issue of this 6^th edition happens to be at the heart of the MBS Group’s values: “What strategy should ASICS adopt to conquer the female sports market?”

During the entire competition, Professors Dr. Cédrine Joly and Dr. Paul Chiambaretto supervise 620 French and international students divided into 63 randomly selected teams. The goal is to challenge students by confronting them with the duties of a “consultant” whose mission is to deliver recommendations, within a team of both alternating and continuous students. The top 10 groups will then compete in a final showroom in front of their ASICS client, and an audience of professors and other students from Montpellier Business School.

A few minutes before the announcement of the ten finalist projects, Samih Khalef (ASICS France Sales & Country leader and 1998 graduate of MBS) and Arnaud Leroux (ASICS South Europe Marketing Director) shared their expectations. “Today, I would like to be surprised. Ideally, at the end of these meetings, I would like to ask myself the question: “Why didn’t we think of this before?”. And above all, we are eager to discover the innovative and unbiased way in which students look at the problems we have proposed to them“, explains Arnaud Leroux.

“We want to highlight the consistency and quality of the recommendations we have received, and we have chosen to reward strong biases and risk-taking by some groups,” states Samih Khalef at the awards ceremony. Thus, the winning group chose to base their marketing recommendation on the following objective: “To be as close as possible to women and their daily lives, non-excluding some of the most complicated subjects to address in marketing“. The recommendation therefore decided to enter the running market, on which Asics is a leader, by committing itself to a responsible approach and creating a range of products that raise awareness, particularly on endometriosis and on violence against women.

“The professionalism, creativity and realism of the proposals made by our M1 students confirm once again the quality of this challenge and the benefits that our Major Partners derive from it”, concludes Dr. Cédrine Joly.

Friday, March 15th, Montpellier Business School organized its MSc graduation ceremony 2019, an event that gathered more than two hundred people in the main amphitheater of the school.

This year, Montpellier Business School was proud to congratulates 110 graduates from all over the world, who are now part of the MBS Alumni family. Accompanied by their families, friends, teachers and the programme team, all the graduates came up on stage wearing their gowns and caps to receive their diploma from the hands of Dr Denis Lescop, Director or the Masters of Science. 

Fully conducted in English, the ceremony spotlighted the strong international dimension of the programmes with more than 30 nationalities represented in 6 MSc : the MSc in Finance, the MSc in International Business, the MSc in Marketing, the tri-continental MSc in Global Business and for the first year, the Msc in Lean Operations Management, all accredited by the “Conférence des Grandes Ecoles“.

>| Discover our 15 Masters of Science

This celebration came after 18 months of training, and rewarded all the fresh graduates for their tough work, their academic endeavour, their adaptation to a new culture, and finally their full accomplishement. A “valedictorian” was also rewarded for each MSc. 

A well-deserved success marking the beginning of beautiful careers, in France or elsewhere. Congratulations again to all graduates 2019!

>| See the photo gallery of the ceremony

Raising awareness on social business with Professor Yunus

A Chair in Microfinance at Montpellier Business School