“We chose the VAE because it allows for tailor-made solutions. For employees, the benefit is extraordinary because it increases their awareness of the skills they possess. To complete these skills, they follow a real academic path and finally get a degree which certifies and validates their knowledge. This fosters team spirit through exchanges of good practices and reveals a sense of pride. I would add that, for those who have not had the opportunity to pursue their studies, it is never too late to catch up. As for the company, it ensures the development of its employees’ careers while professionalising them.

Our sector managers and instructors’ career paths have not necessarily enabled them to acquire some of the skills that we now wish to instill in them. The challenge is that they integrate all of the economic and strategic dimensions of the company, the marketing, financial and customer relations aspects, as well as the impact of new technologies, to be able to understand the company’s decisions field. Our objective is to strengthen the management.

For a year and a half, 28 instructors and sector managers, selected on the basis of their career, the experience required and their motivation, followed a training course of two to three days per month, to which were added 150 hours devoted to the VAE with individual coaching.

Montpellier Business School was the one that offered us the most efficient offer of all the major schools we had contact with. We wanted a prestigious label. It was important to the candidates. But we didn’t want prestige to prevail over what we thought was the best offer. I would add that Montpellier Business School works with Paul Chiambaretto, a recognised expert in the aviation sector.”

On 19 January 2018, the MBS alumni family expanded to include the Class of 2017 Executive MBA graduates. This AACSB and AMBA accredited programme also leads to RNCP Level 1 Certification “Business Development or Operational Unit Manager”. The participants proudly received their certificates to the applause of their families, friends, teachers and course managers. The ceremony was an occasion for collective joy and marks the beginning of a new stage in the professional life of each graduate.

Students of this top level course designed for experienced professionals were supported and challenged by their teachers over a two year or one year Fast-Track programme, designing projects as varied as their career paths and profiles. Such necessary investment resulted in considerable enrichment on many levels. “These few months have been sufficient to change your vision of the world and of management. You have acquired skills, tools and expertise. We hope that you won’t stop questioning yourselves and adapting to the world around you. We will be there to help you, whether you are taking your first steps or implementing a project,” said Matthias Bauland, Deputy Dean in charge of development at MBS.

Led by new Dean Magdalena François-Thurin, this latest set of graduates also inaugurated the new curriculum under the leadership of the Deputy Director General and Dean of Studies and Research, David Roubaud. “Our MBA has taught over 800 graduates since 1994 and has evolved considerably to ensure that we always provide an outstanding course, focused on innovation, strategy and management. What hasn’t changed is the particularity and strength of our educational system, which confronts professionals from very different backgrounds and creates genuine cohesion from their diversity and complementarity,” continued Dr David Roubaud.

The Awards for Excellence, Theses and the Special Jury Award were handed out before the degrees, to great applause. “This recognition proves that you can always turn a difficult situation into a great opportunity. I chose this MBA after losing my job and now I have come out of it with new professional opportunities and renewed confidence,” explains Gaël Cusenier, graduate of the Fast-Track programme. “I was at a turning point in my career when I joined the MBA. The human side of this course has encouraged me to launch my business creation project in Senegal” noted Sandrine Zwiller-Panicz, winner of the Special Jury Prize for a thesis in line with MBS values.

“The diversity of the projects of our 2017 graduates reflects the way in which they are selected and trained. Designing the programme around their projects, instead of the other way around, allows us to deliver tailored training to people from all kinds of professional and academic backgrounds and to support them in what they want to do as best we can. Our best reward is seeing them fully achieve what they set out to do today.”  Magdalena François-Thurin, Dean of the Executive MBA Programme

MBS would like to congratulate all our 2017 Executive MBA graduates one last time !

After opening its MSc in Marketing, MSc in Global Business, MSc in Finance, MSc in International Business and MSc in Digital Management, Montpellier Business School has just received the accreditation from the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles for its new Master of Science in Lean Operations Management, which will welcome its first students next September.

What is a Master of Science in Lean Operations Management ?

This new MSc programme launched by Montpellier Business School seeks to provide the managerial and operational skills needed to manage company improvement and transformation projects.

“Every day as customers, we are confronted with problems concerning the quality of services and products, ineffective customer service, and processes that waste time and material, both in private companies and administrations,” says Pascal Krupka, Director of MSc and MS at Montpellier Business School. “In the broadest sense, organisations still have a lot of progress to make, which is probably why we are seeing a strong demand within the job market for continuous improvement positions”.

By launching this programme, MBS is positioning itself as a forerunner in the face of current corporate issues and the challenges faced by the organisations of today and tomorrow. The MSc in Lean Operations Management prepares students for a wide variety of professions and functions that share the development of a lasting culture of continuous improvement and innovation as a common foundation.
“It’s about preparing students to become operational players in this deployment by focusing on a series of key skills concerning problem solving and leadership”, adds Krupka.

With its highly professional curriculum, this new Master of Science in Lean Operations Management, entirely taught in English and accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles, is based on the acquisition of methods that are applicable in different contexts and on the contributions of management research.

Contact: 
Georgia Planquette
apply2msc@montpellier-bs.com
Tel: +33 4 67 10 60 16

Thesis defence presented and validated for M. Jean-Louis. It was on Monday 7 December that the Director of Air France KLM Burkina Faso came to Montpellier Business School to pass his final VAE defence at the Grande Ecole Programme. A success which allows him, at 56, to be officially graduated from the Master’s programme, 30 years after obtaining his last degree.

Director of the airline company Air France KLM in Burkina Faso since 2012, Mr Jean-Louis Pradaes wanted to obtain this Master’s degree through the Validation of Acquired Experience, above all, for personal reasons. “I wanted to take stock of 30 years of professional experience including 20 years of management experience. And for me, it had to be formalised by something concrete“, he says just a few minutes after validating his defence at 100%. “I’ve obtained a BTS degree in Tourism more than thirty years ago and during my career, I benefited from a quality internal training but I also pursued some short courses leading to a qualification, including one course offered in partnership with EDHEC. And above all, I needed my own recognition of what I am capable of. For me, the VAE was therefore a good way to formalise this but also to take a step back from my professional life through deep introspective work on oneself”.

Jean Louis Prades therefore decided to join the Grande Ecole Programme of Montpellier Business School through the support of “Les 2 Rives” firm. “I didn’t know if I had the Master’s level but I was ready to try and get invested. Montpellier Business School is an internationally recognised Grande Ecole, ranked among the world TOP 50 business schools, which makes you want to take up the challenge! I worked from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (editor’s note), from five up to ten hours a week, mainly on weekends, and my thesis was completed in twelve months. I really thank all people who have accompanied me in this adventure and especially Vincent Causse, consultant and associate director of the 2Rives. I really thank all the people who have accompanied me through this adventure and especially Vincent Causse, consultant and Associate Director of Les 2 Rives, and François-Xavier Théry, Business Development Director at Montpellier Business School”, says Jean-Louis Prades.

At the end of the defence after the examination board’s deliberation, we could feel Jean Louis Prades relieved and hear emotion in his voice. “The defence went very well even if I was a little tense and stressed at first. The deliberation was quick and now I am happy, relaxed and a little moved. I am very proud to be a graduate of the Grande Ecole Programme of Montpellier Business School and I will immediately announce it to my children”.

The Grande Ecole Programme of Montpellier Business School is one of the rare few that can be obtained through the Validation of Acquired Experience which is based on a general principle: competence is worth a degree.

SENIOR MANAGER

Patrick Dubreuille, a second year Executive MBA student, head of underground works department at METALLIANCE, a company specialised in the design and manufacturing of industrial equipment and mobile machinery.

“I decided to join this Executive MBA programme in order to seek skills that I consider complementary to my technical engineering training, but which are often contrasted with our trades and technical activities. Moreover, it is often considered that technical skills make it easier to evolve rather than financial or business management skills. The Finance and Marketing subjects had previously been quite unknown to me before the MBA training. They allowed me to better understand our business and market and to have a more global vision. Also, the Management courses and the Major transform, on lean management, allowed me to open up new perspectives for improvement and will, in the years to come, represent the necessary levers for the development of our company.

The Capstone project will remain the highlight of this year. I have indeed appointed a strategic audit group around an issue related to my activity on markets and products development strategy. This concert exercise allows me to work on strategy while experiencing it as an introduction to taking the initiative.

Halfway through my training, I can say that I already have acquired a more global vision of the inner working of an organisation and the “nuts and bolts” of its functioning, as well as an understanding of sectors that were previously foreign to me. This first-year MBA was marked by the diversity of profiles and fields of activity. However, we have many common problems and very different ways or methods of dealing with them. I am evolving towards taking up the General Manager position at Metalliance and thanks to the exchanges and sharing experiences with people who are also at the same level of their career development, I am already out of my comfort zone, which will be beneficial to further develop my global and strategic vision to develop our activity”.

After having completed her studies at MBS with the apprenticeship track and graduating from the Master Grande Ecole in 2015, Manon Favier has acquired a range of professional experience in France and New Zealand in the field of wine packaging. Last September, she chose to return to France to focus her career on research by beginning a thesis co-supervised by Dr Franck Celhay, teacher-researcher at Montpellier Business School.

How did your passion for research begin?
It’s actually thanks to the dissertation that I wrote during the second year of my Master’s degree at MBS. It was my first experience of research work and it made me want to take it further. At the same time, thanks to my apprenticeship at O-I, a world leader in glass packaging, I realised that I couldn’t answer some questions posed by customers because of a lack of studies. The dissertation I wrote on wine packaging allowed me to answer some questions, yet I wanted to take it even further in order to address other issues arising from the field. This was the main motivation behind my PhD project.

More specifically, how did you organise yourself to carry out this thesis project?
When I was in New Zealand, I started researching funding for the thesis with the help of Dr Franck Celhay, co-supervisor of my thesis, and Dr Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier, my thesis supervisor. There were several selection phases and last August I received a positive response from the Pays de la Loire region, which wants to address an issue regarding enhancing tourism in the Loire. So, I won the funding for my thesis work through a three-year contract that is paid by the Pays de la Loire region and the University of Angers.

What is the subject of your thesis and how does MBS support you in this project? 
My thesis will be on the influence of packaging design in the wine sector. I am only at the beginning and am currently identifying theories and trends. The aim is to fill a gap in the existing literature. This is the very principle of research, to provide something new. For this, I regularly come back to MBS for follow-ups of my work with Dr Franck Celhay. When I visit, there is an office at my disposal and I really feel like a PhD student with deadlines to meet in order to complete this thesis in three years.

During your time in New Zealand, you were able to present your work at the World Marketing Congress…
Yes. It is partly thanks to MBS, who agreed to finance my registration fee for this very important congress last June. My article, ‘Is using ornaments still a crime? Package design complexity and brand perception with application to Champagne labels’ was selected and for the first time I was able to present in English. Everything went well and I received some interesting comments that have since allowed me to expand my work. I was also able to meet international researchers, which is always rewarding.

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL UNIT HEAD

On this Friday, January 27, 2017, Mrs Fatima El Mrabti, along with a hundred other 2015 and 2016 graduates, will officially receive the MBA degree from the Montpellier Business School. Being engaged in solidarity economy for 12 years, she has just become a Social and Educational Unit head of the DeFI association (Development, Training and Integration) in Montpellier. Highly committed and even wishing to set up a social economy foundation, she comments on this experience and this common sharing of values with MBS.

“For me, symbolic benevolence is important because it is imperative to defuse symbolic violence in order to escape from the state of exclusion. As diversity and equal opportunities became very important in my daily life, I felt perfectly in line with MBS’ values“, Ms Fatima El Mrabti says. “I have 22 years of practical experience in various fields including commerce, sales, property, national education… And it has been 12 years since I joined the DeFI association. But on a personal basis, I felt frustrated because I did not had a higher education degree, even though I felt that I had personal and professional abilities and the capacity to get one. And so I told myself that I would try to get into the best school, which for me is Montpellier Business School”.

Almost 2 years later, Mrs Fatima El Mrabti draws a first assessment of this strong experience. “I was like a “sponge” during these 18 months of the Executive MBA programme. I have made up to-date my knowledge and now, I can anticipate, develop a vision, theorise concepts and implement strategies… The exchanges with the other participants also brought me a strong richness and I discovered new fields such as the agri-food or even the health industry. During each group work, being in contact with others, we gain knowledge in several fields of activity. In addition, our professors provided us with a great deal of support and I really appreciated the qualities of the academic team”.

Last November, Mrs Fatima El Mrabti completed her training by defending her thesis in front of an examination board. A perfectly successful defence as she explains to us. “I could not believe that I’ve got the mention “Excellent”! This thesis took 500 hours restless work that required a great deal of introspection and I had doubts right up until the last moment. I knew I had taken the right direction but I really wanted to give back a high-quality work focused on a subject close to my heart: “The perception of entrepreneurship among young people in difficulty: a symbolic-violence-based approach“, under the guidance of Dr Walid A. Nakara, whom I would like to thank for his advice and excellent support.

Looking to the future, Fatima El Mrabti also intends to use her skills to set up a start-up foundation. “I am working on the business plan but I already have about 40 people who are interested in joining me to start the project. My thesis also gave me the idea of setting up a research committee to work on educational programmes, based on the existing materials. This committee will be part of my start-up foundation, but first of all, I have to find a business plan”.

The MBA team of Montpellier Business School congratulates Mrs Fatima El Mrabti and wishes her and all of the 2015 and 2016 new MBA degree graduates, all the best!

On 7 December, on the occasion of its Advisory Board’s annual celebration, Montpellier Business School brought together representatives from more than 100 companies to celebrate its 120th anniversary in Paris. Attended by Christophe Catoir, President of the MBS Major Partner club and president of Adecco Group France, the evening was a testament to the close relationship that research, academics, and business can forge in order to find solutions and improvements in managerial practices together.

At Montpellier Business School, businesses’ constant presence in the educational process ensures that teaching and research activities are suited to the current and future realities of management and business administration. That’s why this relationship was in focus at the last Advisory Board meeting, which brought together over a hundred Major Partner and company representatives, and many MBS teachers-researchers.

“I’d like to highlight the recognised academic excellence of MBS and the quality of its faculty members,”said Stéphane Reboud, vice president of EMEA Global Services DELL at the start of his remarks. “Among the benefits that MBS lecturers can get from businesses, I’d like to note, as a Major Partner, the example of a working group that’s going to be set up on the digital transformation, with some twenty people who will no doubt provide important insight and very pertinent recommendations.”

A close relationship that benefits students and businesses

David Roubaud, MBS Associate Director for Academics and Research, added: “Support from Major Partners lets us grow with our values and lets our teachers-researchers make clear progress in terms of publications – around 100 in 2017 – which is essential for the international recognition of MBS’s academic excellence.” 

Conversely, research also makes business change through its managerial impact. “Many MBS teachers-researchers worked first as business executives and still spend a lot of time in contact with professionals. We put on lectures, arrange speakers, or provide expertise for companies and public institutions,” explained MBS teacher-researcher Paul Chiambaretto to the audience. And as Julien Granata added: “Case studies on best practices in business serve both businesses and our students. For example, we share our findings with students in apprenticeship programmes or internships, and they use that in-company. We also talk directly to executives, because we interact with and take part in professional training programmes set up by the MBS Executive Education leadership.”

Shared values

Beyond focusing on the relationships that form part of MBS’s DNA and its academic excellence, the Advisory Board meeting also afforded the Major Partners an opportunity to speak on other topics. Pierre Farouz, Director of Human Resources at EMEA Oracle; Benoît Sys, Director of Human Resources at Volkswagen Group France; Dominique Seau, President of the Eminence Group; and of course Christophe Catoir, President of Adecco Group France and President of the MBS Advisory Board, have provided different points of view on issues such as human engagement, employability, apprenticeship programmes, or on-the-ground impact. Strong values and subjects with a future that will remain at the forefront of the minds of MBS and its business partners in 2018 and beyond.

With the signatures of the Altrad Group, Air France, and Onet Group in less than a month, no fewer than 43 corporations have chosen to go beyond simple partnerships on various projects to become Major Partners with Montpellier Business School.

Regional presence: the Altrad Group and Leader Occitanie get closer to MBS

With the desire to developing its already strong roots in the region, MBS and the Altrad Group, one of the largest companies in the region, have signed a Major Partnership agreement on 21 November. 

Mohed Altrad, president of the Altrad Group and president of Montpellier Hérault Rugby, came to MBS campus specially for the signing which was followed by a conference. He said: “We’re delighted with this partnership, which has strengthened our already close and fruitful bonds with Montpellier Business School. It translates our shared desire to contribute to students’ education and professional integration through concrete, sustainable actions, as well as to contribute to the economic and social development of the region and its national and international prestige.”

On 14 December, MBS also signed a partnership with “Leader Occitanie”, which gathers 160 companies of all sizes from the region Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée.

Air France: first international partnership and equal opportunities

On 7 December, in Paris, Air France became the 42nd MBS Major Partner. This collaboration between the two organisations is articulated around several areas, including equality of opportunities through the development of work-study programmes and Air France’s support for the education of African students. In addition to providing transportation for eight scholarship students, the airline has set up an international excellence scholarship, which is already paying for this year’s living costs and tuition fees of one student who will join Air France Afrique in an apprenticeship programme.

Developing the executive education offers

The signing of a Major Partnership agreement between Onet Group and MBS on 12 December emphasised mainly the employability of Onet’s managers through the MBS Executive Education offers. As it is already the case with Volkswagen Group France and Air France, the goal is to set up a professionalisation course lasting around 12 months for business managers of the group, which would lead to an RNCP professional certification (Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles [National Professional Certification Directory]). “Creating training programmes for our managers will also be a significant part of our partnership. We’ll no doubt see the results in a few months,” noted Antoine Richer, Human Resources Director of Onet Group, at the signing.

These last few weeks, Air France, Onet, and Altrad have thus joined Carrefour as the MBS’s new Major Partners since the start of the academic year in September 2017.

On the 23rd of November, the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities organised its traditional scholarship and grant presentation ceremony. This year, emotions ran particularly high as the foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary and presented its new name, new logo and ever increasing ambitions for the future. Its aim? To sustain and develop the MBS social policy through the dynamics of fundraising.

Since 2007, the year of its creation under the auspices of the Fondation de France, the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities has enabled more than 300 students to benefit from direct financial aid, amounting to a total of 4 million Euros. After ten years of existence and development of its actions in favour of national and international scholarships and grant holders selected on academic and social criteria, it was renamed the Montpellier Business School Foundation for Equal Opportunities. To further mark the clear development that lies ahead, it has also adopted a new graphic identity. This development will include the implementation of a strategy to raise more direct funds by mobilising former beneficiaries who are now managers, directors and entrepreneurs, working both in France and internationally.

The Dean of Montpellier Business School, Dr Didier Jourdan, explained at the opening of the 2017 award ceremony: “It is a pleasure to launch this event in honour of the 10th anniversary of our Foundation under the auspices of the Fondation de France. Of course, we could not have done all this without the help of the partners behind its establishment, without the help of the companies who have joined us, and without the help of the MBS employees who have made this commitment to diversity and equal opportunities an issue that has progressively given meaning to our institution”.

Mr Christophe Daubié, Chairman of the executive committee for the MBS Foundation for Equal Opportunities, followed with a word of congratulations and a ‘mission’ for new beneficiaries: “You will become ambassadors of the Foundation, especially during your professional life. We are counting on you to ensure that many other students in the future can also have this chance”.

Returning to the present, this ceremony demonstrated the importance of this policy with the official presentation of the scholarships and grants to the 2017 beneficiaries, including the Excellence Scholarships (complete exemption from tuition fees), the International Excellence and MBS Dakar Scholarships (funding of both tuition fees and living expenses for young talents from countries in great economic and social difficulty), the Academic Encouragement Scholarships (exemption from half of the current year’s tuition fees), the honour loans, the Pierre Farouz Scholarship (HR Director of EMEA Oracle and President of the MBS Social Committee) and, new this year, the MBS partners’ Academic Encouragement Scholarship. After the hearings and last Social Committee meeting, a total of more than half a million Euros of direct aid was awarded to more than 70 MBS students.

During this 2017 edition, a broad overview was provided of the different actions inherent to the MBS diversity and equal opportunities policy with a particular focus on apprenticeships, which has been largely developed during the past 20 years (more than 1,200 apprenticeships are currently in progress), the twenty or so supervisory positions across various MBS departments, tutoring programmes and involvement with FACE Hérault. Another highlight was the presentation of a cheque for €6,892 to Enfance et Partage, which represented the money saved by MBS this year thanks to its ‘No Goodies’ policy during the admissions period.