ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #193 - 1er trimestre 2021 - 62

Campus ❙ École

Rising
École to the Top:
How the ESCP Executive
MBA Reached #7 worlwide ?
In a year of starts and stops, the Executive MBA at ESCP has taken off. Ranked 7th in the world
by the Financial Times in 2020, as well as 1st for career progression and aims achieved, the news
was a welcome recognition of the hard work and excellence that has come to define this flagship
programme of ESCP's Executive Education branch. To better understand the reasons behind this
monumental achievement, we sat down to speak with Professor Véronique Tran, Academic Dean
of the EMBA and Ines Khedhir, Director of the EMBA.

t the helm of the Executive MBA
since 2018, Professor Véronique
Tran and Ines Khedhir have made
resilience and grit a core philosophy of the
curriculum and how they manage the programme, a philosophy they share with their
stellar faculty, staff, and participants. Because
success is often the result of cumulative incremental change, each month is an opportunity
for improvement, to learn from what worked,
but also what didn't. Most importantly, every
iteration is the chance to take a step back,
view the bigger picture and take stock of the
complexities and interdependencies of the
programme.
One of the strengths that most likely contributed to this historical ranking is the EMBA's
European identity. As Professor Tran said,
" what makes us unique is the fact that we are
anchored in 6 European campuses. We offer
our participants the opportunity to immerse
themselves in different economic, social, and
human cultures. We offer Europe on a platter. " The multi-campus system is an asset that
allows the programme to capitalise on the
expertise of each separate team, thus making
the whole richer than the sum of its parts.
Diversity of thought and mindsets is fundamental to this world-class programme.
According to Ms Khedhir, " you learn when

❙

you work with people who think differently.
This is how you grow. We push our participants to work across cultures and to leverage
their experiences. " She went on to say that,
" alumni will tell us that they were challenged,
that it wasn't always easy, but it was one of the
most important takeaways " . Diversity, in all
its forms-thought, gender, background, experience, nationally, industry sector-is a priority
of the EMBA and its goal to be inclusive.

opportunity to change and enhance one's leadership in an incredibly disruptive era. After
all, Professor Tran welcomes participants by
addressing VUCA and how the curriculum of
the EMBA is designed to help overcome the
volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity with which we live. " Our participants
acquire the mental agility and the necessary
resilience to cope with the major challenges
the world is facing, " she says.

It is no accident that alumni often mention
a strong collaborative culture as one of the
highlights of their experience. After 26 years,
the programme is specialised in detecting
high-potential individuals. And yet, an elite
group of participants will only take you so
far. To guide participants towards the highest
version of themselves, it takes the right conditions, which is the result of careful planning by
Professor Tran, Ms Khedhir and their teams.
As stated by Ms Khedhir, " our objective is that
at the end of their time with us, participants
will have worked with every single person of
their class. "

When the traditional programme structure
became less feasible, Professor Tran and Ms
Khedhir applied the tenets taught by the
EMBA. They leveraged the multi-campus
structure and drew on the team's ability to
quickly pivot, allowing participants to tailor
their curriculum even further: they could
switch campuses if necessary, go " local " , or
benefit from a phygital format. They both
emphasise that it is important to " increase
our own agility to make each participant's
journey even more customised. "

The conversation with Ms Khedhir and
Professor Tran took place remotely, a reminder
of the current global health crisis. However,
the challenges facing the world have not
slowed down this dynamic team who believe
that, more than ever, an Executive MBA is an

ESCP Alumni Magazine numéro 193 ❙ 1er TRIMESTRE 2021

While the ranking has been the consecration of years of hard work and dedication to
provide the highest quality academic experience, the EMBA has no intention of resting
on its laurels. In order to thrive, the directorship is aware of the importance of evolving,
rethinking, iterating and innovating to remain
at the vanguard of executive education. Their

ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #193 - 1er trimestre 2021

Table des matières de la publication ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #193 - 1er trimestre 2021