HEC Paris To Modernize Executive Program

HEC LAUNCHES MASSIVE DIGITIZATION PROJECT 

Nathalie Lugagne. Courtesy photo

Lugagne says HEC Paris wants to offer individualized career coaching, emphasizing how to advance in one’s professional life, how to summarize what one has learned, how to identify one’s constraints, and how, based on all of that, to imagine one’s future.

The other big change is something that is becoming common in executive MBA programs, Lugagne says. HEC Paris will increase its digital capacity, putting online everything that doesn’t need to be learned in person.

“We wanted to reduce the number of contact days,” Lugagne says. “What is relevant in a classroom will be learned in a classroom, and what can be put online will be put online.” The point, she says, is to make the executive MBA experience as efficient as possible, through webinars, videos, and other digital content.

HEC WILL SHIFT FROM TEACHING TO IMPLEMENTING, ALUMNUS PREDICTS

Krishna Nistala. Courtesy photo

Krishna Nistala, who graduated from HEC’s executive program in June, says he’s excited about the changes. He says they reflect an increased emphasis on entrepreneurship all over the world.

“I expect increased demand for schools offering entrepreneurship,” Nistala says. “The coming years will be different in a way for HEC, in that they not only need to meet this demand but also cater to the expectations of the students. The expectations, in my view, would be to assist them in validating their ideas, refining their business models and providing the required ecosystem to take their ideas into market.”

As someone who recently graduated from the HEC program, Nistala says he expects there will be a shift from “teaching” entrepreneurship to “implementing” it. “The program itself will become an incubator/accelerator,” he says. He should know: Halfway through his executive MBA, Nistala left his corporate career behind and launched a startup, i2R Consulting.

Like Nistala, Waknell expects that the changes at HEC Paris will lead to improvement, and says he hopes the school continues listening to feedback from alumni and participants.

“HEC could simply sell its courses based on its name and reputation, and turn a blind eye to new ideas, but instead it has chosen to listen, to keep improving, and to move with the times,” he says. “It’s ironic that such a venerable and venerated school should have such a modern course and such a progressive approach, but that very combination is what ensures that an HEC executive MBA opens boardroom doors — and gives participants the skills to belong there.”

SEE ALSO HEC PARIS NAMES A NEW DEAN or HEC PARIS NAMES NEW EXEC ED CHIEF