Education Track Professor Laurence Lehmann-Ortega

Laurence Lehmann-Ortega

Age: 54

Education Track Professor, Strategy and business policy department

How long at HEC Paris: 14 years (and previously as a student 30 years ago!)

Education: HEC Paris Grande Ecole – Master in Finance

List of EMBA courses you currently teach: Business Strategy + course leader for the strategy courses (business and corporate strategy)

LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? 

My research is about business model innovation. I understood 15 years ago that sustainable development issues can be a great trigger to reinvent a business model, and structured my research and teaching around this topic.

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would be an actor (or would love to be!)

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? My deep interest in my students’ learning, my energy, my enthusiasm in sharing my knowledge

One word that describes my first time teaching: I was 28, in executive education, and my question was “what I can I teach those 40-year-old executives?” I then understood that in executive education, the professor will always have less experience than the accumulated experience in the room!! Teaching in Exed is more about sharing than about transferring knowledge.

Professor I most admire and why: 

TEACHING

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? Being able to transform them into catalysts of sustainability, so that they transform their organizations from being part of the problem to becoming part of the solution

What is most challenging? Keeping them engaged

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Eager to learn and discover (more than one word, but I like to break the rules!)

LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

How will you spend your summer? Reading

Favorite place(s) to vacation: any place I haven’t been before 

REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… 

In my opinion, companies, and organizations today need to do a better job at defining a clear purpose for their organization, and how they contribute to current social and environmental challenges.

I’m grateful for all the great students that I had the chance to meet at HEC Paris.