A philosophy based on managing complexity, acquiring a change leader culture and pushing the boundaries
From the beginning of the next academic year, BSB will be launching a new format for its Master in Management Grande Ecole programme. Three main lines of action arise from the overhauling of a programme that will be more student-focussed than ever before: learning to manage the complexity of today’s world; acquiring a Lead For Change culture; and pushing the boundaries via an increased personalisation of the learning track content.
The foundations of the programme have been strengthened both in terms of the international aspect and the academic requirements, as well as greater emphasis now being placed upon apprenticeships and sandwich course options, notably on the School’s Lyon campus.
1.Learning to manage complexity
The world is becoming increasingly complex and is having to change under pressure from four main guiding forces: globalisation, artificial intelligence, diversity and sustainable development. BSB has set itself the target of providing its students with the skills and intellectual tools required to fully grasp and manage this complexity.
All teaching delivered by the School has been tailored to meet the challenge of training global citizens capable of thinking within the context of a multicultural world, who have understood the importance of CSR to corporate strategy and who can successfully gauge the knock-on effects of technological developments and their societal consequences.
This reform will above all be implemented by reinforcing the general and economic cultural basis to the programme, with a view to providing a natural continuity and complementarity with the lessons learned at preparatory class level.
In order to help students better understand complexity, BSB has set in place a series of defining teaching modules and ideas:
- As of the beginning of the next pre-Masters academic year, the Innovation Sprint challenge will confront students with a series of real-life corporate challenges with the aid of a set of academic research tools.
- Also at pre-Masters level, the My Mission Lead For Change module; comprising a citizen project involving an in-the-field commitment of 40 hours within an association and time for personal and group reflection and debate on the societal context within which such an initiative is situated.
- A pre-Masters module titled Deep Dive Artificial Intelligence, in which students must tackle the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence and new technologies; features fully-incorporated Philosophy classes.
- A 1st-year Masters module in Management Philosophy enabling each student to question the role a manager will have within and for society.
- A 1st-year Masters track BSB Humanities at McGill University (Montréal, Canada) enabling each student to take an entire semester of Humanities studies (Literature, Philosophy, History, Geopolitics, etc.) within the Faculty of Arts of this renowned university in order to better understand the world from another perspective both from a teaching and intercultural exposure angle.
A research-based approach to improving understanding of complexity
The aim of the programme is not to offer students actual research training but rather to equip them with the methodological and intellectual tools required to tackle the complexity of today’s world. The objectives are to learn to formulate an issue, conduct a review of the existing literature in order to establish the overall picture, draw up a series of hypotheses, and apply the appropriate methodology in order to suggest answers. To this end, the research methodology classes and the requirements of the 2nd-year Masters professional thesis (which is mandatory for all students) are intensified.
On a more general level, by “learning to learn”, students will better understand how to approach a problem, work with greater autonomy, and hone their ability to evolve. These targeted methodological skills will henceforth be self-assessed via the application of a skills toolkit, a process that goes beyond the mere assessment of academic, professional and soft skills.
2.Acquiring a Lead For Change culture
Acquiring the managerial skills most needed by change managers is the focus of the last year of the Masters programme, and is taught via core course modules, including a Leadership management module.
The series of Meet-up Inspiring Leaders conferences offers students essential in-the-field insight from change managers, including company executives, start-up managers and industry experts.
The Leadership programme, also taught in the final year of the Masters, enables the most ambitious and resourceful students to prepare for the High Potential selection programmes run in major corporations. This entails a backpacking excursion designed to take participants out of their comfort zone and several sessions dedicated to team building, assertiveness, and influence communications.
3.Pushing the boundaries via an increased personalisation of the learning track.
As of the first, pre-Masters year, students will now be able to choose a specific track (Culture, Finance, Auditing-Accountancy-Consultancy, Marketing/Sales, Data Science, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, International Manager) in addition to the core curriculum in order to acquire an initial taste for accounting, develop correlated skills, meet companies from the sector, and discover the various professions within. Students may change track during the curriculum.
In the 1st year of the Masters, course content is generally customisable with 4 electives to choose from a wide range of around 20: Digital Transformation, Brand Strategy, Organisational Management, SME Management and Intrapreneurship, Performance Steering, Strategic Marketing, Luxury marketing & premium products, Sports marketing, Geopolitics, Game Theory, etc.
Tracks have been reinforced in order to enable the most ambitious students to take during the second year of the Masters selective, high-standard MSc courses completion of which is awarded with a BSB double degree.
Strengthened fundamentals
Alongside this body of new course content, the fundamentals of the programme have been strengthened via a series of excellence tracks and entrepreneurial and international culture teaching, plus the continued obligation of spending at least one academic semester abroad and up to 30 months of additional experience also in another country. Further professional tracks have been devised comprising a work-study format (apprenticeship or professionalisation contract) in Dijon and Lyon, including three scheduling options (over the two years of the Masters, in the middle of each year of the programme, or in the second year only). In 2020, BSB doubled the number of work-study places, whilst Lyon remains a site of increasing potential that will be home to a new campus due to open in February 2021.