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New Member Spotlight: Montpellier Business School

Institutional Profile

Montpellier Business School

France

https://www.montpellier-bs.com/international/

A committed and inclusive management school, MBS (Montpellier Business School) trains the forerunners of a sustainable economic transition. Its courses include Bachelor, Master in Management, Masters of Sciences, Executive MBA and Executive DBA programmes. MBS belongs to the circle of the 1% of world’s business schools holding the three most prestigious accreditations: AACSB, EFMD-EQUIS, AMBA. With its international outlook, MBS is home to 80 nationalities and offers its students nearly 200 international destinations. A pioneer of inclusion and a leader in apprenticeship, MBS is a leading expert in professionalisation. As a pioneering school at the forefront of inclusion, co-owner of the Diversity® and Gender Equality® labels, MBS incorporates CSR (Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility) into all its courses.

Current and Pending Accreditation(s):
AACSB, EFMD-EQUIS, AMBA

Dean:
Bruno Ducasse

GBSN Ambassador:
Pr. Dr. Yvon Desportes, Dean of the International Cooperation and Relations Office

Emerging Markets Institute/Center:
Created in 2013 by Montpellier Business School, MBS Dakar trains responsible, efficient and international managers. MBS Dakar seeks to contribute to the development of Africa through education and training, academically, on employability and the values of its future managers or entrepreneurs.Activities include Executive education, a Bachelor program, and a recruitment center. Learn more at https://www.montpellier-bs.com/mbs-dakar-home/.

Current Partnerships with GBSN Members:
Montpellier Business School has 200 international academic partners, 15 of which are members of GBSN

  • Fundação GetĂşlio Vargas Escola de Administração de Empresas de SĂŁo Paulo (FGV EAESP), Brazil, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit Transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany, AACSB: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Double Degree at Master level
  • Corvinus Business School, Corvinus University, Hungary, EQUIS: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: General Bilateral Agreement-Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Master level
  • Indian Institute of Management Indore, India, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: General Bilateral Agreement-Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Master level
  • IPADE Business School, Mexico, AACSB AMBA: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Master level
  • CENTRUM Catolica Graduate Business School, Peru, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: General Bilateral Agreement-Open to diverse academic activities
  • SKKU Graduate School of Business, South Korea, AACSB: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • UmeĂĄ School of Business, Economics and Statistics, Sweden, AACSB: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • United Arab Emirates University (UAE), Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, AACSB: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor and Master levels
  • The Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK, AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Credit transfer at Bachelor level
  • Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, TX, USA, AACSB: General Bilateral Agreement-Open to diverse academic activities
  • Florida International University College of Business, Miami, FL, USA, AACSB: Cooperation for Students Mobility-Double Degree at Master level
  • ESCA School of Management, Casablanca, Morocco, AACSB: General Bilateral Agreement-Credit transfer and Double Degree at Bachelor and Master levels

Network Engagement

Ways the institution will support the GBSN mission to improve access to quality management and entrepreneurship education for the developing world:
MBS is committed to improving access to quality, locally relevant, management and entrepreneurial education in developing countries. MBS will consider with the greatest interest all proposals to participate with business schools, companies, foundations and aid agencies in improving access to quality management education in developing countries that is locally relevant and of high quality. MBS declares its intention to be an active member of the network and to participate in cross-border networking. MBS will make its loyal contribution to and participation in international GBSN events and capacity building programmes. MBS will provide the widest possible support in advising, training and mentoring regional educators. MBS adheres to the mission of GBSN Business Schools members as major factors in economic and social development and essential contributors to the efforts to achieve it.

“MBS is prepared to contribute, within its means, its full support to the activities and programmes that GBSN will develop to create new knowledge and build relationships that can transform management education and provide broad visibility to our network as a champion and actor for change and economic and social development.”

Institutional Contributions to the Network Platform in the First Year:
For its action in GBSN, MBS has many means and important assets. As a signatory of the Global Compact – MBS adheres to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) – and holder of the Diversity and Professional Gender Equality and EESPIG labels issued by the French Republic, MBS enjoys public recognition of its consistency with its values. It is by virtue of this same consistency that MBS is committed to the missions of GBSN. The MBS programmes, the Bachelor’s, Master’s, MBA, DBA and PhD programmes welcome students from more than 80 countries. A Career Center creates the link with national and international companies. MBS maintains close relations with companies and manages executive training programmes, both in France and abroad. The professors and researchers at MBS have extensive experience in consulting and applied research for companies. MBS’s positioning is “managerial innovation”.


As such, MBS brings to GBSN a real experience of cooperation with companies, governments and non-profit organisations. MBS has already opened a campus in Dakar. MBS has developed a remarkable cooperation with the Dominican Republic, where a relocation programme is being considered. MBS has, through its international policy, experience of involvement in developing countries on all continents. The beneficiaries of MBS’s contribution to GBSN missions will be students, Business Schools and Companies. MBS will engage in GBSN in favour of students, either by developing articulation contracts with new Universities or by continuing its policy of supporting the development of Business Schools in the form of progression contracts, which facilitate access for students from these Universities to internationally accredited programmes and create the conditions for these students to graduate in Europe in the context of the EHEA. MBS intends to deploy itself in favour of teachers from Universities, not only those who are signatories of a progression contract, but by offering the same opportunities within GBSN, namely, within the framework of and in compliance with French doctoral law, to open up doctoral training to Business School teachers who do not hold a doctorate after having prepared them for research and by accompanying the doctoral programme with training in the teaching-research profession so that they can then pass on their knowledge to their university. MBS will be open to all cooperation relating to post-doctoral studies, as well as to the training of researchers and teachers.


Within GBSN, MBS also intends to work in favour of companies. On one hand through the internationalisation of the validation of experience (VAE) procedure, which is enshrined in French law, and which enables company executives to obtain the Bachelor’s degree (and the academic degree of Licence) or the academic degree of Master in Management. On the other hand, MBS will allow access to its D.B.A. training for company executives. In this same context, MBS will continue to develop executive training within GBSN. MBS has a strong experience of cooperation with international associations, through its integration in the European Erasmus programmes and, in particular, through its action in CLADEA where MBS is elected – for the fourth time – to the Board of Directors of this association and develops activities associating teachers and researchers from Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe.


MBS is a member of CLADEA, AABS, AAPBS, GBSN, and is preparing to join other international associations. MBS’s policy is one of seeking synergy between these memberships in these various associations. MBS will support any activity aiming at the transfer of good practices, the mobility of teachers and researchers, the mobility of students, the sharing of pedagogical resources to facilitate internationalisation at home, as well as actions of international pedagogical engineering, programme integration and joint development of new programmes.


MBS intends to contribute to any action aimed at the sustainable, responsible and eco-responsible transformation of corporate strategy. The scientific research carried out at MBS focuses on the themes of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. These same themes run through all the teaching programmes. MBS participates powerfully in scientific research and associates its environments with it. MBS fully supports GBSN’s vision of research models that are more relevant to the developing world and sustainable development in general. MBS advocates inclusive research whose impact should be direct, channeling students, academics and business schools leaders to its laboratories, and preparing innovations that make a difference and ensure sustainable development

“MBS is pleased to share GBSN’s mission and vision and to contribute to their implementation and realization. Joining GBSN is an additional opportunity for MBS to align itself with its own values, to respect them and, through its actions, to embody them. The cooperation with our partners within GBSN, the new alliances we will enter into and our support for GBSN programs will be at the service of sustainable development, that of Business Schools in emerging countries, that of companies, societies and people, and faithful to the principle of promoting diversity and social and environmental responsibility.” – Bruno Ducasse, Dean

Institutional Engagement with Fellow GBSN Member Institutions:
The initial method will be to explore with our partners in the network how to integrate ourselves into existing programmes. Generally speaking, MBS will give priority to projects and programmes that are directly related to its own mission and international strategy. As soon as a link is established between MBS programme managers and researchers and their colleagues within GBSN, MBS will be open to the development of co-designed programmes. In the immediate future and within the framework of the existing system, MBS will bring its articulation programmes (Bachelor’s, Master’s), its offer of progression contracts and its opening to COILS. Similarly, MBS can now also offer distance learning: – Non-doctoral teachers for an introductory research programme,- PhD applications on themes co-oriented with the missions and objectives of GBSN.- Applications for the D.B.A.- Grouped applications for the validation of acquired experience (VAE) at Bachelor’s and Master’s level.


Similarly, MBS is now inviting GBSN members to participate in the Global Forum sessions jointly organised by CLADEA and MBS on development issues (these forums are supported by GBSN, AAPBS and AABS). MBS is ready to consider proposals for joint online courses, joint webinars, executive training in cooperation with other GBSN members. MBS is the leading business school in France for dual education. MBS is strongly committed to equal opportunities, both nationally and internationally. The dual education model provides an ambitious and demanding framework for cooperation between Business School and Enterprise. A contribution of GBSN could be to work on the French model of work-study, applicable in developing countries. This is an opportunity for innovation for countries that expect GBSN to help them in their development within the framework of cooperation between Business School and Enterprise. MBS is not only willing to participate regularly in events and workshops organised by GBSN, but is also willing to organise them on site, around issues that fall within our areas of excellence and particular expertise. MBS will submit a European Erasmus + capacity building project in 2021 and will propose as a priority to GBSN members to participate in this project. Of course, MBS will participate in the annual GBSN conference.

The biggest challenge facing management in your community and how the institution addresses this challenge:
The COVID-19 crisis has been the biggest operational challenge in modern times for MBS like any other higher education institution in the world. Within days of the first lockdown, we had to move to full online delivery of courses and assessments. The implementation of a blended learning approach in 2018 enabled MBS to react quickly and efficiently, moving to online teaching delivery modes could be rapidly put in place by the faculty and adopted by the students, already familiar with the tools and on-line learning methods. All assessments, continuous and final exams, were conducted on-line with the aim of maintaining equity and academic expectations. Two examples of assessment adaptation to the full distance model are presented below. Moving to full distance office work from home was possible thanks to the existing general teleworking framework and home office equipment (50% of the employees already benefited before the pandemic from a teleworking scheme of at least 1 day/week). Thanks to this generalization and culture of teleworking, MBS has been able to shift its entire activities including teaching and students’ support to full distance in one week’s time in anticipation of the first total COVID-19 lock-down in France. Specific training sessions have been organized to support managers and staff to adapt processes and develop distance collaborative working methods, continuous discussions have been led by the school’s management with the employees’ representatives regarding employees support, evolution of working conditions, and activity recovery plans.

Program Highlight: Start-Up Week

800 students work with Air France to imagine addressing the environmental transition in the air transport sector.
A Business Game to develop the taste for entrepreneurship.

The Montpellier Business School (MBS) Start-Up Week was launched on January the 5th . The 7th edition organized by the school’s Entrepreneurship Center was held virtually. This team-based Business Game immerses the 800 senior apprentices of the Grande Ecole Program in the challenges of business creation. “We formed the teams so as to mix specializations and skills. Students, who are already professionals in their host company, now have an opportunity to put in display their expertise. The goal here is to help them develop a taste for entrepreneurship in an intimidating economic context.” explains Dr. Annabelle Jaouen, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center.

Air France is the sponsor of the new edition.
The apprentices this year have the challenge of creating a business model to accelerate the environmental transition of the air transport sector. They work under the supervision of Teacher-Researchers and expert coaches of the incubator. It is therefore only logical that Air France, a Major Partner of MBS, has agreed to sponsor the new edition of the Business Game. “This project addresses both the need to innovate as a means to accelerate the ecological transition and the company’s desire to keep up the close interactions with the school and students at a time when distance is required for health reasons.” Testifies Vincent Etchebehere, Director of sustainable development and new mobility at Air France. Dr. Paul Chiambaretto is a lecturer-researcher specializing in this field and holder of the Pégase Chair (FR). He recalls the educational challenge of the exercise: “At the end of this week, students will have to prove that their idea has a market, is feasible and viable in terms of environmental, societal and financial impact. Teams will have the opportunity to pitch in front of a jury made up of Air France management and MBS experts, including Anne Rigail, Chief Executive Officer of the company, and Anne-Sophie Le Lay, Secretary-General of Air France KLM.”

Environmental issues at the heart of the problem.
As of today, MBS is one of the Grandes Ecoles which deploy the largest number of teaching hours on CSR-related issues. “It is important to seize the opportunity presented by the Start-up Week to fully call upon the skills and the appetite that students have developed to imagine ecological and sustainable solutions.” explains Dr. Annabelle Jaouen.“ In the case of air transport, we are facing a climate emergency. The roadmap’s forecast was to halve the sector’s CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2050. However, the emissions increased by 40% at the end of 2019 in comparison with 2005. The initial 2050 objective is thus even more difficult to achieve. However, we have a duty to rethink models in order to limit the climate crisis, adopt a decarbonisation path, and allow the entire Air France community to contribute to this fight.” concludes Vincent Etchebehere.

To learn more about Start-Up Week, visit https://www.montpellier-bs.com/international/news/start-up-week-800-students-work-with-air-france-to-imagine-addressing-the-environmental-transition-in-the-air-transport-sector/


GBSN promotes the expertise and interests of our members by providing a platform to communicate news and open opportunities to global audiences and share how they are innovating in management education to the benefit of their colleagues around the world. The New Member Spotlight series serves as a way for new member schools to introduce themselves to the network.