Captivate, convince, obtain the BUY-IN!

To clearly communicate a message, share a project and/or put forward recommendations, we are often required to take the stage. ln this situation, using a powerful, modern and memorable visual support that perfectly illustrates your message is a major asset.

The “Presentation Design” course teaches the students how to create powerful, original and consistent slideshows.

Using actual examples, relevant and practical exercises, they will transform their presentations into hard-hitting means of communication.

Visual impact is key in catching your audience’s attention!

The Strategic Marketing course reviews key marketing concepts and methods to equip participants with skills and knowledge with which to face a VUCA world.
It also gives participants the opportunity to apply theory into practice through intensive group work on several business cases.
The competences developed include: Understanding the evolution of Strategic Marketing and the latest thoughts on this subject, Being capable to create a link between Financial imperatives and Marketing; Being capable to apply a Strategic Marketing Process, Understanding the core elements of Value Creation (Brand, Value Proposition, Price) and the core elements of Value Capture (Journey, Conversation), Developing Strategic Scenarios (Core, Adjacent, Transformational) and finally consolidating these elements into a comprehensive plan.

This course will cover the concepts of Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship.

Design thinking can be defined as a “collaborative, human-centered approach that can be used to solve a broader range of challenges” (T. Brown). It is rooted in the daily work of designers. It is both a mindset and a method that capitalizes on creativity techniques and the power of multidisciplinary teams to develop innovative solutions. Although its scope is broader than entrepreneurship, design thinking can be seen as a perfect starting point for people looking for the next big idea.

Entrepreneurship is often associated with small business management and new venture creation. This is actually a very restricted view! As a matter of fact, entrepreneurship is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. At macro-economical level, it is a key success factor for economic growth and innovation. At a firm level, it is a management style that helps to deal with very uncertain situations and innovative projects. At a personal level, it is a mindset and a set of skills that help identify and exploit business opportunities.

The course will introduce the students to the process of developing an entrepreneurial idea – from finding the idea to pitching it to sponsors. It will be based on a set of recent methodologies and tools used in the matter, mainly:

• Effectuation
• Design thinking
• Opportunity Assessment canvas
• Lean startup
• Business model canvas

The course mainly consists in a group assignment where teams of 5 to 6 students will have to start an entrepreneurial journey and present a final pitch.

Competences that will be developed:

• Working in multidisciplinary group
• Finding an idea
• Refining this idea through iteration
• Building and evaluating value propositions
• Developing their presentation skills

Understand clearly what is strategy, its interactions with the other domains of management and how strategy can explain the differences of performance between companies, even inside of the same industry.
Understanding the strategic Imperative for any kind of business to create, deliver and capture value. But at the same time explain that many different combinations can achieve this.
The notion of business model will be explained and used to introduce other strategy notions as : value proposition and positioning, customer’s segments, customer relationship & distribution, value chain, resource-based view, price mechanism and cost structure. Business model innovation will be explained as an important option to generate a competitive advantage or to deploy a new technology.
Methodologies to understand the business environment of a company will be explained and practiced. The notion of competitive advantage will be addressed by examining its different sources.
The notions of vision, mission statement, value & culture will be explained using numerous examples.
Finally, growth strategies will be explained (organic and external growth strategies).

This course is designed to give participants an overview of the field of organizational behaviour
(OB), the major business challenges it addresses and the role leadership plays. Relying on a combination of lecture/discussion and problem-based learning, participants will develop a new understanding of their lives in organizations. Each session will focus on learning the fundamental principles of a given OB topic that participants need in order to solve OB challenges that will emerge from their own experiences.

This course promises a hands-on approach to OB challenges that relies as much on participants´ experiences and participation inside and outside class as it does on theory.

The main objective of the course is to introduce the concept of Digital Innovation and Transformation, i.e. the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to transform business processes, enhance customer experience, or create new business models. The course will examine how and when digital technologies can be used to innovate and gain competitive advantage. Digital technologies are indeed both accelerating innovation (thanks to faster design and exploration of solution spaces, easier collaboration and distributed work, etc.) and enabling organizational, product and business transformations. With digital technologies becoming ever more pervasive and mobile, new transformations can be expected. At the end of the course, students should be able to foresee such areas in which technology can be used to transform business processes, products, services, or business models and create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Intangible assets of a company play a crucial role in sustaining the innovation strategy of a company and can be an important source of competitive advantage. Some of those intangible assets might be protected by intellectual property rights (IPRs) . When is it possible? When should it be encouraged and when it should not? What are those intellectual rights? What is their coverage?…

As real estates may be sold or rent, IPRs may be sold or licensed out: how does a company leverage its IPRs portfolio? How are IPRs valued and traded?… Who says asset, says value. But how to estimate the value of an intangible asset? What are the different methods? What is used in practice?…

The legal practice and regulatory landscape are permanently evolving: what are the latest developments, how do they impact the management of IP and its impact on innovation strategy?…

The course aims to make the student familiar with these important questions for anyone interested to develop a long-term oriented, solid business innovation strategy based on strong IP, optimally managed.

The main competence that will be developed is the acquisition of right reflexes when someone is involved to some extent in the generation, the protection or the optimization of IPRs.

The richness of this field is that it requires an interest in the combination of different fields: scientific, legal, financial and business ones.

The course will capture critical issues shaping international strategies and managerial decision-making in today’s complex business landscape. It will focus on application of key concepts and tools acquired by students to real-life situations.

The course will dive into strategic challenges facing businesses aiming to survive and enhance shareholder value. It will cover scenarios such as diversification (geographic, brand, products & services), M&As, divestitures & carve-outs and raising capital for launch of new businesses, expansion and improving global competitiveness.

The approach will be hands-on and combine the following:

• recap and application of key disciplines, mainly corporate finance, financial reporting & regulation facing MNCs, international marketing & strategy, and legal considerations of going global;
• business cases from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific (key learnings & observations);
• interactive discussions under simulated business situations, putting the students in the shoes of business advisors, managers and decision makers.

The course will also address practical concerns about building a career path in the corporate sector, strategic & financial consulting, investment banking and the like. Questions will also be invited from students regarding benefits and challenges of international career opportunities.

Today, businesses, governments, and individuals create massive collections of data as a by-product of their activity. Increasingly, decision-makers and systems rely on intelligent technology to analyze data systematically to improve decision-making. In many cases automating analytical and decision-making processes is necessary because of the volume of data and the speed with which new data are generated.
In this course, we will examine how data analysis technologies can be used to improve decision-making. We will study the fundamental principles and techniques of data science, and we will examine real-world examples and cases to place data science techniques in context, to develop data-analytic thinking, and to illustrate that proper application is as much an art as it is a science.

We will study what is required today to Lead Innovation – what capabilities need to be put in place. We will look at criticality of connecting the innovation seamlessly with the company’s vision and priorities. We will study generating creative ideas, but also recognize that this is just the start of innovation process. From there companies need to develop balanced innovation portfolios, and they need to manage learning and uncertainty as the project progresses – balancing creativity and discipline, to ensure, in the end, excellence in execution.
Last, we will study the human side of innovation – in the end it’s about how individuals are engaged in the process, how they deal with and relate to one another. And we’ll go deep into the critical role of leadership to unleash this spirit and culture of innovation, which requires a role of leadership that flips historical notions on its head.

Either as a project manager or as a project sponsor, you will need to deal with the complexity of project management. Organizations are starting to realize that to execute their strategy they need to be successful in their strategic projects. Therefore project management has become a critical skill for their top potential people. Some recent research by the Project Management Institute tells us that by 2020, about 1.5million jobs will be created each year in project management, mostly in Asia, but many in Europe and the US too.
The overall philosophy for this course is to provide you with a structured setting in which you can familiarize yourself with the most important ideas in project management and how it contributes in supporting your organization to achieve its mission and strategic objectives. The main goal for the course is for you learn how to apply these concepts in your own, or future job settings — this is a realistic goal for a course and, if you attain it, it is an extremely valuable skill. The secondary goal is for you to learn how to carry out the project management techniques such as project scoping, estimating, scheduling and controlling. To this end, I have included some case studies and exercises. In order to develop your project management skills, you will need to practice and apply the learning’s once you return to your job to further consolidate these techniques.

Scoping and managing a consulting project, Developing actionable recommendations, Presentation skills. This course consists in a consulting assignment in a small business. It is monitored by professional consultants.