IBM France partners up with EDHEC’s Global MBA to take up the challenge of digital innovation

For its brand new Digital Innovation Track, EDHEC’s Global MBA teamed up with IBM France to allow future leaders and entrepreneurs to master the challenges of change management, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new methods of innovation management through Design Thinking, all in a setting where new digital technologies have become vital.

This unique partnership allows Global MBA participants to attend classes that are co-created and co-taught with IBM experts for each subject, as well as obtain unique tools to lead their digital transformation.

Through four weeks of intensive classes, MBA participants who chose this track not only learn to think (or re-think) innovation with the help of Design Thinking, but also to reflect upon the use of new technologies. The idea of change management is also discussed on the same level. Therefore, participants will have a chance to better conceive how leading companies managed their digital transformation to keep their position in a perpetually evolving environment, and what the key factors of their success were. During this course, MBA participants will have the opportunity to draw inspiration from the way major players such as Accorhotels have adapted to the digital era to lead their own transformations, especially when confronted to new collaborative economy players such as AirBnb or Wimdu.

"The point is to emphasize how these companies have taken apart and reconstructed their business models to adapt to the new rules of a market redefined by digital technologies."
Loick Menvielle, EDHEC Associate Professor and Digital Innovation Track director - Global MBA.

A business trip to Paris

The Digital Innovation Track is concluded by a week-long business trip on EDHEC’s Paris campus to meet selected companies, thus allowing MBA students to meet major players such as Critéo, BNP Paribas, L'Oreal or SAP to discuss the issues associated with digital transformation and new technologies. A whole day is also dedicated to IBM France: in their offices in Bois-Colombes, participants will be immersed in the company’s deeply innovative culture and will especially learn how the digital era has been a game changer in sectors such as public health or retail.

Those meetings provide a unique insight into the way different companies have been able to design new organizational structures to adapt to their competition, as was the case for AccorHotels in the tourism sector, but also how others such as 1000 Mercis have used big data to achieve innovation.

"Either we miss out on a great opportunity, or we start considering the digital era and the influx of new competition as a true strategic opportunity and as a challenge that will allow companies to expand their competitive advantage on their market." Loick Menvielle

This business trip offers professionals a new outlook on how the digital revolution has transformed various fields, a real opportunity for them to consider their own strategies.

The Digital Innovation Track is part of the four specialisation tracks in the Global MBA. The three others are the International Finance Track, the Global Leadership Track and the Entrepreneurship Track, which respectively bring their participants to London, Singapore and San Francisco to meet with specialists of each field.