When you choose to move from a country such as India with a population almost double that of the entire continent where you are continuing your studies, you should be prepared for quite a shock. Not so for Anupaul Debnath, for whom the contrast was an opportunity above all else. He recounts his very conscious search for the intimacy and diversity of Europe, France and Lyon and his current city of residence and work, Berlin.

An Australian (Anna Kang), a Frenchman (Edouard Doucet), a Costa Rican (Alejandro Alfaro) and a Mexican (Lorena Garza Flores). These are the four nationalities that represent our culturally diverse team for our Entrepreneurial Learning Project (ELP) with ADP France.

The ELP, which is a six-month external consulting project, is one of the most enriching experiences of our International MBA at emlyon business school. Last November, we were presented with consulting projects from a vast range of outstanding international companies. From these projects, we were required to select one project that evoked our interest based on our career objectives, professional experience and background. The goal and focus of the ELP is to practically apply knowledge gained during the MBA to tackle real challenges companies are facing today. Our team selected to partner with ADP France, the French branch of an American listed company specialising in providing human resources management software and services to businesses across the globe. We had the opportunity to work closely with Yann Baudot and Ali Kazan to tackle the challenge of improving the proactivity in the delivery of customer experience across ADP’s clients in France. With a strong focus on addressing the root cause to achieve our goal, we set on a journey to gather key valuable information internally from employees and externally from clients. Invaluable insights and innovative ideas were gained through applying the Design Thinking framework (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test), which we had learnt earlier on in our MBA studies with Rémi Edart. As the world held its breath to face the threat of a pandemic, our plans drastically changed. Corporations had no choice but to swiftly shift their usual practices to engage in virtual interaction. We learnt to adapt to the challenges that COVID-19 had carved out for us and pivoted from our initial plans of face-to-face interactions with ADP consultants and clients to online interviews During this time, we learnt to proactively adapt to a situation that none of us were ever prepared to take on. Although we are now out of our month and half long confinement, it has been a challenging learning curve for all of us that I am sure we will never forget. Our time spent with ADP France on this project has been an inspirational experience, it has widened our knowledge and polished the tools that we will need in our future careers. In a blink of an eye, the emlyon and ADP project partnership will come to an end for us in July. Grateful for the fantastic support we have received from our team, emlyon business school and ADP France, we would like to thank both ADP France and emlyon business school for giving us this opportunity. This is definitely an experience we will all look upon as a milestone in our professional lives.

On the 21st of January 2021, The Economist published their annual Which MBA ranking. The International MBA at emlyon business school rises 29 places to be ranked 22nd worldwide and 3rd in France! The team at emlyon business school is very proud of the alumni, students, professors and staff who through their continuous work and efforts, help the program develop and break new barriers every year. With the COVID-19 crisis heavily impacting many sectors in the world, business schools have had to adapt their teaching methods and business models. The International MBA program at emlyon business school altered its courses and when necessary went online. Company executives continued to participate in the program through online platforms, allowing students to keep the link with the professional world. The pandemic encouraged students to be more proactive and agile, allowing them to put into practice very early ideas that they were learning. The September 2020 intake was adapted with classes being held online for the first 3 months. Students were able to come on campus on the 11th of January and are now studying together in class! Current class profile: 59 students 31 nationalities 54% male 46% female Average age 31 Average of 6.5 years’ work experience For more information we invite you to visit the program website.

A graduate of the emlyon business school’s International MBA in 2019, Quentin Ankri, currently the Head of Project Management at Euronews, has forged a career spanning a wide range of positions, industries, and countries. He tells his professional story, and the impact that emlyon has made and continues to make in his professional life.

Q. How has your time at emlyon prepared you for your career at Euronews? The MBA that I received from emlyon provided me with a host of skills and a firm grasp of all aspects of business. However, in terms of my career, I have found it especially valuable in the news media industry where I currently work. Seismic changes in terms of audience requirements, data driven newsrooms, the rise of fake news, and the need to re-invent due to huge drops in traditional advertising revenues are taking place, and digital transformation and change management are essential to overhauling the way the media works. Given all the key takeaways I got from my International MBA, it is no coincidence that I find myself at Euronews as part of the Diversification & Business Development team. Here, I get to utilize the knowledge and experiences gained from my degree to work on developing new sources of revenues based on core assets such as brand, content and expertise. Q. What were the key takeaways from the program that you still apply today? My strongest memories are of theoretical learning, and the insight we were given into shifts in industries. Learning about how to meet the challenge of change management through the presentation of success stories also really resonated with me, providing great food for thought on how to approach other situations (especially now given the ever changing state of the media sector, this has proven invaluable). I already had 8 years of prior professional experience, but what the program managed to do was give sense and structure to what I had done before, strengthen my overall profile, and cultivate in me the ability to generate revenue in a period of flux. Q. Among your many roles today at emlyon is that of President of the MBA Club. What does the club seek to achieve? Take a look at our website at if you want to get the full picture but, in short, the aim is to run top-level events with a firm emphasis on getting the best out of an international business community. emlyon’s community is widespread and knowledgeable, and very in touch with the corporate world, so we manage to feature some real, high-level experts, many of whom are CEOs. Not so long ago, we had the CEO of Verizon Europe speak directly with the students. We also welcomed the CEO of Euronews, Michael Peters, who shared insights into the digital transformation of the media industry. The whole initiative of these notable speakers operates in parallel with the program, ensuring that all the know-how shared by the speakers is of direct relevance to the academic content that the students are working on. The fact that this is an optional program add-on also provides a guarantee that the participating students are there because they want to be, so there’s no doubting their level of motivation and interest! Q. It seems as though you loved your time at emlyon so much that you also give back to the school in a teaching capacity? Yes, along with my colleague and fellow alumni Clément Guillaume, we contribute in the form of teaching Media Management classes at the school. We are focusing a great deal on the digital revolution and the impact it is having on grasping users’ attention, both in terms of their content creation, user experience, pricing, and internationalization. The continued rise of platforms such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney + and Amazon Prime come under the microscope as especially illustrative examples (and indeed success stories) of this revolution. Teaching is delivered in theoretical class and workshop formats, and forms a part of not only the International MBA, but also the school’s Programme Grande Ecole. Q. Finally, you are not only an alumnus of the school but also an emlyon Alumni Board member. What are you working on and with what objectives? My 4-year tenure began back in March of this year. There are currently 15 of us split into 8 different task forces examining how to maintain, nurture and nourish relations between the school and its alumni (this includes our great MBA alumni as well). Our main strategic objective is born out of the intrinsically international nature of a school like emlyon. To cut a long story short, how do you unite an alumni community so few members of which are still physically based in Lyon itself, due to the global opportunities provided by the school? We see this challenge as an opportunity, not an obstacle, and are working actively on ways to unite the alumni community further still. Quentin Ankri Back to the International MBA program page

 International MBA student

Jacob Westrum

From pursuing an International MBA to ordering a café, what happens when you put an American in France in the middle of a pandemic? Just ask Jacob Westrum, MBA student (Class of 2021) who lived this experience and came out stronger, smarter, and ready to take on the leadership challenges of tomorrow.

In total, Jacob has more than 3 years of leadership, 6 years of tech, and 11 years of sales experience. Formerly, he was responsible as a Senior Manager in Business Sales Marketing Strategic Solutions at Verizon Business Group and presently, he is working at Aircall with experience in: CCaaS, UCaaS, SaaS, PaaS, IoT, Information Technology, 5G, Telecommunications, Hosted VoIP, Device & Enterprise Mobility Management, Fleet Management.

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The answer is simple, YES! Driven and passionate current IMBA student, Driss DCHAICHA, first experienced the effects of the pandemic from his home in Morocco. His love of science and technology drove him to get a degree in engineering, and after 5 years of professional experience in the aircraft and automotive industries, he believes that now is the perfect occasion to earn his International MBA from emlyon business school. “The disruption that COVID created was an opportunity to be in the front seat of all the ongoing change,” said Driss. We wanted to learn more about his decision to join the program, and how his experience in the IMBA was going in the wake of the COVID pandemic. What drove you to earn your IMBA from emlyon business school? “Choosing emlyon business school was a very straight forward decision. During my research for business schools in Europe, I came across several leading business schools, but emlyon was the only school that truly checked all the boxes: It is triple accredited The IMBA has an 11-month structure that matched my career plans And the international diversity of the cohort is a big plus. But what really made the difference for me was the entrepreneurial spirit of the school as whole and its ability to effective pass on that entrepreneurial DNA to its students. Deciding to put my career on pause for a year was the difficult part of my MBA decision process, but choosing emlyon was definitely not.” What convinced you to enroll in the IMBA during the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic? “The uncertainty around the COVID situation made me take a step back and evaluate my decision to pause my career and to go back to school. I am convinced that businesses will be eager to acquire talents with fresh perspectives on the business world, so getting an International MBA at this point in time makes perfect logical sense. My goal is to evolve into leadership positions and reach the top rungs of management consulting at a large company, and this really motivated me to stop everything and go back to school to get my MBA. I’ve always had a great admiration for MBAs, mainly for their leadership and charisma, and that drove my desire to obtain mine early on in my career.” How has your experience in the IMBA program been thus far? “I’m very happy with my IMBA experience. The content of the courses is very hands-on and forward thinking. I’m constantly being challenged to be my best and grow in my leadership abilities. The staff is also amazing! The Program Director, Rhoda DAVIDSON, has been more of a mentor than an instructor, and the rest of the staff continually supports us to ensure our success in the program. Finally, the international environment of the program has definitely enriched my perspective both towards the business world and on a personal level.” What advice would you give to other students considering the IMBA program during COVID? “I encourage anyone interested in joining the IMBA program to do so because it's truly a transformative experience. In the words of Tina Seelig, ‘Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.’ My advice to any prospective IMBA student is take chance on themselves and be fabulous, even during COVID!”

With a scientific and technological background, Dr. Souleymane Diallo, Product Manager at Toptica PHOTONICS, is keen not only to produce knowledge but also to apply it for the benefit of companies. He chose emlyon business school’s International MBA to help him to accomplish this, and he discusses his transition from hardcore engineering to hands-on work in the industry as a result of his degree.

From October 2021 to March 2022, five emlyon business school International MBA students put their heads together to devise a virtual solution to a concrete challenge – the increasing disparity between the private and state education systems in India. Run by the esteemed, Project Management Institute accreditation organization, the “PMI Make Reality Challenge” saw the emlyon team finish in second place from no fewer than 5,800 initial entrants. Three team members recount their six-month journey.

“India is one of the developing countries where there is a chasm between quality education for the rich…and the rest,” begins IMBA student Neeti Srivastava. “The gap is widening to the extent that even the lower-middle class is being priced-out of the market so there is an urgent need to find solutions to this growing problem for all strata of Indian society, starting with the quality of teaching and access to quality teaching.” The perfect gauntlet was thrown down to Neeti and her classmates Smriti Khemani, Haobo Jiang, Ana Mordynskaja, Smriti Khemani, and Linnan Fan in the form of the PMI Make Reality Challenge. This global event invites participating teams to work over a six-month period (for those that reach the Grand Finale) on a low code/no code prototype solution to a problem corresponding to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: COVID-19, Climate Change, Smart Infrastructure, and Education. From brainstorming to brainwave Divided into three stages (#1: Ideation from October to November, #2: Prototype Design from December to January, and #3: the Grand Finale in March), the challenge was met head-on by the motivated emlyon IMBA team. Haobo explains the early steps, “following the initial joint brainstorming amongst the five of us, we honed-in on the issue of education and the education system in India, opting for Zoho as our platform of choice to design a low code/no code prototype. We then distributed out our respective roles in order to come up with a cost-effective and sustainable project.” The ideation-to-prototype stage saw the initial 5,800 entrants whittled down to 200, and then only a mere 33 were left standing. For Smriti, the nature of the problem that the team chose fit especially well with the challenge of finding a virtual solution, “India is such a vast country that access to quality education is a geographic and socio-economic problem, not forgetting the many problems of infrastructure rife within the country’s education system. Remote technology therefore ticks more than one box in tackling the issue. Our brainstorming led to a brainwave – let’s help teach the teachers!” In a climate where access to the best schools involves financial selection and interviewing of applicants and their families, teacher talent is concentrated purely at the best and most expensive schools in India. From primary level up, fees are dissuasive for all but the very rich, so the emlyon team decided to address the problem from a different angle – enticing teaching talent back to poorer schools with inferior infrastructure so that money is no longer the main deciding factor. “We decided on an app that would help teachers raise their game, enabling them to improve not just the content of their classes but also their pedagogical approach via a plethora of Moocs categorised by department and academic discipline,” explains Neeti. By creating an administrated tier system within their prototype design, the students imagined a tool that would not only encourage but also gently force users to progress before enjoying access to more content within the app. This, though, is not the only principle behind the tool, as Haobo adds, “we also wanted to introduce the notion of accountability for teacher performance. Helping them upgrade their skills is one thing, but we also wanted a tool that would enable those managing it to be able to track the subsequent progress of user-teachers. We want to help bridge the gap in the system but also encourage teachers to be accountable for their performance”. Ingredients for success In advance of the Grand Finale, the students prepared a storytelling presentation of the project from its infancy through to the version submitted for the competition, receiving due coaching along the way via a series of tough questions from their MBA Director, Rhoda Davidson, designed to pose and prepare them for the major question of how to get teachers on board to use the app. The final stage of the challenge saw the top 10 teams interviewed on their prototypes by a senior panel of judges, after which the winning podium was announced. The emlyon team finished in second place and received $7,000 in prize money. For Smriti, the International MBA program had very much its part to play in this success, “we were very happy with our proposal and implementation plan, that’s for certain. However, we never lost sight of what we had learned from our courses in Strategy and New Ventures, which proved essential in developing a unique value proposition. Hopefully our app or one similar will one day see the light of day, and not just in India.”

The newest rankings from The Economist’s Which MBA 2022 rankings have been released, where emlyon business school’s International MBA IMBA) ranked #3 in France (right behind HEC Paris) and #30 worldwide (following American ivy-league universities).

“We’ve used responses to quantitative and qualitative questions from thousands of current and former students to rank the top 100 full-time MBA programs this year,” states the article published June 22, 2022. Furthermore, the article states that although research from the Graduate Management Admissions Council confirms that MBAs remain a popular degree option, more and more prospective students are interested in a year-long programs versus a two-year program. This is even better news for emlyon’s International MBA as it spans a total of 11 months (with possibilities to extend) and takes participants on a global educational journey. Stephanie Ousaci, emlyon business school’s Executive Director of MBA programs, was also featured in the article saying, “business leaders are increasingly identifying environmental issues and social changes as the biggest risks to global business. They are facing complex and systemic challenges and they must be prepared to debate and formulate timely actions.” “The international MBA at emlyon has sustainability, CSR and ethics incorporated into it, but retains a strong emphasis on ‘learning by doing’ to ensure MBA graduates have the competence and agility needed in the workplace,” writes The Economist. Are you yourself interested or know of someone looking to take the next big step forward in their career by earning a degree from a top-ranked global business school? Be sure to find out more about emlyon’s International MBA program!

Find out from current students about all the ways leaving your home country to study an international MBA will enhance your MBA experience.

What’s your reason for studying an MBA? Along with securing a pay rise and becoming a CEO, being able to travel internationally during your career is one of the most popular reasons students give for considering applying to business school. Gaining international experience while you study can help you launch a global career. You’ll be introduced to diverse cultures, meet new people, and gain access to fresh opportunities. It can also provide the inspiration you need to pursue an international career in the future. We spoke with emlyon business school International MBA students to find out some of the key ways going global can enhance the MBA experience. 1 - Learn in a challenging environment Whether you study at home or abroad, business school is always a challenge. But learning in a new country does pose unique characteristics that can help you develop both inside and outside the classroom. For Colombian-born Kevin Calvi (pictured), moving to France to study his MBA at emlyon business school meant having to adapt to a new language. It wasn't the first time: Kevin spent much of his early career in the US working in technology. Throughout his year-long degree at emlyon, he was able to add an understanding of French to his already impressive language repertoire comprising both English and Spanish. “I wanted a general change, for me the main motivation was the challenge and learning something new. French was that challenge so that’s why I first decided to move to France,” he says. 2 - Broaden your cultural understanding Learning a new language is just one part of the wider study abroad experience. For many students going global means immersing yourself in an entirely new culture. At business schools across the globe, international students are plunged into a sea of new experiences—whether that’s through exploring the history of their new city or even just while buying new types of food at the supermarket. “I was very excited,” Kevin explains. “I’ve had those changes of location in the past and I think there’s always something new to learn.” Kevin’s IMBA courses were mainly taught on emlyon’s Ecully campus based in France’s historic city of Lyon. The city is renowned as the home of various cultural landmarks and is also regarded as a hub of gastronomy. It offers a unique experience when compared with larger cities like Paris, a city that’s often more popular with international students, but is more crowded and expensive. “I had a friend in Lyon and he recommended the city, he said it was really nice and better in his opinion than Paris for the quality of life,” Kevin says. He adds that the location played a huge part in the decision to study abroad. 3 - Make international connections Broadening your cultural understanding doesn’t have to stop when you enter the classroom. In fact, many business schools offer opportunities to interact with people from a range of diverse cultures while you study. At emlyon, the IMBA cohort is made up of more than 25 different nationalities. The curriculum is also designed to encourage students to interact with each other during team projects and group coursework. “It’s very enriching because we are all very different, coming from everywhere in the world,” says Ana Maria Perez Villegas (pictured), another student in the IMBA who also hails from Colombia. Alongside interacting with her fellow students in class, Ana has lived with classmates from Spain and India during the program. “Having experiences with different cultures and seeing life how they see it is enriching because it opens your mind. It’s interesting to see how you manage to adapt,” she adds. Your connections can also extend beyond your cohort. During your degree you’ll interact with professors as well as industry leaders, recruiters, and other prominent guest speakers during networking events. Many of whom come from a wide variety of other countries. 4 - Learn new approaches and ways of thinking With business schools available in countries around the world, it’s no surprise that studying in different global institutions can mean learning in a new environment. For Kevin, a former graduate of universities in both Colombia and the US, teaching in France provided a new perspective: “in the US there wasn’t much of a focus on sustainability, while here it’s the main emphasis," he says. “Almost all of the courses have some key sustainability component, it’s been very eye opening because in the US you’re not always engaging in those conversations." Ana has had a similar experience. Conversations with classmates revealed to her the significantly different approach emlyon had towards sustainability compared with both her and her classmates’ previous experiences abroad. “Talking with them I realized that emlyon gave us a lot of corporate social responsibility (CSR) content, and they really emphasize sustainability and these new trends that the world is taking on,” she says. 5 - Launch a global career Arguably the key benefit you’ll gain from an internationally focused MBA is the platform it provides to launch a global career . You’ll be provided with the awareness and understanding to interact with different cultures. You’ll also be prepared for making big life changes, says Ana. “You have to take care of a lot of things like housing insurance, administrative procedures in the country, and securing a visa,” she explains. “I already knew how the whole process worked so I knew what to expect.” “I wanted to have an international experience because I wanted to be able to work in an international company. Nowadays we are all wanting to travel so that’s why I came to France,” she adds. So far, Ana’s plan is working. As part of the final period of her degree, she’s secured an internship with Amazon in the UK, where she’ll be living for three months. She hopes it will provide a platform for a full-time role and the chance to travel among Amazon’s various global offices. It’s a similar story for Kevin, who will be leaving France to take on a role with a technology company in the Netherlands after graduation. “The program definitely enabled me,” he says, “not only with my skills but also by giving me the possibility to study in Europe and then stay here.” This article was written by Matt Kefford for Business Because.