Lewis Anderson

HEC Paris

“Business strategist with an entrepreneurial mindset and a love of wine, surfing, travel, and family.”

Hometown: Sydney, Australia

Fun fact about yourself: I taught myself to sail by hiring a yacht with three friends and sailing around the Croatian islands for 10 days

Undergraduate school and major: Charles Sturt University, Australia – Bachelor of Business (Finance major)

Most recent employer and job title: Dentsu Aegis Network (multinational media and digital marketing communications company), Strategy Development Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: A number of years ago, I launched a small business to capitalize on a growing niche in Australia’s wine market: young consumers desiring quality Italian wines at reasonable prices.

In year one, the initial excitement around the arrival of the first wine shipment quickly diminished as we failed to achieve anticipated sales volumes. Trading conditions worsened as a new spin-off of a well-established Australian wine distributor entered the market, targeting the same segments with lower pricing.

As the business entered its second year, I persevered to reverse the downward trend. After revising our sales strategy, we finally got the breakthrough we needed: one of Sydney’s most popular Italian restaurant chains placed their first order. This momentum led to more client wins and the business continued to grow.

I have since sold the business, but starting it remains my biggest accomplishment. Overcoming self-doubt and pushing beyond my comfort zone, I took my first steps as a successful entrepreneur and learned some invaluable life lessons in the process.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far: The HEC Paris classmates I have come across so far are all very inquisitive. In conversation, they ask engaging questions and listen intensely. In their career paths, they seem to have been driven to some extent by curiosity. I think this is a great quality and I’m looking forward to the healthy discussion and debate that will no doubt come with a class full of curious minds!

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you: The key factor for me was the program’s Digital Innovation specialization. I believe it is essential for tomorrow’s business leaders to have the skills to be able to harness the power of digital innovation. I wanted an MBA that would give me these skills and also the hands-on experience I need to make an impact driving digital innovation in my post-MBA role. To get a good understanding of what the specialization offered, I spoke at length with current students about their experiences in this specialization. They were enthusiastic about the hands-on approach and highlighted the value of working with top companies in Paris on live innovation projects. As Jean-Remi Gratadour, the specialization’s coordinator pointed out in a recent interview, one of the biggest questions facing leaders in the digital age is how to bring innovation into organizations. I hope that learning how to do this effectively and efficiently will allow me to make a big impact as a business leader.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Without doubt, the activity I’m most looking forward to is the MBAT (aka “the MBA Olympics”). Growing up in Australia, sport was such an important part of my life. Through sport, I challenged myself physically, made life-long friends, and developed leadership skills that help me in my career today. I can’t wait to be part of an event that brings together the wider MBA community for three days of developing camaraderie, overcoming challenges and building relationships with future business leaders through sport!

What was the most challenging question you were asking during the admissions process? One of the HEC Paris application essay questions ask, “What figure do you most admire and why?”  At first glance, this seemed relatively simple – choose a person and describe why they are admirable. However, as I thought a little deeper, I realized that this question wasn’t really asking about the person I admired, but rather the value system that I admire and (in turn) my own value system. This was a lot trickier!

I ended up choosing to write about Professor Fred Hollows, a famous Australian eye surgeon who dedicated his life to ending avoidable blindness in underprivileged communities in Australia and across the world. His determination, selfless attitude, and entrepreneurial spirit are an inspiration to me.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? For me, pursuing an MBA is about keeping my professional development curve as steep as possible.

Having completed an undergraduate degree in business, I have progressed quickly in finance and corporate strategy teams of large global media groups for the past few years. However, looking ahead in my career, I recognized that there are some development areas that need to be fulfilled for me to continue to progress as a business leader. For me, these include developing a deeper understanding of business theories and how to apply these across a broader spectrum of situations; augmenting my leadership abilities; and building relationships with and learning from people from a range of professional and cultural backgrounds. After recognizing this, a world-class MBA was an obvious choice.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? This one is easy – none! I put a lot of thought into which school I wanted to attend. I met with the admission team to learn about the course structure, visited the school to soak up the campus atmosphere, and talked at length to various HEC Alumni.  After all this, I was convinced that HEC Paris was the place for me.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The first step for me in assessing fit at various schools was to be clear on exactly what I wanted from an MBA. I had certain non-negotiables. For example, the school needed to have a strong reputation for innovation and leadership development and offer the opportunity to put theory into practice by working within real companies. I created a short-list of the schools that matched my preferences for reputation, proximity to a global business hub, course structure, content and length, and teaching method. Then I went to various MBA tours and talked with admissions teams, current students, and alumni. I found that talking to current students was the best way to understand fit. I was looking for a school with a collegiate feel and I certainly sensed this when talking to HEC students and alumni.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Moving from Sydney to London has been a defining moment in my life. Working in a much larger market in a diverse team and adapting to the complexity of working in a global company has been extremely challenging but also an incredible learning experience. Since moving, I have become more resilient, more aware of my weaknesses, more appreciative of teamwork, and generally more excited about how rewarding professional life can be.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? The dream would be to have started a new marketing technology venture and be sharing the journey with a growing family and lots of close friends.