Future uncertainties are becoming everybody’s business. I believe it’s our role as a business school to address this challenge, which is the thrust of our new 20-25 Strategic Plan, ‘Impact Future Generations.’ It’s our roadmap as EDHEC embarks on a project of deep transformation, backed by an ambitious investment plan of nearly €230m.
This is a decisive step for EDHEC whose Global MBA is already ranked by The Economist at #1 in France, #2 in Europe, and #7 worldwide for opening new career opportunities. Our undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education participants will be the first to benefit, whether on our campus in Nice, Lille, Paris, London or Singapore.
We are committed to reinventing the kind of leaders we produce. The big shift will be in their ability to deal with global and complex issues. It’s about knowing how to learn, how to think and how to act, so they can make the business world evolve in meaningful ways, channeling it toward serving future generations.
Thankfully, we have a running start. For 20 years, EDHEC has focused on research that strongly impacts both the academic and business worlds while generating a virtuous economic circle for the school. In 2021, our triple-accredited, top-ranked MBA programme will be celebrating the 60th graduating class. We created the EDHEC-Risk Institute then its spin-off Scientific Beta, achieving global reach in finance. In January, we sold Scientific Beta for USD200m. That windfall will be used to foster our commitment to sustainable projects which are the core of our strategic plan. Thus, to address society’s and the economy’s most persistent issues, EDHEC will create a cross-discipline research center devoted to Sustainable Finance and launch an investment fund called EDHEC Ventures for Future Generations: we will partner beside startups with projects promising positive social impact related to climate change and the ecological transition.
Indeed, EDHEC is determined to drive key initiatives designed to benefit generations as yet unborn.
Our goal is to shape “composite managers” able to tackle the challenges of an increasingly complex world by opening new learning opportunities through our new EDHEC Business University Online. It is based on partnerships with top international universities, giving students access to a wide range of subjects not traditionally covered by business schools from philosophy to chemistry or biology.
Likewise, as France’s leading Business School for Law, we’re on a mission to train a new generation of augmented lawyers who are creative, digital savvy, and innovation-friendly – an ambition crystallized by our launch of the EDHEC Augmented Law Institute.
And, through a new center focused on Data and AI for Future Generations, we will acclimatize students in the proper use of technology and data science, no matter how it might evolve.
Our sights may be on future generations, but we will only get there by continuing to support our students and business in the here and now. In 2030, EDHEC will be a showcase of innovation, sustainability, and diversity. It’s a reality worth striving for.
Professor Emmanuel Métais was appointed Dean of EDHEC Business School in 2017. Professor Métais has been on the EDHEC Faculty for the last 25 years. He successively served as Head of the Strategy & Management Department (1996 – 2005), Director of EDHEC International Postgraduate Programs (2005 – 2008), Director of the EDHEC Global MBA (2006 – 2015), and Associate Dean of EDHEC Graduate Programs (2015 – 2017).
His main teaching and research interests revolve around corporate strategy, with a specific focus on disruptive strategies and M&A performance. He has published a book and more than 30 articles or book chapters pertaining to these themes in French and international academic journals.
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