Antoine Millot

China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)

“A French manager who studied in Chile and China, who worked in West Africa and India, and who can’t wait to see where his next challenge will take him!”

Hometown: Paris, France

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have lived in many different places: I spent a couple of years in West Africa for the European Union, in South America where I improved my Spanish at university. More recently, I worked for 5 years in South India, and now I’m studying at CEIBS, the best business school in China. To date, my Tamil is better than my Chinese… hopefully not for long!

Undergraduate School and Major: International Relations – Sciences Po, Toulouse, France

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Country Manager, Sotexpa Qualidis Textile India Private Limited

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the MBA curriculum or activities that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Definitely, the Chinese culture exposure. After several years of general management experience in India, I wanted to get an understanding of what is likely to be the dominant economy in the near future. I have been raised in the western world, in France, but I believe that several years of working and studying in both India and China will provide me with the key concepts to understand how the world of tomorrow is going to be shaped. There is no better place than CEIBS to experience this. The opportunity to be an exchange student with schools such as INSEAD, Wharton, LBS, and HEC also helped me to “pull the trigger.” While being an exchange student, you also have the opportunity to benefit from the career services of the partner school, for a lifetime. This constitutes a huge advantage for me.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far? When I was managing Sotexpa Qualidis in India, I always paid attention to the financial position of the company. This was not only to display good results to the mother company at the end of the financial year, but rather to give to the company the opportunity to pilot its own development. Eventually I was able to acquire in Turkey an important number of weaving looms that helped the company to significantly increase its production, both in volume and in value. The confidence I gained there towards my employees and labor is something that led my action and helped me to build my confidence in a cross-cultural setting. I shall never forget the gratefulness received in there.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far? I am most proud of being the vice-president of the Student Ambassador Club. We help prospective students to get information about the school and the support they will receive at CEIBS. It is also a great way to learn about young professionals who all have a very unique story that just need to be told.

What quality best describes your MBA classmates and how do they demonstrate this quality in your interactions? I am really impressed by the level of diversity and cohesion inside the cohort. Every student at CEIBS is extremely competitive, yet everyone pays a great attention in helping the community. I cannot put into words the respect that I have for some of my classmates who stayed up late on nights to help the cohort grasping the technical concepts of data analytics and financial accounting. When one knows that the grades are belt curved, this sounds surprising, but yes – that’s our reality. There is a real cohesion and mutual assistance inside the cohort.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Oxford Saïd Business School

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After 4.5 years of a general management experience in the manufacturing industry in India, I had a need to go back to school. I wanted to be equipped to be able, in the future, to manage a larger structure. For this, an MBA appeared to be the best option for me.

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