Kota Takahashi

HEC Paris

“An ambitious management consultant with a love for tackling complex problems, nature, and climbing.”

Hometown: Gumma, Japan

Fun Fact About Yourself: I had never visited outside Japan until I was twenty-two years old.

Nevertheless, in just four years, I had lived and worked in the US and Japan, and finally, I will move to France! In addition, all my journeys are with my wife Eri, who is also a HEC Paris Class of 2026 student.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Tokyo, Bachelor of Agriculture

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Management Consulting Manager at Accenture

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of HEC Paris’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The unique education that HEC Paris provides for students to improve their leadership skills attracts me. One of the reasons why I chose to start my MBA journey is to foster my leadership and HEC Paris will give me various types of experiences through which I will be able to consider how I should behave as a leader deeply. “Outdoor Leadership Seminar” is one of the great examples. This challenging seminar outside of my comfort zone will teach me a lot of important things about working as a team.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at HEC Paris?  Various specializations are appealing to me to enhance my functional skillsets. Actually, I haven’t decided which specialization yet, but Data & AI specialization is one of the candidates. Reinforcing my analytical skills will expand my boundaries as a consultant. Strategy specialization looks exciting for me to prepare for being able to change my career to a strategy consultant to solve C-suite problems and create a big impact for a better world.

Along with taking courses, I would like to put my efforts into club activities. As a management consultant, I am excited to be a member of the Consulting Club. Having strong networks in the consulting industry outside of Accenture will enlarge the opportunities in front of me after graduation. Finally, as a climbing lover, I can’t wait to become a part of the Climbing club!

HEC Paris is just 17 kilometers from Paris. What do you see as the best part of earning your MBA so close to Paris?  The location of HEC Paris would be the best for enjoying both urban and country life. Paris is definitely one of the most important cities in Europe from various perspectives including economics and art. On the other hand, HEC Paris has quite nice access to beautiful nature – as a climber, Fontainebleau is one of the must-go sites for me.

Considering my professional success, Paris would enable me to access various job markets in Europe. I can’t wait to dive into and enhance my skills and networks.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2026?  
Throughout my professional and personal experiences, my uniqueness is always being positive for challenges. I love tackling difficult problems without giving up, especially with my friends and colleagues. I would be happy if my attitude toward the challenges that I will confront during my MBA journey would bring a passionate and energetic atmosphere to my classmates.

Why did you choose a 16-month program over a one-year program? How do you see a HEC Paris MBA giving you an advantage in the marketplace? The 16-month program of HEC Paris is the best for me, balancing bidirectional desires of “returning to my career path as early as possible” and “continuing an MBA as long as possible”.

I lived in the US when I started planning to take an MBA, thus two-year schools in the US were candidates at that moment. However, through conversations with my wife, we thought pouring two years into non-business activities would be risky considering our age and financial situation.

I also felt a one-year program was not sufficient for either achieving my professional goal or enjoying life as a student in a foreign country. This matters especially for us since we chose France, one of the best countries in the world because of its rich food culture and tourism, as the next destination.

Considering these opposite desires, HEC’s 16-month program is the most captivating. I would recommend the program to future students who have the same concerns as I had.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I would choose my first assignment in Accenture; I managed a sales & marketing outsourcing project as a Delivery Lead and the project resulted in being awarded as one of the Japan Best Projects in 2019.

The client confronted the inefficiency of sales processes and a permanent shortage of sales personnel. To solve them, I created this unique solution and executed it; designed new sales processes, hired and managed 100+ student interns, and finally acquired 1,000+ prospects for the client.

This success is one of the most meaningful experiences for me since it taught me how to survive as a consultant and through the project. I also made life-long friends.

Looking ahead 16 months, what would make your MBA experience successful? Looking ahead, the first point is to be always open-minded. A lot of unexperienced opportunities will be waiting for me in my MBA journey and every opportunity will be definitely valuable for my professional and personal life. I would like to be always prepared for getting involved in those opportunities and this mindset would result in my exponential growth.

Another point is to spend as much time as possible with friends. All the alumni I’ve ever met told me that the most valuable treasure during their MBA was life-long friendships. Experiences tackling challenges with friends who have similar ambitions from all over the world would be difficult to obtain if I didn’t pursue an MBA.

The last point is an attitude of continuous learning. Every moment in HEC Paris would absolutely be valuable for my growth, thus whether I will success or not will depend on my attitude. To make my experience successful, I will always be aware of the attitude.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE HEC PARIS MBA CLASS OF 2026