Anne Laure Sellier

Title: Professor of Behavioral Science

Years teaching at HEC: 11 years

Education: Ph.D. in management from INSEAD, MBA from Warwick University, Master in Public Administration from Bocconi, HEC Paris Grande Ecole program.

List of MBA courses you currently teach: Advanced Marketing Strategy in a Deconsuming World, Boosting Creativity, Decision Making and Influence

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when…

I discovered research in judgment and decision making, and that I could study human behavior while exchanging with experts who were all alive for the most part. So much research is on / around the work of deceased philosophers, writers, historians…in behavioral science, the bulk of the work is remarkably recent, which makes it a vibrant community of first-hand researchers on many topics.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

Many topics! We are researchers, not finders…this means that you need a full portfolio of projects, some ideas will flourish into important findings, others will die out. My main topics of interest at the moment remain the influence of time perception on decision making, creativity and cognitive biases. If I have to select one significant discovery, it is that how much we look at the clock during the day markedly shapes the way we think about the world, our ability to feel it, and as a result, it shapes our behavior in predictable ways.

If I weren’t a business school professor…

My other plan was to attempt to be the Jane Goodall of killer whales. Still a researcher, only in a slightly different context!

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

Students and business executives tell me that I have a knack for making them consider questions they had never asked themselves before, which they get obsessed with long after class.

One word that describes my first time teaching:

“Tribal.” It felt like a rite of passage.

Professor I most admire and why:

My father, who was the reference expert on Blaise Pascal and passed away this year. Many of his colleagues and former students came to his funeral, some referring to him as their “Master” and “the kindest person they had ever come across.” He was also a remarkable father. You can be an effective leader to many and kind, something the business world could benefit getting inspired by.

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

They are smart, diverse, curious, and driven by practice. You have to show them that theory can translate into powerful practice.

What is most challenging?

That many of them come into class that theory always works, except in practice.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student:

Silent, sits at the back, is however deeply listening to the class and it only shows when they nail the final exam.

What are your hobbies?

Mountaineering, piano playing, literature.

How will you spend your summer?

Taking a family road trip in our electric car, from Paris to the southern tip of Portugal, stopping along the way for hikes. And then, chilling and reading plenty by the ocean.

Favorite place(s) to vacation:

Somewhere high up. I won’t tell you precisely because I enjoy the loneliness up there!

Favorite book(s):

So many… Crime and punishment, La Princesse de Clèves, Steppenwolf, Proust’s Recherche…

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?

My favorite movie of all time is A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s’est échappé, 1957), the true story of the only man who escaped the Lyon Gestapo prison during WWII. The movie is almost silent, and follows this prisoner, who can die under torture any day, but still carves out an escape plan that he knows will take him several weeks to execute. The cinematography is at its peak, the power of the image being sufficient to convey the heroism and luck components of this unique experience.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why?

Everything piano, from classical to jazz to electronic. My piano is a friend, and listening to one is a rather intense experience. Artists? I really enjoy Radu Lupu and Francesco Piemontesi in classical, and Oscar Petersson in jazz, to name a few.

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this…

Kindness and leading toward greater sustainability (whether in climate or socially) by example. In my opinion, companies, and organizations today need to do a better job at… driving deconsumption while creating greater societal value.

I’m grateful for…

My family, music and nature.