Q: What is the portfolio of your executive education programmes?

A: HEC Paris Executive Education offers a wide portfolio of custom, degree, certificate and open-enrolment programmes to meet the various needs of organisations. Our portfolio is designed to keep top executives ahead of business trends. Through guided learning, participants acquire critical thinking skills and insights which enable them to meet ambitious development objectives and to stimulate creativity and innovation. We combine the rigour of an academic institution with a deep understanding of the corporate world.  HEC Paris trains over 8,000 managers and senior managers worldwide every year and has been ranked as one of the top three providers of executive education by the Financial Times for the last seven years.

Q: What is the most common specific reason or primary goal that motivates companies to sponsor executive education programmes for their employees?

A: To quote Nathalie Lugagne, Associate Dean in charge of Executive Education “Our mission is to support the individual and collective transformation of our participants and corporate clients in their strategic change and development projects”. Our custom programmes address the strategic challenges of individual organisations and are tailored to the specific professional development and training needs of their senior level managers. The architecture and content of the training modules are designed in close collaboration with the companies concerned. This fosters a spirit of co-creation and optimises the added value of the programme. Throughout the delivery stage, the training programme is carefully analysed, monitored and adapted to ensure that the objectives of both the organisation and the participants are reached.

Companies are currently being faced with an accelerated pace of change. There is a strong need to develop engagement and talent retention. Organisations who invest in executive education have understood that they need to develop talent in line with future business needs.  Today, our programmes are helping our clients re-invent their business models, develop competencies in innovation and entrepreneurship and understand the implications, challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and its implications for leadership styles.

Q: Are there specific industries or functional areas in which HEC is most experienced?

A: HEC Paris collaborates with organisations operating in a very broad range of industries (retail, automobile, luxury, banking, telecom, pharmaceutical, food & beverage to mention a few). We have developed in-depth expertise in the fields of energy, luxury and aerospace & aviation. This expertise is not only through research carried out by our excellent faculty but also through the knowledge generated by our Chairs and Centres in collaboration with the corporate world.  HEC Paris is also focusing on the following areas which currently have particular importance for organisations facing increasingly complex and competitive environments: digital transformation, entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship and corporate social responsibility/sustainability.

Q: What are your unique strengths in executive education?

A: Our process for creating custom programmes is a highly collaborative one that enables us to build on the knowledge already present in the organisation. We work as a strategic partner with our corporate clients to co-create and craft each step of the design and delivery of the learning programme. Companies are also deeply involved in evaluating its overall effectiveness and impact.  Our clients are highly demanding in terms of both academic rigour and the relevance to the organisation and individual functions. We strongly believe that each organisation and its people are different and that a standard solution is rarely the best way to meet their training and development requirements. We do not begin with pre-determined ideas, but work with each client to fully understand the issues and challenges they face and only then do we design programmes that are tailored to their specific needs.

Our custom programmes division has over 30 years of experience and expertise in the conception and implementation of company-specific development initiatives. The team works closely with HEC Paris professors, senior managers, consultants, industry experts and professional coaches – as well as with the boards and human resources divisions of the companies concerned – to ensure that the final custom programme proposal is fully in line with client objectives.

Facilitators at HEC Paris have a variety of profiles: permanent faculty recruited worldwide, industry experts, consultants, senior managers and associate professors as well as experts from parallel worlds such as art and music.  Our strategic academic alliances with top-level business schools around the world (LSE, NYU Stern, Saïd Business School, MIT Sloan and many more) give our clients access to additional resources. Moreover, the strong network of 52,000 HEC Paris alumni offers a rich resource of contributors to HEC Paris programmes. Many of our alumni hold CEO positions in leading global companies.

This variety allows our participants to open their minds and approach challenges from different angles.

Q: What is the average length of a customised programme?

A: The length of a custom programme varies depending on the client’s requirements but on average our programmes are approx. 8 -12 days in a modular format over a period of one year (for one cohort). Such programmes are often deployed over several years, allowing the organisation to target a significant population.

Q: What is the most effective delivery format for a customised programme?

A: HEC Programmes are delivered not only in our own locations in France, Doha (Qatar) and China but also worldwide in response to our corporate clients’ requirements.

Technology has allowed for the possibility of a blended approach which offers on-demand learning, social learning and increased customisation. We believe in harnessing technology to alternate between distance learning and in-class sessions. Face-to-face time is thus fully optimised. Our pedagogical approaches are innovative and we favour experiential learning.  In addition to the more traditional case-studies approach, we use business simulations, learning expeditions, testimonials, company visits, plus visits to “Fab Labs” and other thought and emotion provoking locations. Most of our custom programmes involve group action learning projects which allow participants to focus on a concrete challenge for the organisation.