At France’s EMLYON Business School, MBA students are being equipped to work and innovate all over the world. 90% of MBA participants find a job within three months of graduating. BusinessBecause has spoken with some of the best.
“Before starting the degree, I couldn’t describe my career path”, says Géraldine Laviolette, who had 10 years’ experience in supply chain and operations at steel production company ArcelorMittal, before pursuing her MBA.
For Géraldine, the MBA was a process of self-discovery. This, combined with the schools highly successful careers service, enabled her to switch industries and become the supply chain director at Fives Intralogistics, an industrial engineering group.
“Thanks to the work with my career counsellor, I understood how I could value my background and business education,” she continues. “I am convinced I couldn’t have landed this position without doing the MBA.”
With a small, international MBA cohort and a heavy entrepreneurial focus, the EMLYON MBA is producing highly flexible grads with a unique and globalized skill set. The school’s focus on multiculturalism is highly valued by employers, with studies showing companies who embrace diversity are more innovative.
“The EMLYON MBA taught me how to work with international teams and cross-cultural teams,” confirms Ana Garcia Berrera who moved from Mexico to pursue an MBA in Europe.
For Ana, studying abroad had always been the goal. She wanted to learn about working with different cultures and take her career to the global stage.
“The human aspect is one of the most difficult ones to learn,” she continues. “How to engage and motivate people from different backgrounds—this is what makes a company grow and move forward.
“Revenue, sales, and profit are the same language everywhere, but what my MBA has helped me with was how to engage with intercultural relationships.”
Ana now works in South Africa as the head of innovation at Solar Capital, a subsidiary of Phelan Energy Group that develops solar power plants in South Africa—a big change from her pre-MBA career in real estate development in Mexico.
“The MBA gives you the experience and networking skills to design the career path you want,” she says.
For Aurélien Meunier, a 2016 EMLYON grad working in an intrapreneurial role at Legrand—a global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures—it’s the school’s focus on entrepreneurship and practical experiences that enables its grads to thrive in today’s business environment.
“I had the feeling that learning more about being an entrepreneur was key to success and today I’m 100% convinced of that,” he says.
“The decision to do an international MBA was valued itself. The fact that I stepped out of my comfort zone and decide to invest in my career—is there any better proof of an entrepreneurial mind-set?”
Aurélien has been tasked with establishing an Eastern Africa subsidiary. His MBA, he says, was key to landing the role. “The EMLYON brand and the quality of the MBA program were recognized by Legrand’s directors.”
As part of the EMLYON MBA, students enjoy trips in Europe and internationally; specialized courses dedicated to entrepreneurship; worldwide entrepreneurial competitions; consulting projects; and access to the EMLYON Business School incubator—ranked number one in France.
“During my degree, I worked for a month on a project for Club Med with MBA teammates from Morocco, Salvador, Canada, China and Mexico,” Aurélien continues.
“The value of the EMLYON MBA is in the experience gained by working internationally.”
