Interview with Dr. Andrea Masini, Associate Dean at the HEC Paris MBA Program [Show Summary]

HEC Paris’s MBA program has a class that is comprised of 90+% international students. If you are interested in an MBA with a strong focus on diversity, the HEC Paris program might be for you! Dr. Andrea Masini, Associate Dean in charge of the HEC MBA Program, provides an excellent overview of HEC’s MBA program and its admission policies. The podcast shows that HEC is an MBA program with a global and innovative focus and commitment to developing business leaders around the world on a campus that values diversity and community.

HEC Paris: All About the MBA Program and How to Get Accepted [Show Notes]

Dr. Andrea Masini has been the Associate Dean in charge of the HEC MBA Program for the last three years. He is also an Associate Professor of Operations Management at HEC since 2010. He earned his PhD in Management from INSEAD and prior to coming to HEC was an Assistant Professor of Operations and Technology Management at London Business School. Dr. Masini’s research focus is in the operational and organizational impact of technology innovations, with a particular emphasis on information and communications technology, renewable energy technologies, and sustainability issues.

Dr. Masini, can you give us an overview of the HEC Paris MBA program? There may be listeners who aren’t that familiar with the program itself. [2:29]

We have a 16-month program, which we believe is the optimal length. The first eight months are composed of fundamentals of management, and the other eight months are customized with seven specializations dedicated to specific topics of management and dozens of elective courses. We also offer the possibility of doing projects with global partners in various locations around the world. It is a very comprehensive program and allows graduates to be credible talking to any subject matter expert, but also specialize for their professional needs.

What’s new at HEC Paris? [3:48]

We just went through a curriculum review and revamped it with greater attention to leadership and multicultural understanding. We have about 275 students, almost 60 nationalities, and are 90% international, so students are confronted by diversity on a constant basis and we want students to understand and value the diversity and manage and leverage it. We also have two new specializations (a specialization is a coherent set of eight electives dedicated to one topic) – Digital Innovation and Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation. These are important for recruiters but more so for participants, as more and more want to transform their career in a way that is meaningful with a digital and sustainable/social point of view.

How has HEC been affected by the recent turmoil in France, the Brexit situation, and the perception that the U.S. is less welcoming to foreign students than it used to be? [8:52]

The MBA program welcomes globalization, exchanges, and of course we are not pleased with the tensions we’ve observed. HEC has been growing double digits in application volume and class size-in the last 3-4 years. We had 200 students and now we are closer to 275. We are also seeing higher quality candidates. I wouldn’t say it is related to Brexit or the U.S. situation,