"HEC Paris is perceived as a gateway to Africa" : Orishas-finance

"HEC Paris is perceived as a gateway to Africa"

09/01/2021

Source : LePoint.fr

Categories: General Information

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maintenance. How HEC Paris adapt to the new African environment and its requirements? Philippe Oster, its director of international affairs, responds.

The dazzling economic evolution experienced by the Afrique over the last twenty years has not escaped HEC Paris, a great French school created in 1881 in Paris and installed in Jouy-en-Josas since 1964. Connected to the continent for both initial and continuing training, aimed at students, public or private actors, HEC Paris has decided to immerse itself in the new realities of Africa to offer programs that are more relevant in substance and form. In view of all the dynamics that work the continent, political, economic, social, cultural but also entrepreneurial and digital, the task is far from easy. How HEC Paris go about delivering useful training to Africa and supporting local and international actors in companies and public administrations? Answer from Philippe Oster, its Director of International Affairs.

Le Point Afrique : Why is it relevant to be present in Africa today?

Philippe Oster: Education and training are among the transformation priorities of the African continent. The formation of visionary, committed and responsible leaders as well as the development of a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem are key factors for the success of this transformation.

For Philippe Oster, Director of International Affairs at HEC Paris, "the HEC campus is an opportunity, a real laboratory, a place of openness to all diversities and experimentation with peace in the world". © DR

For HEC Paris, the first European business school and world reference institution , the African continent is of paramount strategic importance. Our ambition goes beyond the deployment of training of excellence: it is to create a community of enlightened, international and very diverse leaders and entrepreneurs, seeking to contribute to the development and well-being of society as a whole , in Africa and the rest of the world.

How are you present on the continent?

With its historical roots on the continent, HEC Paris has accelerated its development in recent years. We do this first of all through strong academic partnerships. We are now very present at the Maroc, alongside the Mohammed-VI-Polytechnique University, as well as in Côte d'Ivoire, following the signing of a partnership with the Institut national polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny.

Many joint projects, particularly in the field of entrepreneurship, are underway with these partners.

The opening in Abidjan in 2018 of a representative office has also stimulated a new dynamic, which benefits from the relationship of proximity and trust established with the economic fabric in Central and West Africa. We are continuing to develop a real portfolio of programs for senior executives, co-built with our local partners and meeting the training requirements of the public and private sectors.

The presence of HEC Paris on the continent is also largely driven by the dynamism of our graduates, in increasing numbers. Fourteen alumni chapters bring them together today, the most recent having been launched in Nigeria and Kenya in 2018, as well as in Gabon in 2019.

As a great French school, HEC Paris is a pole of excellence. Accessing it is a real challenge. How do you deal with African academic, economic and financial realities so as not to miss out on the continent's best potential?

Increasing the presence of African students in the school's degree programs is particularly important to us. Our ambition is to increase the number of students on the continent to 15% of enrolment in the next five years. We are currently in the middle of the ford, with just over 8%.

To achieve this goal, we have undeniable assets, including a very strong attractiveness of the school, especially in French-speaking countries. However, in several sub-Saharan African countries, economic or political crises have been an obstacle to recruitment, as has been and continues to be a form of self-censorship of students, who "do not dare" to apply for HEC Paris.

This is why in 2019 we launched a new system: the African Talent Support Program (PACT Africa). Aimed at students wishing to prepare for the international admission competition at the Grande Ecole de HEC Paris, PACT Afrique prepares pre-selected young talents, based on their academic results and motivation, the written and oral tests of the competition. The objective is to put them in confidence and to give them the necessary tools to understand these very selective tests. In 2019, 16 students were selected for the very first edition of the PACT program, and 5 of them joined the prestigious Grande Ecole program at the beginning of the last school year. Due to this success, 23 students have just joined the second PACT class, selected from 115 candidates.

Koffi N'Guessan, Director General of the Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny, plays an important role in the relationship of HEC Paris with Côte d'Ivoire © DR

This program was made possible by the support of the HEC Foundation and the commitment of donors graduated from the school, who finance its development, by the determination of Mr. Koffi N'Guessan, Director General of the INP-HB, as well as the support of the Government of Côte d'Ivoire, which awards excellence scholarships to candidates admitted to French grandes écoles.

We now aim to roll out the PACT programme in other neighbouring countries as early as next year.

In the academic field, competition is fierce with a multiplication of African schools often in partnership with American, Chinese, Canadian, Indian or other universities. How do you go about offering a competitive product to provide both local and international companies looking for African skills?

We have a very important competitive advantage: the recognition of companies at the global level, which is praised every year in international rankings. The first European place, obtained once again this year in the Financial Times ranking of European business schools, is largely due to the very good placement of our students, regardless of the programme considered.

Graduates of HEC Paris are highly sought after within large companies, French and international. These companies come to the campus to seek African skills: on the one hand , it is our African students who are increasingly planning to return to the continent to be actors in the transformation, but it is also a significant number of French students attracted by the Africa, or international students interested in Africa and who come to HEC Paris because the school is perceived as a gateway to the continent.

Witness the recent success of our third edition of the Africa Business Days, an event organized in November by MBA students from HEC Paris and dedicated to careers in Africa, very appreciated by the companies that participate.

Africa is moving a lot and discovering new needs for the skills of its executives in a logic of development where it is necessary to create more and more local values. How do you position yourself in this universe?

The strengthening of the managerial and entrepreneurial expertise of decision-makers is now based in particular on new programs designed for Africa, co-built with local partners, where local expertise is added to the expertise HEC Paris.

An offer of capitalizable certificates and specialized executive masters with an African vocation has emerged in recent years, and they are issued from Morocco and Côte d'Ivoire. In Morocco, where since 2011 HEC Paris trains ocp group executives, an executive Master in geopolitics and geo-economics of emerging Africa as well as a finance certification program have been successfully delivered since 2018 with Mohammed-VI University. In Côte d'Ivoire, HEC Paris launched in 2016 the MUST (Management of a Strategic Unit) program, a high-level program bringing together senior executives from French-speaking Africa in Abidjan.

In the direction of the African diaspora, HEC Paris ensures regular monitoring. In September 2018, she was next to the International Finance Corporation and Talent2Africa at the first African Leadership Forum held in Paris. © RD

We have also been deploying on the continent and for a few years now an offer in blended mode (face-to-face and online), as for our executive certificate finance, or 100% online, as for our training in finance, strategy or entrepreneurship and innovation. This expertise that we have deployed on blended or 100% online training also allows us to ensure the continuity of teaching in this period of health crisis.

In Africa, HEC Paris also benefits from recognized expertise in the public sector.

Between 2007 and 2020, the AGORA (Government Support for Reforms in Africa) programs accompanied the change of administrations (agents, executives and senior officials) of several ministries and African countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville). The latest, CAP2020 is the second Agora program supported by the Ivorian government.

To create more wealth, Africans are increasingly involved in the dynamics of entrepreneurship and innovation that prevail on the continent. How do you prepare your students, in initial or continuing education, to face this reality with the maximum of assets?

Entrepreneurship and innovation are a strong axis of development of the school's activity , as evidenced by our historical motto "Learn to Dare". Over the years, we have built a highly developed, very robust and highly efficient entrepreneurial ecosystem, based on a unique pedagogy, based on learning by doing. Our mission is threefold: to develop the entrepreneurial spirit, to support entrepreneurial projects carried out by the community HEC Paris, to support and amplify their development.

Today, 100% of the students in our degree programs are aware of entrepreneurship and innovation, and 400 start-up projects are supported annually, with a 3-year survival rate of 85%. Our incubator, based at Station F, the world's largest start-up campus , is now as selective as Harvard!

Our ambition is great because we consider that we are only at 5% of our development potential in this area. This development requires international development, and in particular the deployment of our entrepreneurial expertise on the African continent. Our ambition is to create an international network of incubators, centers dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship, to further amplify our action at the service of our students and graduates. This is how we have already initiated incubator projects in Morocco and Côte d'Ivoire, in partnership with the INP-HB, which complete a global system deployed in Asia, with a very strong footprint in China in the technological hub of the Shenzhen area , in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon and Qatar, as well as in Europe.

On what points do local employers solicit you the most and what relations do you have with them?

African employers have played a fundamental role in the development of our activities on the continent. The choice of location of our regional office in Abidjan naturally turned to the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d'Ivoire (CGE-CI), with whom we have long-standing close relations . HEC executive education certification programs are regularly offered to CGE-CI members , which remains a key partner in the deployment of our activities.

Our ambition is to further develop our partnerships with African employers, as currently in Cameroon where we ensure a regular presence because of our actions carried out in partnership with the Central Bank of Central African States.

As the large African market, Zlecaf, is being set up, French- and English-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, Spanish-speaking and Arab spaces will gradually merge with each other. How do you live this new situation and what strategy do you deploy to be in tune with it?

The organization in recent years of an impressive number of forums, conferences, and cultural events concerning Africa have been opportunities to understand the new orientations and transformation of the continent.

In this evolving context, an important first step has been taken to develop the recruitment of students from all regions of the African continent, in all our programs. Thus, our MBA and Executive MBA programs, taught entirely in English, welcome more and more English-speaking African students - South Africa and Nigeria in the lead.

A second step was the creation of pan-African programs, such as Lead Campus. Sustainable Leadership in Africa. Launched in 2019 by HEC Paris in partnership with UM6P University in Morocco and Capetown BS in South Africa , this multi-site program (Morocco, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa , Kenya, France) aims to bring together talent and capitalize on the combined potential of French-speaking Africa and English-speaking Africa . The issues and challenges of a continent in transition and the issue of sustainable development (resource management, carbon footprint, social inclusion, etc.) preside here at the understanding of new models of organizations that are more efficient, more responsible and more inclusive.

In view of the diversity of the origin of your students, the questions of interculturality and multiculturality are real as much in the functioning of HEC Paris as in its training programs . How are they approached?

HEC Paris currently has more than 110 nationalities and nearly half of our students are of foreign origin. This inter- and multicultural mix is an opportunity and a richness, and reflects one of the three pillars of the values defended by our school: excellence, diversity and community.

We thus encourage diversity in all its forms and facilitate the integration of our international students within our programs, but also in associative life, fundamental in the construction of the experience HEC Paris.

It is indeed an exceptional opportunity that is offered to our students to learn to study, to work, to live within this international community, which they could not find elsewhere. This is how personal and professional networks are forged, lasting friendships, but also a better understanding of this world and the dynamics that drive it. In this, the HEC campus is an opportunity, a real laboratory, a place of openness to all diversities and experimentation of peace in the world.

In the end, what are the challenges of HEC Paris in Africa in the coming years?

We wish to consolidate and amplify our presence in French-speaking regions through the deployment of our PACT Africa program, our executive education training offer relocated on country themes, our entrepreneurial expertise and our centers dedicated to innovation.

Our challenge for the coming years is also to deploy our presence in English-speaking countries by continuing our recruitment of talented students, developing pan-African programs such as Lead Campus, encouraging student exchanges, from Africa to France but also from France to Africa, and finally by making Africa and its issues a major focus for the entire HEC community.

Interview by Malick Diawara

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