“When you are at Audencia, you won’t just have courses on marketing strategy or finance, because we don’t want students to have only a narrow perspective on business,” Tran explains. “It’s important that their studies include other fields, such as philosophy, history and sociology.” The logic behind this approach rests on the practicalities of business management in the 21st century, as Tran details: “We are living in a complex world, facing problems that cannot be solved with management or business knowledge alone. For example, if you want to deal with issues relating to sustainability, you must work with scientists, engineers and sociologists. You have to know how they think, understand the tools at their disposal and be able to combine these with your own skills and knowledge.” Covering a mix of disciplines, Tran argues, is critical to understanding “the interdependencies between all the different fields. This is why we want to develop our multidisciplinary approach and extend it to all our programmes.” One useful resource in this respect is Audencia’s robust roster of adjunct faculty, said to number more than 1,200. While their level of involvement might range from a single hour of instruction as a guest expert to co-teaching an entire module with a permanent faculty member, there are always valuable insights into real-world business on offer. “They bring their experience to the classroom, with practical cases from different backgrounds and perspectives,” Tran says succinctly. Navigating AI’s evolving landscape A growing area of interest in both business and higher education is, of course, artificial intelligence (AI) and Tran confirms that Audencia is likely to recruit more faculty members in this area and the wider discipline of information systems in the next few years. Right now, however, the school has a focus on helping its students, staff and faculty to negotiate the evolving abundance of AI tools and technologies. “We believe that the most important skill [for our students] is to know how to combine different AI platforms by understanding the advantages and drawbacks of each,” Tran reasons. “The real question is how to use the relevant tool, depending on the task,” he encapsulates. For Tran, being tied to one tool or tech company could, therefore, prove limiting and this is one reason why the school has not signed an overarching deal with any of the current market leaders in AI. The other
students to spend two or three months there and achieve a certificate,” Tran explains. As the conversation turns to the current geopolitical climate, Tran points to further advantages of taking a flexible approach to international partnerships: “It’s very difficult to anticipate trends in relation to student mobility when, for example, you consider what has happened in the US or in Russia. That’s why it’s not possible for us to use the same model for each country; in fact, it would be dangerous.” The school’s strategy, Tran continues, gives it “the ability to modify and to change” when needed. He gives the hypothetical example of an emerging conflict between the French government and an international counterpart that might require a recalibration or relocation of programmes in that country. A key question for the school’s governance, Tran concludes, is therefore “how you anticipate the geopolitical context and the risk. That’s why we must diversify our strategy and portfolio of international partners.” Some partnerships arise from pointed searches, while others develop organically. “Sometimes it’s the opportunity,” Tran divulges, “because a university or business school might contact us with an interest in developing a programme or some exchanges. Alternatively, we might target specific partners, say, if we want to develop a programme in a specific area. “For example, we just announced an agreement with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to launch a new DBA at its campus in Shenzhen. This is part of our strategy, because we want to develop our DBA portfolio.” Noting the importance of demonstrating academic excellence in this instance, the Audencia dean then highlights how the school will always seek out “the right and the most relevant partner” to meet particular aims. In other cases, partnerships begin with a particular project, before further collaborative opportunities are identified. Tran gives the example of setting up an agreement for Audencia students in France to study abroad at a partner institution in Brazil, before exploring initiatives designed to attract students in Brazil to undertake master’s-level programmes in France, labelling it as “a progressive strategy”. Offering a mix of disciplines Another point of differentiation in Audencia’s strategy is its multidisciplinary approach, with an additional emphasis on encompassing the humanities and cultural studies in its educational offerings.
12 Business Impact • ISSUE 5 • 2025
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