At HEC Lausanne, industry perspectives are integrated into all aspects of the educational ecosystem
IN FOCUS: HEC LAUSANNE
The transformative value of learning from classmates and the ability to take programme insights directly into industry are highlighted by executive MBA alumni and faculty at HEC Lausanne, as the Leading the Future docuseries visits Switzerland
terms of digitalisation or marketing, or whichever subject was under discussion, was really helpful.” EMBA alumna Chiara von Gunten concurs. “When you use a real-life business case, it’s more tangible and it has implications for an actual organisation. This means that the stakes are higher, it’s less theoretical and more applied. It’s also a great opportunity to experiment with relatively new concepts and frameworks.” The end result is that EMBA participants leave class with practical takeaways that they can implement immediately, as Rohrbach highlights. “I was able to use all the management and leadership parts of what we learned very quickly, as well as how to be at ease with your team.”
details of the programme’s pedagogical approach, as well as her role as instructor. “We have very interesting debates, including those related to students’ experiences in their day-to-day roles and these enrich the lectures. I’m here to facilitate exchanges between students and bring my own experience with some theoretical background. The most important thing is that they adapt the learnings and try to reflect on them.” Programme participants attest to the advantages of this approach. Describing the quality of teaching as “outstanding”, EMBA alumnus Stéphane Rohrbach recalls how the cohort was encouraged to talk about real cases and challenges from their workplaces. “Sharing the situation with them and offering some solutions in
HEC Lausanne faculty and alumni discuss the benefits of leveraging the wealth of experience and backgrounds among participants in an executive MBA (EMBA) cohort through peer-to-peer interactions, in this episode of Leading The Future . School dean Marianne Schmid Mast begins by focusing on the importance of integrating industry perspectives into all aspects of its ecosystem. “We bring companies and industry into our programmes, either in teaching or in research and develop solutions together, which can then be implemented and have an impact in the real world.”
LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER Inès Burrus, a lecturer on the HEC Lausanne EMBA, elaborates on the
36 Ambition • ISSUE 6 • 2025
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