To make tomorrow's decision-makers aware of future stakes

It is only recently that companies have begun to grasp that their viability and performance are also affected by the environment in which they operate. In 2000, in order to or go along with this trend, UNO launched its Global Compact programme, encouraging companies to adopt an approach that is more respectful of the fundamental rights of human beings and the environment.

Euromed Management

Marseilles is the second largest city of France, and also the oldest French city, with more than   2600 years of history, economic trade, intermixing of populations, and cultural melting-pot. In 2002, based on this heritage, and 130 years after its creation, the group ESC Marseille-Provence changed its name to become Euromed Management, with the ambition of redefining what it meant to be a top school of management!
The major asset of our school lay in that we had the opportunity to work upstream on the fundamental concepts before addressing the structural and communication aspects. Obviously, the work initiated a few years ago is far from being completed, and there are still many obstacles. However, we will see that the sustainable development approach has been intricately designed into the foundations of this "new school".

Training responsible managers – What pedagogy?

A unique positioning
Four key values can "summarise" the choices made by Euromed Management so as to offer a more holistic vision of management. It is important to fully comprehend these values in order to understand how sustainable development, which is one of the values, is perfectly in line with this approach and is not merely a communication gimmick.

Diversity driving creativeness
Whereas the Anglo-Saxon system is the system for optimisation, diversity is often perceived as introducing hitches in the management and normalisation processes.

The classic approach to intercultural aspects and issues remains mainly based on an attempt at explaining how to understand and integrate those who are different, in order to find common values and implement processes. The inherent limitation to the approach is that this dilutes individual differences in order to achieve common goals.

At Euromed Management, diversity is considered as a source of opportunities. Rather than smoothing out differences, the School must be open to the world, seeking to understand different cultures and economic practices. Diversity means capitalising more on the differences between individuals than on their similarities (at Euromed Management we consider this to be the minimum basis for communication). A representative image would be "enhancing the value of the pieces composing a mosaic, rather than diluting their colours".

In terms of pedagogy, this translates into the creation of programmes that are not based on the mere accumulation of theoretical knowledge, but are rather entirely centred on the individual. "Before teaching you how to achieve success, we will ask you to give your own definition of success ". A student with a passion for figures may opt for a career as, for example, a stockbroker, chartered accountant, financial manager with an NGO, or a post managing the development of micro-loans in emerging countries.

Innovation, knowledge and learning

We believe that life was only able to evolve thanks to a series of glitches, mistakes, and attempts. In industry, the greatest success stories have more to do with personality and character than with processes. If a School only provides training in business and administration, the future managers will never attempt anything irrational, and will never take any risks. Although acquiring the fundamentals (marketing, finance, RH, etc.) is essential, best practices sometimes only permit, at best, to improve on a system, whereas it would require rethinking the problem globally. At Euromed Management we consider that a good manager, capable of facing tomorrow's issues, is someone who is apt at taking risks, making decisions, following through projects, committing himself or herself 100
Of course, trying out new processes involves the risk of failure. At Euromed Management, we support our students in their approach to risk; we help them make intelligent choices using their intuition as part of the decision-making process. We also take into account the possibility of failure, and recovery after failure.

Finally, we believe that the role of a school is not only to issue diplomas, but also to create a lifelong learning reflex: "Learning to learn". We move progressively from a traditional approach to education, towards an approach focused on learning processes, in order to turn knowledge into skills.

Systemic approach and networks
Euromed Management is the only school in the world to include a fundamental module on complexity in nearly all its programmes. It is essential to enrich the reductionism approach with a holistic vision of business, and of society in general. After graduating from Euromed Management, future managers will have understood what the MIT had highlighted via the Club of Rome (cf. chapter 2.5).
The limitations of a reductionist approach lie in the belief that there is a single solution. The bankruptcy of many reputed companies illustrates the fact that managers unfortunately tend to "cure the symptoms rather than the cause". At Euromed Management, we strive to move on from causality to resonance, from a purely competitive approach to a more collaborative system.

Sustainable development and Social Responsibility
One of our School's key values lies in a long-term vision of business rather than focusing on the short-term. A majority of our students will obviously be faced with short-term issues. The manager's position also calls upon his/her personal responsibility. One observation that can be made is that modern society has brought about a considerable increase in the powers wielded by managers, accompanied by a dilution of responsibilities. Training managers who will be responsible individually for their actions, for the consequences of their decisions is one of our priorities at Euromed Management. We will see in the next chapters how this translates concretely in terms of pedagogy and also in the general organisation of the School. Today's profit driven economy will only be sustainable in the future if it is led by responsible managers. At Euromed Management, we teach our students to develop resources that were until now wasted, to make the most out of previously ignored sources of creativeness, and to take into account fundamental needs. Students learn Social Responsibility, positioning of the individual with respect to co-workers, future generations and the environment.