Grande École Program: Focus on the Business Game
06/02/2016
Each year, a business simulation game concludes the courses of the Master cycle of the School’s Grande École management program. Over five days, all of the Master students (from the program’s 9 different specializations) come together to work on a business challenge related to a fictive company.
It enables them to discover that beyond their different business/management specializations, they are above all generalist managers who are able to deal effectively with a variety of problems and challenges. The game combines powerful synthesis of the different lessons they have followed during the program and a team challenge where the ability to take into account the views of team members is key to success.
Professors (12 from Lille, 9 from Paris, full-time for the whole week) from all departments are involved in the game, thus reinforcing its ability to gather the wide range of expertise from across the School.
In late April 2016, students in the Master Grande École (346 from Lille and 267 from Paris) were set the task of managing an international group operating in the mobile industry. Groups of thirty students from different specializations were mixed in teams, to ensure real complementarity such as that one would find in companies.
“Students were positively put under pressure as the time between rounds (each equivalent to a tax year) was gradually reduced, leaving them less time each round to make decisions,” says Professor Loïc Plé who is responsible for the Center for Educational and Technological Innovation.
At the end of the challenge – comprising seven rounds – they then had to present their work to a panel of fictive shareholders.
“It was a very rewarding experience,” says Alexandra Lautré, a student in the Master program in Lille. We had the opportunity to use the knowledge we had gained from different areas of the (Grand École) program: strategy, international trade, finance, production management, human resources, economics and marketing etc .. It was also a good test for teamwork because we had to manage our time, our resources etc … “
