Unlike other international B-schools which are targeting the Indian market by launching executive education programmes, France-based Ecole de Management, Strasbourg, is promoting its full-time two year management programme in India. Michel Kalika,Dean, EM Strasbourg, tells Kalpana Pathak how the collaboration between Indian and French companies is creating demand for managers. Excerpts:
How do you plan to reach out to Indian students?
In this market, quality is competitive. We have exchange programmes with Indian institutes, but we want students for full-time programmes. We understand that students need to be in France to know the culture and the culture of companies. The fundamental element of a B-school is the quality thus we do not believe in advertising. We would spread the word online or through websites.
But Indian students have traditionally preferred destinations like the US and the UK...
We see more and more Indian students coming to France now. We have around 10 Indian students on campus at present. We are targeting around 30 students in the next three years. We have 10-day student exchange programmes with Indian institutes including—Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and Indore; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, International Management Institute, Delhi and University of Madras. But we want full-time students. So we will tell students that it will be a good opportunity not only for them to come and study in France but also for the European companies to pick them up. As businesses grow, we need to prepare young managers.
What kind of students are you targeting from India?
We would like to attract future entrepreneurs to our school. We have observed that student with the best score may not the best entrepreneurs. We are looking for students who can be entrepreneurs. Our sole focus is not studies. I believe there is a negative co-relation between the level of study, result and the rate of entrepreneurship. Best scorers prefer going to large companies.
Are you a late entrant in the Indian market?
We are looking for Indian students for our two-year full time management programme. We are not targeting the executive education market. So we are not late. As more and more Indian and French companies collaborate on the business front, we need to create managers who understand the Indian as well as French culture. We teach management programmes in French, English and German. We think its important for us to have more and more students who can take up positions at multi national companies.
So India’s Rs 300 crore executive education market does not interest you?
We run executive education programmes on our campus in France. It is focused on managers in the European nations. We don’t plan to develop executive education programmes in India. Also, we have Nobel prize winners in our university so we have some intellectual obligations to fulfill.
India will open its shores to international B-schools. Any plans?
We do not plan a campus in India. If we send our faculty all over the World, what will students at our B-school do? We are very strong in research and we think that its an advantage for international students to come and study at our B-school in France rather than we coming here.