French students love our Executive MBA given in Paris

By Max Harrold

The John Molson School of Business EMBA in Paris is showing steady growth as it enters its fourth year.

This November, 15 students expect to graduate in a class that is unique among business educational programs for executives in Europe.

"I have always wanted my career to become more international, especially more North American," said French business student Boubacar Coulibaly. He decided to get another degree when the Internet bubble collapsed two years ago and he lost his job as chief financial officer with a web agency. He considers Concordia’s EMBA unparalleled in Paris "in terms of quality of output, financial and time investments, international recognition, length and overall quality.

“I must also add that the limited number in our class, as opposed to the factory-like [atmosphere of the] competitors’

programs of 80 or more students, allowed us to develop a close relationship with our professors.”The 14-month program, taught entirely in English, gives executives intense exposure to global and, particularly, North American-style business methods and skills.

Class size, while still at an intimate level, has grown from 11 in 2002 to 18. Studies include statistics, economics, accounting, finance, management, marketing, human resources, organizational behavior, business communications, operations management, MIS, industrial relations and courses in strategy and entrepreneurship.

All of the curriculum and 90 per cent of the faculty are provided by Concordia. All expenses are picked up by the Institut Français de Gestion (IFG), which hosts the program at its campus near the Eiffel Tower.

The Paris EMBA program is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the gold standard of quality assurance recognition. The JMSB EMBA program as a whole was ranked 40th among EMBA programs around the world by the Financial Times of London.

The Concordia/IFG arrangement has proved to be a good draw. Business professor Bryan Barbieri is acting director of the EMBA in Paris while the director, Bill Taylor, is on sabbatical.

“These students value the organized, disciplined and rigorous approach to teaching used by the teachers in our program,” Barbieri said. “They see North American business as very proactive, and they want to pick up that style."

Combining work, travel and classes is not easy. For the students, it means arranging to take time off work, since classes are held every other Friday and Saturday.

For the faculty members, who teach classes in rotation, it means flying into Paris once monthly on Wednesday night for preparation on Thursday, teaching Friday and Saturday, and flying back Sunday, often to teach on Monday in Montreal.

The main issue is time management, explained student Philippe Benchimol. “Balancing the family activities with the big workload is a real challenge.”

The intensity of the program seems to fit the students’ notions of the way people do business here. Since the students come to Montreal for three weeks during July and August to take several courses, they get to see our style up close.

Student Gildas Duchesne, 35, said, the EMBA Paris program offers "the occasion to travel to another country in an academic framework, and to have a very international approach. It is not only a North American diploma that we receive — it is also a new culture.”