The NEOMA teams greeted the participants in the NEOMA Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) on the Reims campus at the end of February, accompanied by participants from the previous class, who joined the programme last October.

“Organising this seminar in Reims shows our strong desire to make NEOMA’s mark on the region’s territorial anchoring. We will also be on the Rouen campus for the seminar at the start of the programme in June. It’s a chance to draw attention to the economic opportunities and special features of our two regions,” Olivier Lefaivre, director of the Global Executive MBA Business Unit, said.

Team building: “setting employees with different profiles and experiences on the path towards a common goal”

To kick off these 4 days in the seminar, the programme began with a mysterious activity! While the participants with different profiles and nationalities were all surprised when they found a room filled with djembe drums, they were soon convinced of the objectives achieved through the percussion session led by Michaël Demazure, musician and Team Building consultant from Rythm’n Organisation.

Youssef, from France, compared this team building session to what they’ve experienced in the MBA and in companies. “We all come from different professional backgrounds and we don’t know each other that well yet. We are not musicians, and yet through observation and listening, we were able to fall into sync with one another. It had a striking parallel with company work because in the end, managing is about setting employees with different and profiles on the path towards a common goal.”

For François-Xavier (from France), “starting with a collective activity is a great idea because that quickly brings a sense of unity to the group. The team building activities were not part of the company culture where I worked as a managing director before entering the MBA, but I now know that I will adopt his concept in my future positions. I see its benefit for building and unifying a team.”

Resilient leadership: developing one’s full potential

The second key activity of the seminar was led by Laurent Levisalles, co-founder of The Resilience Institute Europe. His course, Resilient Leadership, emphasises mastering one’s intrapersonal dimension. He gave participants the necessary tools to boost their independence, creativity and development of their full potential. The training session focuses on the best approaches and immediately applicable solutions to optimise each person’s performance.

“Aside from finance and marketing skills, the MBA also gives us the chance to work on our soft skills,” Edgar from Germany said. “It’s rather unique and very interesting because it shows us all the potential in ourselves that we can develop and bring to our future positions.”

Cliodhna, from Ireland, emphasised the quality and variety of methods and tips offered. “All that we’ve been shown is easy to use and apply. All of it is relevant. Working on resilience is vital, especially during the health crisis where we need to constantly questions things, adapt and reinvent ourselves. This course is going to help us a lot with what comes next.”

Reims and its economic fabric

Jean-Yves Heyer, director of Invest in Reims, the Reims economic development agency, presented a detailed view of the economic advantages of the Grand Reims region and the Champagne Ardennes territory.

One of the points that makes the Reims region stand out is its involvement in the development of the bioeconomy. The GEMBA participants took a course on the circular economy given by Nicolas Béfort, professor of economics and Chair of Bioeconomy and Sustainable Development at NEOMA, who has studied the contribution of the bioeconomy to the ecological transition since 2012.