The MSc in Global Innovation & Entrepreneurship continues to make waves by providing the ideal springboard for budding international, self-made businessmen and women. As it announces two new destinations abroad where the class of 2023-24 will spend a semester each, three products of the program recount how the school provided the impetus for their own entrepreneurial journey.

Two new destinations, same global focus

As Program Director Rickie Moore explains, these choices of destination and institution were made very carefully with precise objectives: “as an existing partner school and an AACSB-accredited one, OULU made perfect academic sense. Just as importantly, it is firmly implanted within the tech start-up scene in Finland, enjoying links with over 800 such businesses. In short, it’s a major innovation, entrepreneurial and financial hub that our students cannot help but learn from.

As for Vietnam, this will provide invaluable insight into the South-East Asian business landscape, more specifically emerging markets and industries, technology, sourcing, and supply chain. Both institutions will provide the students with the global interconnectivity they are seeking for their studies and future career.”

The businessman who got on his bike

Class of 2016 graduate Edouard Atger is another inspiring product of the program. Co-founder of Starbolt, his business plan came to fruition with the creation of his company in 2018. His venture provides an electric bicycle subscription service aimed specifically at companies and their employees, sustainable mobility being the buzzword of his enterprise initiative. He credits emlyon and the MSc for the business and academic learning experience across countries that he enjoyed, and which helped his entrepreneurial project come into being.

“The program was all about immersion - into the academic culture of China, France, and the United States and into different ways of doing business, while keeping entrepreneurship as a common thread. In each country I was able to meet companies, entrepreneurs, and specialists, feeding my taste for entrepreneurship, opening my eyes to many sectors, and helping me to think big by meeting many successful people from different backgrounds. The icing on the cake was teaming up during the program with my future business associate with whom I would then launch my venture just after graduation.”

The alumna whose business is students

With 25% of the previous cohort already running their own company and every member having secured an internship within 4 months of completing the three terms of the MSc, the program is doing precisely what it says on the tin. Success stories abound of graduates getting the entrepreneurial bug during the program and forging entrepreneurial careers upon graduation. Fatima-Zohra Chikh-Bled is a case in point. Propelled by her time studying at emlyon, she has used her know-how and existing entrepreneurial structures to realize her business dream. Her brainchild SWIRE provides a service designed to help students find the perfect internship via specific yet simple to use algorithms based on unique and precise criteria.

“Thanks to the MSc, I learned how to overcome obstacles, and be patient and resilient. I had always wanted to launch a company, so after we finished classes I had the opportunity to apply to the PEPITE start-up Ile-de-France x Schoolab Mission-driven company (in direct partnership with the Île-de-France region) to follow the acceleration of my project in Station F (the biggest incubator of startups in the world). My company SWIRE aims to perfectly match students who want to find internships and internship offers, providing a new bridge between companies and students while making the task easier.”

The student who was prepared to become a leader

Arjun Natarajan has taken a similarly entrepreneurial, global path with the founding of A&J Consulting International. Created in 2019, his business provides a comprehensive service primarily dealing with cross-border business expansion, entry into new markets, sourcing of suitable partnership firms, product sourcing, crisis management, and government relations. For Arjun, the seed was also sown during his student days when he consciously opted for the MSc. His decision has reaped considerable rewards.

“emlyon played a crucial role for me to take the entrepreneurial jump as it offered me unique perspectives and business approaches over other schools. It was one of the many reasons that I chose to do the MSc over a traditional MBA. The beauty is that it prepares an individual to be a leader either in their own venture or in a mid-senior management position of a company. The courses offer a wholistic package for bringing out the leader in you, plus the program was one of the few at the time to offer a three-semester exchange across three schools and countries. The program has a more entrepreneurial DNA. I knew if I wanted a global perspective and an entrepreneurial framework, emlyon was the choice I needed to make.”