Initiated in 2009, the strategic alliance between CentraleSupélec and ESSEC has continued to strengthen with new excellent training programs to train the engineer-managers of tomorrow: double degree from the Grande Ecole, MSc in Data Science and Business Analytics also in partnership with Columbia University, Bachelor in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Managementt
Le Specialized Masters ® CENTRALE-ESSEC Entrepreneurs, created in 2009, is at the heart of the entrepreneurial ecosystems of the two schools.
CentraleSupélec and ESSEC work closely together, offering students opportunities to connect and build bridges between two schools that prioritize entrepreneurship as a strategic pillar of their education. One example is the Mix&Match Startup, which will take place on January 26th at ESSEC's CNIT La Défense campus, in partnership this year with AgroParisTech. This event will allow startups from the three schools to recruit potential future partners or collaborators, and for students to join an entrepreneurial project.
Cross-examinations with Anita de Voisins, Director of Entrepreneurship at CentraleSupélec and Nicolas Landrin, Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at ESSEC
Why is entrepreneurship a strategic focus for CentraleSupélec and ESSEC?
Anita de Voisins: Since its inception, CentraleSupélec has trained engineer-entrepreneurs with all the skills needed to join a company or start their own. It's in the school's very DNA: a school created in the mid-19th century by an entrepreneur for the business world! And more than ever, this entrepreneurial skill is essential for our students. We are living in an unprecedented period of accelerating transformation. It is very difficult to project ourselves 10 or 20 years into the future. Teaching our students to evolve in a changing world and to be able to propose solutions is essential.
Today, we train the 950 students in each of our classes in the "Innovate & Entrepreneurship" skill through various programs. This skill is part of a core set of nine skills that every CentraleSupélec student must master by the end of their studies. We train engineers capable of mastering complexity in changing environments. Our learning is based on practice and project management. Learning by doing is one of the keys to developing an agile and efficient entrepreneurial profile.
In addition to this educational component, we are fortunate to have an exceptional environment for business creation. With a network of more than 4000 students, 18 research laboratories, 1200 research staff, 45 alumni present in all sectors of economic life and exceptional prototyping and innovation infrastructures, we have all the necessary breeding ground for the development of tech or deeptech startups. We support around a hundred projects each year, from the maturation stage to scale-up and nearly 000 project leaders in our programs, Entrepreneurship, school incubator, accelerator and campus scale-up. Not forgetting, of course, the MS Entrepreneurship that we run with ESSEC.
Nicolas Landrin: Faced with a world that needs to be fundamentally reinvented, the most important thing to have in a manager's toolbox is the entrepreneurial approach, which allows, through trial and error, to move methodically into uncharted territory and build the products and companies of tomorrow. This is why ESSEC has positioned entrepreneurship as one of its three strategic development axes (alongside the ecological and social transition, and Data, Technology & Society) and has committed to training 100% of its students and continuing education participants in entrepreneurship.
To strengthen this training program, students also have access to in-depth courses in business creation, Venture Capital, legal fundamentals for entrepreneurship, as well as sector-specific courses (Cleantech, life sciences, social entrepreneurship).
To complement these training sessions, they are offered almost weekly activities to meet entrepreneurs and familiarize themselves with tools and techniques. More than 80 events per year (workshops, meetings, conferences) are offered to our student entrepreneurs.
Candidates for our initial or continuing education programs know that at ESSEC they will find the expertise and depth of courses and activities that will enable them to acquire a solid foundation to become entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs and, for many of them, to take action.
What are the challenges in terms of attractiveness for new generations?
Anita de Voisins: We know it: the 21st century is a major century in which we must question and reinvent our models! The current generation is aware of this and wants to take matters into its own hands. Entrepreneurship is one of the keys to getting there! Today, our students are more engaged than ever and often want to give meaning to their career paths. They want to provide solutions, contribute to this transition, develop more sustainable agriculture, or advance medical research. Our role is to support them and give them the means to achieve their ambitions. This is precisely the purpose of the “XNUMXst by CentraleSupélec” innovation and entrepreneurship program that we launched a year and a half ago and which brings together many of the programs presented previously, geared towards solving the major challenges of this century.
The importance of an engineering school like CentraleSupélec, immersed in a research environment like that of Paris-Saclay, also takes on its full meaning in this context. The role of science and deeptech entrepreneurship in solving the major challenges we face is significant. Not to mention the vital importance this can also have at a time when we are seeking to rebuild industrial sectors in Europe and reclaim territories in terms of technological and economic sovereignty.
Nicolas Landrin: Our ambition is to enable all our students, whether in initial or continuing education, to invent or reinvent themselves on their own career path, providing concrete solutions to the world's challenges. Whether they spend 12, 24, or 48 months on our campuses, they are in an ideal environment for learning and taking action. They fully embrace our motto on entrepreneurship: "Seeing uncertainty as an invitation to action—isn't that what entrepreneurship is all about?"
Some choose to launch their own business in their first year of the BBA program, at age 17, when they haven't already done so. We support 150 student startup creation projects per year, including a good number of hybrid ESSEC and CentraleSupélec teams. These incubated startups have raised €83 million over the past 12 months. Other students join FrenchTech startups. Still others are recruited by large groups to help them reinvent themselves and fill key intrapreneurial positions. With the creation this year of the Leading a Scale-Up chair and the Start-up Studio, ESSEC offers a comprehensive range of training and support, from ideation to scaling up the company.
How do business and engineering approaches complement each other?
Anita de Voisins: This diversity of contributions and skills in the founding teams is indeed key! And as far as CentraleSupélec is concerned, we also have a gender diversity issue regarding the typology of entrepreneurial profiles since we unfortunately lack women in our classes. The school is actively working on this, but it's a complex and cultural issue that isn't being resolved as quickly as we would like. By joining forces with a business school like ESSEC, we can increase our chances of attracting female profiles to entrepreneurial subjects with a scientific dimension. This is a real societal issue. Finally, collaborating with ESSEC seems natural to us since we share humanist values, common to both schools. Our DNA is similar but our expertise is different: the ideal combination for a successful partnership!
Nicolas Landrin: The diversity of talent in a startup directly impacts its chances of success and resilience. That's why we launched Mix & Match Startups in partnership with CentraleSupélec, where we regularly bring together entrepreneurship students and founders of incubated startups from both schools. This is one of our students' most popular events. The complementarity between engineering and business profiles is evident, and mixed teams are naturally created.
