Ever since he published “Strategic Management”, Edward Freeman has been at the forefront of a theory that stakeholders are interconnected. For his collective body of work, the economist from Darden School, Virginia, received an Honorary Doctorate from HEC Paris, adding his name to the 48 illustrious scholars on the HEC Honoris Causa list. The March 4 ceremony was followed by several thousand spectators, both live and online. Freeman’s visit to the Jouy-en-Josas campus was the occasion to discuss his stakeholder vision with a prism of the 21st century. Extracts from the exceptional Breakthroughs podcast, recorded for Knowledge@HEC.
Organizations which are driven by purpose only succeed when this purpose aligns itself authentically with operations and strategy. And company leaders who coordinate teams or orient decisions play a crucial role: they are responsible for communicating clearly and unambivalently the firm’s purpose. This is at the heart of the research program crafted by the HEC Paris Purpose Center, as well as the article published in the HBR* by professors of strategy Rodolphe Durand and Ioannis Ioannou. Durand, the Director of HEC’s Purpose Center, shares his analysis in this February 15 masterclass. Here are his four key points.
How to find a balance between executives and employees' objectives to attract and retain talents? How to show legitimacy and trust to align with citizens' values in a time of conflicts? What is the good timing to leave a company? Understanding these multifaceted questions is key for navigating the talent competition and fostering personal career growth. Today, students seek ethical employers, while employees yearn for deeper meaning in their work. Simultaneously, governments and consumers closely examine firms' practices throughout the supply chain. In this edition, researchers from diverse fields offer insights and business cases gleaned from their investigations.
The case examines the topic of trust repair with Jayda Moore, a fictitious character in a fictitious firm that specializes in marketing consulting. Jayda has been the manager of the consumer goods team at MarketMinds since September 2022 and had managed to create a supportive and caring team atmosphere. Her team members felt valued and appreciated and were accordingly highly motivated, leading to great operational successes. As a result, the team members’ level of trust had evolved, they had especially trusted Jayda. However, the well-earned trust in her is now put to the test.
When Hannah Walt became the managing director of Epano Consulting of the Berlin branch, she did not only inherit challenges; she also had to face the general issue of being new to the business unit. She was promoted from within the company but came from a different geographical unit and had not worked in the Berlin office before.
A new business case, “Circular magic? carpets reborn at Desso”, authored by Professors Laurence Lehmann-Ortega and Hélène Musikas of HEC Paris and Ghali Benkirane (H2023) has just been published with the Case Centre.
“Colas: Sunny road ahead to innovation” case written by HEC Paris professors of Strategy and Public Policy Laurence Lehmann-Ortega and Bertrand V. Quélin has been released on the Case Centre platform. The case's objective is to explore how established firms innovate.
Despite legislative transformation, the issue of data handling is far from resolved. Since GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect in 2018, the EU has collected over €3 billion in fines from companies who have broken the rules. And with the AI industry ramping up, the question of ethical data handling is more pressing than ever, say Dominique Rouziès, Professor of Marketing, and Michael Segalla, Professor of Management, both at HEC Paris.
By Michael Segalla , Dominique Rouziès
The world we live in is profoundly different to the one we knew four years ago. Disruption to long-established patterns reveal opportunities for developing countries to secure a bigger share of the global economy. A policy paper by Abdelmonim Amachraa, Portfolio Lead at OCP Fondation, and Bertrand Quélin, Strategy and Business Policy at HEC Paris, for the Policy Center for the New South looks at how Morocco can best integrate with global markets, analyzing the challenges and next steps.
By Bertrand Quélin , Abdelmonim Amachraa
The business case “Preparing future leaders at Ateme” by Valérie Gauthier, Associate Professor of Languages and Cultures at HEC Paris, has been published on The Case Centre. Based on the Professor’s experience and expertise in relational leadership built over 30 years of research and practice, the case explores how and why a growing tech company prepares today’s talents to face tomorrow’s leadership challenges.