HEC in the press

As executive positions require more and more ESG awareness, The Economist details that HEC Paris Business School's MBA program has adapted its curriculum and offers a 3-day seminar in a monestary with a monk who guides them through ethical dilemmas.

Despite the steady demand for MBAs, business schools have to adjust their offer to the uncertainty of today's world, be it the coronavirus or the war in Ukraine. HEC Paris Business School did adapt, thus enabling the possibility to provide classes on campus again since September 2021. Andrea Masini, associate dean of MBA programs at the schools, explains to Find MBA: "All courses have been and continue to be delivered in-person and students have access to full utilization of our facilities. Over the summer, we upgraded our infrastructure, equipping our lecture theatres with better AV systems to facilitate a seamless and smooth interaction between participants and lecturers in the classroom and participants connected remotely."

As reported in Private Equity News, the HEC-Dow Jones Performance Ranking of Private Equity Fund-of-Funds 2021 elaborated by professor a HEC Paris Oliver Gottscalg has been dominated by US firms which occupy all of the top five positions and eight of the top 10.

For the eleventh time in twelve years, HEC Paris Business School's Masters in Finance tops The Financial Times's ranking.

The Financial Times notes that the demand for finance qualifications is still strong. This is no surprise to Olivier Bossard, executive director of HEC Paris’s MSc Finance, who explains that "there is demand from young people and demand from employers. Before, they were hiring for roles in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. But, now, it is moving back to financial markets."

As the European Central Bank rose its interest rates, Handelsblatt wonders what could be the consequences on some countries' public debt. Finance professor at HEC Paris Armin Steinbach explains that "If the impression that France is deciding on new spending while at the same time failing to address structural reforms solidifies, this could increase nervousness on the markets and also have an impact on interest rates."

In a world of almost unlimited retail offer online, the "Cascade Click model" provides a better analysis of customer choice behavior. However, a research led by Assistant Professor of Operations Management at HEC Paris Sajjad Najafi suggests it should be extended to the settings in online retail. He explains to Forbes how this could be implemented to boost online retailers' expected revenue.

While some European companies keep purchasing gas from Russia, others decided to step back in fear of violating the EU's sanctions law. Who is right? Interviewed by Tagesschau, finance professor at HEC Paris Business School Armin Steinbach thinks that "the arguments of GasTerra, Shell and Ørsted are valid. These companies are rightly refusing to open a ruble-denominated account with Gazprombank, as Putin has ordered by decree."

As Politico wonders if salary transparency could hurt performance, strategy and business policy professor at HEC Paris Tomasz Obloj, who led a study which showed that pay transparency could help reduce pay inequality, explains that "there’s no conclusive data" showing that salary transparency could affect productivity, even if "there will be some trade-offs".

In an op-ed for Sustainable Views, law professor at HEC Paris Business School Alberto Alemanno explains why a company’s political footprint is as important as its ecological and social impact: "The misalignment between corporate lobbying with companies’ stated commitments to purpose, values or stakeholders is one – possibly the – major factor underpinning a lack of progress on numerous critical issues, ranging from a failure to act on the climate emergency to offshore tax evasion."