HEC in the press

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.

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".

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."

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."

With time, family offices have evolved: while people involved in this sector used to learn the ins and outs of family wealth management on the fly, the need for standardised learning for executives has now become undeniable. Among all the trainings listed by Forbes, HEC Paris Business School offers a 2-week program in family business governance and management to train senior executives in dynamic entrepreneurship and asset management.

Although the growth of online exed training providers has accelerated with the Covid-19 pandemic, Anne-Valérie Corboz, Associate Dean of Executive Education at HEC Paris Business School, does not see them as rivals. She explains to The Financial Times: "For these players, we provide the intellectual capital, and they support a broader footprint, reaching learnings we may not reach otherwise. It’s a strong partnership based on supporting the spreading of learning."

HEC Paris Business School tops the Financial Times Executive Education 2022 Ranking. It is for the first time ranked number one in all three FT Executive Education tables (open-enrolment programmes, custom courses for corporate clients and combined rankings) at the same time, something that no other school has achieved before.

As the Covid-19 pandemic is cooling off, a rise in demand for non-degree courses has been noted. Anne-Valérie Corboz, Associate Dean of Executive Education at HEC Paris Business School, confirms to the Financial Times: "There have been a lot of requests after a halt for two years, especially from senior executive teams who have not had the opportunity to meet and reconnect around new approaches to working, organisational design and coping with Generation Z."

As Elisabeth Borne has just been appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron, finance professor at HEC Paris Business School, explains to Wirtschaftswoche why he thinks she is a very good choice: "She serves several of Macron's political concerns at once: in the foreground for him to pull the rug out from under the left camp which is well organized around Mélenchon, in view of the legislative elections."