Collaborative Challenges

Work with your team to provide the most effective possible response to participating companies, and beat your competitors! If your project is selected, the company will implement your proposal.

Get involved in a Cross-Challenge on the digital transformation of organisations

We organised a challenge bringing together students from the “Digital and Innovation Strategy” and “Human Resources Manager” specialisms in mixed teams to provide an innovative, realistic and operational response to the issue of the digital transformation of organisations. The specific aim was to improve internal business processes and work practices using digital technologies.

Vincent MEYER
Assistant professor in Human Ressources
Patrick LOUX
Assistant professor in Strategic Management

Participate in a mixed team cross-challenge to compare ideas while drawing on the visions of the other participants. Learn to approach concrete issues from all angles so that you can gain perspective, sharpen your critical thinking and improve your decision-making abilities.

The companies participating in the cross-challenge said:

Given the preparation time available, I was pleasantly surprised by the services offered yesterday by the students and by the relevance of the solutions put forward, which covered essential aspects of the project (taking into account the context, time allocated, estimated budget, benchmark, etc.). Congratulations to the coaches who have done a remarkable job of supporting the various teams! I also found that mixed HR and Digital and Innovation Strategy (DIS) teams from your School worked really well. We’re also now thinking about setting up an internal club for our HR and DIS teams to work together more effectively on internal transformation projects. I found the experience personally very rewarding, and I am delighted to have been able to take part.

Erwan ROGNANT
Head of Human Resources, Talenz

Student testimonials:

I found the challenge really interesting, as it allowed me to apply my course learning in a practical setting. I liked the idea of bringing together students from two different programmes with complementary approaches, with HR students specialising in process-related matters and DIS students providing the technical expertise. It felt really natural to work with students from other classes, and sharing out tasks was not a problem. Having coaches with us enabled us to reset from the outset, as the criteria that we had chosen were too restrictive. Finally, I found working in an agile way really good for applying Claire Barbier's lessons to a real-life situation. This made the challenge all the more interesting.

Hugo P.
student of the M2 Human Resources Manager

I really enjoyed working with M2 Human Resources. They brought a technical perspective while my class contributed to the creative aspects. As a work-study intern, we often work on one-off assignments. This challenge allowed me to gain a comprehensive vision of the project, and to work on all the stages of the process.

Axelle D.
student of the M2 Digital Strategy et Innovation

 

Take up the X-Culture Challenge as part of a multinational team

For a whole semester, 12 M2 students took part in the X-Culture Challenge, supervised by Professor Olivier Lamotte. The Challenge brought together more than 1,500 students from 40 universities in 20 countries. The students prepared a Business Plan and proposed an international strategy to Italian vineyard Tenuta Cocci Grifoni, American drone training company Dartdrones, and Brazilian toy producer Novabrink. This remote teams tool is likely to become more widely used as global value chains develop and business activities are increasingly dispersed around the globe.

Olivier Lamotte
Professor in International Strategy
Octavio Escobar
Professor in Economics

Every week, develop a specific aspect of the international strategy including characteristics of target markets, entry methods, marketing strategy, human resources etc., and produce progress reports to validate your achievements. Produce rich content that will be used by academic researchers to analyse how global virtual teams operate and perform.

On this project you can partner with a student from Singapore Management University (Singapore), the University of North Texas (USA), Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Italy), University of Groningen (Netherlands) or the Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Mexico).

The participating companies in this challenge:

Student testimonials:

I was given the opportunity to take part in X-Culture, an experience that I shared with 1,500 students worldwide. This is a large-scale competition where students from many countries spend two months developing strategies for real companies while working in global virtual teams.
  My team worked on an international expansion strategy for the Italian wine company Tenuta Cocci Grifoni. I enjoyed working in a virtual team with students from Jamaica, Ecuador, Canada and the United States.
We have become more adaptable by reconciling the working norms specific to each of our cultures, and by finding work schedules that suit everyone.
This experience also allowed me to put my international business knowledge into practice.

Laura M.
student of the Track Strategy and Consulting

The overall experience was great, I really enjoyed it. I had already worked in international teams during my international gap year, so the cultural differences aspect was nothing new for me and something that I noted when I chatted with my team on our Whatsapp group about our expectations. Most of my team were very academic and paid close attention to their grades and meeting their professors’ criteria, while I was more focused on the operational side of things and how to meet our clients' expectations. This difference was difficult to manage, but the final report is very qualitative and balanced overall.

Auriane
student of the Track Strategy and Consulting

The X-Culture project provides excellent experience of working internationally. It is really nice to meet, work with and gain knowledge from people in three different continents. Each student has to adapt the way that they work to ensure that these differences are a real strength. The hardest part is managing time zones for work and meetings, but we've managed to get organised and work well together.

Baptiste
student of the Track Strategy and Consulting

 

Defend your ideas in public by participating in Battles

Since 2014, students on the CSR and Sustainable Development course have been participating in Battles, where they are immersed in a group reflection and reasoning experience. The company or a manager involved in the exercise provides a topic (based on an area such as finance, economy, society or green issues). Each team of four to five students must deliver a fully planned presentation which defends their viewpoints, using supporting materials. Each team member must speak, timekeeping must be scrupulous and members must choose their terminology carefully and show that they have mastered key concepts. The presentation should focus on the following three time periods: yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Brigitte DAUDET
Assistant professor in Regional Development

Learn to talk about your ideas in public, and to debate against a diametrically opposed opinion. Develop your ability to listen and understand in order to become a participatory and aware citizen. Participate in an awards ceremony with winners for the three best arguments. The arguments are ranked by the students themselves by way of an ongoing self-assessment process.

The "game" unfolds in three stages:

1. Each team presents its argument.
2. Then there is a verbal joust between the two teams.
3. The audience disputes and questions the positions and arguments of the two teams.