SCHEME

^«“When we created SKEMA, we immediately envisioned it as a global school,” recalls Alice Guilhon. This was a natural choice for someone who grew up in an academic environment, immersed in research, knowledge transfer, and intellectual rigor. Very early on, however, the researcher felt the need for action, movement, and engagement with reality. “Researchers work alone. I needed a vibrant, dynamic environment,” she explained. This energy is what fuels the SKEMA project. “I spent a long time analyzing the needs of businesses before conceiving SKEMA as a true multinational of education, designed to respond to the globalization of the economy and knowledge.” Thus, bucking the trend of dominant models, the school didn't simply add internationalization to its project; it inscribed it at the very core of its identity. This is unprecedented in higher education: Alice is building a network of integrated, autonomous campuses aligned across several continents. Everywhere, the same academic standards, the same recognition of degrees, the same quality of services. But never a uniform approach. “We have constants and local specificities. It is this balance that makes the model strong.” SKEMA functions as an international platform, a ship to be steered with precision, rigor, consistency… and humility. “Managing a global institution is not the same as managing a national organization. We are constantly learning,” emphasizes Alice Guilhon, for whom leadership is also built through doubt and adaptation.

Developing leaders

“When you establish a presence in a country, no one is waiting for you. You have to understand the local customs, not impose a model, but build with it.” Hence the desire to integrate each campus into its environment. In China, the school develops programs around artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship; in Brazil, it focuses on business law; in Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and South Africa, different types of management, different approaches to leadership and sustainability inform the curriculum. Students can change campuses every six months and create multi-site programs. Alice Guilhon speaks of an “augmented curriculum vitae”: a path enriched by the hybridization of disciplines, cultures, and experiences. The result is high employability rates, regardless of the graduates’ nationalities or countries of employment. “Our role is to prepare students for a complex world, not a static market; they must be able to fully inhabit the contemporary world.” »