ESSEC Business School An FT Professional Subscription helps ESSEC Business School develop innovative students

Founded in 1907, ESSEC Business School is one of the most prestigious of the French “Grandes écoles”. Highly regarded for developing pioneering and influential business leaders, the institution prides itself on helping its students understand an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

ESSEC looks to create agile and open-minded professionals who are able to bring together academic knowledge and practical know-how in order to navigate the economic, social, and environmental challenges of modern business.

Through an FT Professional Subscription, ESSEC provides its students with connected, trustworthy insights they can use to form their own independent views on world issues. The FT offers its faculty members the up to date source of global analysis and digital tools they need in order to bring classroom theory to life.

Business schools today emphasise the need for students to develop an international perspective in order to be well-equipped for their future employment. ESSEC however has long been an advocate of this view, having originally created the ESSEC Global BBA in 1975 to provide French firms with the skills needed to launch operations on the international market.

Émilie Ung-Sun is a student on the Global BBA programme and as part of the course has the opportunity to study abroad in countries such as Germany and the US. The international nature of the programme requires Émilie to look in-depth at markets outside of France, but few sources are comparable to the FT in terms of offering detailed insights on industries around the world.

“The FT publishes some excellent case studies that I’ve been able to use for my research papers,” Émilie says. “For instance, the FT produced an analysis of everything that had happened at a specific German company in terms of finance over the past 10 years which I was able to use quotes from.”

Rather than having to switch between multiple sources, Émilie then uses the myFT feature on FT.com in order to follow and update her topics of interest as and when required. “I started following the financials sector and economics using myFT,” she explains. “I then added UK companies for another research paper, which ensured I was always seeing the most up to date and relevant articles.”

ESSEC’s Dean of Pre-Experience Programmes, Felix Papier agrees that the breadth of the FT’s global coverage is valuable but also highlights its importance in terms of helping students develop their own opinions independently of their course material. “It’s not just the fact that you can find a lot of information on FT.com, but the level of analysis gives you the insights to shape your own views,” Felix says. “I think that’s particularly important for business school students.”

For ESSEC’s faculty members, the FT provides value in a number of different ways. In being responsible for the development of the school’s undergraduate and graduate programmes, it’s important that Felix is aware of trends in higher education across Europe and beyond.

As an institution that’s renowned for being a pioneer in business education, ESSEC is always looking towards the future and innovations that can improve how education is delivered to students.

“In France I read the specialised press on higher education but internationally, the Financial Times is my main source,” explains Felix. “The discussion and analysis in the FT on the future of business education and for example, trends in MBA programmes in the US and Europe is hugely important to my role.”

Felix also highlights how he’d previously used the FT from a teaching perspective as a rich source of realworld examples to provide context around key themes.

“If I think about my teaching experience as a professor of supply chain and operations management, FT articles provide an excellent illustration of what’s being discussed in class,” he says. “For example, FT analysis about the relocation of factories from one country to another is perfect material for students studying supply chain management.”

The flexibility and digital nature of ESSEC’s FT Professional Subscription makes it easier for faculty to bring the FT’s up to date commentary into their teaching. Sophie Magnanou is the Director of ESSEC’s Knowledge-Lab, whose mission is to promote and support the use of experiments, content and tools for students and faculty, with a specific emphasis on the use of digital tools and resources.

By having a group subscription, students and staff not only have access to a premium news source, but also the ability to consume, share and integrate FT content in any number of ways.

“First and foremost our students and faculty recognise the quality of the FT as an information resource,” Sophie explains. “Combining this with digital platforms such as our Moodle learning management system, can be a powerful tool for pedagogy.”

Émilie explains further how digital content and tools are being used by her and her Global BBA classmates. “In one seminar we were using FT markets data over a two week period and following the trends with the FT.com portfolio tool,” she says. “Constructing these fictitious portfolios provided a great introduction to the fundamentals of investing.”

The transition from print newspapers to a digital solution in the form of an FT Professional Subscription also enables Sophie and the Knowledge-Lab team to glean insights as to how the resource is being utilised across the institution. Using FT Enterprise Tools, Sophie and her colleagues can monitor usage across the subscription and ensure they’re seeing a return on their investment.

“The move to a digital FT solution was an important one for us,” Sophie concludes. “The uptake and indicators we’ve seen in the usage reports tell us it works.”

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