Refusal of first-year student enrollment, professors’ concerns about the renewal of their courses for the next season, contradictory rumors of closure fueled by the teachers themselves—IPAG, the famous School of Business on Boulevard Carabacel, has entered, as its new General Director acknowledges, a “zone of turbulence.” Recently appointed by the Board of Directors of the IPAG Group, Guillaume Bigot, a teacher and Director of the Leonard de Vinci School of Management in La Défense, has come specifically from Paris this Friday, July 11, to meet the professors. In a circular letter he recently sent to them, the former journalist explains his “vision” for the studies offered at IPAG, particularly based on an “essential difference between students and teachers,” the latter possessing “authority based on knowledge.” However, students must not be, according to him, “treated as ‘consumers.’”
What will happen to this Business School while some of its local competitors are already taking advantage of a wave of enrollments from young high school graduates attracted to international economics but whose means don’t allow them to attend classes in Paris? The new General Director’s formal answer: “No, IPAG Nice is not going to close!” In his “role as a leader,” Guillaume Bigot aspires to be “an impartial referee attentive to everyone” but who “will decide in the interest of all.” “The same will apply to IPAG,” he specifies in his message. He was willing to provide some additional insights in an interview with Nice-Premium.
Nice-Premium: The refusal of first-year student enrollment, professors’ uncertainties about renewing their courses next year; is your visit to Nice directly related to the current turbulence at IPAG?
Guillaume Bigot: Yes, why deny it, we are experiencing a zone of turbulence. But let our competitors not rejoice too soon: an emergency landing is not on the agenda. Gaining altitude seems more appropriate to me.
NP: How would you define the relationships between IPAG Paris and the Nice establishment?
G.B.: There are no “relationships” within a single entity. Being, for now, Director of the Nice center and General Director, I have no tendency towards schizophrenia. My mindset is unity, project and team cohesion, which excludes hierarchy (one center does not have preeminence over the other) and uniformity for uniformity’s sake (a center like Nice might need flexibility in its local organization).
NP: What are the main directions you wish to develop within IPAG?
G.B.: Our programs are original, remarkable but unknown. Conclusion: communication, more communication, and always communication.
NP: What is your room for maneuver left by the Board of Directors?
G.B.: The one they are willing to give me. But my appointment (or a profile like mine) is not neutral. Let’s say that by opting for my candidacy, it wasn’t a choice for conservatism and routine that was made.
NP: In your opinion, what should be the specific mark of IPAG compared to other business schools in the region?
G.B.: High-end, quality over quantity, human scale with, at the key, the unique opportunity for a candidate to develop a tailor-made professional project. In short, the opposite of factories where individual support is necessarily outsourced. The range of prestigious companies, 90 university partners worldwide, the rigor of the admission process, the Bac + 5 format, all indicate that we are dealing with a high-end product. We are closer to Mac than to PC. IPAG is the smallest of the very great post-bac!
NP: In the circular letter to the Nice professors of IPAG, you emphasize the notion of “humility,” generally poorly perceived by the philosophy prevailing in business schools. Why this emphasis?
G.B.: Without being a fan of Yin and Yang, I believe in the common sense inherent in paradoxes: humility for oneself is a sine qua non condition for an extreme ambition for a collective or for an Institution!
