Testimonials
I entered the IBBA Kedge Program directly after my Science Baccalaureate. I opted for this programme because I really wanted to go and live abroad for a long period of time and not just for an exchange semester. The past 4 years have been really rich in teaching, especially on the human side. Whether in Marseille or in Spain. Arriving in a new country without mastering the language is not always easy, but it does build character. And even if in my case it was Spain, which remains quite close in terms of culture, my 2 years spent in Valencia and Madrid have largely contributed to make me grow up. I started with the Uhlsport group, a sports equipment manufacturer based in the region. After a brief start as a marketing assistant, I was quickly entrusted with the management of the Canterbury brand in rugby, then a little later with the management of Spalding in basketball. At the same time I was also in charge of managing key accounts such as Decathlon, Intersport, Amazon... For 6 years I was able to take on great responsibilities, create a real network in the best of sports and acquire serious skills in distribution and brand management, sponsorship... I then spent a year with another sports equipment manufacturer, Hungaria. In parallel to these 7 years, I created and then became an associate of different sports marketing blogs like digitalsport.fr or as it is always the case on sportbuzzbusiness.fr. An experience that allowed me to push my skills in the field a little bit further and to meet many inspiring managers. It is notably following these encounters that I launched myself into the Shapeheart adventure. I think the great strength of Kedge has been that it has allowed me to develop a true generalist business culture. To open my mind to many areas and of course to open my mind to the outside world. Because once again, spending more than 2 years in exchange really allows you to grow faster.
I got into Kedge right after I graduated high school. I joined the IBBA program with the double degree option which allowed me to live in Valencia, Spain for half of my schooling. From a very young age, I was attracted by the arts in general and music and photography in particular, which led me to do internships in the field of creative advertising, which allowed me to touch a little on all areas. Going to live abroad thanks to the IBBA course opened new doors for me and allowed me to gradually discover what I wanted to become. At the same time as my studies in Spain, I started training in film directing in Barcelona at the Escac, the biggest film school in Spain, where I was able to shoot my first films. Once I graduated, I went back to France where I produced Jim Chawki's first film France 2000, before setting up my own film production company to be able to finance my own projects. Today, in addition to my film production company in Paris, I have set up another production company in Barcelona where I work mainly in the creation of advertising and digital content with two other partners under the name Trio de Doses. On a daily basis, we work on canvassing clients, producing music videos, commercials and various digital content, but also writing scripts and looking for financing to make our films between France and Spain. Several of our short films have been selected in numerous international festivals in New York, Paris, Madrid and recently at the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB). Kedge has allowed me to meet a lot of people from different backgrounds and walks of life that I would never have got to know if I hadn't taken this course, in addition to acquiring an entrepreneurial vision and becoming bilingual. Thanks to this journey and my encounters, I have opened up to the world and gained self-confidence for the launch of my professional projects which require a very significant personal investment.
My first experience after the IBBA was in Italy, a volunteer internship with disabled people to teach them English during the summer. I also did another internship at the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Marseille, and this internship focused on marketing and communication. I also chose to go to Taiwan for my second university exchange. And then I was lucky enough to be able to go to Malaysia to do my internship, still at the Chamber of Commerce, but this time more focused on human resources. After my graduation, I was directly employed at Amazon in Prague as an HR assistant. I have always been very curious and I love to travel. Moreover, I think it is interesting to work in an international context to develop one's open-mindedness, skills and network! My training has been quite general and international like my work. I've been a human resources assistant for a year and a half. I support Amazon employees in the UK from their first day at Amazon until they leave. More precisely, we manage their contracts, transfers, absences... but we also take care of HR project management, process improvement, launching new sites... First of all, our motto at Amazon is to be "customer-obsessed". You also have to be very precise, flexible, creative, know how to gain the trust of stakeholders, work in a team and in an international context.
After my BA European Management (at the University of Westminster in London) I followed this up with an IBBA master's degree at KEDGE Marseille. The first part of the course, the most generalist part, gave me the basics of marketing and business. In London, I learned to work the English way. These two years have been fantastic from every point of view. Then, my master's degree, which I was passionate about from start to finish, confirmed my appetite for the media: publishing, audiovisual... During these years, I was lucky enough to have been supervised by incredible professionals; one of the teachings that will remain forever engraved in my memory is to "always check"; It all started five years ago, when, in addition to my work, I kept a blog in which I wrote mood posts about the toilets in bars and restaurants. Subscribing to news alerts, I realized the abundance of social issues related to this sector: health, ecology, diversity, economy... On the other hand, I was approached by actors of this ecosystem who did not have a reference communication channel. So I realized that I had an innovative editorial line on the one hand, and a viable economic model on the other, thanks to advertising. Since I had always been titillated by the desire to be entrepreneurial, I thought: that's it! That's it! It's time! It was a long way to the release of the first issue, I really took the time to consult professionals from the press and the health sector, to build a business plan... once the brand is well established, we will have a physical shop, and why not expand internationally: FLUSH UK, FLUSH Italia...
After a classic Bac & prep HEC in Angers, I joined the IBBA at KEDGE Marseille and started with 2 years in London before moving to the city of Marseille where I specialized in marketing, I then continued my studies in IAE. I started my career at Shell at the head office where I was in charge of internal communication for SAP projects, then I continued in the automotive industry in a subsidiary of the SNCF where I was responsible for marketing and communication. I then joined the Plastic Omnium Group, where I was in charge of internal communications for the automotive subsidiary. After 7 years in the Paris region, I wanted to return to my native Brittany and joined the ZEISS eyeglass lens manufacturing site in Fougères. Two years ago, a complete change in my career, I joined Laval Virtual as a Watch Manager: since then, I haven't stopped learning about virtual reality and augmented reality: two immersive technologies whose markets are exploding.
The Erasmus program that I followed at KEDGE, (2 years in London, 2 years in Marseille) made my desire to work with an international outlook come true. Even though I am based in France, throughout my career I have worked in English on a daily basis within subsidiaries of international groups, where I learned this notion of openness and cultural differences between European students who are close on paper. I learned to work in groups and in project mode and above all to build a network and deep-rooted friendships, many years later. My training helped me to find a first job for which I was trained and operational, the rest followed. My training has also taught me that nothing is ever acquired and that it is necessary over the years to be trained continuously in order to ... bounce back.
I worked 3 years in London: for Google (Google Glass and Google Maps), for a start-up and an event technology company. I learnt a lot and loved each of my jobs, but I was always looking for an area where I could make a positive impact on the world. I left my job in London to travel 14 months in South America. When I returned to Marseille, the city where I grew up, I found a job in congress organisation. I stay there for 6 months but nothing to do, working in an office for events funded by laboratories is not my thing. So I decide to go to India to train as a yoga teacher. Since then I have been teaching in Marseille and it is a real pleasure to see my students leaving my class on a cloud!
I have been practicing Yoga for several years and I have seen the impact that this practice has on a person's life. Furthermore, I am very committed to the environment and it seems to me that yoga can be another way to bring people towards a healthier relationship with nature and the planet. I wish to continue teaching Yoga in Marseille and abroad at festivals and workshops. I also wish to organize trips that mix Yoga and discovery of a country. For 2020, we will go to Bali! I would like to develop Yoga classes in companies, which allow employees to evacuate the stress and tensions of the day and to do good to themselves. In the long term I would like to open a Yoga studio in Marseille, a place for sharing and learning where I can organise events related to well-being in addition to regular Yoga classes. Finally, I would also like to train more specifically in Yoga for mental health and give adapted classes through associations or in hospitals. KEDGE has reinforced my desire to travel and discover the world. Thanks to my exchanges I have learned how to manage abroad and to be autonomous. Finding something that makes you happy, that makes you vibrate and that brings happiness around you. And if that something is yoga, then go for it!
Following the IBBA programme at KEDGE Business School, I had a first experience in distribution and then I tried my luck by creating my own company. In March 2018, I created WE TRADE INTERNATIONAL SOURCING. In June 2018, I received my first container of products in France. Today, our company employs 7 people (including two kedgers) and has distributed about 30,000 products in France and Europe. The education I received at KEDGE gave me a technical background that was essential to my rapid evolution in my first job. Within the IBBA framework, the various university exchanges were a real source of personal enrichment in terms of opening up to the world, a crucial quality when trading internationally in order to realize projects.
“I had done my 1st semester online from India and 2nd on the campus. This hybrid programme gave me the benefit of preparing myself beforehand to the courses prerequisites before getting onto the campus. It also allowed me to get used to the French language and culture beforehand. Immediately at the end of my course I was recruited by Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in Paris as an intern. Within 30 days after being back to India, I started working with the French Embassy.”
The following editorial was written by International students studying at Kedge Business School
Have you even wondered how it feels to spend the summer in the one of the most fascinating places in Europe, studying the subjects you like? Here are (for us as Kedge international students) the 4 most important perks of studying at KEDGE this summer:
1. Enjoy Studying Subjects You Love A lack of choice is NOT an issue with the Kedge International Summer School. Kedge offers 4 different programs (10 courses all together) in Marseille between June 5 and July 26. All are business related but also quite different and unique. Sports Marketing, CSR and Sustainable Development, Cross Cultural Negotiations, French as a Foreign Language…you have the opportunity to choose the subject(s) that interest you the most. And if you see a class in one program, and another in a different program, no problem - you have the flexibility to build your own “hybrid” option! 2. Earn Anywhere from 5 to 40 Transferrable ECTS credits A Summer School is great, but what about transferring those credits back home? Transferrable ECTS credits is something every degree seeking student is concerned about. Kedge gives the Summer School students the opportunity to earn credits during the summer by taking as little as one 5-ECTS class in a week, or as many as 8 courses (40 ECTS) over 2 months! Each of the four offered program packages delivers at least 10 ECTS, which means that you can spend your summer working closer to the required ECTS for your university degree at home, AND enjoy the beauty of Marseille and southern France at the same time. 3. Live in a Multicultural Environment The Kedge International Summer School hosts students from around the globe, which is the perfect opportunity to meet the students from completely different parts of the world. One of the main goals of the KEDGE Summer School is to live up to the Kedge Business School motto (CREATE SHARE CARE), by creating a diverse and attractive academic setting to promote interaction and exchange between international students. 4. Marseille – Is there a better place for summer vacation? It doesn’t matter what interests you have, Marseille will completely satisfy all of them! It is one of the biggest and oldest cities in France which offers cultural monuments and gorgeous beaches; the Calanques National Park borders the Kedge Luminy campus; you have museums, expositions, and of course, night life. It is a magnificent place that you have to visit at least once during your life.
Our objective is to inspire and develop our student’s sense of innovation and entrepreneurship! Modern management is a complex environment. Those who are successful are those who understand that value creation comes through Innovation Capture, Speed to Market, Vertical Integration… Acquiring that knowledge will be useful for the rest of your life as you strive to come up with creative solutions!