During this press encounter, the school’s administration presented how its strategy is developing around three pillars: the common good, tech management, and entrepreneurship. The meeting provided an occasion to unveil the new brand campaign centred around the new signature slogan: Discover, Decode, Do.
Social ambition
One year ago, KEDGE updated its strategic plan with the ambition of developing the skills of the leaders of tomorrow – able to understand the modern world and rise to its technological, social, and environmental challenges – to help them become enlightened actors in it.
In light of everything we read, see, and hear, our VUCA world is unsettling for many people. The urgency of environmental and social issues adds an anxiety-producing dimension. I’d like to believe that another way forward is possible, because these upheavals are our opportunity to reinvent our future. I share this vision and determination with KEDGE, which is why I wanted to strengthen my personal involvement, dating back to 2013, by becoming president of the school in December 2018.
Positioning
To make the world of businesses and organizations move forward, we must question and reinvent the role of management schools. We must offer our students and companies a new way to learn that develops their conscience and sense of goodwill.
We have summarized this commitment in our new position statement:
« Open-Minded Leadership For An Optimistic Future »
Open-minded for yourself, then for others
- Above all, open-mindedness is a state of mind.
- It means knowing how to listen, observe, and be nourished by the world around us.
- It means being curious enough to try to understand the things that seem complicated to us.
- It means being open to opinions dissimilar to our own and taking the best parts to grow our own thinking.
- Being open-minded is the fundamental condition for being confident about our own ideas, transforming them into convictions, and knowing how to take good decisions.
From leadership to empowerment
- Being part of a business school community means wanting to become a manager, leader, or executive.
- It means wanting to have an impact on others and the world.
- Success is more than knowing how to lead; it is knowing how to win the buy-in of teams and partners.
- We must teach our students to use their ideas to inspire others, whether entrepreneurs or employees, in France or abroad.
For an optimistic future
- An optimistic future is the goal of open-minded leadership.
- That’s what motivates us all, whether KEDGE students, professors, or employees.
- Such a future must be created by solutions and action.
- This is a future which can positively impact the world.
- The optimistic future is the future you believe in.
Our pedagogical identity
Our pedagogical identity is centred on personalized support for each student, maximizing their employability.
- The foundation of learning brings together a holistic, cross-disciplinary approach and our areas of expertise: the supply chain, CSR, digital marketing, responsible finance, and fine living (sports, hospitality and wine, culture, and art). Differentiation is not simply a subject of study but is anchored in our ecosystems in France and exported abroad. This multi-specialization approach allows us to go beyond the traditional culture of the French elite, since to specialize is not to shut oneself off in a single technique but to open oneself to the world while remaining anchored.
- To respond to the challenges of the contemporary world, we teach three essential subjects: the common good, tech management, and entrepreneurship. All our students become aware and sensitive to these three areas, and those who wish may dig deeper.
- Finally, we emphasize soft skills development through our Be-U program, launched in 2004 and recognized as an international model by accreditation organizations. Behavioural and emotional intelligence makes the difference and lends authority to business leadership. We first invite students to reflect on their personalities and preferences and to choose the soft skills they would like to prioritize developing, based on a chart created by KEDGE and partner companies. All of these learning experiences allow students to grow their skills and progressively develop professional goals in line with their greatest ambitions. Hands-on learning lets students experiment in project mode; to have the practical experience of the operational reality of company life, with all its doubts, failures, and injustices; and to learn to surmount and surpass them.
A new brand signature
We are proud of being a community of people which, all over the world, is driven by a different mindset. Our employees, professors, and students all share this mindset, which leads us to transform our environment and society to work together to build a future we believe in. This mission is reflected in our new brand signature slogan:
Discover
This is the ability to know yourself to better take care of others, otherwise known as the common good.
Decode
This means acculturation to new technologies, but also the ability to decode the complexity of our world.
Do
This means being able to turn beliefs into actions, whether as an employee or an entrepreneur.
A new brand campaign
A custom typeface for a universal language
We have created a unique, inspiring, and ever-shifting font which evokes and represents major modern themes (including society, current events, the economy, new technologies, and community) in a simple way, constantly evolving, with an alphabet that grows with every new icon created. The goal is to have a participatory, evolving font, on the lookout for trends and new currents, never outdated because always in motion.
A new voice
We have developed a strong, differentiating tone. Engaging, it offers something new – decisiveness and a point of view. Ours is a voice raised against compromises, politispeak, and doubt. Joining KEDGE means adopting this philosophy of action and vision, where words drive intelligence.
An immersion in daily Kedger life
We opted for a voluntarily embodied iconography that shows Kedgers living their daily lives. The community members, who primarily pursue their growth outside school walls, take different and complementary poses to showcase the diversity of their profiles, emotions, and temperaments. The common thread? Our three strategic pillars at KEDGE: the common good, tech management, and entrepreneurship.
