THE NEW CHALLENGER ON PLANET MARSEILLE
« A In Marseille, the offer in terms of higher education is barely reduced to two or three business schools, begins Badr Jakani. Marseille Business School will therefore be the challenger. Right in the middle of the 14th arrondissement, the school has chosen to set up in the heart of the Epic Village, an extraordinary site dedicated to educational innovation in the northern districts. “This place is a choice of the heart. It is a district steeped in history, full of varied actors, carrying splendid diversity and creativity. In no case did we want to be anywhere else” Marseille Business School keeps the rebellious character of Marseille. “This school will have the temperament of Marseille. Creative, super resourceful, inspired, resolutely connected. All supported by the foundations of the Collège de Paris network, that is to say twenty brands, eighteen thousand students in France, in other words a guarantee of excellence. » It is a campus like no other which has been established here under the aegis of two essential figures in the Marseille landscape. Paul Ricard first, because the school is moving into its former offices in Ste Marthe. “We kept a lot of things from this old head office. When I think of the students who teach on Paul Ricard’s private terrace, I tell myself that we couldn’t choose a better heritage. It’s up to us to create a new success story. “. Then the Village epic. “The first time I came to Marseille was on June 23. Not only did I say to myself “what a living environment!”, but above all I discovered the Epic Village. I fell in love with this hub of creativity and innovation. It absolutely had to be there. From bachelor to MS our students will be fully immersed in a network of associations, start-ups and collectives. Ready to showcase their talent in the region.”
AMBITION AS A SPEARHEAD
“I was what they call a dropout. When I decided as an adult to go back to school because I wanted a different life, I worked at the drive-thru of a supermarket to pay for my first year of school. I know what it’s like to feel inhibited but convinced that you’re worth more than that. This is why our school will have unique profiles, students who go beyond the box.” Whether they have just left high school or are adults undergoing career change, Marseille Business school students share the same ambition, that of creating a life and a world that lives up to their expectations. “Our flagship course in Marseille is called Ms Social and Environmental Impact. Co-created with the Épopée Village, it responds to the concerns of today’s generations, who are ready to reconsider all their hierarchies of values in order to exercise professions that have more meaning in their eyes. This is their white knight side, and Marseille Business School is also in tune with that. A company is there to serve society,” explains Badr Jakani. A big step forward in terms of pedagogy, the school aims to rethink the relationship with failure. “In France, we have a timid attitude towards failure. It paralyzes us. At Marseille Business School, it will be about seeing how it stimulates us, adjusts us, informs us to further improve performance and proposals. The business world is a playground. It is fundamental that our students know how to take risks, expose themselves, bounce back.”
UNDER A LUCKY STAR
In terms of innovation, Marseille Business School has chosen to set up an expert scientific committee to define courses in line with contemporary issues. “We have brought together members such as Laurent Choukroun, an accomplished entrepreneur and founder of the Epopée Village, as well as Laurence Bricteux, a digital expert with a keen interest in AI, and Bruno Hareng, a finance expert,” explains Badr Jakani. Students from Arles, Toulon, Marseille and also from abroad will be able to rub shoulders with the most alert minds in the Marseille network. “What I am very interested in for these players of tomorrow is also developing their interpersonal skills. As a recent graduate, I sometimes would have liked to know which bottle of wine to choose during a business meal, how to speak in public during an international conference or how to have a certain gift of the gab in business,” jokes the director of Marseille Business School. The school thus chooses to have its head in the cloud but its feet on the ground, promoting open-mindedness, interpersonal skills and general knowledge. Training students to excel and perform in what they believe is right, without going to work with butterflies in their stomachs, such is the ambition of the school which opens its doors at the start of the 2024 school year. With work-study programs at the heart of its operation. “I find that work-study programs are a fundamental parameter of performance. They are what make studies accessible to all these young people who don’t dare to dream too high.” They are what give a foot in the stirrup, and it is through them that we build the future. A chance for MBS students who will train alongside the best of entrepreneurship made in Marseille: ambitious to the core, rebellious in spirit and generous at heart.
