Experiential Learning in MSc X-HEC Entrepreneurs
From managing uncertainty to discovering your entrepreneurial identity: The experiential learning behind the MSc X-HEC EntrepreneursDid you know that the MSc X-HEC Entrepreneurs, in collaboration with École Polytechnique, is the oldest of our entrepreneurship programs? It has been the inspiration behind many successful entrepreneurs and companies, such as Ankorstore, Doctolib and the French unicorn Front. To understand its success, we interviewed Sihem Ben-Mahmoud Jouini, Associate Professor at HEC Paris and Academic Director of the program, to discuss the program’s approach to entrepreneurship and the importance of experiential learning.
Professor Sihem Jouini, can you tell us more about your background?
Professor Sihem Jouini: Sure. I'm actually an engineer by training, with a Ph.D. in innovation management and strategy. My journey as a Professor and Researcher started with new product development and project management for innovative projects, and over time, I became more interested in the exploration of new domains and the origins of ideas that are developed by the projects, and how we can ensure that the innovations developed are value-centric. This interest led me, for example, to explore design as an approach and a capacity to innovate and publish research articles and a book on that subject.
How did you come to be involved with the X-HEC Entrepreneurs program?
Professor Sihem Jouini: I joined the Master as the Academic Director in 2021, but the program has a very long history that goes beyond myself. It's a 46-year-old program! It's actually the result of a merger between two established entrepreneurship programs: one from HEC Paris with over 40 years of history, and a more recent program from École Polytechnique led by Bruno Martinaud. It combines business acumen with technological expertise as a result.
To answer your question, I joined the Master's because of its ‘Learning By Doing’ approach, which by the way was pretty uncommon 46 years ago. I value this approach in my teaching as well in my research focused on action research. I joined the Master as well because it mixes different students’ profiles, especially STEM and business and I value this diversity. Actually, you can recognize some characteristics of the Design approach, i.e. its orientation towards action and its collective dimension. In the program, we encourage our students to explore problems people face, ensuring that the solutions they develop would address crucial issues. Then, we encourage them to articulate hypotheses about needs, markets, technologies… as well as to test these assumptions through prototyping and experimentation.
Other reasons of my decision to join this Master is that I am as well the academic director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship specialization of the Executive MBA which gives me the opportunity to connect several audiences interested in entrepreneurship. Lastly, I am an academic director of a master in Innovation in partnership with Ecole Polytechnique.
What is your role as the Academic Director of the MSc X-HEC Entrepreneurs?
Professor Sihem Jouini: My role is multifaceted!. I'm involved in selecting the cohort to ensure diversity and homogeneity, designing the curriculum and the content by curating the subjects and the way they are delivered (speakers, workshops, etc.), overseeing students’ master thesis because we deliver a master diploma as much as we develop entrepreneurs, working with the administrative team that manages the program day to day, and managing the partnership with Ecole Polytechnique and my co-director there Bruno Martinaud. I also represent the program in the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. It's a challenging role to maintain our high standards at the scale of 120 students per cohort and to make our students flourish in the entrepreneurial landscape.
What sets the X-HEC Entrepreneurs program apart from other entrepreneurship programs?
Professor Sihem Jouini: Our strong commitment to pure experiential learning and peer learning is definitely our main differentiator. That’s what truly distinguishes us. In our program, professors do not give a lecture and students apply concepts to case studies afterward.... Instead, we put our students in real situations of uncertainty, where they don't have all the information, and need to learn and acquire knowledge in order to make decisions. We believe that to truly learn about entrepreneurship and innovation, they need to experience this firsthand.
Can you give us some examples of how this experiential learning approach works in practice?
Professor Sihem Jouini: Of course. We design situations (seminars, projects, workshops, etc) to expose our students to various aspects of entrepreneurial uncertainty and we support them with methodology and knowledge to make them decipher this uncertainty. We organize ENTR’AIDE an outdoor challenge that makes students navigate unfamiliar terrain, move forward together and stay united despite the difficulties encountered. With the support of experts and tutors, they work on restructuring real companies about to go bankrupt and present their suggestions to real judges in commercial courts. I think as well about the Sales Seminar, which is quite an experience. Students go to Darty for 5 days to learn how to sell, how to manage a sales force, how to convince a customer, etc. We also organize a Leadership Seminar in the Ecole Navale, the military school of the Navy .
This is not exhaustive…the list is long It is very challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding for our students. It is a very dense program. We are doing mass customization considering the size of the cohort, and that’s why we need smart and committed students, able to keep up.
The program seems to have strong connections to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Can you tell us more about that?
Professor Sihem Jouini: Yes, that's another key aspect of our program. It is highly connected with HEC Paris and Ecole Polytechnique alumni communities, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in France and beyond. It is important for our students to be projected and exposed to many different networks and landscapes. This way, they can build a startup in France or Singapore,, raise funds in Silicon Valley, go to Y Combinator, etc. We actually have several connections with Silicon Valley: we are proud to have alumni who have launched successful ventures there, including the unicorn Front. We also organize learning expeditions to major entrepreneurial hubs. These connections provide our students with real-world examples of entrepreneurial successes and opportunities.
Another important aspect to highlight is the role that this entrepreneurial ecosystem plays in our pedagogy. We rely on it. Indeed, as I said it is a peer to peer learning, alumni act as mentors and tutors to accompany the students in the development of their ventures and of themselves as entrepreneurs. They provide projects the students develop per team in potential startups during the first 8 weeks of the year. They act as jury members in the closure event of the year, i.e. the Demo Day.
As a recap, what are the strengths of the X-HEC Entrepreneur Master?
It’s a unique combination of 5 pillars:
- A project-based pedagogy and mentorship. The students work on real projects per team following a challenging pace. They learn how to find under time pressure the required information and acquire knowledge through their actions in a trial/error approach. They do that in different team configurations and are tutored by different mentors, who give our students the methodology and support.
- A complete life cycle venture. We go through all the phases of the lifecycle of a company, which involves the market exploration and launch as well as addressing the crises, restructuring, bankruptcy, and going to court. Working with entrepreneurs in difficulty is definitely a very specific aspect of the program. 10% of our students choose to take over a company.
- A personal entrepreneurial journey. We help them discover which type of entrepreneur they would like to become. Actually, the program is decomposed in four explicit phases: Learn, Test, Fasten and Become. We support our students in becoming entrepreneurs. Some will realize they don’t want to launch a venture but want to take over an existing business, or develop intrapreneurship in an existing business or act in a public organization, etc.
To help them learn about themselves, we curate various places, including the HEC Paris Startup Launchpad or the Imagine Institute in Paris, the University of California, Berkeley or at the Singapore Management University (SMU), where they will work on their own project and get the best support to find out who they want to become.
- A strong alumni network, of more than 80,000 people, and a wide ecosystem, always happy to help. This is definitely our signature. Alumni are generally eager to give back by dedicating time and effort to the students.
- A diverse cohort leading to diverse ventures, which is made of 1/3 business students coming from HEC Paris, 1/3 of STEMS students such as engineers from École Polytechnique and other schools and 1/3 of students in art, design, legal, political sciences… This diversity ensures that the students will find co-founders within the cohort. It leads as well to a diversity of the ventures developed from Deeptech to Techsupported or Shallow tech.
How would you qualify or describe innovation in 2000, in 2010 and in 2020?
Professor Sihem Jouini: Let me address the question differently. Currently, people understand that innovation and entrepreneurship is not only about technology, it can be about services, business models, processes, organization… anything that can provide value. The second element is that innovation and entrepreneurship can be taught. It’s not by chance. People can acquire good practices and approaches. It can be mastered because theories and best practices have been developed. The next thing is an increasingly blurred line between the bureaucratic management of established organizations and the agile and entrepreneurial management of startups.
Last but not least, we have a big question mark today, which is AI (Artificial Intelligence) and more generally the grand challenges that we are facing. Will AI and other technologies such as quantum computing become an opportunity, an enabler or a threat? Because ‘a fool with a tool is still a fool’! We need to ask ourselves what we want to develop with innovation, how to use it to tackle the world's challenges… In the end, it's about nurturing and developing responsible leaders and entrepreneurs.
About X-HEC Entrepreneurs
The Master X-HEC Entrepreneurs program immerses students in real-world entrepreneurship, teaching valuable skills through hands-on entrepreneurial missions within a vibrant ecosystem. This experience shapes their entrepreneurial mindset before they embark on their own projects.
About HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute
The institute supports entrepreneurs from all walks of life. Through our Incubation & Acceleration, Deeptech, and Social Entrepreneurship centers, we assist students with innovative ideas, budding startups, rapidly scaling SMEs, transforming large enterprises, and social or environmental entrepreneurs to grow efficiently and with impact. Here, the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem of HEC Paris comes together to help you Make it Happen, Make it Big.