From idea to innovation: EDHEC leaders share their views on the role of creativity in business

Michel Guillemot, founder and CEO of Gameloft, and Dominique Bach, Board Member of EMMI and former President of PepsiCo Foods Eastern Europe, shared their experience and their faith in the innovation with EDHEC students.
The first one has revolutionized the salty snacks market in Russia, the second one decided ten years ago that we will play on our mobile phones: Dominique Bach and Michel Guillemot, both EDHEC Alumni, were the special guests on the conference culminating the Business Development and Innovation module. 

A fascinating exchange

The world if full of people with good ideas, yet only few will make real innovations that generate value.  As underlined Michel Guillemot, it is above all a Culture issue - the culture of innovation; that manifests through the vision shared, the fluidity of information and the teamwork.

Sharing this view, Dominique Bach added: “A company tends to reinvent what has been successful in the past, and usually fears to break off. This is why, he urged future managers and leaders present at the conference to defend their ideas, and also listen to others. In all modesty, he admitted that sometimes a little bit of chance is needed to turn good ideas into major innovations.

With numerous questions from the students, this fascinating discussion has lasted far beyond the time scheduled.




Innovation approach in the curriculum

It is hard to imagine the activities that will generate value in the next 20, 30 or 50 years.  Understanding and creating innovation is a core element for the future success of EDHEC students, therefore it was necessary to develop further the innovation aspect within the curriculum. “Innovation means bringing new solutions, services, processes, business models to the customers who will consider the added value and will be ready to pay for it!” Within this module, we analyse numerous business case studies  covering various sectors, in order to develop the sense of innovation and related competencies”- stated Sébastien Orifici, Marketing Director at Schneider - Electric Energie France, and course coordinator.