What is SKEMA Ventures, and how can it help students in the Grande Ecole programme?
SKEMA Ventures is SKEMA Business School’s organisation that enables each student to think, design, test and launch an entrepreneurial project globally.
SKEMA Ventures is available in the six innovative localities and four continents where SKEMA has set up campuses. With its unique value chain deployed on each SKEMA campus (teaching, guidance, community) it is feasible to think up a project in Sophia or Raleigh, incubate it in Suzhou or Lille and accelerate it in Paris or Belo Horizonte.
With SKEMA Ventures, SKEMA is once again at the forefront of innovation with its “glocal” entrepreneurship.
In your opinion, what are the qualities of a good student entrepreneur?
A good student entrepreneur is a student who understands that today knowledge is the major competitive advantage for any company creator. Knowing about markets, context and good local practices, knowing all about managerial practices and different systems of organisation, knowing about business models and strategic choices, not to mention knowing about different cultural practices.
Also, today no good entrepreneur can afford not to combine creating wealth and creating meaning. Our student entrepreneurs impact society and develop solutions that are also a part of solving the major problems of the future. That is why as soon as they join SKEMA, all students are taught about entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial mindset and practices.
Students are in constant contact with innovative firms and entrepreneurs and they learn through doing but they can also practice knowledge transfer as consultants for company directors with whom they work during courses.
What is your latest experience in accompanying student entrepreneurs?
We accompanied a Chinese student who had graduated from the Master in Management, Grande Ecole progrmme. This involved creating an incubator-accelerator to facilitate the launch of European, and especially French, start-ups, in China.
During the whole incubation process at SKEMA Ventures, he developed a value chain that was one of a kind in China.
Today, it has become the incubator-accelerator of reference in his province, and the partner incubator-accelerator of SKEMA Ventures for SKEMA students and alumni entrepreneurs who want to launch their business in China.
This example is a good illustration of what we call the Venture Family, that means that any SKEMA entrepreneur can count on a community for support all over the world.