For this second episode of season 2, we had the pleasure of welcoming Professor Judith Schrempf-Stirling and Dr Jean-Yves Mercier, from the Geneva School of Economics and Management at the University of Geneva. We discussed how the discipline of management and the way is it taught at the university level have evolved considerably in the past 10 years or so. In fact, this evolution has occurred alongside changes in organizations themselves, which have had to adapt to employees’ increasing demands for meaning and purpose, as well as respect for their work-life balance in their jobs. The GSEM executive department recently revamped and refocused its executive MBA and I was curious to ask our guests how this MBA curriculum will meet this new paradigm and respond to both market and societal needs.

Judith Schrempf-Stirling is Professor of Responsible Management. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Lausanne and prior to joining the University of Geneva, she taught at the University of Richmond in the United States. Judith also gained industry experience when working in the Global Citizenship Department at Hewlett-Packard for over five years. In her research, Professor Schrempf-Stirling examines how corporations’ responsibility along their value chain has evolved during the last fifty years by examining and analyzing recent corporate responsibility trends. Her work has been published in international journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Business & Society, Business Horizons, and Journal of Business Ethics.

Jean-Yves Mercier is the Executive Director of the EMBA of the University of Geneva, the CEO of Self-Leadership Lab and a Professor in Self-Leadership, Change Management and Human Resources at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Economics and Management. Dr Mercier worked previously as a consultant in Change Management and was the Corporate Human Resources Director for the Bahlsen Group. Dr Mercier’s research focuses on Self-Leadership, career transitions, meaningful jobs and sustainable professional development. He has developed innovative pedagogies based on e-learning modules, individual diagnosis and collective coaching. Jean-Yves Mercier is also developing networks of non-professional coaches as well as interactive dynamics to support internal change management within systems. Dr Mercier supports private and public organizations to internalize the benefits of the above researches, and have accompanied more than 100 companies along the 20 last years in more than 15 countries. He is an Executive coach, member of the board of the Alumni Association of the EMBA of the University of Geneva, and member of the Advisory Board of Blossom Consulting. 

References: M. Obama, Becoming (Crown, 2018); Jim Dutcher & Jamie Dutcher, The Wisdom of Wolves: lessons from the Sawtooth Pack (National Geographic, 2018); Margin Call (Film, 2011); F. Laloux, Reinventing Organizations (Editions Diateino, 2015); L.A. Confidential (Film, 1997).