Executive MBA participants on a Learning Expedition in Tallinn
03/31/2022
Discovering new corporate cultures, different ways of working, opening up to the world and offering new sources of inspiration and creation… Learning Expeditions are always very enriching and stimulating experiences for participants, who are nurtured by meetings with flexible, agile and different companies, and who are pushed to change their view of the world and their prism of knowledge. Twice during the Executive MBA, participants have the opportunity to go abroad to develop their entrepreneurial culture and discover new ways to generate growth in a sustainable way.
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From January 23 to 29, 2022, the 22 participants flew to Tallinn, Estonia, and were hosted by the Estonian Business School. This learning expedition took place as part of the program’s “innovation” module. Known as the “e-capital”, Tallinn, as well as the whole of Estonia, are known to be pioneers in the digitalization of their infrastructures and to be a fertile ground for innovation. The week was punctuated by numerous workshops, conferences, masterclasses, think tank presentations and company visits around major themes: “Ecosystems of Enterprises”, “Digital Platforms and Ecosystems”, “Disruptive innovation and emerging economy”, “Entrepreneurship mindset” or “Managing innovation processes”. The discovery of Estonian companies such as EstateGuru, the pan-European marketplace platform facilitating property-backed loans for SMEs, Eesti Energia which provides useful and practical energy solutions to produce energy in an increasingly environmentally friendly way, Tehnopol Startup Incubator, the largest science park in the Baltics, which aims to support high-tech entrepreneurship in Estonia and help it grow worldwide, or Levira, a digital service provider, also gave them the opportunity to discover new business models and to exchange and debate with experts from a wide range of sectors and industries.
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The program of these activities had been established so that the participants could feed their integrative project with reflections, examples and good practices. Throughout their stay, they worked on a project to design and implement a sustainable economic model for a company, providing concrete solutions. In groups of 4 or 5, the participants selected a company of their choice and identified the main issues and opportunities of sustainable development that have an impact on its business model to make it sustainable. Nadine, a participant in the program concludes: “After a year and a half of classes impacted by the health crisis and the restrictions it imposed on us, this trip was a necessary and welcomed breath of fresh air. The informal time between classes and visits strengthened our bonds as a community. Discovering Estonia and its commitment to digital transformation was a discovery for me. I really liked the innovation course facilitated by Anu Ruul, it gave a good overview on the whole process and she personally embodied the topic, given her personal experience.”