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With more than 700 professors, including 175 permanent professors-researchers, IÉSEG offers to its students a high-quality learning experience, based on 4 key elements: an active, interdisciplinary learning process, focused on the acquisition of competencies, offered through customized curricula.

Each month, “Faculty in the spotlight” invites you to meet one of the School’s professors who presents their vision of teaching, their methods for transmitting their expertise and passion to students and shares their best memories and stories at IÉSEG.

This month, we are meeting Pascale Patat-Dubouis, Professor of Marketing at IÉSEG.

Wi did you choose to become a professor?

I worked for 30 years in the corporate world and I wanted to change careers. I had been working with schools for about 10 years, co-writing cases and speaking as a professional. Then, I had a reflection on my professional future and I told myself that it was the right time to move on to something different, to give meaning to my activity. I had taken over all the positions I could in a company. My motivation was to become a ” facilitator “, to transmit knowledge.

What is your background?

I am a graduate of ESCP Europe and IAE Paris where I did a Research Master in 2017. I am currently a PhD student at the University of Le Mans in parallel to my activity at IÉSEG. I work at IÉSEG 3 days per week and on my thesis on Accidental Brand Alliances the rest of the time.

Before joining the School, I worked in France, in the industrial and distribution sectors. I spent about 20 years in the Philips group where I held different positions: Sales, Human Resources and Marketing. I was lucky enough to have a transversal career path with different jobs, changing positions every 3 or 4 years. I was a key accountant, HR manager and marketing manager. Then I moved to Carglass where I was sales and marketing director. Finally, at Hygena I was marketing and communication director. Since I became a professor, I started by doing temporary jobs in different schools and then I found my permanent position at IÉSEG in January 2019.

What is your area of expertise? What courses do you teach at the School?

I have a double role as I am both a professor and Academic Director of the Sales Management & Business Development program in Executive Education. I teach at the Bachelor and Master levels of the Grande École program, as well as in the “Digital Marketing & Innovation” apprenticeship program and at the Executive Education level. I teach courses on operational marketing with “Marketing fundamentals” and “Advanced marketing mix” as well as on “Brand management”. In the Executive program, I teach two courses: “From marketing strategy to commercial development” through which I try to make professionals who are salespeople understand what a marketing strategy is and how to develop it through a marketing policy and then through commercial actions, and courses on thesis methods. Through the latter, I bring something very academic within the reach of professionals and that requires an effort to succeed, because for example, learning to read an academic article is not necessarily easy for a professional. One of the first things I do is to teach them to trust themselves. This course helps develop the skills necessary to succeed in a thesis, but also to progress in self-knowledge, project management and intellectual rigor.

Why did you choose IÉSEG?

It all came down to the people I met. When you have a lot of experience and change careers, you know who you want to work with. For the past 3 years, I have noticed that these values are indeed experienced and implemented on a daily basis. When I chose IÉSEG, it was a fundamental criterion for me to work with people who had common humanistic values with mine. Of course, the fact that the School is renowned also helped motivate my choice.

How do you relate to the values and mission of the School?

I put myself at the service of my students, as if they were “clients” in a way. Without talking about clientelism, of course! For me, the term “client” means that I am dealing with a person who has a need, a desire, but that it is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. A teacher has to capture the attention of his students and make them want to learn. I therefore try to understand how they function, what their needs and motivations are, so it’s a real marketing and sales approach. Giving a course is not the same as giving a lecture; it’s really about getting the students to participate, to listen, to be curious, to understand, and also to challenge them. The difference with a client is that, as a professor, you have to give them grades!

What do you like most about your teaching experience at IÉSEG?

One of the things I particularly like is the variety of people I teach, as it covers a very broad spectrum: from 19-20 year-old Bachelor students to professionals who can be over 50 years old. I also really appreciate the opportunity to teach a variety of subjects.

According to your students, what are your strengths and areas for improvement?

From the feedback I receive, my expertise is acknowledged. And, from a human point of view, they particularly appreciate the individual feedback I give them. I think that feedback is very important because it is what allows us to learn. The density of my classes is quite important because I am passionate about what I teach and I tend to want to transmit a lot of things; this is a thing I could improve.

What teaching methods do you use to teach your courses?

I try as much as possible to have real cases, which we call “live” cases, that I build with companies for my students because I find that it has a real impact to receive a person who comes to explain his concrete problem and who looks for solutions. I use my network and that of the School to achieve this. I also try to vary the activities: plenary sessions, group work, quizzes…

How do you transmit your passion to your students?

My students feel that I love what I talk about and that I know my field well. I share with them my experience in business, which is something that not all professors have and which is one of my assets.

How do you experience the international dimension at the School?

I feel the international dimension on the one hand because I teach mostly in English and because most of my colleagues are foreigners, so we are constantly immersed in an intercultural dimension. We always communicate in English. There are very different cultures and it is interesting to see that each culture behaves differently when working in groups. I have always worked in international contexts and this is something important to me, a dimension I wanted to keep when I joined IESEG.

One of your best memories at the School so far?

In Greek, there is the word “kairos”, which is the decisive moment when something happens. It was with the second cohort of my program… They had a Key Account Strategy course at the beginning of the program. There was a pretty tough assignment for them and I saw them all together around a computer, working as a team, without being asked to do so. And then I felt that something was happening between them. I realized that all the work we do at IÉSEG to get students to be united and work together really paid off. That moment really stuck with me.

On the other hand, I like very much to accompany theses and the moment when we bring the student to the presentation is a strong moment. It’s one of those little moments of happiness that you get in your job.

How has the School evolved since your arrival?

We can see more and more clearly the central place of CSR in the School’s strategy. It is a real differentiating factor and, in my opinion, it is the right direction to take because we want to train the responsible leaders of tomorrow.

How do you take part in the life of the School outside of class?

I participate in open days and I am very active on social networks because I think that the role of a professor is also to promote his/her school and his/her students. I try to get involved in internal School events when I can. I also just trained for the Climate Fresk as a volunteer and I conducted my first fresk with students. This allows me to contribute to the School’s strategy, to help students become more competent on these subjects and finally, to develop my own skills. This initiative seems important to me because the School is in a sustainable development process, and I think that professors should also be involved.