Reflets Magazine #151 | Marie-Pierre Schickel (E95), Managing Director of ESSEC Alumni: ‘Don’t Be Afraid To Dare’

In Reflets Mag #151, Marie-Pierre Schickel (E95) reveals her road map, a hundred days after taking over from Stéphanie Bouvier Jossermoz (E94) as Managing Director of ESSEC Alumni. Here is a free online translation of the article… subscribe to get the next issues (in French)!

Reflets Magazine: To introduce yourself to our alumni, could you tell us a little about your background?

Marie-Pierre Schickel: I come from Châlons-sur-Marne, a town in eastern France. On leaving school and following the advice of friends, I opted for the Ginette preparatory course. I was attracted to this course for its business studies and opening to the world. I then joined ESSEC and seized every opportunity in the business world that came my way, such as work placements, especially abroad. I spent four months in London in Seagram’s international office, went to Chicago on an exchange programme, and to Japan for ten months. That sums up my studies.

RM: And on the work side?

M.-P. Schickel: The multidisciplinary aspect of consulting appealed to me, so I spent four years with Bain, including 2 in Boston, interspersed with three months in London. Then the internet bubble came along. On the one hand, I didn’t really see myself as an entrepreneur. On the other, I wanted to experience company life from the inside. At that time, I followed a manager assigned to running Club Med’s strategy department and stayed there for six years. I was based in Paris but with around a hundred clubs worldwide, I travelled a great deal for my job. Then my family life offered me the opportunity to move to Italy for the Club. The idea of discovering a culture from the inside really appealed to me. I stayed there for 20 years!

RM: In Italy, you began with Club Med and ended up in education.

M.-P. Schickel: Yes, after three years as Communication and Marketing Director promoting the Club Med brand with an Italian client base, followed by a stint in freelancing, I decided to go back to school; it’s my ‘lifelong learner’ side. I enrolled in the Domus Academy to do a masters in Business Design. I studied alongside designers who wanted to understand business. Up until then, I’d done marketing, quality/quantity surveys and focus groups, etc. Designers see the user very differently, with empathy. They focus on trying to understand personalities and their needs, drawing on ethnography or sociology if necessary...so I obviously fell in love with design. I went from learning to teaching and the Domus academy asked me to launch a masters in luxury brand management, which I oversaw for six years.

RM: Did your work in teaching confirm your desire to pass on knowledge?

M.-P. Schickel: Yes, in the last five years prior to my return to Paris, I was actively involved in a business incubator. I mentored start-ups via a business angels group. It’s one thing to work with an entrepreneur on their solution, business model or go-to-market and so on, but it’s another to become an investor. You become more involved, you invest money and yourself. Passing on knowledge became a common thread, through teaching, creating programmes, or as a mentor for the Young Women Network. My commitment to ESSEC Alumni is a natural follow-on, especially with the ‘Inspire’ pillar, which strives to offer role models to young generations. We’re often too humble at ESSEC. You must have your voice heard, you cannot imagine the effect it can have on students and young graduates.

RM: How has your career helped in your present position?

M.-P. Schickel: For everything I’ve just spoken about. I can identify with the ‘Connect’ pillar particularly, because I’m a people person. I don’t mean just within the network, but on a community level. It’s impossible for us to tackle the challenges of the present alone. We live in a society where people at the height of their abilities can find it difficult to bounce back after the age of 50, whether in an economic crisis or not. It can happen to anyone. What do you do in that case? Dare to ask for help; it’s crucial. Having the ‘Support’ pillar at the heart of our task at ESSEC Alumni is thus vital.

RM: What inspired you to get involved in ESSEC Alumni?

M.-P. Schickel: I was independent, but looking for a project and a structure where I could use all the strings in my bow. As I was a member of the Italy Chapter, I got in contact with ESSEC Alumni via its services. That’s when the job vacancy came up and, honestly, when I saw the description, it really made sense for me.

RM: It’s very coherent, in fact.

M.-P. Schickel: The desire to be involved in ESSEC Alumni had an awful lot to do with the ‘give back’ factor. I felt the association could use my varied experience, in addition to my sensibilities with regard to international and intergenerational aspects, in addition to customer knowledge and empathy. I contacted the association when I wanted to go back to my roots. It was a question of timing, but also because I drew on the network.

RM: Let’s talk about ESSEC Alumni. Its specificity, compared to other school organisations, is its independence and the significant role it plays in ESSEC’s governance. What does that imply for you?

M.-P. Schickel: It’s very healthy, because we are all independent, but within a continuum. Not only do we have excellent relations, we also interact a great deal. Our president Olivier Cantet (E87) is on the school’s board of overseers. ESSEC attends our administration board. We ultimately have the same goals. Mine is to promote alumni, which in turn promotes the school.

RM: Does this promotion involve driving the network?

M.-P. Schickel: We must develop the alumni network and the sense of belonging. It’s truly a question of pride, pride which carries meaning and values. We have to create the desire to share that, loud and clear, and that’s a real challenge. We have to optimise our communication media, and not just for French speakers. We need to disseminate everywhere, and encourage our alumni to share this information.

RM: What road map did you receive for this task?

M.-P. Schickel: One thing is certain; this road map is not ‘my’ top-down road map. We are the heirs of a history, of the people who paved the way and their values. Let’s not forget that an organisation such as ESSEC Alumni, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, boasts a rich heritage that we must highlight. My team and our volunteers are thus the messengers of all this. So internationalisation is a key aspect of the road map. In other words, we must help this ever-growing part of our network to emerge.

RM: This internationalisation requires greater digitalisation.

M.-P. Schickel: Beyond the word ‘digitalisation’ which describes lots of things, there is the change in business model with several emerging issues: how do I make my services more accessible to more people, and how do we ensure the offer remains relevant? In the luxury sector, which I am very familiar with, the greatest risk is to age with your customers. You must not be afraid, therefore, to shake off the ball and chain of heritage. When your heritage becomes a burden, you must innovate. With an ever-younger alumni base, we need to understand how to stay connected with the young generations; they have a new ability for self-organisation through digital platforms. You have to know how to evolve. AI, ChatGPT and technological innovations should not scare us, but be taken as opportunities. We must never lose our pioneering spirit. Once again, what makes us indispensable is our intimate knowledge of our alumni and their needs.

RM: I imagine the Lifelong Learning offer is an important element of this road map.

M.-P. Schickel: Absolutely. It’s one of our most recent services. My experience in education is highly relevant here. Our role is to guide. We are aware of the need, master the networks and, above all, are in close contact with the school; we’re familiar with all the fantastic training offers people can benefit from with ESSEC Executive Education, online courses, or conferences. The Lifelong Learning offer goes much further than that, however, with our professional clubs in particular. We live in a world which is evolving so fast that simply being inquisitive is no longer enough. We have to train and learn so as not to be afraid, to keep an open mind. That’s also what Lifelong Learning offers: extensive training, short courses, conferences and knowledge sharing.

RM: So it’s a way of updating our software, so to speak.

M.-P. Schickel: Absolutely, and the higher you go, the greater the need to update. When you become an MD, CEO or head of a business unit and so on, you surround yourself with experts but you need to understand the stakes at play. Not to mention that young generations can do reverse mentoring with more experienced individuals.

RM: On that subject, what about the intergenerational aspect?

M.-P. Schickel: It is also a part of my road map. How can we ensure that our students and young graduates acquire an ESSEC Alumni reflex? A modern, welcoming venue like the new Maison des ESSEC can help to change that mindset. We’re going to focus on developing a bond between students and fresh graduates in our clubs, for example. We need to explore the idea of creating pairs; there is so much to learn from each other. We have to provide offers tailored for every profile, but also offers open to all generations.

RM: You’ve held this position for just over a hundred days now. What can we find in your discovery report?

M.-P. Schickel: For a start, there’s everything ESSEC Alumni does; very good, qualitative work. And its counterpart: how do we make sure people know this? Because the more we do, the more we have to publicise it. Our services are useful and well-designed, supported by teams and volunteers. Another more internal key finding is the fact that I am backed by a dedicated, enthusiastic team, with a sense of mission it is important to protect. The wonderful tool that is the Maison des ESSEC is another priority. I see it as a mass connection tool, for renewing links and synergy. We must promote it to the full, in every sense of the word. It’s a container we have to fill, and alumni need to appropriate it. We’re off to a good start, which you realise when you visit the premises. It’s open to everyone, it’s their home. A last word on the discovery report: four months in and even after, I also want to entitle myself to make mistakes. Once more, we’re allowed to get it wrong, otherwise we’ll never test things.

RM: Where are we at with transition?

M.-P. Schickel: We share the ‘Together to Act’ pillar with the school, which was decided on and officialised two years ago. When the ChangeNOW / Les Échos START ranking listed ESSEC as the most committed business school in environmental and social transition for the second year running, Vincenzo Esposito Vinzi, Dean & President of the ESSEC Group, pointed out that 58% of ESSEC graduates work directly or indirectly in transition. On our side, we began by carrying out a survey to understand our alumni’s expectations in this matter. Since then, we’ve been working actively on awareness, between the 2tonnes workshops and the Climate and Diversity Fresks. At the same time, our community is brimming with alumni who are already committed, with those who have founded companies with a mission, those working in CSR, or impact entrepreneurs, etc. We must draw more on this credibility. This is a major lead for 2024; how can we capitalise on those committed alumni? When we talk about community, it’s not just people who wear the same badge. It’s also about sharing experience, because it’s always easier to believe your peers. This too ties in perfectly with Lifelong Learning. ESSEC members are addressing this question, via the clubs in particular. I’m thinking of the ETA Club (ESSEC Transition Alumni) or the Sustainable Business Club, but also the Travel Club, which recently organised conferences on slow travel and inclusiveness on a HR level, or the Digital & Technology Club, which explores digital impact. How can we boost the emergence of this whole movement and encourage others to take the same path? This is a key question to ask.

RM: A word on the financial health of the Association?

M.-P. Schickel: Lifelong membership has sustained and boosted our means of action, enabling the Association to set up a certain number of essential services adapted to present-day needs. In terms of resources, we’ve reached the famous cruising speed we had anticipated. In other words, with a fast-growing community, we will have to look for additional resources to develop new services.

RM: Will this thus require arbitration?

M.-P. Schickel: Most certainly; as soon as the number of users rises, you have to make choices according to where the value lies. The idea of everything for free does not acknowledge the Association’s actions. The services we offer have a high added value. We are obliged to manage them for our financial health. We will continue to be cautious in terms of governance. We can take risks with the ideas we want to test, but absolutely none when it comes to finance.

RM: To conclude, do you have a message for alumni?

M.-P. Schickel: I think that the future of the Association must be driven by the alumni. I’d therefore like to co-build our future strategic plan with them, which will be a task for 2024. On the school’s side, 2024 marks the touchdown of the RISE strategy. The school has just called on its staff, students and graduates to co-build and explore what makes ESSEC unique and will be important for the future. Alumni will thus be called on regarding the strategic plan for the next four years. This is a healthy approach and I’d like to do the same. Our volunteer alumni who run the 139 clubs and groups and 90 chapters will have a key role to play.

Interview by François de Guillebon, Chief Editor at Reflets Magazine 

Translation of an article published in Reflets Magazine #151. Special offer: read the issue (in French). 

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Image : © Christophe Meireis