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HEC Paris - Net Impact Club

Presidents of the Net Impact club give insight on the future of the global environment

By  

Sat Sep 22 2012

BusinessBecause
Vivien Barbier has worked at Zoran as a Field Application Engineer and R&D Software Engineer, and has a keen interest for renewable energy and entrepreneurship. He’s now studying an MBA at HEC and is director of the Sustainable Business Conference Event and vice-president of the Net Impact Club. Shohei Maekawa worked as Assistant Director at Mitsui & Co and has strong interests in areas of CSR, Global Corporate Citizenship, UN Global Compact and OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises. Shohei is also studying an MBA at HEC, where he is president of the Net Impact Club. I caught up with them last month, where they spoke about studying in Paris, the future of the global environment and economic growth.

What are the main features of your roles?
Vivien is the vice-president of the Net Impact Club and the director of Sustainable Business Conference (SBC). SBC is one of the most important events of our club and of HEC Paris itself. Approximately 1200 participants, including CEOs, Executives, professors, and students of all over the world will gather together to think and discuss how to create sustainable businesses.
Shohei is the president of the Net Impact HEC Paris Chapter. His role is to lead the club to achieve our mission: "Develop leaders who will use their skills to make a positive social, environmental, and economic impact.”

How many people are there in the Net Impact Club?
At the moment (June 30, 2012), we have 92 members registered.

What do you think are the main benefits of doing an MBA in Paris?
In general, as Paris is located in the centre of Europe, we are able to reach many important business centres of other European countries. This strength eventually provides us more opportunities to participate in many conferences or events all over Europe, and to easily collaborate with other top business schools on the continent. In addition, HEC Paris alumni counts for the 4th largest number of CEOs in fortune 500 all over the world, which greatly expands our networking opportunities.
With regards to the area of corporate responsibility and sustainable developments, as the European Union is very conscious of today’s challenges in these areas, many companies are very active in pursuing balanced growth of the triple bottom line. Paris provides us more chances to get closer to these ideas by talking with people and engaging in issues related to these topics.

The conclusion of the recent Rio environmental conference appears to have yielded very little. Is the reality that it’s almost impossible to promote a green agenda when the world is in recession?
We think it is possible. Although Rio +20 successfully issued “The future we want” and finished with an agreement about the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2015, it is considered unsuccessful because aspirational goals and targets proposed by EU were not included. The result could be due to the lack of attendances from G8 summits but I think it is more because of the difficulty of consensus building among developed countries and developing countries.
At the same time, if we see outcomes of Rio +20 in detail, we can see that the conference actually extracted many commitments, especially from the private sector, despite current global depression. I think this fact is significant when we consider that companies are gaining more influence in global society and that it is difficult to reach an inter-governmental global consensus.
We have to recognise that there are roughly two categories of companies’ sustainable activities (green agenda in the question would be included in these sustainable activities): Activities not related to core businesses and activities related to core businesses. Activities not related to core businesses, such as corporate philanthropies or corporate donations, can be reduced during recessions. However, activities related to core businesses can be actually promoted during recessions. For instance, companies will be more proactive to increase energy efficiencies of production processes, as doing so will decrease their costs. Consumers will demand products with less costs for electrics during recessions and such changes in customer behaviour would incentivise companies toward product innovations for some industries or companies.

What would you say to those who maintain that inequality remains one of the main drivers of economic growth?
I disagree with the idea that inequality remains one of the main drivers of economic growth, although I admit that current economic growth is based on inequality. Inequality should not be left ignored because it will eventually generate instability of society and hence will endanger economic growth.
We need to construct both internal and global systems of income distribution that enables us at least to guarantee the right to life to everyone in the world, while the ideal is to diminish inequality.
We believe that companies have a strong influence in correcting inequality and ignoring the inequality – that is, ignoring their stakeholders will not provide them with sustainable growth; in the current environment, there is a huge risk of being attacked by communities they belong to or by associations, including NGOs and NPOs. Companies that integrated stakeholder benefits into their core business strategies can satisfy both economic growth and correction of inequality. We believe that such strategies will soon become standard.

Would big transfer payments from Germany to Southern Europe be enough to convince investors that Europe had become a safe bet?
While other European countries such as France are also expending money to save countries in crisis through the European Union, Germany is the absolute economic centre of the EU and it has the largest influence on EU decisions related to the current European credit crisis.
While their decisions and expenses may get investors to settle down in the short term, we are not sure if that is the case for the long term. Structural problems of the EU, such as the responsibility of fiscal policy is still located in each member country, or unfavourable situations of fundamental economies and political instabilities of Greece and other southern European countries remain unchanged. Unless these underlying issues are solved, uncertainty would remain.

In the current environment, why would investments in charitable/non-profit organizations be more effective than channelling these funds straight into government expenditure?
Whether investments are effective or not, depends on which organisations are invested in. There could be several reasons that justify the effectiveness of investments in NPOs. Generally NPOs are considered to know more about actual situations in situ and therefore can tackle the problems quicker and more effectively than governments do.
In addition, the current environment is unprecedentedly supportive of NPOs. More and more people (and hence talents) are interested in working for NPOs. The number of donations, which normally are the best way to secure financing for many NPOs, is increasing all over the world due to developing IT and changes in people’s mind-sets. Organisations that support activities of NPOs are also emerging all over the world. Net Impact, for instance, is one of the organisations that enable NPOs to raise funds and recruit talents.
However, we believe that it is still necessary for NPOs to cooperate with governments and companies who have the authority and capability to make NPOs’ activities more effective and sustainable.

Student Reviews

HEC Paris

Student

Verified

7/07/2022

On Campus

Cultural experience

I have met the most competent and diverse batch in this school. These people not only thrive on their own but also makes sure that you are doing it with them. The professors will take your had and walk you through all milestones and make sure you are not left behind. I have found their extracurriculars extremely engaging. There was always a room to have social life after academic life. The only hindrance is the location of the school, it is slightly outside city and living in city is expensive.

Sarah

Verified

18/03/2022

On Campus

Internationality and diversity of opportunities

About my programme I would say it is very international and flexible: we have the opportunity to choose exactly the courses we want. But at the same time, the frame of the campus is crucial in students' life and enable us to create friendships.

Student

Verified

29/10/2021

On Campus

Great selection of people

While HEC's MBA is highly selective, I really enjoy the type of people HEC's selects to make sure everybody gets the best out of their MBA experience and networking opportunities. Not only it's an incredibly diverse pool of people (~60 nationalities) but most importantly they make sure to let in friendly empathic and curious people.

Veronique

Verified

28/10/2021

Blended

Best in France for Grande ecole

A prestigious business school. Languages ​​are important. It is better to have a scientific baccalaureate with excellent grades in high school and good assessments. The courses are well designed as per the latest trends and practicality of learning in stressed upon. Overall, a very good experience.

Ghadi

Verified

11/06/2022

On Campus

Diversity and quality of fellow students

Very international and interesting place to be and opens a lot of opportunities, however the administration is very french and facilities are subpar (gym, classrooms) meaning the academic affairs is pretty much useless and lastly we are graded on a curve which can create a toxic environment because of the competition. With that being said the pros outweighs the cons by far.

Student

Verified

27/03/2022

On Campus

The quality of the teachers, the campus, the clubs

The school is very international indeed, we have courses with international students and share things with them within the extra academic life (in the social clubs especially). We have great career prospects if we prepare ourselves well - however, the global curriculum is still very finance-oriented, which is a pity for other interesting domains of the company world, which does not rely on finance only. The social clubs are good practice for the management and for now, are quite independent.

Lb

Verified

26/03/2022

On Campus

HEC Paris awaits you

HEC Paris is really a nice place to do a master's in business. Many classes are useful and interesting (corporate finance, financial accounting, contract law…), some are less - but the curriculum is to be reviewed in the year to come. Regarding the student life, it is incredible, with about 130 clubs, lots of great parties with even greater people. The Jouy campus offers a lot of opportunities to do sports, and you can breathe fresh air every day. HEC also helps a great deal to find an internship or a job.

Rajarshi

Verified

28/10/2021

Blended

A dream institute

Enrolling in the HEC MBA was by far the best decision I made for myself. The people and faculty are great, with lots of opportunities to meet people and expand your horizons. Very nice campus where I have had some good running sessions. The alumni network is superb and very helpful. It also has a good support system for entrepreneurs. Would definitely recommend it!

Student

Verified

19/10/2021

On Campus

Good choice for a career boost

The classes were extremely practical and relevant to the current challenges that businesses are facing. You have access to a wide range of professionals and good career prospects once you leave the university.

Student

Verified

7/07/2022

On Campus

Cultural experience

I have met the most competent and diverse batch in this school. These people not only thrive on their own but also makes sure that you are doing it with them. The professors will take your had and walk you through all milestones and make sure you are not left behind. I have found their extracurriculars extremely engaging. There was always a room to have social life after academic life. The only hindrance is the location of the school, it is slightly outside city and living in city is expensive.

Sarah

Verified

18/03/2022

On Campus

Internationality and diversity of opportunities

About my programme I would say it is very international and flexible: we have the opportunity to choose exactly the courses we want. But at the same time, the frame of the campus is crucial in students' life and enable us to create friendships.

Student

Verified

29/10/2021

On Campus

Great selection of people

While HEC's MBA is highly selective, I really enjoy the type of people HEC's selects to make sure everybody gets the best out of their MBA experience and networking opportunities. Not only it's an incredibly diverse pool of people (~60 nationalities) but most importantly they make sure to let in friendly empathic and curious people.

Veronique

Verified

28/10/2021

Blended

Best in France for Grande ecole

A prestigious business school. Languages ​​are important. It is better to have a scientific baccalaureate with excellent grades in high school and good assessments. The courses are well designed as per the latest trends and practicality of learning in stressed upon. Overall, a very good experience.

Ghadi

Verified

11/06/2022

On Campus

Diversity and quality of fellow students

Very international and interesting place to be and opens a lot of opportunities, however the administration is very french and facilities are subpar (gym, classrooms) meaning the academic affairs is pretty much useless and lastly we are graded on a curve which can create a toxic environment because of the competition. With that being said the pros outweighs the cons by far.

Student

Verified

27/03/2022

On Campus

The quality of the teachers, the campus, the clubs

The school is very international indeed, we have courses with international students and share things with them within the extra academic life (in the social clubs especially). We have great career prospects if we prepare ourselves well - however, the global curriculum is still very finance-oriented, which is a pity for other interesting domains of the company world, which does not rely on finance only. The social clubs are good practice for the management and for now, are quite independent.

Lb

Verified

26/03/2022

On Campus

HEC Paris awaits you

HEC Paris is really a nice place to do a master's in business. Many classes are useful and interesting (corporate finance, financial accounting, contract law…), some are less - but the curriculum is to be reviewed in the year to come. Regarding the student life, it is incredible, with about 130 clubs, lots of great parties with even greater people. The Jouy campus offers a lot of opportunities to do sports, and you can breathe fresh air every day. HEC also helps a great deal to find an internship or a job.

Rajarshi

Verified

28/10/2021

Blended

A dream institute

Enrolling in the HEC MBA was by far the best decision I made for myself. The people and faculty are great, with lots of opportunities to meet people and expand your horizons. Very nice campus where I have had some good running sessions. The alumni network is superb and very helpful. It also has a good support system for entrepreneurs. Would definitely recommend it!

Student

Verified

19/10/2021

On Campus

Good choice for a career boost

The classes were extremely practical and relevant to the current challenges that businesses are facing. You have access to a wide range of professionals and good career prospects once you leave the university.

Student

Verified

1/06/2024

On Campus

Diverse

HEC, as an academic institution, serves as a launching pad for students to excel in their pursuits and careers. The diversity among students and professors is truly remarkable. The chance to attend seminars across five major continents is unparalleled. The exposure and relationships it fosters are invaluable.

Student

Verified

31/05/2024

On Campus

Super diverse

It's a super diverse and fascinating environment with tons of chances, but the management is very French, and the facilities like the gym and classrooms are not great. This makes the academic side quite ineffective. Plus, we're graded on a curve, leading to a competitive and sometimes toxic atmosphere. Despite all that, the benefits definitely overshadow the drawbacks.

John

Verified

10/06/2024

On Campus

Surreal academic experience

What stood out to me about HEC was the direction and insight it offered on coding approaches. Prior to joining the program, I attempted self-learning, but I felt disoriented and lacked a starting point.HEC enabled me to grasp the basics of programming and provided support when I encountered obstacles. Without that guidance, I doubt I would have achieved the progress I have made to date.

John

Verified

10/06/2024

On Campus

Good security

HEC boasts a dedicated team of security personnel who undergo rigorous training to ensure the perpetual maintenance of tranquility and orderliness within the institution. Their unwavering efforts are directed towards fostering a sense of security among the student body, thereby enabling them to channel their energies predominantly towards their academic pursuits.

Student

Verified

17/07/2024

On Campus

Innovative teaching method

I am thoroughly enjoying my time at HEC, from the innovative teaching methods to the welcoming campus environment, which is particularly supportive of international students. The extracurricular opportunities, such as sports and associations, are incredibly valuable. Additionally, the career services offered are exceptional. Overall, I find my experience at HEC to be truly enriching.

Student

Verified

3/10/2024

On Campus

mim

HEC Paris has been a transformative experience for me. The caliber of the faculty, the diversity of the student body, and the global network it offers are unmatched. The curriculum is highly flexible, allowing students to tailor their learning experience to their career goals, and the focus on real-world application through case studies and consulting projects provides invaluable hands-on experience. The campus itself is beautiful, and the opportunities to engage with leading companies through internships, competitions, and networking events have been incredible. HEC truly prepares you to be a leader in today's complex business world. I couldn’t have asked for a better program to propel my career forward.

Student

Verified

21/09/2024

On Campus

Unwavering enthusiasm

Here's the first paragraph: I embarked on a journey to Paris, where HEC University welcomed me with open arms. As I stepped onto its prestigious campus, I was captivated by the infectious energy and innovative spirit that filled the air. The passionate faculty, industry experts, and fellow visionaries from around the globe shared their knowledge with unwavering enthusiasm."

Student

Verified

9/10/2024

On Campus

Exceptional Experience

HEC offers an exceptional experience that I highly recommend. The small-town setting allows for a unique blend of academic rigor and community engagement. The peaceful campus and close-knit student body create a warm environment. Proactive engagement with professors yields valuable guidance. Friendships may blossom slowly, but persistence pays off. The city's beauty, scenic views, and diverse eateries near campus enrich the experience. University dining may not impress, but it's decent.

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