Academic partnerships: business cases are put to the test.

Raidlight Vertical and PME Centrale: two companies, two business sectors, two different styles of Management, but both with open-minded leaders ready to develop academic collaborations with students and their professors. A true win-win approach. 

Starting with Benoit Laval, founder of Raidlight-Vertical, creator and producer of sport devices for trail, running and light hiking. A meeting made possible thanks to the Academic Director of the first year of Master’s in International Business Realities, Noémie DOMINGUEZ. Accustomed to challenges, the CEO did not hesitate to dare students to give him recommendations regarding strategic and international developments; no less! “I did not have specific expectations considering that the questions I asked were tough. These things are not always written internally hence the interest of the approach: getting a kind of mirror of the business, an external feedback on how the company is seen. Students cannot know everything about the company and it gives them a freedom that we do not have. It also allowed us to rediscover ideas that were cast aside. At the end, we only keep 5 or 10% of the ideas but it is not a waste of time.”



Eventually, two recommendations over three years will be selected for two brands, one of which with a high international development.

Another framework, another profile: students in their second year of Master’s in Diagnosis and Auditing of Organizations worked on the 360-degree feedback of PME Centrale under the supervision of the charismatic CEO, Gaétan de Sainte Marie, and Marie-Christine Chalus-Sauvannet, Academic Director. Students worked in groups and brought their A-game during the debrief session, mobilizing the methodological tools they learnt: PEST, Porter and SWOT analysis…Based on these analysis, students came out with strategic recommendations which amazed the founder of the 1st purchasing platform for SME’s in France. “You summarized the stakes of PME Centrale well. I was amazed by your ability to dig and find information. I am even a bit worried. You put microphones in the offices, didn’t you? Anyway, you presented great ideas to me which I will keep in mind. I am glad I came!”. The new collaborative model matches more than ever the new economic patterns and the ambitions of young collaborators.  It is also a great way to work on the employer brand. 

We warmly thank Mr. Laval and Mr. de Sainte Marie for their enthusiasm and their availability. Congratulations to the students and the faculty who allowed them to discover theses new fields of collaboration.