HEC Lausanne Executive MBA on tour! Next stop: Milan!

Our Class of 2022 recently came back from Milan after a week studying at SDA Bocconi. An intense week full of interesting lectures and courses, company visits and enriching experiences. The Executive MBA module abroad never disappoints!

If Rome stands for the Italian dolce vita at its best, Milan is more the kind of city where the Grasshopper and the Ant fable could be set – with the milanesi being of course the ant! In Milan, in the regional dialect spoken by the elderly, there is a saying: “A Milan, anca i moron fann l’uga”, which translates in “in Milan, even flowers make grapes”, meaning that the people from Milan can turn everything into something profitable. Known to be home of hard workers and brilliant entrepreneurs, the city and the whole Lombardy region are well known to be amongst the top in several industries: from banks to textile industry, from design to fashion or again, in the automotive industry.

As part of the Executive MBA curriculum, students have the chance of spending a week in Milan at SDA Bocconi. The programme of the week usually offers a balance of lectures with SDA Bocconi’s top professors, case studies and company visits. During this intense week, students can discover different business realities and challenges while being inspired by different ways of thinking. This month was the turn of Class of 2022 to spend a week in Milan, right before taking a couple of weeks off from EMBA for some more than deserved holidays.

The stay in Milan started with lectures by SDA Bocconi Professors who, throughout the whole week, gave students a greater understanding of sales, marketing, procurement and supply chain management. Participants were very satisfied with the programme proposed by SDA Bocconi as courses were very “very tangible and very concrete” according to students. Indeed, the business school is very well connected with the economic network of the whole Lombardy region and this results in professors bringing top-quality practical examples in the classrooms where “the key subject is how to deal with challenges”. Along with classes by SDA Bocconi’s professors, participants attended guest lectures by top company managers as Carlo Panigati, Head of Procurement at Luxottica or again Marco Rombi, Head of International market division at Chiesi Farmaceutici. Definitely an added value to the week away from HEC Lausanne!

The week at SDA Bocconi was not only made of lectures in some university auditoriums. In addition to an already dense agenda, participants visited some top companies in the Lombardy region. On Monday afternoon, the class hopped on a bus headed to Meda, just outside Milan metropolitan area, to visit the famous Cassina company: a great and successful example of design and manufacturing “made in Italy”. On Wednesday, right after morning lectures, participants went to Modena to visit the Maserati plant, another brilliant example of a company known all over the world. The visit was a great occasion not only to get an insight view of the plant and how things work at Maserati, but also to get insights from Stefano Michelini and Davide Esposito, Head of Supply Chain Management and Head of Purchasing, who gave students a deepen glimpse on this luxury brand known and renowned all over the world.

“It was interesting to visit two different companies and get access to the production line which is something that one usually doesn’t have access to. Having presentations from the companies managers has also been very interesting, especially in terms of supply chains. Also because, some people in the class are more experienced than others in this domain, so it was also interesting to compare their visions and experience with the experience of executives within the companies.”

Chiara, Class of 2022

As a part of the Executive MBA and thanks to our longstanding partnerships with SDA Bocconi, our participants can spend one week studying in a renowned institution in a foreign country and visiting local companies selected for their outstanding business principles and practices. The module abroad is part of the curriculum here at the HEC Lausanne Executive MBA and it is also one of the reasons why our students decide to take on this career-changing experience.

Discover more on the HEC Lausanne Executive MBA curriculum by downloading our Brochure or by getting in touch with us.