Miguel Suarez, Director of MSc Business Consulting and Digital Transformation at SKEMA Business School has not always been a professor. His previous experience has shaped his vision of teaching and enabled him to anticipate the challenges his students have to face.
Miguel, tell us more about your professional background.
I was born in Lima, Peru where I studied Industrial Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica. After a short professional experience as assembly line supervisor in a fish factory in the beautiful coast of Lima, I realised that I needed some business acumen. I wanted to make an impact not only on the factory but on the whole corporation.
Thus, I moved to the United Kingdom to do a MBA at London Business School. After graduation at the age of 25, I was offered a job at McKinsey in Spain and started advising European Corporations (and their little factories) in supply chain management. To McKinsey followed stages at Accenture, Deloitte and lastly Miebach Consulting, where I was sent to Mexico to lead their activities in Central and South America. During all those intense years, I managed to found a family, whom I barely saw. Thus, the logical move was to leave consulting and head to industry, when I turned 40.
I joined Kotanyi in Austria, a spice and seasonings manufacturer, then the fashion jewellery producer and retailer Swarovski in Liechtenstein, and lastly, Lafarge in France, a cement producer. I joined all those companies as a Supply Chain Senior Executive, responsible for financial and operational results and for hundreds of employees around the world. Professionally speaking I was already where I dreamed to be, yet it was not enough for me. Then, when I was 50 years old, I decided to resign, to join Vienna University of Economics and Business to do a PhD and teach. Shortly after my PhD graduation I received an offer from SKEMA and moved to Antibes to become the Programme Director of the MSc Business Consulting and Digital Transformation.
What are your main responsibilities as a Programme Director?
Firstly, to design a Programme based on the competences top consulting firms are looking for. Secondly, to search and select the right mix of academics and practitioners for whom teaching is not an obligation but a joy. Thirdly, to establish the right degree of collaboration with top consulting firms to facilitate the hiring of the graduates. Fourthly, to guide and influence the minds of the students, conveying the right values and attitudes. Lastly, to optimise internal processes for a smooth implementation.
One of SKEMA’s values is “Acting for the World”. How do you include it in the MSc Business Consulting and Digital Transformation?
All practitioner lecturers engaging in the MSc have a multinational academic and professional background, working in various countries with global responsibilities. Furthermore, all key courses of the Programme emphasise the importance of a sustainable and ethical approach when managing, operating and transforming a company. Finally, students are exposed to day to day client experience, confronted to company issues that affect the performance and lives of stakeholders and consumers around the world.
What societal challenges will your students face in the future?
I definitely see three key societal trends that are and will continue changing the business environment: climate change and sustainability, hyper connectivity, growing income inequality. The first will have an impact on the way we understand and run business, the second will influence our work/life balance and the third will motivate us to continuous learning to avoid competencies obsolescence.
What are the main outputs of the programme and how do you foresee its future?
After several years of successfully running the MSc Business Consulting and Digital Transformation, we have decided to grow both geographically and content wise. In close collaboration with my colleague Christophe Bisson, leading the MSc International Strategy and Influence, we will create a joint Management Consulting Master, in both Campuses, Paris and Sophia, covering four consulting-oriented specialisations: digital transformation, sustainability, business intelligence and securité économique. In that way, our students will be best prepared to join top international consulting companies in the areas of high growth of the future.