From global leadership and geopolitics to innovation, sustainability, luxury and entrepreneurship, the International Immersion of IIM Bangalore’s EPGP Class of 2027 brought participants to France for two weeks of academic learning and business discovery, including a dedicated week at ESSEC Business School.
IIM Bangalore at ESSEC: two weeks of international business learning in France
8.10.2026
What can an international business school residency offer beyond the classroom?
For the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore’s EPGP Class of 2027, the answer came through two weeks in France, combining academic learning, business encounters, cultural experiences and a closer look at the forces shaping European business.
As part of their International Immersion, the cohort explored Paris and the wider French business landscape. The second week was hosted at ESSEC Business School, where participants combined classroom sessions with company visits, simulations and experiential learning.
The collaboration between IIM Bangalore and ESSEC Executive Education brought together two international academic environments and connected business concepts with the realities of another market and culture.
At ESSEC Business School, participants examined intercultural communication and global leadership, looking at how cultural, organizational and professional differences influence communication and decision making.
They also explored the growing connection between geopolitics and business, from supply chain vulnerabilities and political risk to changing global alliances and the evolving role of China.
The program then moved beyond the classroom. Visits to Le Village by CA and Bpifrance offered insights into France’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the relationships between startups, investors, institutions and established companies.
A visit to the Champagne region provided another perspective on business. The history of the industry became a case study in branding, market creation, supply and demand, and the value of heritage.
The week concluded with a strategy session exploring what it means to make strategic choices in conditions of uncertainty, drawing on cases including Nespresso, The Economist and IKEA.
The second week brought the cohort to ESSEC Business School for a program focused on innovation, sustainability, luxury, negotiation and entrepreneurship in Europe.
Accompanied by Professor Ludvig Levasseur from the Entrepreneurship area, participants spent five days combining classroom sessions with industry engagements and experiential learning.
Innovation was one of the first themes explored. A hands-on Design Thinking session introduced participants to the process of understanding users, defining problems, developing ideas, prototyping and testing solutions. The emphasis was not simply on generating ideas, but on understanding whether they address problems that people value.
The question of innovation then moved into the corporate world during a visit to Leonard, VINCI’s innovation and foresight platform. Participants discovered how a large international group works with startups, researchers and emerging technologies while supporting innovation within the organization.
At ESSEC Executive Education, sustainability was approached as a business challenge involving different time horizons, competing priorities and strategic choices.
Professor Tommaso Ramus invited participants to examine the tensions between creating value for society and capturing value for the business. Through cases including Nike and Danone, the discussion explored the difference between compliance, sustainability strategy and long term transformation.
The program then turned to luxury. Looking at brands such as Chanel, Dior and Tiffany, participants explored how heritage, identity, symbolism and storytelling contribute to long term brand value.
The discussion also highlighted a central challenge for luxury brands: heritage can provide a strong foundation, but it cannot replace the need to remain relevant.
This question of value continued through an exploration of luxury wine, examining the role of quality, origin, scarcity, reputation, time and experience in determining what consumers are willing to pay.
Negotiation offered another perspective on leadership. Through a cross cultural negotiation session and simulation, participants explored how preparation, stakeholders, trust, alternatives and process can shape an outcome before an agreement is reached.
The residency also looked towards the future. A session on generative AI for innovation challenged participants to think beyond using technology to make existing tasks faster. The discussion focused instead on the new possibilities that can emerge when a new technology enters the business environment.
The final discussions returned to entrepreneurship, examining why Europe produces successful startups but can face challenges when scaling them internationally. The session explored factors including fragmented markets, later stage funding, talent and regulation, while also considering areas where Europe could have a competitive advantage.
Across two weeks, the IIM Bangalore cohort experienced France not simply as a destination, but as a business environment to question, explore and understand.
From intercultural leadership and geopolitics to startups, sustainability, luxury, negotiation, AI and European entrepreneurship, the residency connected academic expertise with first hand experiences.
For ESSEC Executive Education, welcoming the EPGP Class of 2027 was an opportunity to continue its collaboration with IIM Bangalore through an immersive learning experience. Participants engaged with ESSEC faculty, companies and the wider French business ecosystem.
For the participants, the residency offered the opportunity to step outside their usual context, test their perspectives against a different business environment and return with new questions about how organizations create, capture and sustain value.
An international residency can do more than introduce participants to another market. It can also offer a different way of looking at business.
Sources :
IIM Bangalore, EPGP Student International Immersion, Paris 2026
IIM Bangalore, EPGP Student International Immersion, Paris 2026, Part 2
Interested in organising a Residency with ESSEC Executive Education?
Feel free to contact Kanika Bharadwaj, Client Director, Incoming Residencies, at bharadwaj@essec.edu.
