Digital Workshop Competition ESSEC 2019 : Masters students from the Cergy and Singapore campuses work as Digital Consulting Agencies

ESSEC Business School organized the second edition of the Digital Workshop Competition, from February 25 to 27, on two campuses at the same time. The students of the Master in Finance, the Master in Data Sciences & Business Analytics and the MSc in Marketing Management and Digital, divided into 28 teams on the campuses of Cergy and Singapore, worked on digital (data, management transformation, digital offers) issues proposed by different companies: Artefact,  Candriam, Coca-Cola Enterprises, EY, Natixis, OUI.sncf, Société Générale.

Discover the testimonies of Thibauld Hamaide, a Master in Finance student from the Cergy campus, and Devaindran Indran, a Master in Finance student from the Singapore campus.

- What did you take away from this event?

Thibauld: This event helped me to step out of my comfort zone. We had to work on the marketing side of a mobile application while also focusing on the design. Although the background was financial, this workshop helped me to understand a financial product as a whole and taught me to not just look at the financial and technical details.

Devaindran: The event introduced real problems of today’s companies to students and was conducted well.

- Why is it interesting for you to work on real business issues?

Thibauld: It is interesting because we have received useful feedback from our coaches, who work in these companies. As a student, it is sometimes difficult to have the perspective to see what really matters. Moreover, thanks to this Workshop, we had to make a pitch in English in front of professionals, as we will have to do in the near future. Therefore, it was  great training!

Devaindran: It was exciting and refreshing to work on a practical project as it gave both my team and me great exposure to what industry experts do, and also to what kind of problems they solve in the real world.

- What did you think of the teamwork format?

Thibauld: The teamwork format is essential for the Digital Workshop Competition because we had to mix many ideas, thanks to the different students from other ESSEC Business School programs.  Each student has his own perspective and it is very useful for a project. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. The latter is more important for this competition and for our career.

Devaindran: The mix of both marketing and finance students was a great idea to combine ideas from two different streams of thought, and the students were distributed well.