Lifetime Learning

PREP FOR THE REAL WORLD

Arnaud Bouvier, President of ESHotel, talks about the French hotel school’s demanding yet ultimately rewarding ‘Project Management Learning’ approach.

ESHotel is a leading French hotel school, with three campuses located in Paris, Lille and London. Our 500 students undertake a five-year programme comprising a Bachelor’s degree, a bilingual Masters degree and a year's study in London.  ESHotel schools in France include a gastronomic restaurant and state-of-the-art canteen, open to the public and serving 400 meals a day.

The founding family has been involved in the hospitality industry since the nineteenth century, and today the industry is regularly involved in the design of
our courses and programmes. Every graduation is organised by an industry sponsor, and in the past these have included the Ritz, the Crillon, the Prince de Galles, Méridien and Hilton, the Napoléon Hotel, Lucien Barrière Hotel Group, Hyatt International, Le Bristol, and Concorde Hotels. This year, we were very pleased to have InterContinental as our sponsor.

Project Management Learning

Project Management Learning has been at the centre of ESHotel's two-year Master in Hotel Management since 2008. First year (M1) students work in teams of four or five to develop either feasibility studies or business plans for hotel or restaurants projects.

To respond to the hospitality industry’s request for more general research and at the specific recommendation of ESHotel’s Comité de Perfectionnement -- an advisory board composed of hospitality industry professionals and ESHotel faculty  -- second year (M2) students undertake basic research projects rather than business plans, basing these on actual industry needs as previously identified by the advisory board.

Tackling real industry issues

In 2011, M2 students presented their projects in front of a jury of hoteliers, chaired by Philippe Orville, Head of Human Resources for Starwood in Europe. The subjects included solid waste management; setting new standards for French gastronomy; the 21st century Hotel Manager and a disaster management plan, in partnership with the International Red Cross. The business plans presented by M1 students covered a 100% French wine bar; a 100% organic restaurant; a low-cost four-star hotel in Paris’ business district, La Défense, and a 100% ecological hotel.

A committee of teachers will group students together with the view to providing intercultural teams that also reflect the real world in the sense that co-workers in a group project are rarely self-selected. More than 100 contact hours with Academic Project Leader Constance Konold would then be dedicated to project management tools, individual leadership coaching sessions based on the results of several tests (IOpt Advanced Leadership Survey and the North Carolina State University Learning Style Survey), as well as problem and conflict solving.

Advisors to the fore

A ‘broad palette’ of consultation opportunities is available from both faculty and outside experts: Thierry Mérel, ex-hotel manager for the Accor group acts as an operational marketing expert; Jim Holleran, Ph. D, is a specialist in tourism and the environment and he supported the waste management project and 100% ecological hotel); Olivier Fourcadet, Ph. D, who holds a chair at ESSEC Business School for Excellence in European Food Chains, supported the French Gastronomy project. Other teachers, including myself, conduct regular individual or team consultations, which can involve anything from problem solving to a project’s wider focus.

Outstanding papers are submitted to respected organisations such as the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (CHRIE), a non-profit association for schools and universities, or the Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME), a non-profit making organisation representing UK universities and colleges offering higher education programmes in the field of hospitality studies. Abstracts and papers are available on the ESHotel website in June.

A laboratory

ESHotel is convinced that these Real-Life Team Business Projects, which have replaced the individual thesis requirement, provide students with a ‘laboratory’ to improve their intellectual and interpersonal skills and their leadership and intercultural management abilities. At the same time, they offer an opportunity to apply academic knowledge in marketing, human resources and finance.

It is our belief that these projects replicate real professional life more accurately than individual written reports. Students learn how to project manage, a skill so critical as to be indispensable in their future careers, whether as salaried employees or entrepreneurs.

Arnaud Bouvier graduated from ESCP Business School and has a degree in Economics from HEC Paris, one of France’s ‘Grandes Ecoles’. He joined ESHotel after serving several years as an investment banker, specialising in small and medium-size enterprises. As a scion of ESHotel’s founders, Bouvier has been interested in the hotel industry and hotel education as far as he can remember. It was he who opened the London campus in 2004. Teaching management and being in charge of the school’s Masters programme has enabled Bouvier to implement his own high standards to hotel education at ESHotel. For more information, visit www.eshotel.com