EMBA at the IE Business School: Alumni Interview

TopMBA.com talks to Emmanuel Carcassonne about his experience of doing an EMBA at the IE Business School. 

Emmanuel Carcassonne decided to pursue an Executive MBA for a number of reasons. “I wanted to improve my all-round management skills, become a better entrepreneur, be able to attract financing, benefit from the experience of others and develop my network,” he says. “Generally speaking, the idea was for my EMBA to take me to the next level – both personally and professionally.”

A qualified engineer, Carcassonne has been an entrepreneur for the last ten years, and says he’s going to “keep on doing what I do best”. The major difference, now, is that he has better capabilities to leverage within his business and to work on several new projects.

“I learned a lot from the academic part of the [EMBA] program and from my fellow participants’ experiences. I think it has allowed me to become a better entrepreneur.

“Sometimes people ask me why I took an EMBA, and I answer that it is a real CEO-toolkit. I also feel that the EMBA is working well for my personal branding, which means more customers and better perspectives for partnerships with suppliers for my company.”

Carcassonne has also developed partnerships with his network of classmates. “We are a kind of family and do not hesitate to help each other out if possible,” he says. “This also extends to the global alumni network of IE, since everyone is part of the clan.”

The IE alumnus struggles to single out one best element from his time in the EMBA classroom, saying instead that many experiences – if not all – were good and enriching. “I think the program culminates at the very end with the final case. After months of hard work you start to realise what you have done. Going through such a program reminds you how great one’s learning capacity and positive outcomes can be when you do something at your best.”