Press release
7 October 2008
Inauguration of the Renault Polytechnique HEC Chair for
"Multicultural management and corporate performance"
1st awards ceremony
On 7 October 2008, the Chair Renault Polytechnique HEC award for the best
research paper on the "Multicultural management and corporate performance" will be
given by Carlos Ghosn, Chairman of Renault and of the Renault Corporate Foundation,
General Xavier Michel, President of the Ecole Polytechnique and Henri Proglio,
Chairman and CEO of Veolia Environnement and Chairman of HEC Paris.
The Renault Polytechnique HEC Chair for "Multicultural management and corporate
performance" was created in 2007 to promote a dynamic of cultural dialogue and
economic performance.
This Chair is open to students from both French Ecoles who wish to develop their
ability to understand and apply ways of thinking and acting that reflect multiple
economic or managerial realities with regard to national, professional or organisational
cultures. In pursuing their research, the students thus benefit from both the experience
of a major international group and the prestige of two of France's most influential higher
education institutions. The Chair is supported by a set of agreements decided by
prominent foreign universities in countries that present a strategic interest for the
Renault Nissan Alliance, in Japan, with the University of Keio, and in India, with the
Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIMA).
In this context, students from the Ecole Polytechnique and HEC are selected from
around forty candidates before forming groups of three, each group being composed of
one HEC student, one Polytechnique student and one student from IIMA in India or from
the University of Keio in Japan. These students sponsored by the French Ecoles and
accompanied locally by the foreign universities, study international methodologies and
best practice through research programmes developed in collaboration with Renault.
The first year of the Chair has thus seen work on four research subjects in direct relation
with the issues of globalisation within strategic countries for the Renault Nissan Alliance:
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Enhancing employment and managing workload for engineers at the Renault
Nissan Technology and Business Centre in India
Transferring experience in managing networks from the domestic market to
new markets (like India): reality and limits of cultural barriers
Comparative study of relations between suppliers and Renault in France or
Nissan in Japan
Comparison of the process of marketing a new vehicle by Renault in France
and Nissan in Japan (in the sales and marketing fields).
In addition to this teaching programme intended for students of the Ecole
Polytechnique and HEC, the Chair is launching a series of scientific programmes and
research seminars that will create an international network of world-class researchers
and institutions.
This partnership responds to the Renault Group's desire to set up a Chair to research
issues around managing cultural diversity. The Chair will be funded by the Renault
Corporate Foundation to the tune of €330,000 per year, over a period of five years.
Eric Godelier for the Ecole Polytechnique (Associate Professor of Management
Sciences and Head of the Research and Teaching Unit in Humanities and Social
Sciences) is the holder of the Chair. Eve Chiapello (Professor of Management and
Sociologist) is joint holder of the Chair on behalf of HEC.
Contact
Polytechnique, Nathalie Litwin: + 33 (0)1 69 33 38 93
HEC, Elisabeth de Réals: + 33 (0)1 39 67 94 23
Renault Press, Sophie Perrier: +33 (0)1 76 84 64 69
Renault Foundation, Thibaud Van Rillas: + 33 (0)1 76 84 96 82
Websites: www.hec.fr - www.polytechnique.fr - www.fondation.renault.com