Learning is a never-ending journey. Business School Lausanne (BSL) offers Business Administration courses from a Bachelor to a Doctoral Level, with a focus on Global Mega Trends, 21st Century Skills, Sustainability, and an Entrepreneurial Mindset. Each degree has a form of tailor-made offering, be it a wide variety of Capstone options for their Masters, a double-degree option in collaboration with the Dublin Business School for their Bachelors, or a part-time offering for Executive MBAs so they can pursue studies while remaining full-time employees.
The business school is set close to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) (ranked 43 in universities worldwide in 2021) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL)It fosters the dialogue between theory and practice in research, teaching, and learning to offer impact-oriented curricula with a personalized approach to Swiss and international students. “We provide Business Education up to Swiss standards to Swiss and international future or proven business professionals in Switzerland and abroad,” says the faculty at BSL.
The school offers co-working spaces, a media studio, an incubator, an external lounge, a reading room, and a fully online learning environment. The positioning of BSL is as a private boutique business school that focuses on digital transformation, current economic trends, changes in societal structure, and environmental concerns. Students from sixty nationalities go on about joining its experienced faculty in a co-creative approach to learning.
BSL’s faculty is comprised of individuals who practically apply what they teach, ensuring students are taught the most cutting-edge business thinking. “We are committed to creating a personalized and focused learning experience and insist on keeping our classes small, so each student can truly participate in seeking new ideas for measuring the role and impact of business today,” conveys BSL’s faculty.
The school endeavours to create a space where all its students, professors, staff, researchers, and stakeholders, feel free to come together, ask courageous questions and maximize solutions through values that matter, all the while tackling issues for the common good. “We teach our students big picture thinking, so they are able to develop innovative cross-sector solutions, which we believe will help them to realize their true potential in whatever avenue of business they choose to pursue,” adds further its faculty members.
BSL fosters Research-and-Practice-Informed Judgement and Ethical Behaviour. It trains professionals as Life-Long Learners and Principled Researchers. The school’s Philosophy of Business Education is centred on its graduates. Its four-dimensional project for them is crafted on Unique Talent Advantage, Expertise, Learnings, and Impact. BSL graduates are principled doers, with a unique ability in bringing business transformation.
Its students excel in upscaling sustainable businesses and promoting entrepreneurship. BSL Graduates display proven and innovative business skills that are hard in nature. They foster and nurture a deep knowledge of the megatrends in business that shape the world today and have a strong and developed entrepreneurial mindset.
When it All Began…
Founded by entrepreneur Dr John Hobbs in 1987, the Lemania Swiss Group of Schools (LSGS) took interest in Business School Lausanne (BSL) in its early stages as it was the first school offering an MBA, to be accredited by a US Accreditation board. LSGS, founded in 1908, is backed by three generations of educational history. Their entrepreneurial leadership and mindset development throughout generations has been a continual driving factor for the success of BSL.
Honorary degrees have been awarded to predominant changemakers over the years as BSL scrupulously searches for personae who not only mirror the vision and values of BSL but also are positive drivers as leaders in societal change for good.
For every degree offered at BSL, the school focuses on a personalized education for global impact. At BSL, personalized education has a double bottom line. “We have a personalized approach to what we are teaching and to how we are teaching it,” conveys the team at BSL.
The school wants all its students to have the capacity to understand and address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges in business and society. “Our graduates are doers who can change the way business is done, whenever it is needed, to have a more significant impact on their future professional roles,” the team adds further.
To achieve this goal, BSL’s teaching is built around three main pillars:
- The transfer of the most up-to-date business knowledge adapted to the evolutions of business operations and strategy in a globalized and digitalized world.
- The understanding of the implications on all businesses of major global megatrends, shaping business transformation today: Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization.
- The development of students’ entrepreneurial mindset and skills, which they will need to become doers and be able to take action to have the most significant possible impact in their future roles in business.
Dynamics of BSL
BSL considers the individual talents, interests, and situations of its students, by adopting a specific approach towards personalized education. “We have a personalized approach as to what we are teaching and as to how we are teaching it,” claims the faculty at BSL.
How are they teaching?
Well, BSL offers flexible and individually curated study plans to match each student’s personal transformation and career progression goals. The BBA offers 4 intakes a year, the Master’s multiple Capstone Experiences, the E/MBA, the chance to choose between different concentrations and full or part-time study plans as well as build a Final Business project to leverage as a launching pad for an entrepreneurial venture or consulting project.
The DBA program matches each candidate with a personal faculty supervisor, experienced academically and professionally in the research area of the candidate. Students are welcome to visit the campus to work with their supervisors, but an on-campus presence is not mandatory. Its teaching is concentrated on a period of two weeks yearly, and its Doctoral Acceleration weeks help candidates accelerate their research.
Furthermore, regarding the DBAs, BSL has its own Research Centre on Business Transformation which provides a direct influence on the content of the complete suite of programs. Agile management of the curricula makes for easy integration of new topics. For example, in 2021 the school revamped its ESG/Sustainable Finance offering. Experiential learning such as real-life projects have an on-site incubator for entrepreneurial projects by students.
There is an entrepreneurial project embedded in the Executive Education program. Also, there is an entrepreneurial mindset development – a ‘test, try, and fail fast and pivot’ culture. BSL is rich with courses offering examples in Innovation & Organizational Design, Data Science, Machine Learning and AI in Business, Business Transformation towards Sustainability, and Digital Business Transformation.
“Our goal is to make sure that our students understand the business world they are entering in, or they are evolving in, as well as its current and future challenges and to equip them with the thinking, the mindset and the tools they need to contribute to and master those challenges,” confirms the faculty at BSL.
In an increasingly quickly changing business world and business environment, the school’s programs need to be adapted every year to consider the new realities and challenges the businesses are facing.
