Mission and purpose
Founded in 1907 in Paris, ESSEC Business School is an institution of higher education guided by the pursuit of academic excellence in teaching and research. Its distinctiveness stems from the pioneering spirit of the members of its community and its core values – humanism, responsibility, innovation and openness - that shape its scientific ambitions and pedagogical approach.
The mission of ESSEC Business School, a world school with French roots, is to infuse leadership with meaning in order to prepare leaders ready to address contemporary economic, environmental and social challenges. In order to do so, it produces innovative and relevant knowledge to equip the next generation of leaders with the skills, know-how and savoir-être that will make them truly responsible, inclusive and respectful of the environment. Convinced that knowledge provides a path to freedom - Per scientiam ad libertatem - ESSEC inculcates in its students critical thinking and creativity skills that prepare them to anticipate and address the challenges of an increasingly uncertain world. ESSEC supports students in making their actions both meaningful and impactful by relying on both technology and people. It also seeks to enlighten the actions of businesses and organizations in a world transformed by the new industrial revolution, the environmental crisis, a new world balance and other major societal changes.
By emphasizing individualization when designing its programs, ESSEC prioritizes the cultivation of personal responsibility and an entrepreneurial spirit amongst its diverse community members, and offers them a unique experience that will guide them throughout their lives.
Enlighten. Lead. Change.
Today, at a time when economic, social, political, and environmental change have never occurred so quickly, so profoundly, and on such a global scale, ESSEC Business School acknowledges its role and its commitment to becoming a business school of reference in its support of organizations, and positively influencing the way it addresses the major challenges facing businesses, organizations and society.
ESSEC’s purpose, embodied in its signature Enlighten. Lead. Change. highlights its roots in the higher education sector and this commitment in the world today and in the future. It shows its uniqueness by illustrating the experience and pedagogical path that ESSEC offers the members of its community and which guides them throughout their lives.
- Enlighten: refers to harnessing the power of research and education to better understand the world and the challenges it is facing by using a multicultural and multidisciplinary approach.
- Lead: stands for our school’s aim of initiating and guiding all types of transformation, whether technological, industrial, managerial or social, to make them more meaningful, sustainable and inclusive.
- Change: means being an agent of change, by supporting companies in their ambition to reconcile value creation and contribution to the common good.
