Made in IAE

Emmanuel Houzé joined the University of Montpellier as a student in 1993, and has never left home since. This stability is matched by a perpetual need to travel internationally, to constantly nurture new projects. Meet the new director of theInstitut d'Administration des Entreprises.

" A pure product of the University of Montpellier ". That's how Emmanuel Houzé describes himself. It has to be said that the new director of theIAE has been with the company for 28 years: " I arrived in 1993, when the Richter campus opened ", recalls the teacher-researcher in charge of the information systems management specialization. He came to this discipline " by chance ", after starting out in DEUG A, where mathematics, physics and chemistry didn't really appeal to him. He then discovered management and specialized in information systems. " A discipline which began to emerge in the 70s and which seeks to better understand the issues involved in deploying information technologies in companies ", explains the specialist.

Forerunner

Emmanuel Houzé devoted his DEA at IAE to this discipline, working with Robert Reix, the founder of IAE Montpellier, " a fascinating teacher! He was the one who encouraged the spread of information systems management in France ". In 2000, the then student defended his doctorate on the subject of virtual teams in information systems management, " a completely topical theme with this pandemic which has seen an explosion in the use of telecommuting ".

After completing his thesis, Emmanuel Houzé became a lecturer in 2001 in a laboratory that was to become Montpellier Research en Management, and perpetuated his investment in the IAE. At the time, the young researcher was setting up the IAE's first apprenticeship program, in collaboration with La Poste. " At the time, we had 10 apprentices; today we have 364, and we work with 3 apprentice training centers ". Why work-study? " Because the professional integration of students requires both academic and professional training, and we need to find the right balance between the two . A balance that has clearly been achieved, since IAE Montpellier now boasts a professional integration rate of 90%, 6 months after graduation.

International responsibilities

Emmanuel Houzé also quickly took on international responsibilities, setting up IAE's very first double degree in international business with Burapha University in Thailand, where he was subsequently awarded an honorary doctorate. " In one year, students obtain a degree from both institutions, a policy that we have since encouraged, with 8 double degrees to date ".

Since 2017, this international investment has also included management of the Erasmus Capacity building program called Gecko. A program designed to enhance the employability of engineering school students by providing them with managerial skills, in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, " countries that don't integrate many management courses into their engineering school curricula ". For Emmanuel Houzé, international projects are " vital ". Vital, but time-consuming: with an average of 7 or 8 international trips outside the European Union each year, the teacher-researcher spends - or rather spent before Covid - a lot of time on the plane.

The desire to innovate

A habit he will have to break over the next five years, for lack of time. Elected Director of the IAE on June 21, Emmanuel Houzé will take up his post on September 14, after having served as Deputy Director of the IAE between 2007 and 2016, and again in 2020. " I wanted to make a modest contribution to the IAE, where I've received a lot, " he says.

This new adventure involves a desire to innovate, in particular by taking a step towards digitalization. " I want to move towards innovative teaching models by offering a formula that combines face-to-face, distance learning and asynchronous courses, in order to offer greater flexibility. To achieve this, we need to understand the current mutations that are changing the needs of our audiences. If in 5 years' time we have succeeded in deploying this model, then it will have been a success. See you in 2026...