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Biography

Béatrice Collin is Professor of International Strategy and Management at ESCP Europe. She also lectures in Master Programs at the University of Paris II. She was a visiting Faculty member at ILR, Cornell University, from January to July 2007.
Her main research concern is about Management Processes in international groups and more precisely about cultural diversity as a competitive advantage for companies going global. Furthermore, the growing diversity of both the business environment and the workplace is a major stake for any company even if small or local. Consequently, managing adequately and subtlety diversity can confer to the firm strong strategic and organizational valuable assets to compete successfully in today’s business environments and to enhance the strategic and organizational effectiveness. Therefore international companies do represent interesting landmarks to study as they have created and experienced innovative and managerial processes along their international development. Béatrice Collin has worked with companies from various industries as Arcelor-Mittal (Steel), L’Oreal (Cosmetics), Credit Agricole (Banking), Carrefour (Retailing) as well as medium-sized companies which have successfully conducted worldwide development in the last decade.
For the last years, Béatrice has designed and developed executive education seminars for European companies willing to prepare their future leaders to manage successfully and efficiently in their global and culturally diversified organizations.
Béatrice educational background is in Management, Political Sciences and International Economics (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris). In 1989-1990, she was a Ph.D. research fellow at Cornell, jointly at the JGSM and at the Department of Economics and in 1998-1999 a visiting researcher at CUBS City University Business School, London, UK.
Béatrice Collin is a member and a reviewer of Academy of Management. In 2003, she was recognized “BPS Division Outstanding Reviewer” and appointed as Session Chairperson at the annual Conference in 2005. She is also a member of EIASM (European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management) and a founding Member of EURAM (European Academy of Management).

Current research

Strategic and management processes in international companies
Béatrice Collin has been working on Strategic and Management Processes in international companies and more precisely about cultural diversity as a competitive advantage for companies going global. As the globalisation of companies, the internationalisation of organisations engenders a growing diversity in the mentalities and expectations of the partners, clients and managers, it appears increasingly difficult to apply a single and global management model to organisations comprising people with different value systems and behaviours. Globalisation now demands that every international company be willing to face the complexity of integrating distinct value and thought systems.
When studying the internationalisation process of numerous European companies, Béatrice Collin has been able to point out that those firms not only acknowledge the « others » but integrate them in their own identity. The fact of the « others » being numerous and different involves an essential feature of this original process of development: by dealing with new realities, companies learn to operate within diversity, to manage it with relevance and effectiveness. The organisation forges links with the « others » which will grow and interchange. It implements sharing processes: skills, knowledge, national and managerial cultures. By doing so it enables processes of joint construction between itself and others to emerge, as well as the setting up of joint mechanisms for projects, activities, tools and decisions.
Strategic and management practices in European companies could thus be considered as interesting examples to study because they have had to experiment for a long time with diversity management and the integration of otherness, an issue essential for any company which, regardless of its country of origin, chooses to go international today.

Diversity as a main strategic and organizational asset
Furthermore, diversity is a strategic and organizational issue for any company as the growing diversity of both the business environment and the workplace is a major stake for any company even if small or local. As western societies are more and more culturally diversified, firms should be able to operate with diverse consumers, in different niche markets and subsequently to create distinctive and sustainable competitive advantages in the long run. As the workplace is more and more diverse, companies should create organizational and managerial processes which fit different needs and expectations according to employees’ cultural, social and gender characteristics. Leveraging diversity will enhance organizational effectiveness and performance by making use of the different perspectives, experiences and abilities that people bring to the work place. Group heterogeneity positively relates to organizational innovations, creativity and decision-making effectiveness.
Embracing diversity will enable companies to get the best from everyone in order to reach strategic objectives. Managing diversity can confer to the firm strong strategic and organizational valuable assets to compete successfully in today’s business environments and to enhance the strategic and organizational effectiveness.
Today diversity is a crucial issue for companies to tackle; it is also a key opportunity so long as it is managed adequately and subtlety.

Publications