Loick Roche

Areas of expertise

• Leadership
• Management

Biography

Loïck Roche Loick Roche is currently Director & Dean at Grenoble Ecole de Management (Grenoble Business School) - accredited EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA. This French Graduate Business School has over 6 000 students and offers programs ranging from Masters'' Degrees (MSc, MIB, MBA) to DBA and PhD – notably in the fields of management technology, innovation and international affairs. Coming from a corporate background, he has worked for ten years in France and internationally as a consultant in the organization of human resources. Holding a degree from ESSEC Business School (Paris), He also has a PhD in Psychology (Paris), a post-doctorate degree (HDR – Accreditation to supervise Research) in Management Sciences (Lyon), and a PhD in Philosophy (Grenoble). Executive education: Advanced Management Program - AMP (Harvard Business School); ITP (IMD Lausanne). Two or three other words… just to understand, not only my background, but most importantly, a part of my values and philosophy. It''s important to start with my Grandfather. All his professional life, he was a skilled worker. He was working on a mechanical press which formed sheet metal for making the bonnet of Renault cars. You can imagine the noise. It was incredible. The general conditions of work were very, very difficult. Perhaps, one of the best examples of these conditions, if we consider the philosophical point of view, could be found in The Myth of Sisyphus, a philosophical essay by Albert Camus which was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe. 6 days per week, all the weeks of the year, all the years of his professional life, my Grandfather, like millions of workers like him, has rolled his rock to the top of the mountain. And at the top, the rock descended the mountain. And the next day, he began again. We can imagine the workers happy, because at this time the work had a sense for them. When my grandfather''s son, who was to be my father, was seven years old, he took him one day to the factory. My father was literally traumatized by the noise. My father understood that day, if he wanted to avoid this destiny, only studies could save him. But with parents who were simple workers, who had little education, it was very difficult to study. And when he missed the “Baccalaureat” (the first important degree in France), his parents told him: “Stop”, and said: “Now, you must earn your living; you will go to work in a factory.” So when I was born, his own idea was to avoid my having to follow the same path. Certainly this past of my family story could explain why I could follow my studies, why I could obtain several degrees… Why my concerns, are around education, psychological concepts and so on. This also surely explains why now I occupy my different functions in a graduate school of business. This also explains why I am convinced that teams can win, why teams can be the best, even if initially they do not have the best people nor the best tools and resources to succeed. I believe in the will, in the work, in the management, and therefore in the progress of men and women, in the progress and performance of organizations.