Essec Business School

Article written with: 

Regis Amichia - Director Data Science, NIQ for Digital Commerce

Capucine Marteau - Product Manager, Datadog

Woody Pan - former CPTO, Data Analytics and Insights, Singulier 

Accelerating advances in technology—including the latest generative AI products now available to the public—are transforming the way we work. Technology is becoming an increasingly central and essential component of any business, reshaping everything from operations to customer engagement. To remain competitive, companies must strategically balance tasks between human expertise and AI capabilities, maximizing productivity and innovation. As leaders in this digital shift, tech companies have become role models in agility and continuous transformation.

While these advances create high demand for engineering graduates skilled in AI, there is a growing need for business school students to also develop a tech-ready skillset. That’s why ESSEC Business School has incorporated digital skills and AI management into program curricula, with initiatives and programs like the ESSEC Metalab for AI, Technology and Society; a Bachelor’s in AI, Data and Management Sciences; and short courses on managing AI in business.  This article explores the essential competencies business students need to succeed in tech-driven roles and highlights emerging career opportunities for these graduates in the evolving digital landscape.

Building the right skills and mindset

With 20 years of experience in both teaching and tech, we’ve identified five core skills that business students need to excel in tech roles: tech fluency, analytical rigor, creative problem-solving, the hacker spirit, and collaborative agility. Together, these skills empower students to thrive in tech environments without needing an engineering degree. Integrating these competencies into business school curricula would help bridge the gap between business strategy and technical execution, equipping graduates to add value from day one.

THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO SUCCEED

Tech Fluency
Tech fluency is about understanding foundational tech concepts that remain relevant even as specific technologies evolve. This includes grasping ideas like APIs, structured versus unstructured data, CI/CD and its benefits, and microservices architecture. Developing this fluency equips students with the adaptability to navigate changing tech landscapes with confidence.

Analytical Rigor
Analytical rigor involves a critical, methodical approach to problem-solving. Students need to be able to think in both qualitative and quantitative terms, assess causality, and anticipate potential pitfalls, fostering a resourceful, data-driven mindset essential in tech environments.

Creative Problem-Solving
Creative problem-solving empowers students to tackle complex challenges, starting from a business issue and working toward a viable, data-driven solution. This skill involves using structured frameworks to approach problems holistically, understanding where solutions fit into the broader business context.

The Hacker Spirit
The hacker spirit embodies a hands-on, resilient, and exploratory approach to learning. It’s about diving into unknowns, finding innovative solutions under constraints, and maintaining a continuous learning mindset. This quality encourages students to push boundaries and approach challenges with an entrepreneurial outlook.

Collaborative Agility
Collaborative agility refers to the ability to work effectively within diverse, cross-functional teams. In tech, this often means working with engineers, designers, and product managers across levels of seniority. Familiarity with methodologies like Agile and Scrum enhances students’ ability to adapt quickly, manage projects efficiently, and contribute meaningfully in fast-paced settings. Successful collaboration also requires a strong sense of empathy to appreciate the unique challenges and perspectives of each role. For example, understanding the constraints that engineers face can help business students communicate more effectively and make realistic, informed decisions that benefit the entire team.

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

While business students often feel prepared for tech roles, building the right mindset and skills requires immersive, hands-on learning beyond traditional academics. Essential competencies—such as tech fluency, the hacker spirit, and collaborative problem-solving—are best cultivated through real-world challenges, open-ended projects, and self-directed learning formats.

Strengthening Tech Fluency with Applied Learning Labs
It is crucial for students to develop a solid understanding of the fundamental concepts that underpin the structure of technical teams, (eg. APIs, CI/CD pipelines, data structures...). To achieve this, we advocate for incorporating projects, requiring the creation of a proof of concept that involves these components, enabling students to grasp their practical applications and appropriate use cases. This approach not only familiarizes them with the terminology and concepts commonly employed in tech teams but also bridges the gap between business needs and technological solutions. Mastering these skills is indispensable for anyone aiming to drive impactful collaboration between technical and business domains within a tech-driven organization.

Fostering the Hacker Spirit through Open-Ended Challenges
The hacker spirit thrives in unstructured problem-solving environments. Hackathons, sprint weeks, and progressive coding tasks (starting with no-code and moving to full-code) enable students to explore and experiment, learning resilience and adaptability along the way. Once students graduate, they will be faced with problems that don't have a blueprint, in contexts where no-one in their company will have tackled exactly the same problem, and perhaps without a senior person to give them a solution, especially if they're in a start-up. It is specifically in these cases that the hacker spirit will enable them to make a difference and create value.

Developing Collaborative Problem-Solving with Cross-Functional Projects
Tech requires strong teamwork across disciplines. Business schools can partner with engineering or design programs, allowing students to work in interdisciplinary teams on tech-focused capstone projects, guided by Agile or Scrum methodologies, for real-world collaborative experience.

Building Autonomy through Self-Directed Projects
Tech roles demand self-motivation and independent learning. Semester-long, self-directed projects—where students tackle the full data journey from sourcing to analysis—teach autonomy, planning, and critical thinking in a way traditional coursework often cannot.

Enhancing Analytical Rigor through Data-Centric Assignments
Analytical rigor helps students evaluate tech solutions and business impacts effectively. Data challenges, counterfactual case studies, and quantitative modeling exercises train students to think critically and measure impact with real-world relevance.

Methodological academic courses lay the groundwork, but alone, they aren’t enough to prepare students for tech roles. Real-world challenges, open-ended projects, and self-directed learning have to be integrated.

Conclusion

As technology continues to transform industries, the skills needed to succeed in business are evolving. For business graduates to thrive in tech-driven roles, they must go beyond traditional coursework, building essential competencies like tech fluency, analytical rigor, and the hacker spirit through hands-on experiences. By integrating real-world projects, interdisciplinary collaboration, and self-directed learning into their curricula, business schools can better prepare students to bridge the gap between business strategy and technical execution.

Equipped with this blend of knowledge and practical skills, business graduates are well-positioned to excel in roles like product management, analytics engineering, and strategic operations. These roles leverage both their business acumen and newfound technical understanding, allowing them to contribute meaningfully to today’s fast-paced, tech-centric workplaces from day one. Ultimately, this approach ensures that business schools not only prepare students for the current job market but also empower them to drive innovation and create value.