DBA: The scientific method at the service of strategic business decisions
TBS Education’s Executive Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program is a bridge between the world of research and the world of business. By creating this link, TBS Education is preparing the managers of the future.
To learn, understand and use the scientific method to better manage businesses: that’s the ambition of TBS Education’s DBA Executive Doctorate of Business Administration program. A program that delivers the title of doctor because it requires spending four years writing a thesis, having adopted a research approach to reflect on your working practices. “Following this program is not just about doing a thesis, it’s not just about having the title of doctor on a business card,” emphasizes Stéphane Thion, program manager since 2022. “It’s about discovering and using a very powerful tool in today’s world where information is difficult to decipher, and knowledge is rapidly evolving“. The former marketing director of an Orange Business Services Business Unit, now a research professor, has first-hand experience of moving into a new professional universe. After more than 20 years in the corporate world, he went back to school in 2015 to write his thesis. He now focuses on sharing the scientific method with learners at the helm of companies (executives, department, or business unit directors, etc.), management schools and the world of consulting.
A world where nothing is certain
“In the world of business, when you’re at executive level, you’re expected to be sure of yourself. When you engage in research, you learn that in reality, there is no certainty, and that yesterday’s knowledge is no longer valid today. You have to learn how to behave in a world where nothing is certain”.
— Stéphane Thion, program manager since 2022
And it’s precisely this scientific methodology that the program manager intends to share with learners: accessing information, processing it, evaluating it and extrapolating from it in order to adapt to a context. Decision-making is particularly arduous, not least because each decision is subject to cognitive bias. This biased thinking, like intuition, over-confidence or even emotion, influences our judgements and leads us down the wrong paths. “This is what the scientific method teaches us, and this is what is taught on the program. The ultimate goal isn’t just to improve the decision-making process, but also add to the sum of human knowledge”.
In eight weeks, on-site in Paris, Toulouse and Barcelona or remotely, year-groups of 12 to 18 people, recruited from every continent, are introduced to this research methodology, identify the subject of their thesis and write it, then defend it in front of a jury as they would in the academic world.
The training helps very high-level managers to develop a key skill for the world of the future: learning how to apply analytic thinking to strategy, marketing and finance. TBS Education’s Executive DBA program, which has been awarded triple accreditation for management training, is showing our future leaders the way ahead.
