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Kevin Levillain

Kevin Levillain

Lecturer

Center · CGS

Keywords

Awards & distinctions

  • 2018 Consult’in France Award for Best Management Research Book, 2018.
  • 2018 FNEGE Award for Best Management Research Book, 2018.

Team

Gouvernance et normes de responsabilité pour les transitions

Biography

Kevin Levillain is a researcher in management science, specializing in the study of corporate legal structures and governance models, as well as their impact on responsible innovation and ecological transitions. His work focuses in particular on mechanisms for aligning organizations’ legal structures with social and environmental objectives, while challenging traditional frameworks of corporate law. He has contributed to the analysis of emerging concepts such as *built-in purpose*, *management standards* for ecological transitions, and *steward-ownership* models, highlighting their potential to rethink managerial accountability and collective governance. His research draws on interdisciplinary approaches, combining law, management, and organizational theory, and focuses particularly on recent legal innovations—such as the *mission-driven company* in France—to assess their theoretical and practical implications. Her empirical work, which includes case studies and participant observation, aims to shed light on the conditions under which new management norms adapted to contemporary challenges emerge.

Publication(s)

Teaching

Business and Industrial Management

Course Director

Various corroborating sources point out that first-year engineering students have a misguided perception of the business world and the industrial sector (whether in France or globally). Based on this observation, we can note that the ideas traditionally associated with business or industry oscillate between two perceptions, each as erroneous as the other: on the one hand, an entirely Taylorist world that, in the collective unconscious, evokes the “Modern Times” of Charles Chaplin. While this environment has not completely disappeared (we are thinking in particular of certain international sites or service activities in France, such as call centers), numerous organizational responses have been implemented since the 1930s (semi-autonomous teams based on versatility, job rotation, self-monitoring of quality, empowering workers, etc.). On the other hand, a fully automated world where operators would no longer be present. Generally speaking, this gradual disappearance of operators is not fundamentally inaccurate. An INSEE study thus shows that in 2010 there were barely more than 6 million blue-collar workers in France. This trend is a consequence of the decline in industry, and it is interesting to note that it was the least-skilled segment of this workforce that was most affected, at least until the mid-1990s. Nevertheless, blue-collar workers still account for one in five jobs in the French economy, and it is reasonable to assume that this percentage is much higher on a global scale. Beyond these generalizations, a more robust observation is in order. The corporate world and the industrial world are neither homogeneous nor static. The work carried out by La Fabrique de l’Industrie clearly highlights the diversity of industrial reality (see L’indus’Trip, Dimitri Pleplé’s Logbook) and the transformation efforts underway (let us consider, as a prime example of these efforts, all the initiatives carried out under the banner of the “industry of the future”). It therefore seems important to offer students the opportunity to better understand, on the one hand, the working world and the role of the worker, and on the other hand, the diversity of the industrial landscape. The goal is to prepare students and equip them intellectually so that they are able to reflect on the transformation underway while taking into account the role of people (and more specifically that of unskilled operators performing manual tasks). These issues are of the utmost importance and affect not only employment and the competitiveness of the French economy but also, as a prerequisite, the design of industrial organizations and, more generally, businesses. The various forms of performance (quantity, quality, cost, lead time, diversity, innovation, etc.) that we collectively seek to achieve are examined, including, of course, psychosocial performance, which is linked to issues of health and quality of life at work. It is important to emphasize that the mythical figure of the “man on the production line”—the worker in blue overalls—is no longer central, but the issues raised remain relevant today. Manual labor has expanded into other sectors; half of all manual workers are employed in the service sector, 15% are in construction, and their numbers are growing in certain fields such as logistics. In this sense, the manual labor internship and its educational framework cannot be confined to the industrial sector but must address a broader range of activities (which is already the case today). Nevertheless, the rationalization methods used in industry have spread widely. In this sense, an industrial foundation remains highly relevant. The teaching team is currently working to clarify the relevant scope of activities to offer students and the nature of the positions to be selected. As we can see, the challenges are significant, and the “Introduction to Business and Industrial Management Issues” module provides students with their first opportunity to engage with these issues. In particular, the goal is to help them understand the reality of hands-on work—its characteristics, organizational structure, and management system—in other words, to recognize the degree to which the work is prescriptive (or tightly controlled). This introduction to the business world through operational work is an essential component of the education of future engineers. The goal is gradually to help students understand the interrelationship between the workstation, the industrial and organizational system within which it operates, the challenges of managing people, as well as the diversity of industrial and organizational structures and their artificial (non-natural) nature. It also aims to highlight the role of engineers in these transformations. The evolution of industrial systems and management methods conclude the module and pave the way for second- and third-year courses, particularly the transformation of today’s industry into the industry of the future.

General Accounting II

Lecturer

Accounting Issues. Review of General Accounting—Reading a Balance Sheet and an Income Statement. The Concept of Cash Flow from Operations Discussion of the concept of provisions and the value provided by the accounting result. What performance does it reflect? Introduction to other ways of interpreting accounting results: environmental accounting Reading a universal registration report Discussion of corporate value (using the example of a merger or acquisition) Possibly, the basics of cost accounting.

Corporate Governance

Course Director

The course will begin with the “modern” company (the “large corporation” of the 20th century), placing its emergence in historical context in relation to issues of innovation and the role of engineers. Based on this general characterization, various issues will be examined. Each of these issues gives rise to different corporate structures and a variety of tools. The course will thus consist of several modules: Corporate Management – the status of executives; Participation – voting rights, corporate democracy, and profit sharing; Responsibility – social and environmental issues In each module, the course will integrate several approaches: Theoretical framework Expert presentations: corporate law, governance models abroad, and international standards for corporate social responsibility. Case studies, featuring historical examples (Carl Zeiss, Baldwin Locomotives, etc.) or recent innovations (e.g., mission-driven companies).

Design to Innovate

Course Director

This course provides an introduction to contemporary theoretical and practical issues in design. Its structure is unique for two main reasons: To understand the contemporary logic of innovative design, the course brings together—often erroneously separated in Anglo-Saxon universities—the contributions of engineering design, strategic technology and innovation management, and industrial design; By drawing on the most recent theories of design reasoning, the course presents both the scientific models and the tools of the various design regimes found in contemporary businesses: the “wild” design of inventor-entrepreneurs, regulated parametric and systematic design, and innovative design. The course consists of three main modules designed to help students grasp the following concepts: 1. Design Regimes Theoretical foundations of modeling design reasoning. Modeling a design regime and its robustness. Performance of a design regime. The relationship between design and scientific and technical knowledge. Crises and contemporary developments in design organizations. Intensive innovation and the R&D paradox. New challenges and new forms of innovation. Design professions. Origin and role of the various key players: engineering firms, strategy, design, laboratories, and research departments. Different modes of knowledge production. 2. Rule-Based Design Systematic design and axiomatic theory. The concept of conceptual models and generative models. The specificity of design reasoning in relation to decision-making, modeling, and optimization. Managing rule-based design. Value analysis, functional analysis. Suh’s matrix. Organization of R&D and robustness of regulated design (Suh’s axioms). 3. Innovative Design Object identity and repeated innovation. Crises and the design of object identity. Management of intensive innovation (innovation field, product line). Individual and collective fixation. Generation bias and selection bias in creativity. Individual and collective challenges. Unified theory of design reasoning and the innovative design regime. - C-K theory: concepts of concept, operator, expansive partition, and conjunction. Organization of disruptive innovation. R-I-D model. New organizational structures and associated management approaches. Performance and value in innovation. Industrial ecosystems and “colleges of the unknown.” Governance of the innovative enterprise and the extended corporate purpose. Industrial innovative design strategies. New approaches to corporate strategy and performance. Organization of routine design (design office, business unit, industrial research, project management) and innovative design (innovation communities, concept demonstrators, Fab Labs, etc.). KCP Method.

New Businesses and Responsible Governance

Course Director

Fundamentals of corporate and labor law; the history of the emergence of the corporation; dominant theoretical frameworks and their limitations (economics, sociology, governance); transformation through intensive innovation; new challenges in corporate social responsibility; new business models.

PhD supervision

  • 2025 Collectively managing the water resource in the face of shortages: exploring the application of the general average rule RAKOVITCH Thaïs
  • 2024 Ecological Transformation and Responsibility: Implementation, Control, and Scope of a Corporate Purpose GOLSE Clara
  • 2023 Just transition: application of the principle of general average to low-emission zones (ZFE) cases. RABAUD Erwan
  • 2021 Promoting the energy transition while ensuring access: role, models and tools of the electricity network manager GOUTALAND Antoine
  • 2021 Aligning local investment with global transitions in the world of finance: challenges, design, and conditions for the effectiveness of impact measures ENJALBERT Thomas
  • 2019 Climate change mitigation tested by equity: A study of the general average rule and its implications for climate action. DEMONSANT Charlotte
  • 2017 Designing the mission as a generative commitment: challenges, pitfalls, and formulation principles for mission-driven societies LEVEQUE Jérémy
  • 2015 Can venture capital sustainably support business growth? Study, model and conditions for regenerative capital PARPALEIX Laure-Anne