Interview with Zied Bacha, Founder and CEO of Clevory and Ted University
Zied Bacha, founder and CEO of Clevory and Ted University, has launched a new generation of Executive MBA programs designed for managers and executives who risk being left behind by the digital wave. We met with a man who is not afraid to speak the truth, even if it's uncomfortable.
Why launch these MBA programs now?
Because the market can't wait. In many companies, as soon as you touch on data, cloud, or AI, there's a wall, not of incompetence, but of ignorance. A bank's CEO can be brilliant and yet unable to answer questions related to AI or BI. The real question is no longer: how much will I invest or how much will I earn? The real question is: how much am I willing to lose if I miss this strategic turn? In a world that is shifting towards AI, data, and new economic models, inaction costs more than investment. Ted Executive Education has chosen to anticipate rather than suffer. Our MBA programs are designed for managers and top management, for those who make structural decisions, not for IT teams.
What have you concretely put on the table?
Two main paths. A generalist Executive MBA co-constructed with PwC: 13 modules over 18 months, including 6 international certifications. And an Executive MBA entirely dedicated to digital transformation with EDC Business School Paris: 6 modules, 9 months. In both cases, 50% of the modules are certifying. This is a break with what exists on the market. We also have Executive Programs of one month, sectorized: finance, industry, health, services. A bank manager does not have the same challenges as one who works in industry. Their training should not be the same either.
What really sets you apart from other MBA programs?
Our instructors are not professors: they are PwC consultants who practice, who advise general management in real-time. When they talk about transformation, they don't describe a model, they tell what they experienced last week with their client. And the promise is not to transform executives into developers. It's to give them a compass: understand technologies, position them in their economic model, identify value levers.
Will these MBA programs still be relevant in five years, given the rapid evolution of AI?
That's the entire pedagogical logic of Ted Executive Education. We don't train people to use a tool. We train them to think. Someone who completes our courses understands the fundamentals of digital transformation. They understand the cloud, data, cybersecurity, digital economic models. When, in six months, we talk to them about agentive AI, multi-agent AI, physical AI, they follow, because they have the basics. But someone who has never built these foundations? I can talk to them for hours about agentive AI, they won't understand. It's like trying to build a skyscraper on sand. Our MBA programs are the concrete of these foundations.
Is the stakes really so high for companies that don't move?
Look at the Chinese automotive industry: a $15,000 car versus its European equivalent at $60,000. It's not just a matter of labor, it's technological mastery. A bank whose managers are unaware of what the cloud or AI is will not adopt technology. They will procrastinate. And in two years, their services will cost two to three times more to produce than those of their competitors. It's no longer a strategic choice, it's a condition sine qua non of existence on the market.
A final word for Tunisian executives?
If you don't fully measure the stakes of digital transformation, AI, and data monetization, the risk is not in ten years; it's already here. How can you lead a company without understanding how your competitors reduce their costs, accelerate their decisions, and generate new revenue streams thanks to digital? A company that doesn't embark today doesn't stagnate. It gradually falls behind... until the gap becomes impossible to bridge. The choice is no longer between evolving or waiting. The choice is simple: transform... or let the market decide for you. And when you let the market decide, the loss starts discreetly; then accelerates.
