Finishing a digital-strategy series is easy to postpone until a real brief shows up. This capstone is that brief: three named companies, three roles, and no new lecture series to hide behind.
The catch is sequencing. Enrolling here also enrolls you in the full Digital Business Specialization, and the assignments assume you already have the first three courses. If you want a polished certificate without the prior modules, this is the wrong door.
Short answer: Worth the weekend if you already finished the first three courses and want case practice; skip it as a standalone intro to digital business.
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How We Reviewed This
- Reconciled duration: module labels add to 12 hours 2 minutes, against the page’s “1 week at 10 hours a week” badge and the Specialization’s “11 hours” line for Course 4.
- Verified the instructor team as two people (Valérie Fernandez and Thomas Houy), distinct from the four-person Specialization roster.
- Confirmed auto-bundle enrollment: signing up for this capstone also enrolls you in the Digital Business Specialization, with access gated by Coursera Plus rather than a separate free-audit link.
- Learner feedback on this course is thin (12 ratings) and clusters on peer-review quality: useful cases, uneven peer comments, little direct instructor feedback.
Course at a Glance
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Platform | Coursera |
| School / Partner | École Polytechnique; Institut Mines-Télécom |
| Course/Program | Digital Business – Capstone project |
| Instructor(s) | Valérie Fernandez, Thomas Houy |
| Duration | 12 hours of listed module time (official badge: 1 week at 10 hours a week) |
| Weekly Time | 10 hours a week (official suggested pace) |
| Level | Intermediate (some related experience required) |
| Mode | Self-paced (session start dates shown; flexible schedule) |
| Certificate | Shareable course certificate via Coursera Plus; no separate free-audit path shown |
| Price | Included with Coursera Plus; check the live page for the current subscription rate |
| Audit Option | No separate free-audit link is shown on the current official page |
| Rating (as of 22 September 2026) | 4.9 course rating from 12 reviews; instructor rating 3.8 from 5 ratings |
| Enrolled (as of 22 September 2026) | 2,738 |
| Content Last Verified | 22 September 2026 |
| Part of Bundle | Yes: Digital Business Specialization (4 courses total) |
Who Should Take This Capstone
Take this if:
- You already finished the first three Digital Business courses and need a place to apply them.
- You learn faster from named company cases than from another concept video.
- You want practice switching hats: analyst on LVMH, then a Huawei deep dive, then startup-style missions at Energysquare.
- You already pay for Coursera Plus, so this capstone costs the same as sitting out the bundle.
- You can live with peer-graded write-ups instead of a live mentor.
Skip this if:
- You have not taken Understand / Act / Grow yet. The official FAQ says the capstone comes last.
- You wanted a beginner digital-business survey. The Specialization is labeled Beginner; this course is Intermediate.
- You need software practice (SQL, ads managers, analytics tools). These cases are strategy write-ups, not tool labs.
- You dislike peer review. Several independent summaries flag thin peer comments and little instructor grading.
- You only wanted Course 4’s certificate without the other three. Enrollment attaches the whole Specialization.
Capstone Syllabus: Three Company Cases
What You’ll Learn
- Analyze a digital business process in a large luxury group
- Decode a diversified group’s digital strategy using public case material
- Evaluate a telecom firm’s global expansion and controversy context
- Apply growth-hacking style missions for a hardware startup
- Choose a KPI and argue a B2B versus consumer move
- Produce peer-reviewed recommendations as analyst, consultant, and manager
Official module labels add to 12 hours and 2 minutes. The hero badge says 1 week at 10 hours a week. The Specialization page lists this course at 11 hours. We use 12 hours as the planning figure because that is the sum of the four module times on the course page. The 10-hour badge is a schedule suggestion, not a content inventory. The Specialization FAQ separately says each case takes 3 to 4 hours plus 1 to 2 hours of peer review, which can push lived time above 12 hours if you write carefully.
Module 1: Presentation of the Capstone Module (2 minutes)
A short welcome that frames three case studies and tells you the work will apply practices from the earlier MOOCs. One reading is listed at about 2 minutes. There is no graded work here.
Module 2: Let’s Make LVMH More Digital (3 hours)
The first case walks through LVMH’s group and products, know-how, diversification, and how digital touches those activities. Named items include BCG insights on “how to get digital,” a decode of LVMH’s digital strategy, and a look at luxury and online trends. Format on an institutional mirror of the page: 4 videos, 5 readings, and 1 peer review budgeted at 120 minutes.
On the Job: Luxury groups rarely let a junior hire “fix digital.” This is closer to the memo you write before a strategy offsite: what the group already is, where online actually fits, and what not to break.
Module 3: Deep Dive Into Huawei (3 hours)
The second case shifts industries. Items include Huawei past and present, the 5G-as-backdoor controversy segment, a founder-interview response, then three expansion steps (leader in China, going global, a global B2C position), early controversies, and technical synergies. An optional “dive deeper” item is listed. You are expected to use earlier-course ideas on strategic shift, not treat this as a news recap.
On the Job: Strategy work on a geopolitically exposed vendor is mostly framing: which facts you treat as given, which risks you name, and which growth story you will not oversell.
Module 4: Get the Power with Energysquare (6 hours)
The last case leaves large incumbents for a French energy-hardware startup. Named material includes a founders’ interview, CES in Las Vegas, the CES 2019 Best of Innovation award, a Kickstarter campaign and behind-the-scenes segment, a Simon Sinek conference clip, Computex in Taipei, and two expert-interview parts. Missions include designing a landing page, identifying influencers, explaining B2B strategy, weighing IP licensing, choosing a KPI, and a “retention is king” close. Multiple peer reviews sit in this module (one listing shows 4 peer reviews totaling 65 minutes, on top of the mission write-ups).
On the Job: Early-stage digital growth work looks like this more than a 40-page strategy deck: pick a channel, pick a KPI, and defend a B2B versus consumer bet with incomplete data.
Prerequisites: The course page does not list a formal prerequisite field of “None.” The Specialization FAQ is explicit: complete the three earlier courses first; Courses 2 and 3 can be taken in either order after Course 1. Treat that as the real gate, not an optional suggestion.
Instructor Credibility
Two instructors are credited on this course: Valérie Fernandez and Thomas Houy, both listed under Institut Mines-Télécom. The official block shows “View all 2 instructors.” Do not confuse that with the four-person Specialization roster (Rémi Maniak and Laurent Gille appear on the parent program, not as extra names in this course’s instructor count).
Fernandez is a Professor in Management Science at Télécom Paris (Institut Polytechnique de Paris), with a Coursera bio focused on organizational change tied to digital technology, including open innovation, mobile work, and information-system governance. Houy is an Associate Professor in Management Science at Télécom Paris, teaching strategy and entrepreneurship; his Coursera bio notes research on digital start-ups plus prior founder and mentoring work.
Course rating and instructor rating are different numbers. The course shows 4.9 from 12 reviews. Fernandez’s instructor rating on this page is 3.8 from 5 ratings. That instructor figure is a tiny sample and is not the course score.
Pricing & Financial Aid
Access on the current official page is Included with Coursera Plus. Enrolling in this course also enrolls you in the Digital Business Specialization. No separate “Audit the course” or “Full Course, No Certificate” link was visible beside the main enroll control.
If you already have Coursera Plus: open the course and start Module 2 after you finish the first three courses. If you are paying out of pocket: price the monthly or annual Plus plan against how many of the four courses you will actually finish; this capstone alone is a poor reason to subscribe. If you only wanted unpaid viewing of the case videos: that path is not shown on the current page.
Confirm the current rate on the live course page, as pricing and promotions can change. A sitewide Plus promo banner may appear; treat that as platform pricing, not a coupon for this course alone.
Financial aid: The course FAQ includes “Is financial aid available?” and the page footer links “Financial aid available, learn more.” Aid is presented as available through Coursera’s application flow; check that flow for this enrollment rather than assuming every Plus-gated item is eligible.
What You Actually Get for the Time
There is no salary figure on the official course or Specialization page, so we are not inventing one. The credential you can claim is a shareable Coursera certificate for this course, plus the Specialization certificate if you finish all four. Recognition is the usual platform certificate, not a degree credit and not a professional-body mark (no CME, PMI, or similar badge is shown).
If your goal is to practice writing digital-strategy recommendations on luxury, telecom, and startup facts, the three cases map to that work. If you already do that work and want a software or analytics credential, the marginal value here is mostly the certificate, not new methods.
Because access is subscription-gated, a cost-per-learning-hour for this course alone is not a meaningful number. Skip that math and price the Plus plan against the full four-course sequence instead.
Solo Course or Full Certificate?
This is Course 4 of 4 in the Digital Business Specialization. Enrolling here auto-enrolls you in that Specialization. Completing only this course yields this course’s certificate; finishing all four yields the Specialization certificate from Institut Mines-Télécom.
The other three courses:
- Digital Business – Understand the digital world — concepts and mechanisms of the digital economy (Course 1, listed around 11–12 hours)
- Digital business – Act on the digital world — management paradigms, data-driven work, and why large firms struggle to innovate (Course 2, listed around 10–11 hours)
- Digital business – Grow on digital world — industry-specific digital change and growth patterns (Course 3, listed around 10 hours)
Under Coursera Plus, sitting in this capstone costs the same as taking the other three. Take the full bundle unless you already completed those courses elsewhere and only need the case practice. Do not start here as Course 1.
How to Enrol
- Open the official Coursera page for Digital Business – Capstone project and create or sign in to a Coursera account.
- Expect auto-bundle enrollment: starting this course also enrolls you in the Digital Business Specialization. There is no separate “capstone only” track on the current page.
- Choose Coursera Plus (or the trial Plus offers, if shown in your session) if you need graded peer reviews and the certificate. A standalone free-audit path was not shown.
- If you need aid, use the financial-aid link from this course’s enrollment flow rather than a generic help article.
- After access opens, confirm you can see Modules 2–4 and the peer-review tasks before you treat enrollment as complete.
Common Mistakes
- Starting the capstone first. The Specialization FAQ says complete Courses 1–3 before the cases. Module 1 is two minutes; it will not teach the frameworks the peer reviews expect.
- Treating “Enroll for free” as unpaid full access. The static disclosure is Coursera Plus, and enrollment attaches the Specialization.
- Planning only 10 hours. Module labels already sum to 12 hours, and the FAQ’s 3–4 hours per case plus peer-review time can run longer if you write the LVMH and Energysquare submissions carefully.
- Expecting instructor comments on every draft. Public summaries of this capstone repeatedly mention peer review as the grading path, with uneven comment quality and little direct instructor feedback.
- Ignoring how old some source clips are. Energysquare’s CES 2019 award and Kickstarter material are useful as a growth narrative, not as a 2026 market update. Say so in your write-up if a peer review rubric asks for current recommendations.
Alternatives Comparison
| Digital Business – Capstone project | Digital Business Models | Digital Business Strategy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Coursera | Coursera | Coursera |
| Price | Coursera Plus (check live rate) | View live Plus price | Check current rate on Coursera |
| Duration | 12 hours listed (badge: 10 hours / 1 week) | About 10 hours (1 week at 10 hours) | Check live duration on the course page |
| Certificate | Shareable, Plus-gated | Shareable, Plus-gated | Shareable (confirm access model on the live page) |
| Mode | Self-paced | Self-paced | Self-paced |
| Best Suited For | Learners who finished this Specialization and want LVMH / Huawei / Energysquare write-ups | Learners who want a framework on Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Xiaomi, and WeChat without a four-course sequence | Learners who want Darden-style digital strategy (platforms, competition, capturing value) rather than French-school case missions |
No separately hosted free copy of this capstone from Fernandez or Houy showed up in this pass. If you only need the ideas, Lund’s Digital Business Models covers digital business models in one course instead of a capstone that depends on three prior ones.
About Coursera & École Polytechnique
About Coursera
Coursera hosts university and industry courses behind a mix of subscriptions, individual purchases, and occasional free-audit paths. This capstone uses the Plus-plus-Specialization pattern: one enrollment attaches four courses.
About École Polytechnique and Institut Mines-Télécom — Why Learners Search This Course
People land here for three practical reasons. First, the title names a capstone, so searchers who already started the Digital Business series want the last graded piece. Second, LVMH, Huawei, and Energysquare are specific enough to attract managers who are tired of generic “digital transformation” slides. Third, École Polytechnique and Institut Mines-Télécom signal a French engineering-and-management pairing rather than a U.S. tech-company certificate.
The honest limit is age and assessment design. Several case assets (CES 2019, Kickstarter-era startup footage) will not update themselves, and grading runs through peers. That is a real constraint if you wanted a current market briefing or a faculty mark.
Analyst’s Take
Compared with Digital Business Models from Lund University, this capstone is narrower and more dependent on prior coursework. Lund gives a reusable model for how software firms create and defend value. This course asks you to write as if you were already on the account team for a luxury group, a telecom vendor, and a hardware startup. That is a better rehearsal for consulting-style memos and a worse first course.
The academic pairing matters. École Polytechnique and Institut Mines-Télécom frame digital change as strategy and organization, not as a vendor certification. You should expect conceptual cases and peer essays, not dashboards.
Who should skip this: Anyone who has not finished Understand, Act, and Grow, or anyone who needs tool-based proof (ads, SQL, product analytics) for a hiring packet.
Practical tip: Draft the LVMH peer review against the earlier-course vocabulary (process, strategic shift) before you watch every optional clip. The 120-minute review block is the real bottleneck, not Module 1.
After You Enrol
- Confirm Courses 1–3 are marked complete before you open the LVMH peer review. If they are not, stop and finish those first.
- For Module 2, write the LVMH submission as a short strategy note: what the group already owns, where digital actually changes a process, and one shift you would not recommend.
- For Module 3, separate Huawei’s expansion story from the controversy readings. Peers ding submissions that treat the case as a news opinion piece.
- For Module 4, complete the landing-page, influencer, B2B, and KPI missions as separate artifacts. Budget extra time; this module is labeled 6 hours for a reason.
- When you review classmates, score the rubric items they asked for. Thin peer comments are the complaint this capstone already has; do not add to it.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Digital Business Capstone on Coursera
Is the Digital Business Capstone project worth it?
Yes, if you already finished the first three courses and want graded practice on LVMH, Huawei, and Energysquare. No, if you want a first digital-business course or a tool certificate. The official page lists this as Intermediate Course 4 of 4, not a standalone intro.
Does enrolling in this capstone enroll me in the full Specialization?
Yes. The official page states that when you enroll in this course, you are also enrolled in the Digital Business Specialization. There is no separate capstone-only enrollment shown.
How long does the Digital Business Capstone actually take?
Plan for about 12 hours from the module labels (2 minutes + 3 hours + 3 hours + 6 hours). The hero badge says 1 week at 10 hours a week, and the Specialization lists 11 hours. Case write-ups plus peer review can run longer than any of those figures.
Is there a free audit for this course?
Not on the current official page. The access line is included with Coursera Plus, the course is Specialization-tied, and no separate audit link was shown. Confirm on the live page if your session displays a different path.
What are the downsides of this capstone?
Worth knowing before you pay: grading is peer review, the public comment trail on this course is small (12 reviews), and some Energysquare assets date to CES 2019 and Kickstarter. The cases still work as writing practice. They are not a live 2026 market file.
Are digital business MOOCs useful if I already work in strategy?
They can be, when the course forces a written recommendation on a named firm. This capstone does that. A survey course that only defines platforms and network effects is less useful once you already sit in those meetings. Match the format to the gap: cases if you need reps, frameworks if you still need vocabulary.
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📄 Source: Course details sourced from the official Coursera course page for this École Polytechnique and Institut Mines-Télécom course. See Content Last Verified above.
