Luxury 101
EVERY YEAR, CEIBS MBA STUDENTS COMPETE FOR 3 COVETED SPOTS AS SUMMER INTERNS FOR LVMH GROUP, AT THE HEADQUARTERS IN PARIS. WHAT'S IT LIKE SPENDING 6 WEEKS AT THE EPICENTRE OF THE LUXURY WORLD, AND HOW WOULD SUCH AN INTERNSHIP CHANGE YOUR CAREER? READ ON AS THE LINK INTERVIEWS PAST WINNERS.
By Charmaine N. Clarke
It's not a hard sell. The winners spend six to seven weeks in Paris working for one of the world-famous luxury brand firms within the prestigious LVMH Group, plus receiving an allowance of EUR3,000.
It is no surprise, then, that every year since it was first offered in 2006, the LVMH Asia Scholarship has been one of the most coveted prizes among CEIBS MBA students. During the last three years, more than 130 CEIBS students have applied for the nine spots up for grabs.
Now in its third year, the programme has left those talented enough to make the trip to France with a greater appreciation of the skills needed to work in a global environment and,in some cases, it gave a direct boost to their careers. With all this in mind, The LINK caught up with five past winners of the LVMH scholarship.These former students share memories of their summer in Paris and the impact the experience had on their careers.
ALL ABOUT WINE
For Simon Sha (MBA 2005), the 49 days he spent at Moet Hennessey headquarters after winning the LVMH internship in 2006 changed his life and redirected his career. The experience opened the door to an entirely new world and allowed him to segue-way into China's wine industry. Today, as Partner of Vino Villa - the wine bar/restaurant he established with CEIBS alumnus and former classmate Anders Paulsson - Sha still draws upon the skills he picked up in Paris. With the knowledge he gained interning in Moet Hennessey's Market Intelligence Department, Sha has been able to analyse China's wine market, a skill that helps him stay ahead of trends and excel at meeting his customers' needs. "It made me proactively watch the phenomenon of the changing wine industry in China," Sha says. He has watched the progression from the days when domestic wine drinkers were satisfied with inexpensive and inferior wines, to the current trend toward consumers demanding higher quality.
Before entering CEIBS, Sha had worked in supply chain management at Xerox. By the time he graduated with his MBA in February 2007, he had become an expert in a completely new field due, in large part, to his LVMH internship."Before the trip, I didn't know how to select wines. In France, I had the chance for serious study," he explains. His 18 months at CEIBS also included an exchange programme that took him to the Napa Valley, where he soaked up all he could about California wines. "After (the internship in) France, I knew I had a career in wine. So after graduating from CEIBS, I only looked for jobs with wine companies, nothing else. Look at my life now, it's all about wine," he told The LINK from a cosy table near Vino Villa's well stocked wine bar.
ROSY GLOW? -- Simon Sha (CEIBS MBA 2005),who caught Wine Fever while interning for Moet Hennessy in 2006, has turned his new passion into business. He opened Vino Villa restaurant in late 2007 near the CEIBS Shanghai campus.
A month after graduating from CEIBS, Sha took a job as Senior Sales Manager at a small wine company. By August 2007 he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. "I saw a marketing opportunity, so I decided to open up a place that offers food and wine, but where the wine is sold at retail prices. That's the basic concept of Vino Villa," he says.
He convinced two friends to invest and construction began in October 2007. By April 2008, they had made a modest profit.
Realising that an educated consumer translates into more sales from their impressive cellar of wines, Sha and his partner Paulsson now do a fair bit of knowledge-sharing through wine tastings and screenings of wine-related movies at Vino Villa. In addition, they plan to launch a website that promotes their restaurant and educate potential customers.
For now, the wine lessons are limited to those who visit Vino Villa; customers get the full wine-lovers' experience. "They don't order from a menu. We have a wine room and we show them around. We talk about the wine they choose," explains Sha who also did a stint as a consultant to wine investors. For him, the wine industry is multifaceted. "You can be an investor and buy a RMB20,000 bottle that you sell after three to four years. On the other hand, wine is fashionable, elegant," he says, sounding like a true Parisian connoisseur.
MUCH TO TEACH
Developing an LVMH Group Case Study for CEIBS was one of the ideas formed by Andrea Ke (MBA 2006) during her 2007 internship in Moet Hennessey's Marketing Intelligence Support (MIS) Department. "CEIBS students could learn a lot from the group's management of different brands - some of which are competing against each other," she says. "The organisation and communication of those brands, is really fascinating."
While in Paris, Ke focused mainly on identifying barriers to the growth of the champagne market in China and on helping Veuve Clicquot sharpen its sales strategy for the Chinese New Year. She picked up several key marketing strategies along the way: "In marketing, less is more," she says. "Don't confuse your target audience with too much information; focus on one thing that you can use to touch them."
Lessons learned during the internship complemented Ke's professional background in marketing and engineering, giving her hands-on experience in developing and implementing marketing strategy. Her days as an intern were packed with a mix of market research and discussions with marketing directors and brand designers.
Having spent the early weeks of pregnancy during the internship, this summer Ke is at home with her four-month-old baby. After completing her CEIBS studies this September, she expects to draw on the lessons learned at Moet Hennessy when she re-enters the working world. Says Ke: "It has been helpful for my future career in terms of distinguishing yourself from other competitors. I have benefited from exposure to [LVMH] marketing knowledge and practices."
VIVE LA FRANCE!
ENCHANTEE! -- Working in CRM for Loius Vitton headquarters gave Wang Yinan a taste for French corporate culture. Since graduating in 2007, she works in CRM for Michelin.
After being seconded to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Department of Louis Vuitton's Paris headquarters, Yinan Wang (MBA 2006) quickly became enamoured with the French style of business. "I learned about the culture of the French company and I liked it, that's why I chose a French company to start my career," she says. Wang now works on CRM projects for Michelin's marketing department in Beijing.
Her current job has taken Wang a long way from pre-CEIBS work in media. By the time the former TV journalist enrolled in the MBA programme, she was mentally shifting towards the thriving luxury industry. The LVMH internship was an opportunity she was determined not to miss: "The luxury industry is attractive, full of marvellous opportunities. Besides, the industry, especially for the leading companies like LVMH, is quite advanced in many fields like M&A."
While in France, Wang focused on helping LVMH formulate strategy for developing and maintaining ties to Chinese consumers. She learned to track and analyze consumer behaviour directly from seasoned LVMH managers and spent her free time visiting the Louis Vuitton museum and workshop, as well as the LV flagship store on the Champs Elysees. "It was really a wonderful experience for me. I benefited so much from it," says Wang. "I learned from a world-class company what the industry is really like."
ACCELERATED LEARNING
During a March 31 ceremony announcing the 2008 internship winners, LVMH Group Director for China Andrew Wu explained why the luxury brand group offers the internships to CEIBS. After 25 years of organizing scholarships for European students eager to learn about Asia, the LVMH Asia Scholarship was introduced to provide Asian students with exposure to Europe. According to Wu, "The company is offering scholarships to CEIBS students not only to provide them with an opportunity to learn about LVMH and about Europe, but also to enhance their capacity to truly become global citizens."
That goal was definitely achieved for Australian student Sheridan Ware (MBA 2006).The global focus of her internship experience provided her with an international perspective which she now applies to her job as Director of Strategic Development for Cushman & Wakefield, Asia Pacific. "The internship gave me insight into cultural and geographic nuances that I can draw upon," she says.
For Ware, the internship was an "invaluable experience" that prepared her for her new job providing real estate services for MNCs."Learning to understand business-to-consumer CRM during the internship has helped me to understand and put business-to-business CRM into context," she says. "I look at it as an accelerated learning programme."
LIPSTICK ANYONE?
Siddhartha Sarkar (MBA 2005) has no trouble buying gifts for his wife. That was one of the unexpected advantages of spending six weeks at Dior doing market research on online selling.
During the first two weeks, Sarkar did the research needed to help him formulate a strategy; this involved cruising the company's web portal and discussions with co-workers, who provided a wealth of knowledge. The last four weeks were spent analyzing data generated by a consulting firm, based on customers' responses to a questionnaire he had prepared.
Sarkar drew upon his IT consulting background and b-school analytical skills to get the job done. He also picked up other lessons along the way. "It helps to know that you can survive in a totally foreign environment when you know nothing about the industry and nothing about the product or the way the company works. Six weeks in there and you survive the whole thing, it gives you confidence for the real world job market," he says.
Boosted confidence made it easier to accept his current job as a strategic analyst in Honeywell-Transportation System's integrated supply chain department in February 2007. Once again, Sarkar was unfamiliar with the industry but confident that he could adapt to it.
Then too, Sarkar remembers the fun he had in France. "It was a great opportunity: Paris, summer time, great money. It looked like it would be fun and it turned out to be fun as well," he says with a chuckle. It helped to have friendly, professional co-workers and that English was the LVMH language of choice. "I was the only male in a team of 12 and that was the first time I have been in the minority, gender-wise [on the job]. But that was fine because the people were really friendly and tried to do everything to make my life easier," he says.
Today, he looks back at the experience, which he has added to his resume, as a feather in his cap. "It's prestigious to be selected, in a competitive process, to be one of the three candidates,"he says.
This year's laureates from the MBA intake class of 2007- Ellie Liu, Hans Peng and Gulam Wani - will take up their internships later this summer. They join the ranks of CEIBS MBA students lucky enough to experience summer in Paris, learning from some of the best experts in the luxury industry. Bon voyage!
