March 3, 2008. - Intent on helping to seamlessly integrate Carrefour's global strategy into its operational practices in China, the company's China Vice President in Charge of Food Mr. Damien Veilleroy has collaborated with CEIBS to create an Executive Education Programme especially tailor-made for the company's mid- and top-level China managers. The Carrefour executive worked closely with Professor Mark Colgate, a long-term visiting professor at CEIBS and the major designer and instructor of the programme, called "Service Marketing".
To date, Carrefour has opened 112 hypermarkets in China and has been experiencing sustainable and efficient growth of 20 percent per year. Not content to rest on its laurels, the company's management still wants to work closely with business schools to broaden its executives' vision and improve their knowledge base, thereby laying a solid foundation for Carrefour's long-term sustainable development in China.
During today's session, Prof. Colgate -- who is an expert in service marketing -- began by giving participants an introduction to the industry's most recent international theories and practices. His knowledgeable and humorous explanations, combined with realistic case studies, kept participants fully engaged and focused on their goal of rethinking Carrefour's core competencies and competitive advantages. The company executives participated eagerly, sharing ideas, asking probing questions, and engaging Prof. Colgate in in-depth discussions about daily management challenges and possible solutions.
Prof. Colgate's effective, interactive teaching style impressed Carrefour China's Vice President of HR Ms. Meng Yiyan, who described the course this way, "The programme plays an active role in enabling Carrefour's executives to align their daily work with corporate strategy and understand that Carrefour's sustainable development in China depends more on human resources than merely on profitability."
"Service Marketing" is just one of the latest in CEIBS company specific Executive Education Programmes. The main advantage of such programmes is that they can be crafted -- through collaboration between CEIBS expert faculty, project management team and the company -- to fit each participating firm’s unique circumstances, needs and priorities.
