About 11 years ago, Liu Hongyan was just another student of French in Paris. But she had dreams of being in the fashion industry, a mysterious and intriguing business to her at that time.
Now, not only have her dreams been realized, but she is the envy of many aspiring young women. Liu is the country manager of Thomas Pink, Britain's leading shirt brand. Before that, she was the first country manager for fashion giant Christian Dior in China, and is also a veteran of the apparel division of fashion group LVMH, in charge of the development of Fendi, Celine and Loewe in North China.
What led her to the fashion palace? Education. Liu attended the Institut Francais de la Mode (IFM), a Paris-based centre for creative industries. She graduated with a master's degree in fashion in 1997.
"IFM helped me to accurately position my career in the industry," Liu says. "The course is specially designed for the fashion industry, and the knowledge I learned there helped me to open the window of the fashion industry. Almost all luxury brands recognize IFM degrees."
With China growing to be the world's third largest market for fashion, following Japan and the United States, IFM comes to China with the HEC School of Management in Paris, a leading French business school.
Along with the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, the institutes will kick off the Advanced Management Programme in Fashion and Luxury September 22 in Beijing.
Organizers say the programme is a unique curriculum with top-level international experts and professors from all three institutes. It is a six-month course, followed by an international seminar in Paris.
The programme is intended to serve the needs of both international and Chinese companies in industries such as textiles, apparel, leather goods, perfume, cosmetics, jewellery, watch making, eyewear, wine and spirits, gourmet food, and hospitality management.
The target participants are corporate leaders, senior executive vice-presidents, senior heads of functional departments, government representatives and industry experts.
"With more and more overseas fashion and luxury brands storming into China, there is a large demand for local talent to support their development in the country," says Pascal Morand, the president of IFM. "Those talented people should have global prospective in the industry, and also have knowledge of the local market." He stressed that IMF, which has close links with almost all French fashion and luxury brands, can provide an opportunity for participants to better understand how France grew to be the world's leading fashion and luxury nation.
His comment was echoed by Marc Menesguen, executive vice-president of L'Oreal Group, and president of the group's luxury products division.
"People who get through such a programme will naturally be well trained on the management of both the Chinese market and Western market," he says. "(They will) also be sensitive to trends in fashion, which are essential qualities, and all this in an international environment."
Besides a need for talented people from multinational companies, Chinese firms are also in urgent need of professional managers to build their brands.
"China has a long history and rich tradition," Morand says. "Local companies can refine such culture, since they already have strong advantages in manufacturing skills." He adds that the faculty of the course will share international marketing, brand building, strategy, and experience with executives from local companies.
For example, Didier Grumbach, one of the most respected international businessmen in fashion, will give a lesson during the programme. He was the head of the Mendes Textile Company, the president of Yves Saint Laurent USA, and the president of Thierry Mugler.
"All participants will have a chance to visit the leading French luxury companies and see how they operate with their own eyes," Morand adds.
Jean-Paul Larcon, president of HEC, says the programme expects that two thirds of the participants will come from local companies, and the rest from international organizations.
"We hope to have a variety of participants, such as brand executives, lawyers, analysts and government officials," Larcon says. "We wish to create a communication platform for people in the industry."
The course is designed for 40 to 50 people. Xue Lei, director of the Executive Education Centre of Tsinghua's School of Economics and Management, says the recruitment has gone well, though there were vacancies when this article went to print. So far, the number of participants from domestic firms and from multi-nationals are about the same.
Xue tells China Business Weekly that the admission office has already reached out to some industry associations, such as the All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce and China National Textile Industry Council, to pass the course message to individual companies, and some firms in apparel. Watch-making and pen-making companies have also shown interest in the programme.
"However, many local firms have yet to realize the needs of such education," Xue admits.
HEC's Larcon says the fashion and luxury sector is very different from other industries. First of all, creation and innovation is the heart of the industry, and brand building is a key issue, he says.
"Management in the industry is very complex, since there are always conflicts between freedom and discipline," Larcon says, explaining that executives should give designers freedom to create innovative products, but in the meantime should implement discipline in other value chains, such as manufacturing and marketing.
"It is a big challenge to integrate designs, marketing and manufacturing together," he says.
IFM's Morand agrees. "The management of the fashion and luxury industry needs a perfect combination of rational and emotional management abilities," Morand says. "There are changing needs in the industry."
He explains that companies are in search of excellence in terms of quality, innovation and style in order to better serve the needs of their customers. Corporate reputation and brand image is thus strongly linked with intangible assets, such as sociological and psychological factors. Meanwhile, they have to fight hard with economic factors such as cost, volume, manufacturing process, license fees, access to distribution channels, and purchasing decisions.
Competition is severe in the industry with the development of global players, brands and distribution networks, and companies have to balance the need for global integration and more local responsiveness.
Ultimately, companies are competing for talented people: attracting and developing the best among designers, marketers and managers.
L'Oreal's Menesguen says it is definitely hard to recruit staff in China, as the market is booming and potential candidates have plenty of opportunities.
In the meantime, the company has high requirements for its staff. "The beauty trade is highly competitive and demanding, and requires people with great curiosity, creativity, taste and a natural inclination towards diversity and new trends," Menesguen notes.
He also stresses that what is very specific to luxury is that their people "must be obsessed with quality, up to the slightest details, and also have a strong feeling for service."
Menesguen says the company is naturally interested in hiring people who have degrees from places such as HEC, IFM and Tsinghua.
Tsinghua's Xue says if the programme goes well, the three institutions will make it a regular course. He says the university is also seeking to launch a master's degree in fashion and luxury in China.
The tuition fee for the programme is 50,000 yuan (US$6,270) for six modules in Beijing. The courses include globalization and innovation, brand management, communication and retail, luxury and fashion culture, value chain and business models, and product strategy.
Participants who successfully complete the programme are awarded the Advanced Management Programme in Fashion and Luxury International Certificate jointly delivered by the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, IFM, and HEC Paris.
