HEC Paris’s MBA students had the opportunity to see the luxury fashion industry during a Career Trek to Milan. They visited Loro Piana’s store, where they met HEC alum, CEO Damien Bertrand. Loro Piana is part of the LVMH Group, a key corporate partner of HEC.
At HEC Paris, student-led clubs plan trips around their club’s theme. The Retail & Luxury Club recently sent 20 MBA students on an MBA Career Trek to Milan, Italy. A highlight of the trip was meeting HEC alumnus, Damien Bertrand, the CEO of Loro Piana. They visited the brand’s flagship store. The 100-year-old fashion house is owned by the LVMH Group, a corporate partner of HEC Paris.
The visit featured a VIP tour of the store and a networking hour. It allowed HEC MBA students to engage with important Loro Piana managers, including store managers and HR representatives. The group toured two Loro Piana factories close to Milan, where they observed the detailed production processes under the guidance of an on-site engineer.
This type of on-site experience is invaluable for MBA students. It offers direct insight into the operations and strategies of a successful company. It also helps bridge the gap between academic theories and real-world business practices.
The corporate partner between HEC Paris and the LVMH Group is not limited to Career Trek site visits. It extends into significant recruitment opportunities and on-campus talks.
After the Career Trek, Loro Piana CEO Damien Bertrand came to HEC’s campus in Paris, France, to present to a larger group of students. The focus was on the evolution of Loro Piana branding.
Being an alum of HEC, Damien was excited to revisit his alma mater. “It’s important for me to be back to campus after some years to see how the campus has evolved, how the students have evolved”, he says, “it’s a way for me to get the pulse of what it is to be a student in HEC today …and see some of the students’ talent that could be joining Loro Piana in the near future.” (00:31)
Bertrand notes that his time at HEC helped him gain the ideas and tools he needed for career success. As he puts it, “I learned a lot at HEC. … it gives you academic training which is very wide; it helps you to go from marketing to finance, from entrepreneur to strategy or even legal training… it gave me a lot of ideas, a lot of tools that I could apply since my first job and in my career so far.” (02:03)
Who better to learn business from than a CEO? Especially a CEO who’s an alum of the program business school you’re attending.
Professor Anna Michaut, the Executive Director of the LVMH Corporate Initiative at HEC, highlighted the practical focus of the school’s curriculum. “Our courses are not disconnected from reality. We have this great opportunity to have amazing business leaders in many different sectors, and it’s absolutely great to bring them into class.” (01:00)
This connection with business leaders through corporate partnerships focuses on hands-on business insights. By bringing real-world experiences and current industry practices into the classroom, these partnerships ensure that the theoretical knowledge gained by students is immediately applicable.
The students feel the impact of such corporate partnerships. MBA student Michael Moison expressed how valuable these interactions are for his professional development, “As a student, it’s really important to attend these types of events to get a sense of what companies are actually doing and how they’re thinking. It gives me a lot of inspiration to go back out there find those creative challenges and try to fix them.” (01:16)
These interactions with industry leaders help HEC Paris students think about how to apply their academic lessons to real-world settings.
HEC Paris’s MBA program has strong connections to the fashion industry. This connection to fashion helped Caroline Deng pivot her career from advertising to luxury brand management while doing her MBA at HEC.
HEC Paris’s corporate partnerships, including its collaboration with the LVMH Group and brands like Loro Piana, provide students with valuable lessons in business practices, industry standards, and professional networking. These strategic alliances underscore the business school’s commitment to facilitating successful career transitions, equipping students with critical insights and experiences that prepare them for leadership roles.
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