Luxury Luxury Luxury
Luxury 2050

Supporting luxury brands to future-proof with agility

Luxury 2050

Supporting luxury brands to future-proof with agility

What is the IMD Luxury 2050 Initiative?

Through vibrant communities, cutting-edge thought leadership, and pedagogical activities, IMD’s Luxury 2050 initiative aims to help luxury brands across sectors to navigate the heightened uncertainty and seismic shifts that will redefine luxury in the years to come, and to do so with agility.

We support brands’ efforts to shape the future of more innovative, relevant, and environmentally and socially responsible luxury.

Our vision
Illuminating

We bring answers to the strategic, operational, and organizational questions that brands are, or should be, asking in order to future-proof themselves and be agile. This is made possible by our cutting-edge research and actionable thought leadership.

Creating Bridges

Through circles, forums, networking, and programs, we provide a safe space for luxury brands, non-market institutions, luxury professionals, and our alumni community to meet and reflect on the topics that will require collective initiatives to secure the future of luxury industries.

Activating

We use our pioneering research insights to create inspiring pedagogical activities via open, custom, MBA, and EMBA programs that help luxury brands’ talents upskill and reskill – and take actions to shape a future in which their brand can thrive.

In an increasingly volatile and fractured world, collaboration across brands and sectors is crucial for turning challenges into opportunities. Proud of its Swiss roots, IMD is the safe space to make those dialogues and initiatives happen.

Stéphane J.G. Girod Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation IMD
Thought Leadership

MBA Activities

IMD MBA alumni have been working across luxury sectors, some in C-suite positions. Each year, recruiters like EssilorLuxottica, Cartier, Richemont, and LVMH engage with IMD MBA participants and join IMD’s Career Development Center’s recruiting activities.

In 2020, the MBAs launched a retail and luxury cluster with some 20 students, facilitated by Professor Stéphane J.G. Girod. This consists of inviting guest speakers at IMD to help students network, gather useful information for their job applications and interviews.

2022, MBAs interested in pursuing a career in luxury will be able to follow an elective on the Fundamentals of Luxury Management, also organized by Stéphane J.G. Girod.

If you have a good (remunerated) internship for one or a group of students over the summer vacation (July), please contact our career development team [email protected]

Luxury 2050 Forum
  • Who We Are
  • A Vibrant Community
  • Ambition
  • Across years and programs, we are several hundred IMD Alumni working across the wide range of luxury industries. We don’t necessarily know each other. What if we could join forces to help each other and share in a more informal environment to address the challenges and transformations our brands are experiencing and to support each other personally?

    Luxury needs to secure its transformation towards purpose and sustainability. Digital is still not necessarily intuitive or well used everywhere. The next generation of the virtual economy is looming. Plenty is at stake.

    For example, in automobile, the shift to mobility remains challenging. Many start-ups are transforming the field with new ambitions, already inventing the next tradition. Ecosystems become a norm for brand desirability. Younger talents and generations are expecting something else and are already bringing their own ideas, solutions and buying habits. The shift to greater strategic, organizational and leadership agility comes with its own specificities for luxury.

    Together we are stronger to navigate these challenges and grab these opportunities. We want to create a vibrant community of practice across cohorts and programs. We want to give each other plenty of opportunities for networking, peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, and reverse mentoring. We want to improve by learning the latest thought leadership from IMD and beyond.

    IMD fully supports our ambition. Our school has great ambitions in the luxury space. Stéphane J.G. Girod, who himself worked in luxury fashion, launched the Reinventing Luxury Lab in 2017. An MBA luxury and retail cluster has been growing since 2020.

    IMD is currently looking for a partner to launch a Chair or research center to support the transformation of luxury brands.

    Meet the team

    Lead Faculty and Key Coordinator
    Stéphane J. Girod
    Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation

    Stéphane JG Girod’s research, teaching, and consulting focus on the development of business agility in response to the many forms of disruption faced by organizations in today’s world.

    Contributing Faculty
    Testimonials
    IMD’s Reinventing Luxury Lab: Participant experience – Andrea Puggelli
    IMD’s Reinventing Luxury Lab : Participant experience – Eulalia Alfonso
    IMD’s Reinventing Luxury Lab: Participant experience –Isabelle Sultan

    Partnerships