Executive MBA – Exchange Program 2015 

MIP Politecnico di Milano 

Via Raffaele Lambruschini 4C – Building 26/A 

20156, Milano 

Elective course: Luxury Management 9 – 11 April, 2015 Professor: Alessandro Brun Learning Objectives The course will focus on the specificity of high-priced consumer goods (Luxury Goods), in order to enable students to understand their peculiarity compared to consumer products. In particular, the main learning objectives are as follows: • learning how to manage luxury brands: Students will understand the different meaning of luxury relating to the each market segment; they will learn how to create, support and broaden the luxury brands and they will analyze the different portfolio and positioning strategies adopted by leading companies; • better knowing how companies develop and produce luxury products. Through the analysis of case studies and testimonials students will observe closely the operations of luxury companies, the mechanisms that allow to obtain unique products of superior quality; analyze how the organization and human resources can contribute to the success of luxury brands and how they can be managed as efficiently as possible; • understanding how to define the appropriate channel strategy for the distribution of luxury brands. Students will understand the differences between the available alternatives in terms of formats of retail, business partners and global distribution; they will also have the chance to analyze on the field the role of the merchandising and shopping experience. The teaching approach of the course will be based on the use of business cases. Schedule

Module Topic Professor 1-2

Thursday 9/04/15 h. 10-14

Introduction: • Market trends • What is "luxury"? • Success key Factors of Luxury firms • The Trading-Up concept

Alessandro Brun

3-4 Thursday 9/04/15 h. 15-19

The peculiarities of luxury companies: • The organization of luxury companies • Key processes

Francesco Aimi

5-6 Friday

10/04/15 h. 09-13

Branding • Brand and communication • Building a portfolio of luxury brands • The architecture of luxury brands • The value of a brand: the "Brand Equity"

Fabrizio Maria Pini

7 Friday

10/04/15 h. 14-16

• The market positioning of a luxury brand • Luxury brand communication mix

Fabrizio Maria Pini

10 Friday

10/04/15 h. 16-18

Management of the distribution channels • Retail definition; luxury sector requirements ; customer management • Retail theory: markets, locations Retail operation management of retail: quality of the service; retail operations management key factors

Cecilia Castelli

8-9 Saturday 10/04/15

h. 9-13

Human resources Organization and management: • The corporate functions in luxury companies • HR management • Managing creativity

Paola Bertola

11 Saturday 11/04/15 h. 14-16

Luxury retail experiences Guest speaker

12 Saturday 11/04/15 h. 16-18

Trends and challenges Alessandro Brun

Ing. BRUN ALESSANDRO Associate Professor Education

Master Degree with honours in Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano PhD in Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

Teaching experience Since October 2014, Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano 17 years of teaching experience on the topics of “Quality Management”, “Industrial Technologies”, “Operations Management”,

“Sourcing and Purchasing”, at all levels of education (undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, executive training), both in Italy and abroad.

Supervisor of over 250 Master and Diploma Thesis on the topics of “Quality Management”, “Operations Management”, “Supply Chain Management”, “Industrial Technologies”.

Scientific research 150+ publication in relevant journals, scientific conferences and books 27 papers on Scopus-indexed International Journals, of which:

o 10 papers on ABS Grade 3 journals o 4 papers on ABS Grade 2 journals

H index (as calculated on www.scopus.com, on October 22nd, 2014) = 10 participated – as team member and, lately, as scientific coordinator – to research projects of national and international

interest, in the areas of Manufacturing and Logistic Systems Design and Management, Industrial Technologies, Quality Management and Operations Improvement, and Supply Chain Management Information Systems.

Appointments Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering - Politecnico di Milano

Responsible of admissions and study plans for MSc students of Industrial Engineering, Como Campus (“Internationalization” project) 2006 – present

Member of the Committee of the PhD programme in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering (DRIG) 2013 – present

MIP Politecnico di Milano (the Business School of Politecnico di Milano) Deputy Director of the MBA program 2003 – 2007 Director of the Master in Operations, Quality & Supply Chain Management 2007 – 2010 Director of Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt certification programmes 2008 – present Director of the Career Development Office (formerly “Career Services”) 2012 – 2014 Member of the Management Board 2012 – present

Ing-Ind/17 (Italian Scientific Sector of Industrial Plants professors) Member of the national board. 2005 – 2009