Image – Global & Experiential Education

Sweden, Marketing, GWSB Sweden Study abroad, Summer 2018.

Blog post written by Kevin Saladino.

As a student, the concept of a “Study Abroad” program has always appealed to me. Though I did not have the opportunity to do so in undergraduate school, nor in my first master’s program due to a locally based cohort, my chance has now come thanks to my involvement in the professional MBA.

As a business owner, I believe it is important to be able to work with people in person. When I was informed that GWU offered the program to Sweden and to consult with Volvo, I made the effort to sign up for the journey.

Being a remote student for the most part is a difficult experience in and of itself and in preparing for a study abroad it is no different. I have made the required trip to meet my classmates and to attend class, though now that I have met them it is even more difficult to be away thanks to the level of detail required in our work. My group meshes so well and everyone in it works very hard, is professional and strives to deliver a stellar product for Volvo. I am anticipating not only more challenge, but also the ability to grow more as a student and as business professional.

I chose this program because as a business owner, I seek to know more about how businesses in other countries differ, operationally from those located in the USA. In addition, I wanted to meet (and possibly work with) executives representing a foreign firm. As an aside, I am a fan of Volvo and their engineering; this trip seems like it would be a slam dunk.

Because I am an online student, I find I am missing in-person interaction and the cohesiveness of groups. I hope to gain more experience with working with others and in an in person consulting environment on large projects such as the Sweden study abroad program. I am also anticipating the ability to polish my speaking skills and will have the opportunity to interact with a differing culture and country-another one of my goals in the program. Volvo is a mature and well respected firm that has years of expertise and speaks to me on a personal level. Even though the automotive industry does not exactly mesh perfectly with my finance background, I am seeking to gain more experience with a larger firm, helping them attain their organizational goals.

Last week was the first week of classes. My roommate and I were able to navigate our way through and got to school 45 minutes before class started (talk about overachievers ?). The classes I am taking are all luxury classes so I was extremely excited because these types of courses are not offered at GW.

My first class was Luxury Retail Management in which we learn about how companies communicate their brand and strategies retail strategies to build the brand. There is a required group and individual project due at the end of the course. The group project consists of acting as a secret buyer at one of eight luxury brands who have a large presence in Paris, I picked Chanel (obviously). The individual project is a paper on how major brands are developing omni channel (bridging online and offline customer interactions), my company is Christian Louboutin (long heels red bottoms, long heels red bottoms).

The next class was International Luxury Distribution in which we learn about distribution strategies and business models of successful brands. This class also has a required group and individual project. The group project is to present the dynamics of multi brand distribution for multi-brand concept stores in EMEA. The individual paper is to analyze brand collaborations in a particular sector, my paper will be on Boucheron‘s jewelry collaborations.

Both courses are taught by Denis Morisett who was the former COO of Ralph Lauren Europe, CEO of Pierre Balmain, and Managing Director France of Armani, Director of Luxury Executive Programs, and has been teaching at ESSEC for over 20 years. Needless to say, this man has been around and knows what he is talking about. The courses complement each other in terms of content, in Management you learn how to brand is making its name online and offline and in Distribution you learn how the brand is getting its name across internationally.

The other class I am taking is Anthropology of Luxury Brands in which we learn about the evolution of human’s wants as it relates to luxury. I have never taken an anthropology class before, so I am excited to learn about what actually makes us want to want these crazy outrageously priced items and how have brands utilized these wants to create an empire for themselves. The professor is Simon Nyeck who has a great deal of knowledge in marketing, he received his PhD in Marketing from ESSEC, a Doctoral degree from Paris Dauphine University, GloColl Fellow on Participant-Centered Learning from Harvard Business School, and the list goes on.

The first day of class was so stimulating, I was learning about how all of the big names actually became big names. Hopefully one day I can be one of them :D