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Luxury 2050

Supporting luxury brands to future-proof with agility

Luxury 2050

Supporting luxury brands to future-proof with agility

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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
Case study
Maison Chloé: Driving Purposeful Transformation for Sustainability
By Vanina Farber, Stéphane J. G. Girod and Lisa Duke

At luxury fashion house Maison Chloé, minds were focused on the first collection of new Creative Director, Gabriela Hearst, which was just hitting the stores.

01 December 2021
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Case study
Chanel 1.5°: A Sustainability Journey
By Vanina Farber, Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik

In a short span of five or six years, CHANEL embraced CSR (corporate social responsibility) and ESG (environmental, social, governance) initiatives that stretched far beyond its established comfort zone.

01 December 2021
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Case study
The Future of the Fashion Industry in a Post-COVID-19 World
By Niccolò Pisani and Inès Augier

Zimmerli of Switzerland is a small Swiss brand that offers the highest quality underwear for men and women in the luxury segment.

01 March 2021
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Case study
Zenith Watches: Ticking to a New Beat
By Benoit F. Leleux

The case highlights the dilemma of Zenith watches, a company that got stuck in its own tradition and lost its drive to innovate, relying too long on technical inventions of the past.

01 December 2020
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Case study
Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein Post-COVID-19: What’s in Store?
By Niccolò Pisani and Inès Augier

The global fashion industry was among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, facing major disruptions on an unprecedented scale.

31 January 2020
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Article
The Future of Luxury Trade Shows is ‘Smart’
By Fabienne Lupo

The pandemic badly hit the ‘salons’, the traditional way in which luxury brands do business – but don’t write them off yet.

24 January 2022
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Luxury 2050
Article
NFTs and Luxury: What You Need to Consider for Your Brand
By Stéphane J.G. Girod

NFTs can further many of the sector’s closest-held values, but brands first need to consider the habits of their demographic.

10 September 2021
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Article
Be Close to People and Show Vision: Pandemic Lessons for Luxury
By François-Henry Bennahmias

Chief executive of leading Swiss luxury watch brand says COVID-19 prompted a complete reassessment of their business model.

21 May 2021
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Article
Five Strategies For Building A New-Style Luxury Customer Community
By Stéphane J.G. Girod

It’s essential to stay relevant and become more purposeful as customers are increasingly buying into the values of a brand just as much as their products.

31 January 2022
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Article
Luxury Brands Need To Strategize Better On Customer Community
By Stéphane J.G. Girod

Sephora, the French multinational retailer of beauty products created in 1970, has been able to keep Amazon (founded in 1994) at bay in the beauty category.

21 January 2022
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Article
Breitling Shows Other Luxury Brands How To Future Proof With Agility
By Stéphane J.G. Girod

Many argue that, in the wake of COVID-19, the odds are now in favor of the biggest luxury groups and that independent players are doomed.

27 August 2021
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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