Luxury 2050 Forum

Our mission

The Luxury 2050 Forum is a trusted community in where we help each other to learn and develop continuously. A group of several hundred IMD alumni working across a wide range of luxury industries, our enthusiasm is the result of many years and exposure to different programs. Our meeting through the Luxury 2050 Forum is often the first encounter we have had with each other.

We are joining forces to help each other and to share experiences, learnings and views on the future of luxury in an informal environment; and to address the challenges and transformations our brands are experiencing, while providing mutual support and helping each other grow.

Why we are coming together

Luxury needs to secure its transformation towards purpose and sustainability. Digital is still not necessarily intuitive or utilized to its full potential 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 have become a norm for brand desirability. Younger talents and generations are expecting something else and are already revealing their own ideas, solutions and different buying habits. The shift to greater strategic, organizational and leadership agility comes with its own specificities for luxury.

Together, we are stronger in navigating these challenges and grabbing these opportunities. We hope to become a vibrant community of practice across cohorts and programs. We also want to give each other plenty of opportunities for networking, peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and reverse mentoring. And we seek to improve the latest thought leadership from IMD and beyond using learning as our instrument.

Reinventing Luxury Lab

IMD fully supports our ambition. Our school has great goals in the luxury space. Professor Stéphane J.G. Girod, who has extensive experience in luxury fashion, will be supporting this endeavor. In 2017, Professor Girod launched the Reinventing Luxury Lab, a two-day workshop that focuses on innovation in response to industry disruptions.

IMD just elevated this workshop to one of its official open programs. An MBA luxury and retail community of interest has also been growing since 2020. IMD is currently looking for a corporate partner to launch a research center to support the transformation of luxury brands. IMD is dedicating a webpage and an app to the IMD Luxury Community, enabling it to share and meet.

Our success depends on ourselves and how active we are. You are welcome to volunteer to be part of the governing team and to shape our initial agenda. In fact, we are counting on you. So, please reach out and join us in growing and developing the IMD Luxury Community network.

Find out more about IMD's activities in the luxury sector.

Professor Stéphane J. Girod

Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation

Stéphane J.G. Girod is Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation at IMD. His research, teaching and consulting interests focus on agility transformation, at the strategy, organizational and leadership levels in…

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It is more important than ever to look at the luxury industry holistically, from the brand to economic paradigms to human factors. While digital and environmental concerns disrupt the industry from outside, the talent shift and gig economy challenge corporate cultures from inside.

China's consumption habits are growing in dynamism and complexity. I have witnessed these transformations firsthand, both personally as a Chinese citizen and participant in Chinese online culture, and professionally as IKEA's China retail business director.

New Luxury consumers emerge after the pandemic, they will dig deeper into the meaning and purpose of brands that they choose to connect with, looking for brand values that match their own.

Developing a new luxury brand with a small budget in a world where most luxury clients buy a brand for its established reputation and name pushes you to deeply understand human psychology and its craving for happiness, and to find plan-B alternatives that most of the time are out of the box.

As a leader in the luxury real estate arena, (formerly Global MD, Development Project Marketing CHRISTIE’s Int Real Estate) with a keen interest and experience in PropTech and the start-up arena, (shaper of Immostreet), I am delighted to join Stephane on this exciting journey.

I was drawn to the luxury industry in 2011 because I felt it was on the cusp of a digital transformation. In the following years, we’ve experimented with new ways to tell the brand story, engaged our customers with digital experiences, and delivered new business models. And now, post-2020, we are entering another era of innovation and acceleration.

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