The International Business Projects reinforce the CEMS partnership between universities and companies in jointly shaping international management education. The course is designed as a real life learning experience for students. It provides students with a unique opportunity to gain insights into corporate practice. International student teams solve a real business, strategy and/or management problem as a one-term activity tutored by university faculty and the company.

International Business Project in cooperation with Lancôme, L’Oréal Luxe’s leading luxury beauty brand

For more than a century, the L’Oréal Group has devoted its energy its competencies solely to one business: beauty. L’Oréal has chosen to offer its expertise in the service of women and men worldwide, meeting the infinite diversity of their beauty desires and is committed to fulfilling this mission ethically and responsibly.

Within the L’Oréal Group, and as the biggest brand of L’Oréal Luxe (one of four divisions of the L’Oréal Group), Lancôme, the world’s leading luxury beauty brand, has epitomized beauty and glamour with a quintessential French touch for more than 80 years.

Founded in 1935 by the visionary pioneer Armand Petitjean, with the wish of spreading the spirit and taste of French elegance around the world, Lancôme immediately embodied the essence of beauty. Today more than ever, the brand aims to offer every woman the possibility to blossom and embrace her beauty and femininity whatever her age or skin color.

Today the brand is present in approximately 130 countries, with about 20,000 beauty advisers in as many points of sale offering sophisticated services and iconic products to an international clientele.  Lancôme successfully combines scientific expertise and an intuitive understanding of women's needs to produce major innovations, unique and complementary between skincare, makeup and perfume ( La vie est belle, Trésor, L’Absolu Rouge, Advanced Génifique, Visionnaire, Teint Idole Ultra Wear, Grandiôse, Etc).

Lancôme affirms that happiness is the most attractive beauty. It’s a skin deep emotion, awakening every sense.  Day after day, its ambition is that every woman who comes to Lancôme to be more beautiful will leave happier.  The brand has chosen charismatic and fully accomplished women to be its ambassadresses: women with heart. Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, Lily Collins, Taylor Hill and Isabella Rossellini are all beautiful icons who love life, who are full of energy, and talent; icons every woman can relate to. Lancôme is the mirror image of these women who embody a radiant, confident and universal beauty while keeping it modern and down to earth.

The aims of the course are to:

• investigate and structure a complex strategic management challenge that a company faces in its international market environment,
• conduct an in-depth analysis of the current status,
• provide alternative strategic solutions that are viable under the given organizational and financial constraints,
• propose a decision for the most promising solution, and
• support this decision with key arguments based on theoretical considerations and empirical findings.

Participants have to attend min. 80% of the sessions.

This business project uses a combination of discussions with company representatives, feedback sessions, presentations, group coaching and feedback, as well as individual/group work outside the classroom. Groups of students will be formed in the kick-off session.

In a first kick-off session with supervising faculty, the challenges and milestones of the real-life international strategy and/or management case are outlined. At the same time, students are familiarized with the guiding principles of project work, with the project plan and rules in handling supervising faculty/corporate partner interaction.

After familiarizing the students with the international strategy and/or management challenge, contact with the corporate partner is established. In a plenary session, the corporate partner outlines the business challenge from their perspective and provides useful input into the business, the market situation, and the specific challenge to be dealt with.

Subsequently, groups of students work on their assigned real-life international strategy and/or management case the firm is currently facing. Groups collect relevant data through secondary and primary (qualitative and/or quantitative) market research. Based on these analyses, recommendations for the specific international strategy and/or management challenges are prepared and substantiated through theory and market research results.

Throughout the process, various feedback loops (in coaching sessions with the individual faculty supervising group work, in plenary sessions with all groups/academic supervisors (mid-term presentation), or in coaching and feedback sessions with the corporate partner) are installed to make sure that students are on the right track and get the input needed in each project phase.

Results are presented to the corporate partner at the end of this process. The verbal and printed presentations will be assessed. Students will have to actively participate in class, hold group presentations and summarize their findings in a final report.

It is the express policy of the class that no late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances. As this course format heavily relies on personal interaction between students, corporate partner, and faculty, presence in sessions is mandatory.

Assessment

Assessment is based on the quality of the mid-term presentation and end-term presentation, the participation during the classes, group members’ peer rating, and the final report. The minimum score to pass the course is half of the highest score for each of these elements.

Students will be assessed on their ability to

• understand and analyze international strategy and/or management challenges,
• use appropriate analytical techniques and deliver relevant market research information,
• present results in high quality.

This implies an ability to work in teams. Students failing to participate in their teams will lose the marks for that piece of work and thereby fail the entire course.

Group level (70%)

- Tentative presentation (20%)

- Final company presentation (30%)

- Final report (20%)

Individual level (30%)

- Peer review (10%)

- Participation (20%)

Only CEMS MIM students are eligible to tak ethis course. 10 students make a course viable at MSc Level unless Special circumstances prevail. If fewer than 10 students Register, the course will not run.

Consultation

Marcel RUDOLPH, Junior Product Manager Lancôme is your corporate partner coach
marcel.rudolph@loreal.com, Tel. +43 1 536 51 455.

Univ. Prof. Dr. Jan Hendrik Fisch is your faculty coach
E-Mail: jan.fisch@wu.ac.at, Tel. 01 31336 5121.

Mrs. Ursula Zeller-Nürnberger provides administrative support for this course
E-Mail: ursula.zeller-nuernberger@wu.ac.at, Tel: 01 31336 5120.