Paris gets second MBA in luxury management

The European market for programmes in luxury goods management is hotting up with the launch by Sup de Luxe Paris of an MBA in Global Luxury Management in September.

The programme will be the second MBA in luxury management to run in Paris. One of the flagship programmes of French business school Essec is its MBA in International Luxury Brand Management, which, like Sup de Luxe, is a one-year programme taught in English.

Recent years have seen a rush by business schools in Europe to beef up their teaching in this sector as luxury goods become increasingly popular in Asia, particularly in China. As well as Essec and HEC Paris, two of the leading Parisian business schools, Neoma, with campuses in Rouen, Reims and Paris is also moving into the field.

In 2011 SDA Bocconi in Milan launched a luxury business track on its one-year MBA, run in partnership with Bulgari, the watch, jewellery and perfume maker. And from this year MBA students at London Business School can also follow an elective track in luxury management. The track is run with partners Walpole British Luxury, the not-for-profit organisation that spearheads the interests of the British luxury industry.

Sup de Luxe Paris - or Institut Supérieur de Marketing du Luxe, to give its full title - was founded by Cartier in 1990 to train young managers in luxury goods management.