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International Immersion: Paris

After leaving Milan, we flew to Paris and experienced amazing food, culture, and learning. Just like Milan, there was no shortage of excellent dining options. The first night we arrived there, some of us went to dinner at a French restaurant called Bistrot Victoires, and a two-course meal with about half a bottle of wine per person was about 20 euros! Despite the transit strikes that were going on in Paris, there was no issue getting around. Paris is a very beautiful and walkable city, which we took advantage of by walking everywhere.

I highly recommend going to Bistrot Victoires while in Paris. It’s authentic Parisian cuisine and very affordable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Hermes

The visit to the Hermes store was amazing for a variety of reasons:

1. The store’s architecture is absolutely stunning. 2. The craftsmanship and quality of the items in the store are unparalleled. 3. The Hermes Birkin & Kelly Bags. We learned the rich history behind the Birkin and Kelly bags and the amount of time that goes into their creation. It still amazes me that the bags can retail for +$100,000. Unlike most stores, the Hermes we visited in Paris is appointment-only and has average volumes of around 2,000 visitors per day. Sadly there was no NYU Stern discount offered for students 😉

Taking a group photo inside Hermes.

We were walking on our way to the Hermes store and could not help but notice the beautiful architecture and decorations throughout the streets.

A beautiful stroll through the streets of Paris!

Guerlain: Luxury perfume

The visit to Guerlain was another eye-opening experience.  This Guerlain parlor was located on the Champs-Elysees, one of the most beautiful shopping areas in all of Paris. No different than Hermes, this store was also stunning. As soon as you walked in, you were shown high-end fragrances. A store manager was kind enough to give us a tour and brought us upstairs, where bespoke scents are created for luxury clientele. These scents could cost the customer thousands of dollars. The upstairs parlor was similarly exquisitely crafted and made you feel as if you were transported to another world.

A look at some of the high-end perfumes available at the parlor.

Versailles

On our final day in Paris, we were given the option to be able to explore the city independently or visits Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. Having already visited Versailles, I knew how beautiful it was; however, I knew that the gardens (which are much bigger) are also a sight to see on their own (even in January). Rather than spend our time enjoying the interior of Versailles, we decided to spend two hours walking through the gardens, and we barely scratched the surface! Lucky for us, the weather was about 45 Fahrenheit, which made it optimal walking weather.

The picture does not do the gardens of Versailles justice.

 

Between Milan and Paris, the international immersion was a wonderful trip that I will remember for the rest of my life!

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International Immersion: Milan

It’s been a tough time fighting the coronavirus everywhere in the world. Italy has been one of the countries that is severely suffering from it. Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak that has brought this country to a screeching halt, Italians decided that fun is the best medicine for a healthy spirit. Videos have been shared on social media that captured people singing and dancing from their balconies and windows in an attempt to boost morale during the nationwide lockdown.

This reminds me of the discussion we had in Milan during the Fashion & Luxury MBA international immersion. It was the kick-off class in the first day in Milan where Professor Thomai described the personality of Milan and Milanese as introverted. Milan has earned its reputation for aloofness, at least by Italian standards. When walking around the city, there are magnificent buildings with well designed doors that are never opened and a lot of beautiful hidden gardens that you can only wander from the outside.  But these days what has been shown in the videos featuring Milanese talking to their neighbors for the first time through windows and balconies, comforting one another, forging new bonds, growing closer — albeit from a distance, is a romantic demonstration of how introverts make the best out of the worst amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Milan is one of the birthplaces of luxury brands and has the most amazing fine food. When you look at the way Italians do business, they are focusing on delivering the best craftsmanship and making the most well-done products, instead of expanding the business commercially to the extreme. That’s why there are a lot of small businesses and many Italian luxury brands remain family businesses, versus French conglomerates. 

Our trip in Milan included classes in Bocconi Business School in both lecture and case study formats, and onsite visits to Mantero silk factory (one of the silk suppliers for most of the luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, Dior), Dolce & Gabbana and Vitale Barberis Canonico. Here are some of my key learnings:

Think deeper and wiser. We discussed the similarities and differences between the Italian luxury industry and the French luxury industry. This immersion not only confirmed some of my thoughts on this topic based on my experience working in the industry, but also deepened my understanding. For example, I used to think French brands were better in doing business globally – they are more organized and adaptive. But after this trip, I learned how to think deeply to understand why and think from different angles – history, government regulation and personality of the country. In addition, I learned to never judge something simply as right or wrong, good or bad, but to think more critically and better appreciate the good side of everything.

Manage changes. We had a case study on one of the most famous Italian luxury brands. The founder has built his luxury empire in a short period of time and done a lot of amazing jobs. But for the past few years this brand has been struggling due to lack of product innovation and unclear brand positioning. It’s a reflection of the struggles many traditional brands are facing – how do they scale and stay relevant, especially for those family businesses with highly centralized power on individuals (usually founders)?  I think changes and transformations need three things: 1) The ability to not only predict the future trend of the industry, but also visualize it into companies’ long term strategy. 2) Courage/boldness. No transformation comes from being risk-averse. It’s usually easier said than done to take risks. 3) Ability to convince stakeholders and get resources in a big corporate to implement the changes, including the grit when facing obstacles and short-term losses – remembering the goal is for long-term and it takes time to turn the changes into real positive business impact.

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A Bite of the Big Apple – NYC Immersion

Moving from Shanghai to New York is one of the biggest decisions in my life, and the best one I have ever made. In New York, it’s easy to fill your schedule with iconic experiences and anything that says “awesome” to you. The NYC Immersion course we took in this past summer semester – an experiential leaning course with the formats of company visits, industry panels and skill-based workshops – is a perfect demonstration of the resources the city has to offer in fashion and luxury spaces. 

Now I’ll guide you on how we took a bite out of the Big Apple through exploring some of the company visits and guest speeches we had in the summer.

  • BVLGARI

We had a session discussing BVlGARI’s brand strategy in its flagship store on 5th Avenue. The clientele experts showed us the most stunning pieces of the BVLGARI jewelries and watches, presenting the branding strategy and client experience the company is delivering. Professor Serdari visited the store with us and explained the theory of luxury marketing using the real examples we saw in the store. 

 

  • SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

We visited Ferragamo’s flagship store and the US headquarter on 5th Avenue. Donald Kohler, CEO of Americas, gave us a presentation about the brand strategy and initiatives in the digital landscape.

 

  • GUCCI

Andrea Pini, CFO of Gucci North America, came to our last accounting class to share with us how to use the accounting knowledge we learned this semester to collect insights and make decisions in real-world business situations.

 

  • SoulCycle

Julie Lieberman, Senior Director of Merchandising at SoulCycle, came to Stern to talk about SoulCycle’s apparel collection and its retail initiative.

 

  • MM.LaFleur

We were invited to MM.LaFleur’s showroom in NYC. Narie Foster, Co-Founder of MM.LaFleur, shared with us how they started the company, scaled the business and manage the young team.

 

 

  • Warby Parker

We visited Warby Parker’s fancy office in Soho, had a panel discussion with the leaders in different functions focusing on retail experience and omni-channel.

 

The balance of taking a deep dive into both established brands and startups gave me a holistic view of the transformation this industry is undergoing. I love the fact that I can explore new ideas and meet interesting people everyday in New York. It has been a “the world is your oyster” kind of experience.

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Learning Through Experimentation: Leadership

The bar was set high

Receiving my undergraduate degree in business, I really thought that my core courses over the summer were going to be a carbon copy of college- I was wildly incorrect about that in the best way possible. Every class exceeded my expectations; however, Leadership with Nate Pettit was on another level. Going into leadership, I had insanely high expectations of the class because I had taken classes somewhat similar to leadership in college, such as Organizational Behavior and Law & Ethics. Both courses in college provided HBS articles with discussions to follow in class- your fairly typical b-school experience.

So you want to be a leader…. Right?

Professor Pettit was able to take that typical business school class experience and morph it into a genuinely thought-provoking mixture of tough conversations to have(with classmates, himself and co-workers), coursework, in-class exercises, and reflections. One of the first questions that he asked in class, “ so who wants to be a leader?”…. Every hand in the 22-person class goes up. The professor then follows up, “so why?”.  Not one sustentative answer was provided.  Some twenty minutes later, everyone was participating in a thought-provoking conversation as to why the term “leadership” tends to be glorified, especially in business school.

You will have an amazing case and conversation with Professor Pettit over Mount Everest.

In Class Experimentation

Another example of Professor Pettit making Leadership an amazing experience was our in-class exercises. One such class focused exclusively on verbal and non-verbal communication. Prior to the class, I thought I had great interpersonal skills and was great at communicating with everyone- little did I know, I was wrong. This specific exercise was broken up into groups that had to be silent and play a card game. The rules were that no one could verbally communicate and you would be penalized if you muttered a word. Once someone lost, they moved to another part of the class to play the card game with another group. My group won the first game, and then a classmate of mine came to our group. We played our silent card game, and I won. As I went to claim the cards to assert my victory, she signaled vigorously with her hands that she had won. I thought to myself, “she’s definitely wrong, she doesn’t know how to play cards at all; clearly I won according to the rules provided to me.” Shortly after the second game, people started whispering to each other, a clear violation of the rules. Then those whispers became louder and louder as the game went on, and no clear winner was assigned. Finally, after several rounds, a confused group of students went back to their seats to find out that Professor Pettit had given each group in our class a different set of instructions. Each team playing cards would, therefore, think they won and would have to non-verbally communicate with everyone else in the group to assert who won. After the exercise, we de-briefed, and it was fascinating to learn: A) how much we rely on verbal communication, and B) communication can break down too early.

What separates Professor Pettit from other teachers is his unwavering ability to accept feedback and try to make the class better as we go along. He places an extraordinary emphasis on making sure students feel fulfilled rather than getting the highest paying jobs possible. In almost every class, he talks about a personal or professional failure of his in order to make the classroom conversations more approachable. He is always asking tough questions in order to help his students improve personally and professionally, and I am incredibly thankful to have taken his class.

 

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Transitioning to NYC and Stern from Chicago

When I found out in late March that I was accepted to Stern’s 1 year Fashion and Luxury MBA program, I was absolutely ecstatic. And then it sunk in that I had about one month to move myself (and my boyfriend) from Chicago to New York City, find an apartment, and get settled in before classes started.

The first step in my transition was attending Stern’s MBA Preview Weekend in early April, and I cannot recommend that experience highly enough to all prospective or committed students. It was a wonderful way to meet a majority of my classmates ahead of the first day of school, and I was also able to make connections with students in both the 1 year Tech MBA and 2 year MBA programs. Though it was an intense two days of activities, I can’t stress how nice it was arriving to Stern on the first day of school in May and recognizing friendly faces that I met during Preview Weekend. Secondly, Stern’s Women in Business club (SWiB) hosts their annual conference on the Friday of Preview Weekend, so it was a great opportunity to be part of a club’s signature event and see some really fantastic speakers at the same time.

The third advantage to attending Preview Weekend was being able to apartment hunt without having to buy a second plane ticket for a separate trip. I would definitely recommend using one (or a couple) of the different apartment-search apps available and the resources Stern provides online and doing some research before arriving in New York to set up appointments. Another tip a resident New Yorker gave me was, “Come prepared with all of your application documents and a check book in hand.” Everyone says the New York apartment market moves quickly, and it is certainly true. Good apartments are in high demand, especially in the more attractive neighborhoods, so if you find one that works for you—apply on the spot! It was incredibly helpful to have scanned copies of important documents like my passport and driver’s license ready to hand over to the real estate agent. Also, if your apartment requires a guarantor because you’ll be a full-time student, it’s helpful to give that person a head’s up beforehand  and to have their documents ready to go as well.

After securing an apartment, the next step was preparing to move from Chicago. Though I’m no moving expert, the biggest advice I can give is to not pack more than can fit in your apartment. There is a good chance that wherever you’re moving from, your current apartment is bigger than your future NYC apartment will be — and you don’t want to end up paying to move items you’ll just need to get rid of once you arrive, so enjoy the purge!

Lastly, once I was getting settled in, it was time to start exploring the city. Sign up for all of the free newsletters that detail events happening across the city, and you’ll soon find that there is something happening every day and there is no shortage of unique events to attend. Use these events as excuses to go out with your classmates, to find people with common interests, and to go to events you wouldn’t otherwise attend. It’s a great way to do a lot of cool stuff and bond with your classmates at the same time.

Looking back, I can’t believe that just a few months ago I was furiously searching for an apartment in a completely new city because now it feels like I’ve been here for years. The summer itself went by so quickly, and I believe it’s because I was maximizing every minute by taking advantage of all that New York City has to offer. I certainly enjoyed filling up every day/night with something meaningful, even if that is a quiet run by myself, and I encourage everyone to do the same.