World Business

Despite a downturn in the high-end consumer mart, applications for luxury-management MBA programs remain strong

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By Alison Damast

Rupal Patel took a make tractable from her active life as a patent lawyer in Chicago to enroll in an MBA program with a luxury specialization this fall, trading in the Windy City for the sparkling shores of the French Riviera. A student at the International University of Monaco’s business school in Monte Carlo, she is spending the year taking classes with titles such of the same kind with "Luxury Consumer Behavior" and "Managing Luxury Brands," and is planning on a career in anti-counterfeiting.

Despite the win the economy is taking on the luxury industry, Patel is optimistic her degree will give her an edge in the job market whereas she graduates, she says.

"I think being focused and having a specialization, especially in delicacy, makes a person more salable in this economic climate," Patel says. "The ultra-wealthy will always buy luxury goods, regardless of the fluctuations in the thriftiness, in the way that that kind of gives us some trust."

Patel is one of a enlarging number of students who, malignity the mutable times, are setting their sights on a career in the luxury sector. In the by means of decade or so, more and further schools, many based in Europe, have started to venture MBA degrees in luxury-brand economy. The programs, which give students the fortune to specialize in sectors such as fragrance and cosmetics and wine and spirits, have become increasingly popular as top gratification brands wish seen double-digit increases in profits in late years.

But with sales of big-ticket items such of the same kind with Champagne, designer handbags, and watches expected to slide this year, the prospect is not quite as rosy. Analysts at Bain & Co. said in a recent report that global luxury sales could glide by for example a great deal of as 7% in 2009, while analysts at UBS are predicting a 5% revenue decline. Despite these gloomy forecasts, applications to luxury MBA programs are upon the body the upswing, with students betting the delicacy industry will bounce end, according to a contain of schools that specialize in the area.

Indeed, the cyclical nature of the luxury markets makes it every ideal confinement for students to enroll in a enjoyment MBA program, says Milton Pedraza, chief executive of New York research firm the Luxury Institute. Luxury-goods companies tend to outperform when the economy is strong but do significantly worse than mainstream ones when the economy is down and unemployment is low.

"There is a lot of luxury fatigue on the part of consumers at aggregate levels, and I think this spending fatigue choose hold out through the next few temporary residence," he says. "But because luxury is cyclical, it’s a good time to get into a luxury MBA program. You’ll be spending your time learning in the sort of is a severe downturn, and you’ll really understand the rough side of the industry.

At Essec Business School in France, which has run an MBA program in International Luxury Brand Management since 1995, applications have doubled, to about 90, since last year, says Simon Nyeck, the program’s academic superintendent. The 11-month program, that costs €28,000, currently has about 40 students, representing 15 to 20 nationalities.

"I was a little surprised, to tell you the truth," Nyeck says of the hearty earnest application numbers. "I think principally applicants are betting on the fact that by the allotted period they graduate, things are going to have existence O.K."

Applications have also doubled this fall at the International University of Monaco’s Monaco Business School, which started a master’s in luxury goods and services and an MBA with a specialization in pleasure management several years ago. There are 38 students in the master’s program and about 12 MBA students concentrating in luxury. Sandrine Ricard, the associate dean, says the school started the programs in part because a growing number of companies were demanding managers with additional specialized skills and understanding of the luxury market.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jan2009/bs2009015_689478.htm?campaign_id=rss_null