The document provides information about an elective course on Luxury Management that will take place from April 9-11, 2015 at MIP Politecnico di Milano. The course will focus on understanding the peculiarities of luxury goods compared to consumer products, and will cover topics such as managing luxury brands, developing luxury products, defining distribution strategies, and organizing human resources. The schedule lists the module topics, professors, and times.

1.
Executive MBA – Exchange Program 2015
MIP Politecnico di Milano
Via Raffaele Lambruschini 4C – Building 26/A
20156, Milano

2. Elective course: Luxury Management
9 – 11 April, 2015
Professor: Alessandro Brun
Learning Objectives
The course will focus on the specificity of high-priced consumer goods (Luxury Goods), in order to enable
students to understand their peculiarity compared to consumer products. In particular, the main learning
objectives are as follows:
• learning how to manage luxury brands: Students will understand the different meaning of luxury relating to
the each market segment; they will learn how to create, support and broaden the luxury brands and they will
analyze the different portfolio and positioning strategies adopted by leading companies;
• better knowing how companies develop and produce luxury products. Through the analysis of case studies
and testimonials students will observe closely the operations of luxury companies, the mechanisms that allow
to obtain unique products of superior quality; analyze how the organization and human resources can
contribute to the success of luxury brands and how they can be managed as efficiently as possible;
• understanding how to define the appropriate channel strategy for the distribution of luxury brands. Students
will understand the differences between the available alternatives in terms of formats of retail, business
partners and global distribution; they will also have the chance to analyze on the field the role of the
merchandising and shopping experience.
The teaching approach of the course will be based on the use of business cases.
Schedule
Module Topic Professor
1-2
Thursday
9/04/15
h. 10-14
Introduction:
• Market trends
• What is "luxury"?
• Success key Factors of Luxury firms
• The Trading-Up concept
Alessandro Brun
3-4
Thursday
9/04/15
h. 15-19
The peculiarities of luxury companies:
• The organization of luxury companies
• Key processes
Francesco Aimi
5-6
Friday
10/04/15
h. 09-13
Branding
• Brand and communication
• Building a portfolio of luxury brands
• The architecture of luxury brands
• The value of a brand: the "Brand Equity"
Fabrizio Maria Pini
7
Friday
10/04/15
h. 14-16
• The market positioning of a luxury brand
• Luxury brand communication mix
Fabrizio Maria Pini
10
Friday
10/04/15
h. 16-18
Management of the distribution channels
• Retail definition; luxury sector requirements ; customer management
• Retail theory: markets, locations
Retail operation management of retail: quality of the service; retail operations
management key factors
Cecilia Castelli
8-9
Saturday
10/04/15
h. 9-13
Human resources Organization and management:
• The corporate functions in luxury companies
• HR management
• Managing creativity
Paola Bertola
11
Saturday
11/04/15
h. 14-16
Luxury retail experiences Guest speaker
12
Saturday
11/04/15
h. 16-18
Trends and challenges Alessandro Brun

3. Ing. BRUN ALESSANDRO
Associate Professor
Education
 Master Degree with honours in Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
 PhD in Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Teaching experience
 Since October 2014, Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano
 17 years of teaching experience on the topics of “Quality Management”, “Industrial Technologies”, “Operations Management”,
“Sourcing and Purchasing”, at all levels of education (undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, executive training), both in
Italy and abroad.
 Supervisor of over 250 Master and Diploma Thesis on the topics of “Quality Management”, “Operations Management”,
“Supply Chain Management”, “Industrial Technologies”.
Scientific research
 150+ publication in relevant journals, scientific conferences and books
 27 papers on Scopus-indexed International Journals, of which:
o 10 papers on ABS Grade 3 journals
o 4 papers on ABS Grade 2 journals
 H index (as calculated on www.scopus.com, on October 22nd, 2014) = 10
 participated – as team member and, lately, as scientific coordinator – to research projects of national and international
interest, in the areas of Manufacturing and Logistic Systems Design and Management, Industrial Technologies, Quality
Management and Operations Improvement, and Supply Chain Management Information Systems.
Appointments
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering - Politecnico di Milano
 Responsible of admissions and study plans for MSc students of Industrial Engineering, Como Campus (“Internationalization”
project) 2006 – present
 Member of the Committee of the PhD programme in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering (DRIG) 2013 –
present
MIP Politecnico di Milano (the Business School of Politecnico di Milano)
 Deputy Director of the MBA program 2003 – 2007
 Director of the Master in Operations, Quality & Supply Chain Management 2007 – 2010
 Director of Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt certification programmes 2008 – present
 Director of the Career Development Office (formerly “Career Services”) 2012 – 2014
 Member of the Management Board 2012 – present
Ing-Ind/17 (Italian Scientific Sector of Industrial Plants professors)
 Member of the national board. 2005 – 2009