19 Mar 2010 by Laura Conway in JancisRobinson.com
Laura Conway is a wine professional living in San Francisco who was Vinfolio’s content manager and editor from 2004 until recently and is currently attending the Wine MBA hosted by the Bordeaux École de Management (BEM). This executive MBA programme consists of six two-and-a-half-week sessions taught at various wine industry hotspots around the globe over a 22-month period with individual and group course work undertaken in between. As the Wine MBA is a part-time executive programme, students have the flexibility to alternate their professional obligations with their education. This is the first of a series of articles Laura plans to write over the duration of the programme. We just finished the first session which was held in Bordeaux in January. As a serious Francophile, I was thrilled to be back in France and speaking French (although the courses are taught in English). The subsequent sessions will be held in Adelaide, Bordeaux, London, Davis in California and the course will finish in Bordeaux.
Our class is small and intimate. There are only 14 members representing 10 countries (USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, UK, France, Portugal, Italy and Russia). The age range is 27 to 56 years old, with the majority of the participants in their 30s. Most of the 14 participants already work in the wine and spirits industry although a few plan to leverage the Wine MBA to move into the industry from such fields as corporate law, psychology and information systems. We are a very interesting group with diverse backgrounds, various native languages, and assorted advanced degrees (including MBA, MA, MS, and a PhD in Oenology & Viticulture). The group has scientists, engineers, leaders in business and finance, lawyers, philosophers, educators, and more. We are parents, athletes, musicians, butlers, foodies, wine geeks and sommeliers. I am more than ecstatic to spend time with this group of people and to learn from my peers. After only a few weeks together we have already become a tight-knit group with lofty ambitions and fierce loyalty to one another.
A few of the benefits I found from choosing an international, wine-centric MBA are that I can learn about specific challenges within my chosen industry by studying targeted case studies as well as extend my professional network on a global scale. The Wine MBA is sponsored by the Bordeaux Management School (www.bem.edu), but also benefits from its global partnerships with the University of South Australia (UniSA), the London-based Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and the research company Wine Intelligence, and the University of California at Davis. Furthermore, in 2010 the Wine MBA launched a satellite Wine MBA programme in Hong Kong with 21 students, partnering with HKU SPACE.
The course curriculum takes a traditional MBA approach covering finance, marketing, operations and strategy, but with a wine industry focus. The programme also requires participants to write and defend a dissertation on a wine topic relevant to their career. The first class session in Bordeaux was intense, covering Strategy, Supply Chain & Operations, Wine Economics, Wine Markets, Research Methods, and Personal & Career Development. Classes generally ran the full day from 8.30am until 6.30pm with a midday break for lunch including a full multi-course meal with two wine pairings [this is France, after all - JR]. I have to admit that I felt a bit spoiled enjoying foie gras and Sauternes in a university setting, but I reconciled my moment of guilt by remembering that wine is indeed my profession which requires extensive practical research. In the classroom things were more serious. I felt some of the most stimulating discussions revolved around strategic analysis (case studies on Robert Mondavi and Caliterra), leadership, and personal/professional growth. The French teaching style is often philosophical in nature which I found occasionally ran counter to students’ cultural expectations. It was enlightening to observe both qualitative and quantitative approaches in professors’ styles and in classroom commentary.
A skill all business schools try to foster is the ability to work successfully with people that have different personalities and social styles and to recognise and be able to leverage each individual’s strengths to achieve the goal at hand. This challenge is even more demanding but also more rewarding in this multi-cultural environment. True to form, we have extrovert and emotional Latins, reserved Eastern Europeans, casual Americans, and serious Brits. We have the organisers, the neurotics and the loose hangers. But I have found that each of my classmates brings a unique perspective and contribution, making class discussions, group projects and our decompression time together over a glass at night more interesting and rewarding. Our Chilean classmate, Cristian, brings an excellent dynamic to the group. Having previously completed a traditional MBA and worked in New York, he has extensive knowledge about marketing trends in the American market. He is pleasingly extrovert, passionate, and professional. Similarly I love the energy of our heavily-accented Tuscan who expressed his opinions so ardently and provides a technical, viticultural perspective.
Highlights of the programme included the ‘Convention Day’ at Ch Pape-Clément where the group listened to a presentation from François Lurton, our class mentor, followed by an ‘Effort Convention’ workshop in which we participated in role plays to establish group norms. I also greatly enjoyed meeting the famed wine consultant and oenologist Michel Rolland and hearing his responses to our questions. He enlightened us on some of the challenges of growing grapes in developing wine regions around the world (such as in China, India, Brazil), explained the various cultural perspectives that the winemakers hold, and how the market is evolving according to local tastes and climate changes.
Rolland emphasized that his role as an adviser/consultant often required more of his ’soft skills’ (persuading clients to overcome psychological and philosophical barriers that resist change, establishing common goals) than his ‘hard skills’ (research, technological skill). He discussed how the French traditional and provincial thinking has often prevented them from making changes in production styles and in marketing approaches that appeal to present-day wine consumers. When asked to give an example of a top global wine growing region he cited California because of its dedication to innovation and quality, and Spain as one of the top regions for growth and most exciting places to work as a winemaker.
When discussing India and China he mentioned how the general population is undergoing an evolution in its appreciation for wine and that there much potential for growth. In China there is still much exploration being done in terms of finding ideal wine growing regions (sub-regions and micro-climates). When asked about Brazil, he said he did not feel that its tropical climate is suitable for high quality wines, but that it had the market to enjoy the trellised wines produced in its two growing seasons.
I asked perhaps the stickiest question about his opinion of how he was portrayed in Jonathan Nossiter’s film Mondovino as an agent of wine globalization. He explained that he felt misrepresented but that ironically his exposure through the film provided an enormous amount of publicity resulting in additional contracts. I felt that he dodged the question a bit about creating a signature style that appealed to a Parker-influenced rating system. When queried about higher levels of alcohol in today’s wines, he explained that it was due more to global warming than to style preference. I definitely felt that Rolland was explicit in responding to questions about his career evolution, whereas he became coy in response to challenging questions about imposing a uniformity of style.
Finally, I was pleasantly surprised by the charismatic presentation delivered by Gordon Crichton on the topic of Purchasing and the importance of relationship building. I had not expected Purchasing to be such an interesting topic, nor to have such entertaining corporate examples such as the evolution of the Gillette razor.
An added bonus of this program is the opportunity to take advantage of what each session’s unique location has to offer. Outside of class many of us paid regular visits to the Max Bordeaux Wine Gallery on the Cours de l’Intendance to taste through the 2004 and 2006 vintages. I was impressed to see all the first growths and their second labels available as well as a large selection of wines by appellation (Pauillac, St-Julien, St-Estèphe, St-Emilion, Pomerol etc). The tasting room gave me an excellent opportunity to consider Bordeaux reds by appellation and also to sample a select group of dry whites and sweet wines. On my first weekend I made an overnight excursion to the Midi-Pyrénées to visit a former French classmate who lives in the countryside near Albi. She exposed me to several of the local Gaillac wines and my beloved roast duck. Over the second weekend a group of us drove to the Haut-Médoc to visit a few châteaux and look at the soil composition.
What next?
For the present, I am doing the balancing act of dividing my time between work, family, and MBA studies. Some of our assignments during this ‘inter-session’ period are to formulate a preliminary dissertation topic, complete a supply-chain management assignment on Chard Farm winery in Central Otago, begin research for our group Wine Markets research project (Portugal in my case), and read a large portion of Marketing Management by Kotler and Keller. Other long-term projects include preparing the dissertation, creating an international business plan, writing marketing and economics papers, and preparing for various exams. Our second class session will take place in Adelaide during April focusing on Wine Marketing. Personally I am counting down until I go ‘down under’ to experience the next round of the Wine MBA. I’ll keep you posted…
Thanks to Laura Conway and Jancis Robinson www.jancisrobinson.com
