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PRESENTED BY ESSEC BUSINESS SCHOOL

In the Bag: How Urna found her dream role with a French designer brand

For American Urna Biswas, a career with a Paris-based luxury brand was a lifelong goal – albeit not one that she thought she'd achieve so quickly. That would change in the space of one exciting week.

In the Bag: How Urna found her dream role with a French designer brand
Following her time at ESSEC, Urna took on a role at luggage brand Delaney/ Photo: Supplied

Having spent a number of years in the field of business development, Urna joined ESSEC’s Global MBA cohort at their Paris campus in 2020. She opted to pursue the Luxury Brand Management major, in the hope of securing a job with one of the glamorous, iconic brands she grew up admiring.

“It was always an industry I wanted to make a career in, and that dictated my choice to study business and French. The goal of working in Paris never left my head for over a decade, so eventually, I decided to swallow my fears and enrol in the ESSEC Global MBA.”

Urna enjoyed coming to grips with new ways of thinking and doing business in Europe as part of the challenging programme, and was soon learning from some of the luxury industry’s top talents. She also relished building a new life in France: mastering the language, finding an apartment, making new friends and exploring all that Paris had to offer.  

“While I studied French at university, it was also another thing entirely using it constantly for the first time! The French you use to get around Paris is completely different to the French you use in a professional context, and to develop your networks.”

One of Urna’s favourite elements of the MBA were the ‘case competitions’ – competitive team problem-solving events, drawing on a vast library of business case studies. These competitions were designed to immerse students in the real-life workings of famous brands and were often judged by senior executives. 

ESSEC Global MBA students work with real-life case studies from the world’s most exclusive luxury brands. Discover how you can join them

“Nobody’s travelling. What do we do?”

One of these case studies involved luxury luggage brand Delsey, which was facing a Covid-19-related quandary.

“This was as the pandemic was impacting everything and they told us, ‘We’re Delsey, we make luggage. Nobody’s travelling. What do we do?'”, Urna remembers.

“Luckily, I was able to spend a week with my team preparing non-stop, all hours of the day. We were incredibly focused! There were lots of coffees and late nights.

“We created profiles for four different types of pandemic consumers, and this helped us to identify how Delsey could refocus their line of products to appeal to the market. More backpacks, for example, and luggage designed for those who needed to keep travelling, despite delays and reduced checked baggage allowances.

“We were all able to bring our separate talents in strategy, presentation and design together to create a really strong digital plan that we presented to Delsey Chief Marketing Officer Miriam Hendel.”

So impressed was Hendel that she awarded Urna’s team first place for their presentation at ESSEC, noting that it was better than many pitches by established agencies,

Hendel also kept in touch with Urna and when hiring picked up as the pandemic eased, she brought her on board as Marketing Manager and Media Planner – an astonishing feat, considering the competitive nature of the luxury brand space. 

Urna says: “I’m so lucky to be at Delsey, I really love my role. I still have a close bond with Miriam – a strong female director who kicks ass – and I really enjoy the trust she places in our team. It’s a small team and we’re able to support one another and share ideas all the time. We also spend a lot of time together outside of the office.

“It’s so different from corporate environments in the United States. We work hard here, but there’s a lot of time for discussion and finding a better, or more effective way of doing things. It’s a good balance and I find it really rewarding.”

Want a career working with luxury brands? ESSEC’s Global MBA in Luxury Brand Management will open up new paths to success

Following graduation from the Global MBA programme, Urna secured a job with luxury bag brand Delsey. Photo: Supplied

Understanding the DNA of luxury brands

Beyond the case studies, Urna says the ESSEC Global MBA programme as a whole gave her the skills she needed to succeed in working for a luxury brand.

“We simply don’t employ the same kind of marketing strategies in the United States as we do here in France. We have fewer luxury brands and fashion houses. It’s a different world, in some ways. The MBA was crucial in helping me understand how luxury brands in Europe really operate.

“The ESSEC Global MBA was also so structured and focused, in such a way that we could really analyse the ‘DNA’ of luxury brands and apply what we learned to changing market trends. I also developed the ability to employ strategy, rather than just my own thinking. This really helped me, as I’ve always valued taking a qualitative, analytical view of things.

“I also have to stress how valuable it was working in really international classes. We had such diverse teams, with so many different experiences and points of view. My cohort taught me so much about the luxury brand space in places like Asia, and this helped shape a truly global point of view.”

An experience that doesn’t fade

While she’s now busy in her dream role and with enjoying life in Paris, Urna hasn’t let her time at ESSEC fade into the background.

“Although we’re all over the world, I still connect with my class – a group of girls in Korea, for example – and we continue to share our experiences and learn from one another all the time,” she says. “It’s an incredibly valuable resource.

“I’m also keen to help new cohorts establish themselves in Paris and get settled in. Who knows what they could achieve, with the lessons and skills they learn at ESSEC?”

ESSEC’s Global MBA in Luxury Brand Management is your gateway to a career with the world’s most iconic luxury brands

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LIVING IN FRANCE

Which towns and cities are the safest in France?

France's interior ministry has released its latest crime statistics, giving a better idea of which parts of France might be considered the safest.

Which towns and cities are the safest in France?

France’s interior ministry has published updated crime statistics across France with data from 2023, and in response, French daily Le Parisien came up with a ranking for the safest towns and cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants across the country.

The publication based its score for each town on the rates of 10 different crimes listed by France’s interior ministry, which were split into four sub-sections: home burglaries, violent assaults, theft and petty theft, as well as a score for what it referred to as “the living environment” (drug trafficking and usage, as well as ‘deliberate property destruction and damage’).

1. Cherbourg-en-Cotentin

The city of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, located in the Manche département in north-western France, had the lowest amount of crime overall, ranking in first place.

As of 2021, the city was home to 77,808 people, and it is famous for its Cité de la Mer (“city of the sea”) maritime museum.

In terms of home burglaries, the city has seen the number double over the last two years, but it still remains well below the national average with approximately three burglaries per 1,000 inhabitants as of 2023. 

In comparison, the city of Paris recorded 8.6 burglaries per 1,000 homes, and the national average as of 2022 was 5.8 per 1,000 homes.

In an interview with Le Parisien, the mayor of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin credited their strong results by stating that “there is also a healthy dialogue between the municipal police, the national police and the justice system.”

2. Boulogne-Billancourt

After Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, the French daily ranked Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb to the south-west of Paris, in second place.

Generally, the wealthy suburbs in the western and southern parts of the Paris region faired well.

Alongside Boulogne-Billancourt, six other locations in the Paris region were also listed in the top 10 safest places, including Courbevoie in fourth place, Versailles in fifth place, Antony in sixth place, Clamart in seventh place, Levallois-Perret in eighth place, and Maisons-Alfort in ninth place.

3. Ajaccio in Corsica

The Corsican capital came in third place, based on Le Parisien’s rankings.

The port city is notably where Napoleon Bonaparte was born, and it is home to his ancestral home – the Bonaparte house, now a museum.

As of 2020, the population was 72,647. 

After Ajaccio, most of the other places that were ranked in the top 10 were towns in the Paris suburbs.

Courbevoie came in fourth place, Versailles in fifth place, Antony in sixth place, Clamart in seventh place, Levallois-Perret in eighth place, and Maisons-Alfort in ninth place.

In 10th place came Cagnes-sur-Mer in the Alpes-Maritimes département in southern France. After Cherbourg and Ajaccio it was the only other location outside of the Paris region to make the top 10.

Outside of Paris several medium-sized cities – namely Annecy (14th place) in south-eastern France, Montauban (15th place)near Toulouse in south-western France, and Vannes (18th place) in the western region Brittany – came in the top 20.

What about the larger cities?

France’s largest cities – Paris, Marseille, and Lyon – ranked significantly lower, coming in 103rd, 116th and 94th place respectively.

Le Parisien did not list a single city with more than 200,000 inhabitants in the top 30 – the best was Strasbourg, which came in 41st place.

After that, Nice (55th) and Nantes (59th) performed best for large urban areas.

It is worth noting that crime in large cities tends to look differently from that in rural areas or small and medium-sized cities.

Generally, crime in smaller cities tended to be less related to assault and battery or by violent theft, but they were more exposed to home burglaries.

In larger cities, theft and robbery – both violent and non-violent – were more common, but even this metric depended based on the city.

Paris, which gets millions of tourists per year, topped the charts nationally for non-violent theft (ie pickpocketing), while Marseille and Lyon had comparatively high levels of vehicle theft.

And in terms of sexual violence, the reported rate varied little based on city-size.

What is the general crime picture in France?

Based on the 2023 report by the interior ministry, crime has increased. However, when it comes to global rankings, the country still performs better than both the United States and United Kingdom.

Homicides went up by five percent in 2023, though this is smaller than the nine percent growth seen in 2022.

Meanwhile drug trafficking charges increased by four percent, which is comparatively smaller than the 14 percent increase in 2022 and 38 percent increase in 2021.

Assault and battery went up by seven percent in 2023, and sexual violence reports also increased by eight percent.

How to look at crime data yourself

They have also updated the interactive map of the country, which can be used by anyone interested in comparing crime rates between different départements in France.

You can access here.

A screenshot of the interactive map with data from France’s interior ministry.

When looking at the map, you can find information based on13 different types of crimes (indicateur) – including home robberies (cambriolage de logement), drug trafficking (trafic de stupéfiants), and sexual violence (violence sexuelle).

The map also allows you to select specific areas (communes), as well as the year you want to look at – going back to 2016.

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