The Ecole Supérieure des Affaires and the Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) organized on Tuesday 20 July 2010 from 8.30 am to 10.00 am, the third management breakfast entitled "Brands and their potential response to the crisis", featuring Mr. Benoît HEILBRUNN, Professor at ESCP Europe and teacher at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) and the CELSA Paris - Sorbonne.

ESA management breakfasts aim at gathering ESA graduates once a month, serving as a platform for privileged professional meetings between graduates, but also with international businessmen and the media. High-level professionals from multinational companies and Grandes Ecoles of management in Europe (ESA academic partners) such as ESCP Europe (to which ESA is associated) and HEC Paris, are usually invited to be speakers at the event. The latest in finance, marketing, economics and management is discussed during these breakfasts. Once the speaker has presented the topic and shared his/her experience, the audience is asked to provide input, encouraging an open debate between the speaker and the public, but also among the public themselves.

In his presentation, Mr. Benoît HEILBRUNN declared that the word "crisis", echoed all over the world, seems to have emerged as an inevitable fact. Is it, however, a relevant and valid concept to understand the changes of the consumer society? It is true that the crisis captures the attention, addresses both desire and imagination, and has become a media product. However, does it help understand precisely its effects on consumption?



He added: In the absence of crisis, we assume that the consumerist system underwent major developments, unnoticed for a long time as they are comprehensive and systematic, which silently accumulated until they finally burst out.

This breakfast mainly aimed at proving that, what is meant by “crisis” actually refers to the result of silent transformations, in which the logic behind brand premiumization, once a catalyst for the economy of brands, is widely questioned in a societal context of institutional distrust, the dissemination of the ideology of the costless and the rise of low-cost models.

The event was held at the L’Avantage Café-Club at the ESA – 289, Clemenceau Street.

For more information, please contact the ESA on 00 961 1 373 373, visit the website www.esa.edu.lb or send an email to esainfo@esa.edu.lb

The Partnership between SGBL and ESA

The Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and the Ecole Superieure des Affaires (ESA) have been partners for years, cooperating for the recruitment of graduates and providing several training programs offered to the bank’s employees. This collaboration allowed for several cultural and manpower exchanges and the transfer of know-how between the world of business and the world of education and training.