Luxury Connect, SDA Bocconi tie up for niche programs

Abhay Gupta, a recent recipient of the ‘Retail Icon’ title by Asia Retail Congress and former Executive Director of Blues Clothing Company, has announced the launch of his new initiative ‘Luxury Connect’ (LC) and its tie up with Italian business

 school SDA Bocconi School of management. The aim is to start executive education programs in India with a special focus on the luxury business. These programs, based on the global experience of SDA Bocconi, are further guided by a special survey conducted by Luxury Connect across the Indian luxury segment. The program’s main focus will be to provide international as well as local luxury corporate exposure to students.

“Bocconi realizes that Indians go on to become top level managers abroad. Luxury being a growing yet neglected area in the education field, we chose Bocconi as our partner due to its very special approach towards luxury and its association with the Italian luxury trade body Altagama,” says Abhay Gupta, Founder, Promoter and CEO of Luxury Connect.

A pioneer and veteran of luxury market in India, Gupta helped in both bringing in and establishing luxury brands like Versace, Versace Home, Versace Collection, Corneliani, John Smedley, Tween Damat ADV and Arredo Classic in India. Having helped Blues Clothing Company grow from a single location to over 30 locations on a pan India basis, he announced his exit from BCC to form the Luxury Connect initiative.

Luxury Connect is a service-based organization with a clear focus on luxury, aiming at four verticals: luxury training and education, consulting, luxury e-commerce and sourcing. Gupta is supported by Rajat Bhattacharya, Co-Founder and Chief Sourcing Officer and Love Ranga, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer to take its agenda ahead.

With the growth of Indian luxury market, a common problem faced by all sub sectors is lack of skilled and trained manpower. Identifying this, Luxury Connect has linked up with globally reputed educational institutes to provide luxury specific education and training at both executive and student level. The programs will further be rotated to major cities and destinations of luxury such that a vast majority can take advantage of this opportunity. The schedule foresees a five-day executive learning program which will target people already working in the luxury industry, but not necessarily qualified for it. With the opening up of FDI in India, it is expected that more brands coming into the country will seek experienced and qualified professionals for a better management system of their operations. Upon successful completion of this first phase, the programs are proposed to be then followed with a longer program of around three months for executives with lesser experience. Luxury Connect also envisages that the market will be ready, in the next two years or so, for a fully fledged luxury business program.