Interview with the nominees for Edhec Alumni of the Year: Delphine Bresson (1986) "Work on your positioning as if it were a product!"

Edhec 1986, Delphine Bresson has been managing Lancôme France for the last two years. She has managed her career with passion and determination: an interview with a profoundly human leader.

You're the Managing Director and you're just over 40 years old. How did you manage such a meteoric career?
I began by spending 13 amazing years at ROC (Johnson&Johnson) which took me to the job of Marketing Director. It was when I was nearing 40 -in other words, mid career - that I set myself a new challenge: to become the manager of a Business Unit. In 2000, I joined L'Oreal with this idea in mind, and an action plan to get there.

Can you explain?
First of all, I worked on my positioning as I would a product. Considered as a skincare expert, I needed to get away from the pots of creams to widen my cosmetics vision. Appointed Director of Marketing for Biotherm, I became a general Beauty products specialist. After that, I needed the sales experience to get an across-the-board vision of the business so I applied for a job as Customer Relationship Manager. I arrived in the job with plenty of determination and a great deal of humility for I knew nothing at all about sales. Nobody in the company understood my choice. I'd moved away from a vertical promotion situation to one where I was outside my comfort zone. But I don't have any regrets!

You've been managing Lancôme for 2 years now. What do you enjoy the most?
Lancôme is a fantastic brand with enormous resources. Our challenge is to get to n°2 position and we're up against competitors the likes of Dior and Chanel. The human aspect is also very important for me. I manage a team of 120 staff. The brand's results are their results! I noticed that in spite of the pressure for results, they're happy to come to work, they have fun and develop. That's what I'm most proud of.

What advice would you give to a young EDHEC marketing graduate?
I'd say three things:
1/Listen to your inner voice! During your work placements, get as much experience as possible in different sectors to find out what you really enjoy most! Once you're in the job, you need to know yourself well so you can choose the option that best fits your personality. In Development, people tend to be more conceptual, while Market people tend to be more focused on action. It's up to you to identify your qualities and your preferences!
2/For young graduates, one thing's vital: get out there in the field for between 6 months and a year! This is essential if you want to understand the expectations of the distribution chain, the sales adviser and the customer.
3 / Lastly, get the timing right for each stage in your career, neither too long nor too short. When you're learning, be humble and flexible. Don't arrive thinking you know it all. At the same time, opening the doors to other sectors will help to develop your employability!

What links do you have with EDHEC today?
As a woman, I was really proud to be nominated for Edhec Alumni of the Year 2009! I work with Edhec people in my teams, and they have a specific profile: they're polyvalent, open-minded and more pragmatic. They're highly appreciated at L'Oreal, where you're always being pushed to come up with highly creative ideas. Lastly, by sitting on the entrance exam selection panels, I can keep track of the way young people are evolving. What's their commitment to business organisations? What are their hopes and dreams? A key challenge for leading groups like ours is to adapt to the expectations of the Y generation.

Interview by Sophie Baqué (2004)
rnd.sbaque@gmail.com