School of Life
As the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne marks its 125th anniversary, the Swiss hospitality management school is making sure its graduates are geared up for today’s experience economy. Hong Xinyi reports from its headquarters
As the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne marks its 125th anniversary, the Swiss hospitality management school is making sure its graduates are geared up for today’s experience economy
It is an autumnal afternoon in the serene Swiss city of Lausanne, and along the Avenue de Mon‑repos, fallen leaves in mottled shades of auburn are starting to carpet the sidewalks. The sun is shining, but the air is crisp. In La Chocolatière, a cosy chocolate shop founded in 1970, a group of journalists from all over the world are sipping on cups of rich hot chocolate as we listen intently to owner, Mercedes Assal, describe the painstaking artisanal process of making truffles the La Chocolatière way. Assal is soft-spoken but her passion for her work shines through every word. She used to be a loyal La Chocolatière customer, savouring its exquisite chocolates with great pleasure after each visit. Then, she heard news that would change her life: the founding chocolate maker, Jean-claude Currat, was retiring. Since he had not found anyone to take over the business, the shop would soon close. Not wanting his wealth of experience to be lost, she persuaded him to let her become his intern so she could learn chocolate-making from him. The internship was supposed to last three weeks, but it stretched into one and a half years. “He thought I would give up at some point,” explains Assal with an enigmatic smile. Instead, she proved to him that she was serious about meeting his exacting standards. In 2012, she bought the business from Currat, who stayed on as a senior chocolate maker and mentored a new team as La Chocolatière opened three more shops and bagged the first prize at Lausanne’s Chocolate Rally for three years in a row starting in 2016. Assal is an alumnus of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), a renowned hospitality management school that celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018. And her path
illustrates how swiftly the definition of a career in hospitality is changing. A chocolate shop, after all, is not a hotel, but the sweetness of its success hinges just as crucially on creating a distinctive experience that keeps customers coming back. The expanding relevance of learning how to engineer and sustain this experiential pleasure is exactly what makes an education in hospitality management so versatile, EHL believes. “We live in an experience economy now,” says Demian Hodari, associate professor of strategic management at the institution. “In the retail and consumer goods industry, they have recognised that it’s hard to create differentiation through products, and what makes the difference is the experience you give a customer. Hotels realised this many years ago, and have spent a lot of time trying to create meaningful experiences.” EHL undergraduates are exposed to hands-on learning opportunities that range from restaurant operations to external internships that hone their management skills. There’s also a rigorous array of business administration classes in areas such as finance and marketing, as well as an emphasis on soft skills such as mastering multiple languages and learning how to look polished and professional by adhering to the stringent campus dress code. In recent years, there’s been a growing emphasis on entrepreneurship. Besides taking an elective on this subject, students working on their final-year project can also opt to focus the project on a business they built themselves. Not that many students have chosen this option at the moment, says Hodari. “But many of our graduates become successful entrepreneurs later on.” A notable success is Housetrip, a platform for renting holiday homes, launched by EHL alumni Arnaud Bertrand and Junjun Chen, that was even partially funded by the duo’s EHL classmates at the start-up stage. True to the school’s agile conception of hospitality, the Singaporean students we met on the Lausanne campus were both enthusiastic about the value of learning about subjects such as revenue management, and eager to explore the possibilities in store for their careers. Lauren Loh has been intrigued
by the classes that focus on public relations and digital marketing, and upon graduation, “would like to seek opportunities outside of hospitality first”, she says. “There’s a vast range of possibilities, from luxury jewellery and fashion brands, to the commercial aviation sector.” Fellow student Jerald Giam sought out an internship with Hong Kong-based tech start-up Tink Labs, which is most well known for smartphones that provide hotel guests with internet access, in-room services and city guides. “I would like to go towards business strategy and consulting,” he says. “Southeast Asia tourism is growing fast, and I believe there are a lot of opportunities for young graduates in that part of the world.” Indeed, EHL group CEO Michel Rochat says he is greatly inspired by the drive and imagination of students today. “This is a wonderful generation of young people,” he shares. To serve them well, the school knows it has to keep its finger on the pulse of the fast-changing world of hospitality. “Disruption is knocking on the door, and there will be exponential changes in the industry. This mean we have to adapt how we teach. We have to teach the way the market behaves,” he believes. “This coherence is the most important challenge for higher education. And the jewel in our crown is the network of EHL alumni. We have alumni chapters in cities all around the world that are very active. They help students find internships, and bring us information about the latest developments that help us stay aligned with the needs of the market.” To keep pace with market developments, the school is planning an Innovation Hub in Lausanne that will feature a start-up incubator, a lab for food experimentation and partnerships with industry leaders. As a response to current and future market growth in this part of the world, Singapore is a preferred location for its first Asian outpost in 2020. Singapore shares Swiss values such as a commitment to innovation and a cosmopolitan outlook, says Rochat. “In today’s world, borders are blurred. We can’t afford not to understand multiculturalism.” At the Lausanne campus, there are students from 115 nationalities, and already, Singaporean student Jo-ann Li says that many of her classmates are seeking out internships in Singapore, a city where expatriates find it easy to fit in. As for her, “going back to Asia is definitely my long-term goal”, she says as she shows us around the campus on yet another autumnal afternoon, looking spiffy in her dress codeapproved blazer. In the meantime, however, she is going to enjoy the new horizons the school has brought to her life, which is exactly the advice that Singapore-based German hospitality consultant Florian Sander, who graduated from EHL in 2001, would give to all students at the institution. “At this school, you will meet fascinating people with the most diverse backgrounds, stories and skills,” he says. “There is a sense of community that develops over time, creating wonderful friendships and work relationships in the future.”