LVMH organises employee innovation programme DARE in London

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 4, 2019

This week saw LVMH group host its DARE (Disrupt, Act, Risk to be an Entrepreneur)   employee innovation event in London, bringing together 70 employees and university students to develop ideas to “Shape the Customer Experience of Tomorrow”.

This was the first time the event was organised in London, after successful previous editions in France, Italy, China and the US.

The programme, launched in 2017, seeks to involve employees from the luxury group in the process of developing new innovative ideas, with each edition focusing on different topics, such as the future of luxury, sustainability and gender equality.

The London Edition preselected 450 applications from employees from across LVMH’s business and fashion brands in the EMEA region, and 60 candidates were invited to take part in the event.

They were joined by 10 university students from Central Saint Martins and Imperial College London, and together they worked on their projects for three days at the LVMH House in London from 1-3 October. 

A jury made of senior executives including the CEO of Fendi and the group managing director of LVMH, as well as external entrepreneurs, selected three winning projects that will be sponsored within the highest level of the organisation.

“The DARE initiative is a cornerstone of our talent development strategy, rooted in our core belief that it is our people who make the difference. It is an opportunity for our talents from all over the world to develop and hone their skillset, to network and to discover and share ideas with the aim of fostering open innovation within the group. It promotes a culture of entrepreneurship within the group that is a fundamental value of LVMH,” said Chantal Gaemperle, group executive vice president of HR and synergies.

The winning projects focused on an augmented client service for travellers, on the reinvention of the customer experience in wines and spirits through zero waste packaging and on meeting new expectations of young customers through eco-design in the world of travel.