Application for the Master in Management (MIM)François Ricouard

Sciences Po Bordeaux Wine Society Name: Vins/20 The most popular independent student

society at Sciences Po Bordeaux More than 200 members each year Every year, our association organizes

more 40 events a year: 2 gala receptions Visits of wine domains Wine tasting at the University and in

specialized bars Wine tasting competitions

My passion for wine As a French citizen, wine has always

been in my culture. At the age of 16, I discovered the

extensive wine-producing region of the Ribera del Duero.

Choosing Bordeaux for my studies was not an innocent choice, I wanted to live the in the global capital of wine.

Management of the wine society, Vins/20 Living in Bordeaux, I further developed my

passion for wine. As a member of the wine society, I was able to

take part in tastings and discover some of the most prestigious wines from Bordeaux and the surrounding area.

In 2015, after 4 years of membership I was elected Vice-President of the wine society.

As a consequence, from September 2015 to April 2016, I had the pleasure of representing this association at my university but also at inter-university wine competitions.

Personal development My passion for wine enabled me to rediscover a

family tradition based in the production of wine in the Ribera del Duero.

Secondly, as mentioned earlier, being the Vice-President of this society meant that I had the pleasure of taking part in wine tasting competitions. On top of representing one of the most prestigious

universities in France, I discovered the joy of competing in a field outside of sport, which was a very constructive experience.

Professional development My knowledge of wine has been a key element in my

professional development for a number of reasons. I experienced the notion of competitiveness in a new

context. My society had to compete against more than 20 associations worldwide to win the global wine tasting competitions. A competition won consistently for the past 3 years. These victories were the fruit of competitive team building.

Throughout my time at Vins/20 I was involved in the management of the society’s board. After some adjustments, I was able to create a system with no significate conflicts

Finally, this experience in Bordeaux has given me an extraordinary training in telephone solicitation and sales prospection, which will be useful in my professional career.

Leadership During my experience in this society I was

expected to lead a team. II’ll share some examples with you: 1)When I was nominated vice-president, I had more

than 3 years of experience as member of this association. As a consequence, I knew that, for many of the members(me included) it was very frustrating to receive constantly prestigious wines that we will hardly be able to buy after the tasting. Therefore, I decided to reduce the proportion of the prestigious “chateaux” in our events in benefit of more “accessible” ones. The results were excellent: we get a “win-win situation” where the students where able to buy some of the wine that they tasted and the domains were able to increase their sales revenues.

When I was a member, I also identified one serious problem in the association. Its activity was too much based in French wines, mostly from Bordeaux, as though France was the only wine producer in the world. As a consequence, I promoted the internationalization of our tastings, inviting wine properties from all across Europe. To be honest, we meet a mitigated success but, thanks to this decision, we were able to receive one of the best domains in the world, the Spanish Vega Sicilia.

During my mandate, I was also confronted to the elevated cost of renting a property able to host our gala reception. Consequently, I decided to ask a public emplacement where we could celebrate this event.

Conclusion Currently working for a French company

which has recently set up in Madrid, I was asked by the CEO to organize wine tastings for our clients in order to strengthen our networking in Madrid.

Seeing how successful this initiative has proven to be, I am thinking of creating my own wine society in Madrid, maybe at the Instituto de Empresa.