Jean-Claude Larréché - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jean-Claude Larréché is the Alfred H. Heineken Chaired Professor of marketing at INSEAD

INSEAD

INSEAD is an international graduate business school and research institution. It has campuses in Europe , Asia , and the Middle East , as well as a research center in Israel...

, a post he has held since 1993. He is known for his pioneering work in the use of computer simulations in marketing training, his work at INSEAD on marketing excellence and customer focus, and his book The Momentum Effect.

Education

PhD, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
MBA, INSEAD
MSc, University of London, Institute of Computer Science
Ingénieur en électronique, INSA, Lyon

Marketing training using computer simulations

Larréché was a pioneer in the use of computer simulations (i.e. simulation games) in marketing training. After completing his MBA in 1970 Larreche was working as a research assistant an INSEAD when he was asked to assist L’Oreal assess a computerised marketing model they were considering purchasing. He was fascinated by it and "decided to investigate the best places in the world to study marketing modelling." . Larréché is quoted as saying that he chose Stanford for his PhD so that he could study under Dave Montgomery, one of the founders of marketing modelling . Between 1974 and 1977, working with an assistant, Hubert Gatignon, he developed his work on marketing modelling to create a teaching simulation called Markstrat

Markstrat

Markstrat is a simulation game, created by Jean-Claude Larréché, that lets the players take control of a virtual corporation; making decisions on its behalf. Jean-Claude Larréché and Professor Hubert Gatignon developed the simulation from 1974 to 1977 . After the game was developed it was...

. Markstrat is a game where teams of students compete against each other in an artificial world under realistic market conditions. It is claimed that Markstrat is now used in 8 out of the top 10 business schools in the world and 25 of the top 30 schools in the US.

Marketing excellence, competitive fitness and The Momentum Effect

During the 1990s Larreche’s work began to concentrate on the underlying capabilities that impact on a business’s ability to compete in the marketplace. He published a series of reports based on surveys conducted with more than 1200 executives in hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. The surveys attempted to define and evaluate the attributes, characteristics and behaviours of large global firms and assess their impact on corporate performance. That work, combined with computer modelling and his long-time work on customer focus, converged on the concept of “momentum” – an attempt to map out a process for improving the efficiency of a firm’s growth. The culmination of this period of Larreche’s work was the publication in 2008 of The Momentum Effect: How to ignite exceptional growth .

Business career

In 1983, at the age of just 36 Larréché was appointed to the board of Reckitt & Coleman (now Reckitt Benckiser plc) in a non-executive role after previously working for the firm in a consultancy capacity . He remained on the board for 18 years. He founded a consultancy business, StratX, in 1984 .

Selected publications

The Competitive Fitness of Global Firms. (1998–2002). Financial Times Management/Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach. 5th ed. (2006). McGraw-Hill. (Co-authors John Mullins, Orville Walker, and Boyd Harper)

Awards