Interested in sport business or supply chain, or more interested in gaining knowledge within the field of healthcare for example? Within the elective part of the Master’s program, every student has the opportunity to deep-dive into one chosen domain within a three weeks during bootcamp.

Having a strong interest in the world of fast-moving consumer goods, I was very excited to embark on this bootcamp. During these weeks, we were provided with insights related to new trends, challenges and the different stakeholders within the field of marketing and retail of fast-moving consumer goods.

Given that Vlerick really wants to provide us with hands-on experience, we had the opportunity to solve some cases for both big, well-known companies and smaller, local ones. Provided with some fundamental marketing knowledge by the House of Marketing, L’Oréal was the first to come up with the question to present them an unconventional solution disrupting the beauty sector. From breakaway products and services that empowered inclusive beauty, over sustainable beauty solutions to the next technological revolutions, the Vlerick students have blown the L’Oréal experts away with innovation and creativity!

Next up was Delhaize: using the marketing fundamentals we learned in class and some creativity, we brainstormed about ways to attract Delhaize’s future customers or new strategic partnerships. We also got in touch with a different type of business innovation that is gaining momentum: the packaging-free supermarket. The story of the packaging-free supermarket Content located in Leuven did not only confront us with the impact of the products we are used to buy with packaging, but also challenged us to come up with ways to increase their client portfolio and broaden the store concept.

Impressed by Tony’s Chocolonely’s mission to make the chocolate industry 100% slave free, we ended the bootcamp with some ideas to create brand awareness for the company and its products in the Benelux, taking into account their “craziness about chocolate, seriousness about people” mantra.

I really enjoyed the bootcamp as it pushed me to think out of the box, think critically and question the status quo. Moreover, I am pretty sure I further refined and improved these skills and I am equipped with the fundamental knowledge needed to kick off my career within the FMCG sector!

Written by Habi Sow (Master in General Management student).