Case Study

Case Study : Esperenca SA

Esperenca SA is a rapidly growing manufacturer of cosmetics, perfumes and toiletries. It was founded approximately five years ago by Pierre Gaultier and Jaques Roche, both of whom had previously worked for the same large international perfume manufacturer; Pierre as a research chemist and Jaques as a brand manager. Pierre had joined this firm direct from university, but after seven years, he became increasingly frustrated because he had identified a number of promising and potentially profitable lines of research, but the firm was very set in its ways and preferred to stick to its tried and tested product line. Therefore, when he received a substantial bequest on the death of his aunt, he decided to branch out on his own and soon developed a perfume with a good market potential. However, realising that he lacked marketing expertise, he approached Jaques, who by now was also looking for a change, to join him as a partner in Esperenca. This took every bit of capital both of them could raise and for the first year, the firm operated on a shoestring. However, the new perfume was a success and matters improved rapidly. They both worked tremendously hard in the first few years, Pierre in running the research and manufacturing side of the business and Jaques the marketing activities. Thanks to a number of innovative developments, the firm was able to expanded its product lines rapidly and after two years it employed about 100 people, with Pierre and Jaques as joint managing directors, and their wives as directors. Two years later the number of employees had increased to 200 and currently there are about 350.

As the firm grew, it became more complex and while Pierre is still heavily involved on the technical side, there are now managers for research and development and production. Since the range of products has grown and 70 percent of the firm’s revenue is derived from overseas sales, marketing is also more complicated. Recently, they sought...