Research On L'oreal's Competitive Strategy In China

This document draws our attention to a world-class company and its strategy to always be the world's number one in the cosmetics sector.As we all know L'Oréal is the company we are talking about here.L'Oréal is a multinational of French origin which was initially a small company created by a French chemist named Eugene shueller in 1907,it is the ambition to innovate of this young chemist who gave birth to a big company that we know today,but to reach this level as for all companies that wants to develop and competitive it was necessary to put in place a good competitive strategy to be able to survive and increase its performance each year in this sector and on marches on which many other actors of the cosmetics of women intervene.Let's note that l'Oréal is a company that,to always be at the top level,knows how to surround itself with the best and especially l'Oréal has been able to set up on other markets other than the French market,one of the other markets that he conquered with his products is China.Speaking of China,it is a country that for several years has been closing to the remnants of the world,when China opened its borders foreign companies found an opportunity,so after China's entry into the World Trade Organization(WTO),the Chinese cosmetics market has faced intense competition.Although,the local cosmetics market has grown rapidly,and has great potential,it is dominated by foreign companies.In this document,we will be interested in the strategy adopted by this great company to maintain its position in the market.The authors,borrowing the metaphor of Hindustan's old fable "the blind and the elephant",recognize that the great currents of strategic thinking only explain part of the strategic management process.There is no synthetic vision.We are all blind in front of an elephant whose name is "strategic development".Each person perceives only part of the animal and tries to get a general and unique idea.But who can pretend to explain the animal in its entirety only by seizing only part of its body.In general,some bump into his vast and powerful flank,others palpate the tusks or tail,while the rest prefer the photo safari,reducing the animal to a few shots.Managers have been led to use in turn the wonders of different schools of strategies such as "strategic planning","competitive advantage" or "key skills".Unfortunately,the understanding of the strategy can only work if they apprehend the whole animal,as a process of conception,formal,analytical,visionary,mental,emergent,negotiating,collective,reaction and transformation.On those,given that no strategy is perfect,we will not only analyze L'Oréal's strategy based on the theories of Michael PORTER but also share our suggestions for a better performance of l'Oréal on the market.