Dominique Turpin

Why organisations work with Dominique Turpin

• He has led two of the most internationally respected business schools, IMD and CEIBS, which gives him a rare operational read on how senior teams actually make commercial decisions under pressure.
• His case library, ranked by The Case Centre among the top 50 bestselling globally for several consecutive years, is taught inside the MBA programmes of the companies that buy his counsel.
• He combines a PhD from Sophia University Tokyo with decades of client work across Japan, China and Southeast Asia, useful to any European or North American board navigating Asian market entry or partnership.
• He works from named case material, not generic frameworks: Nespresso, Jollibee, Ducati, Toyota KINTO, among others, each linked to a specific brand or customer-centricity argument.
• His writing for Financial Times, MIT Sloan Management Review and European Business Forum gives executive audiences a concrete reference point for the arguments he develops on stage.

Biography highlights

• Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy, IMD; former President and Nestle Professor, 2010 to 2016.
• President Emeritus of CEIBS; served as President (European) based out of the Zurich campus.
• PhD in Economics, Sophia University, Tokyo; MSc from ESSCA, France.
• Author of more than 100 books, articles and case studies, including The Essential Book of Business and Life Quotations (Anthem Press).
• Ranked on The Case Centre Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors for multiple consecutive years.
• Chairman of DAA Capital Partners; advisory and board roles across listed companies and educational institutions including Stockholm School of Economics and Waseda Business School.

Biography

Most global brands still describe themselves as customer-centric. Very few can show a senior leader what that actually changes inside a weekly country review. That gap between brand statement and operating behaviour is where Dominique Turpin has spent almost four decades of teaching and advisory work.

Turpin joined IMD in 1986 after several years in Tokyo representing a French firm in Japan. He went on to hold the Dentsu Chair in Marketing, direct the MBA programme and serve as IMD President and Nestle Professor from 2010 to 2016. In 2022 he was appointed President (European) of CEIBS, the China Europe International Business School, a role he held until late 2025. He is now Professor Emeritus at IMD and President Emeritus at CEIBS.

His case studies, taught inside companies as much as in classrooms, sit behind this body of work. Nespresso, Jollibee, Ducati, Toyota KINTO. Each uses a named company to argue a specific point about brand coherence, pricing power or customer design. The Case Centre has listed him among its top 50 bestselling case authors for several consecutive years, which is unusual longevity in a field dominated by one-off hits.

The Japan and Asia dimension matters in his advisory work. Clients have included Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestle, Philips, KAO, Mondelez and Panasonic, and much of his applied research has examined how Asian firms build and defend brand equity in markets where European playbooks stall. He is Chairman of DAA Capital Partners, a Geneva-based private equity firm, and sits on boards and advisory councils including Stockholm School of Economics and Waseda Business School.

Key speaking topics

• Brand management and brand strategy
• Customer centricity in multinational organisations
• Global marketing strategy
• Marketing leadership in Asia, with focus on Japan and China
• Corporate communications strategy
• Case-led executive development in commercial functions

Ideal for

• CMOs and brand presidents inside consumer, industrial and healthcare multinationals.
• CEOs and group leadership teams setting Asia entry, partnership or expansion strategy.
• Executive development programmes for commercial and country-leadership populations.
• Boards and investment committees assessing brand-led businesses or consumer-facing acquisitions.

Audience outcomes

• A working definition of customer centricity that survives contact with a country P and L.
• Named case examples senior teams can immediately apply to their own brand or pricing questions.
• A clearer view of how Japanese and Chinese firms build and defend brand equity, and what Western firms miss.
• Direct questions to ask marketing leadership about brand discipline, positioning and investment allocation.
• A vocabulary for talking about brand and customer strategy that aligns CEO, CFO and CMO.