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Interview with Malika Coco-Viloin, KEDGE Alumna and Marketing Director of a major group in the Antilles-Guyana
A review of the career of Malika Coco-Viloin, a 2006 graduate of KEDGE's Grande Ecole Programme, who has lived in Mexico for the past 5 years. Now she's Marketing Director of FIGEDIS DEVELOPPEMENT in Guadeloupe.
While attending KEDGE at its Bordeaux campus, Malika Coco-Viloin spent more than a year working in the merchandising department at Unilever. She also did a university exchange at the TEC de Monterrey campus Estado de México during her studies.
After finishing the university exchange and receiving her degree in 2006, Coco-Viloin began her international career, still in México, by working at the Délégation Générale du Québec. After that experience, she started her own business in México and founded a French organic beauty products shop.
In 2011, she moved to Guadeloupe and worked in mass marketing as Brand Manager for the Energizer and KCC brands. In 2021, she was appointed Sales Manager at Safo in Martinique (a food distribution group with the Carrefour Master franchise in the West Indies).
Malika has been the Marketing Director and a Member of the Executive Committee of Figedis Développement since 2021.
Interview with Malika Coco-Viloin 💬
Hello Malika. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. To begin with, would you please tell us about your background and the time you spent at KEDGE?
Hello. I’m originally from the West Indies I started at KEDGE after finishing two years of prep. During the oral interviews, I was won over by the welcoming and supportive eligible students.
In my opinion, the programme has several strong points:
- Its flexibility. Because of that, I was able to do a year of work-study in 2003, when work-study wasn't yet common in the curriculum of business schools. Moreover, it was that experience that let me discover and fall in love with mass retailing.
- Its vibrant community life. At KEDGE, I was a member of the humanitarian association Horizon and took part in several local actions, both one-off and long-term, such as providing educational support for disadvantaged students and food bank collections.
- The quality of the teaching and the speakers. I remember one speaker in particular - a sales manager from Xerox, who spoke on sales techniques. She was inspiring!
- Lastly, the city of Bordeaux is charming. In particular, having come from Guadeloupe, I was glad to be close to the sea!
Would you tell us about your best memory of studying at KEDGE?
My best memory is probably the pro-team project which I worked on for a year with some others from my graduating class. We collected books and funding for a rural school in Haiti. That project, which required a lot of personal commitment, was made up of four different people who were motivated by the same ambition: the desire to make a difference in the education the children in that school received.
How did KEDGE help you become who you are today, and how did its teachings help you with the development of your career?
I would say three things:
- I appreciate the strong ties with companies that existed throughout the course. The concept of discipline, especially in regard to meeting deadlines, is very important to me and I was very conscious of this during my time at KEDGE.
- Being results-oriented is a key concept at KEDGE. The focus on results is my guiding principle.
- The importance of working in a team is particularly underscored - being a team player is a core value of the school.
You are now a Member of the Executive Committee and Marketing Director of a major group in the West Indies, and Guyana. Would you give us more details about your career path as well as about your company and your position?
I started working for Figédis Développement in 2021 as Marketing Director and am also a Member of the Executive Committee. I'm very happy to be part of this ambitious, innovative, and leading group in our markets. I share the same values as the company: discipline, professionalism, and honesty.
I stick to the development strategy and pleased to contribute to a group that is expanding in both the Caribbean and in France. I work in French and English. As Marketing Director, I steer the entire Group's marketing and e-marketing strategy. I'm proud to have brought a CSR approach to the company, which I have shared with the teams.
What are your development objectives?
To continue to digitalise the Group and meet consumers' demand for e-commerce in the Caribbean, develop the company's business, and share my values with all my employees.
To conclude, if you were to give one piece of advice to KEDGE graduates and students who would like to do what you did, what would it be?
Dare! Believe in yourself and your dreams! Find your passion job: find a job that makes you want to get up every morning and surpass yourself.
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