July 27, 2020
Moore School Master of International Business alumna Floriane de Longvilliers (‘16 MIB) strives to enhance diversity and equal opportunity in both her personal and professional endeavors.
As a commercial executive at Microsoft France, Longvilliers works with the technology company’s business accounts. She works in the sales department and structures complex deals by understanding the needs of her clientele for collaboration, customer relationship management and infrastructure solutions. She frequently meets with these customers and negotiates business proposals and follows up after a sale is made; this constant stream of communication allows Longvilliers to meet the expectations of her customers.
“I want to achieve the best deal possible for both the customer and Microsoft,” she said.
Originally from Toulon, France, Longvilliers received a Master’s in Management from ESCP Business School; she studied in both Paris, France, and Madrid, Spain. Then, Longvilliers decided to study in the United States for a year to earn another degree. She said that traveling to South Carolina to enroll in the Moore School’s Master of International Business program was an extremely valuable experience for her.
“I use on a daily basis the analytical skills that the MIB program taught me, allowing me to analyze the whole picture of a deal through a perspective of A to Z in project management,” Longvilliers said. “I also constantly use what I learned in my negotiation class when I am dealing with customers. For example, I use my knowledge to understand what is most important for involved stakeholders and find an area of agreement when making a deal.”
Longvillers said she also developed a flexible and adaptable business mindset – a tenet for the MIB program that teaches students there are distinct cultures in varying countries and how those differences affect business. Furthermore, she said that she identified her desire to have an impact on society through her time at the Moore School.
With that aspiration in mind, Longvilliers’ biggest advice to other students and businesspeople is: “be open-minded and creative but remember where you came from. Work for a company that has values that correspond to yours and fight for them.”
Fortunately for Longvilliers, her values align well with those of Microsoft.
“Diversity is very important to me and so is it for Microsoft,” she said.
Grateful for the opportunity to engage with students from more than 12 different nationalities through the MIB program, Longvilliers said she continues to enjoy working with people from different backgrounds.
“I am a strong believer that diversity is a performance and creativity enabler,” she added.
Furthering her pursuit of diversity in the workplace, Longvilliers said that she is grateful for the opportunity to apply her American education in her French work.
“I work in a U.S. company for French customers,” she said. “France is well-known for its negotiation culture; negotiations are usually tougher and last longer than in the U.S. However, I admire the risk-taking U.S. mentality, and I believe we have a lot to learn from it in France.”
While Longvilliers uses the professional exposure to diversity that she gained through the MIB program in her career, she is also diverse in her personal life as she is confined to a wheelchair.
Dedicating her personal aspirations to enhancing accessibility for people with all forms of disabilities, Longvilliers gave a keynote speech in July 2019 about digital accessibility at La Journée de la Femme Digitale, a large French event that highlights women who seek to revolutionize the world through digital media. After giving the keynote speech, Longvilliers was recognized by Microsoft as a top achieving employee and received the company’s 2019 Platinum Club award for being an exceptional contributor throughout the year.
As she looks to the future, Longvilliers said she is constantly working to decide what her next personal opportunity will be.
"I am fascinated by new technologies and the way they help people do more things and do them more efficiently,” Longvilliers said. “For many years, I’ve been very interested in the sharing economy — I wrote my master’s thesis on this topic — and I know there is still a lot to be done in this area.”
Looking forward, with her knowledge in digital tools from Microsoft and her desire to make the world more open and accessible, Longvilliers said she is thinking about getting involved in some sharing economy initiatives, which would encourage the sharing of access to goods or services through community-based digital platforms.
-Erin Mooney