Block Seminar 2018

The academic year 2018/2019 for the new CEMS class at the University of Economics, Prague has been kicked-off with the Block Seminar, which was held on September 3 – 7, 2018. The Block Seminar is a compulsory part of the CEMS MIM curriculum. An attractive topic “Propose a 2025 HORECA Innovation Program for Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s.” has been prepared in cooperation with the CEMS corporate partner Plzeňský Prazdroj for a group of 32 students of 17 nationalities coming from 11 CEMS partner universities.

The whole seminar has been supervised by Ladislav Tyll, MBA, Ph.D., CEMS Academic Director, Petr Král, Ph.D. Head of Department of International Business at the University of Economics, Prague and Jan Krafka, Sales Director ON Trade, Karel Kraus, Trade&Shopper Marketing Director CZ&SK at Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s.

Within the rich programme students gained the knowledge which should help them to work on their project assigned by Plzeňský Prazdroj where they focused on two mutually interdependent areas: 1. understanding the behavior of consumers, their motives and desires; 2. suggesting the revolutionary solution to increase the on-trade sales. Students passed e.g. sales marketing workshop, qualitative research workshop, lecture on consumer behavior, consulting sessions, visited the brewery in Pilsen, students from CEMS Club Prague prepared socializing evening for their new schoolmates.

During the last day of the seminar, 6 student teams presented the results of their whole-week effort. A jury of VSE and Plzeňský Prazdroj representatives decided on the winning team, whose members were Martin Duffek, Petr Homolka, Karla Korten, Andrey Smolyakov and Disha Soni.

The Block Seminar was closed by a gala dinner and award for the winning team. VŠE representatives would like to thank Plzeňský Prazdroj and all stakeholders for their contribution to this successful seminar.

In 2017 2016 the Block Seminars has been organized by the company Hilti (also CEMS corporate partner), the realized topics were “Business Model Innovation in the Context of Digital Disruption” and “Digital Strategies of Family Businesses – Case of Hilti”. In 2012 – 2015 the topic “Marketing in Automotive Industry” was introduced in cooperation with another CEMS corporate partner ŠKODA AUTO.

In case of your interest, see the photo-gallery.

The admission procedure for the CEMS/Master in Management Programme at VŠE consists of 2 intakes. The 1^st intake deadline is on February 28, 2019, selected students will pass the assessment centre. The 2^nd intake is subject to available spots, the deadline is on April 30, 2019. Students have to submit required documents before the application deadline.