CEMS Students Delivered Presentations for Companies as Part of Their Growth Strategy and International Strategy Courses

As the year drew to a close, CEMS and MIMG students delivered the final presentations they had been working on throughout the course of the Winter Semester of 2022. This was carried out as part of their Growth Strategy Course under the direction of Academic Director Ladislav Tyll and the mentorship of his colleagues from FBA, Executive Director of Institute of Management Vojtěch Opleštil, and Assistant Professors Natalie Badie and Ivan Balogh, and within the International Strategy Course, which won Mr. Tyll the prestigious Global Strategy Course of the Year Award at the CEMS Annual Events 2022 held in November in Cairo.

Real-life projects are an essential part of the CEMS curriculum as they help students make use of their acquired skills, see the big picture and translate them into cooperation with our Corporate Partners. Last semester, the scope of the projects touched various areas, from expanding an end-to-end financial management software business, entering energy markets, or contributing to the client’s net-zero vision by 20230 to collaboration on an old-timer car workshop project.

Within the course International Strategy, projects were implemented in cooperation with CAPILA, CHEP, Fenix, STA, and TATRA METALURGIE.

The final deliveries took place between December 14 – 20, 2022, with the corporate representatives being present. It was only natural that the presentations were followed by immediate feedback and questions from the company assigning the project.

Growth Strategy – The flagship course taught at FBA

The Growth Strategy Course is taught within the NextGen Consulting minor specialization and focuses on the actual application of consulting practices through semester-long projects which are directly conducted in collaboration with our corporate partners such as Red Bull Česká Republika, Renocar, SAP, or Signify.

Designed as a mutual backscratching arrangement for students and CPs, the course allows students to get a real hands-on experience and receive direct feedback from the collaborating institutions’ directors while creating value for the corporate partners and themselves.

In the course, students are provided with the knowledge and know-how on how to develop their abilities to proactively seek out opportunities for successful business development, therefore expanding the company’s activities and its long-term value for shareholders. Very often, the focus is primarily on already existing family businesses seeking to deliver better results and ways how to start up, maintain and mainly sustain their growth using either their internal capabilities within existing markets or expanding to other market segments – both locally and internationally on their own or partnering with other companies.

Graduates who earn experience through such assignments are then well-equipped and prepared to tackle such corporate challenges down the road.

This is also how, for instance, through a partnership with the Centre for Family Business, the winter semester project on a vintage workshop assigned by Renocar, a family-run business and the first official BMW dealer and authorised service shop in the country, was born. And the work on the assignment could not have been any better – this is what Pavel Vránek, Co-founder of Renocar, had to say to the students’ work on the day of their final presentation: “I’m thrilled. I wouldn’t expect such a sophisticated strategy to come from even the largest consulting firm.”

Consultancy-like projects in Winter Semester 2022/23

International Strategy
	CAPILA – International expansion of the Slovak end-to-end financial management software
	CHEP – GTM Strategy in the Balkans for this global leader in supply chain solution
	FENIX – Market expansion strategy for this heatings system company
	STA – Researching new partners in Western Europe to develop STA’s movie activity
	TATRA Metalurgie – International expansion strategy through railway markets
Growth Strategies
	Red Bull Česká republika – Strategy formulation for increasing customer lifetime value via enhancing Red bull brand communication, distribution and product to attract young entry point consumers.
	RENOCAR – Designing a new business unit focused on oldtimers and launching an international strategy to establish Renocar on the oldtimer market
	SAP – Transformation of Global Procurement into a Strategic function and key contributor to the SAPs Net Zero 2030 vision
	Signify – Supporting Signify in addressing the move to digitized omnichannel sales and process digitization at B2B lighting market.
	Mock projects in cooperation with PwC consultants on digital transformation of Unicredit Bank and Growth Strategy for J&T Bank