Flashback: Block Seminar with ŠKODA AUTO

The academic year 2021/2022 for the new CEMS class at the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE) has been kicked off with the Block Seminar, which was held on September 6 – 10, 2021. The Block Seminar is a compulsory part of the CEMS MIM curriculum. An attractive topic “Digital Customer Journey in the Automotive Industry – New Challenges” has been prepared in cooperation with the CEMS corporate partner ŠKODA AUTO a.s., for a group of 31 CEMS students.

The whole seminar has been supervised by Ladislav Tyll, MBA, Ph.D., CEMS Academic Director, at the Prague University of Economics and Business, Lucie Šedivková Klabíková, CR Brand & Strategy, and Petr Petrýdes, Business Owner of Online Customer Journey at ŠKODA AUTO a.s.

Within the rich program, students were expected to understand and analyze existing Digital Customer Journey (DCJ) assets provided by ŠKODA AUTO to its customers and run qualitative research questioning with its relevance towards customer needs and expectations, understand customer needs, suggest a new perspective solution with different values, Identify risks and potential weaknesses or describe the customer journey mapping.

Seminars on journey mapping, eMobility, consulting sessions, and a visit of the museum in Mladá Boleslav were on the schedule to deepen the students’ knowledge to get the best project outputs. Participants also visited the lectures on Ethnography by Tomáš Ryška, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Department of Strategy, and Digital Marketing by Jan Wegert, an assistant professor at the Department of Marketing at VŠE.

During the last day of the Block Seminar, six student teams presented the results of their whole-week effort. A jury of ŠKODA AUTO and VŠE representatives decided on two winning teams, whose members were – Team #2: Simon Bijaoui, Francesca Comaschi, David Bejček, Rosalie Ghislain, and Marta Leăo; Team#6: Balázs Ábrahám, Marsela Bebic, Luca Lellei, Prokop Švabík, and Martin Watine.

The Block Seminar was closed by a dinner in the Hotel Maximilian restaurant, where the winning teams were awarded. VŠE representatives would like to thank ŠKODA AUTO and all stakeholders for their contribution to this successful seminar.

Last year, the university held the Block Seminar also with the partner company ŠKODA AUTO on the topic of “eMobility Growth Plan in EU or Worldwide”. In 2019 and 2018, the Block Seminars were organized by another CEMS corporate partner Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s., on the topics “Managing Consumer Experience in Pubs and Restaurants through Digital Technologies for Plzeňský Prazdroj”, and “Propose a 2025 HORECA Innovation Program for Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s.”. In 2017 and 2016 the Block Seminars were organized by the company Hilti (also CEMS corporate partner), the covered topics were “Business Model Innovation in the Context of Digital Disruption” and “Digital Strategies of Family Businesses – Case of Hilti”.

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, 2022, the 2^nd intake deadline is on April 30, 2022, selected students will pass the online assessment centre. Students have to submit the required documents before the application deadline.