University of Economics, Prague wins inaugural CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award

A global consortium of three leading business schools: the University of Economics, Prague (VŠE), Czech Republic; the University of Sydney Business school, Australia and the Ivey Business School in Canada; with the support of Google, Deloitte, Mastercard, ABB, Hilti, and UNICEF have won the first CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award, sponsored by L’Oréal.

The new award aims to encourage and enable innovation within the CEMS Master in International Management (MIM) programme. The CEMS Global Alliance includes a community of 33 of the world’s top business schools, 71 corporate partners and 7 social partners, who together deliver the CEMS MIM.
A grant of 20,000 Euros will enable the consortium to implement a new capstone course entitled “Lateral Collaboration in the Age of Exponential Change and Disruption” that will equip students studying at VŠE with the skills needed to thrive in today’s complex world.
The winning team is comprised of Professors Ladislav Tyll of VŠE, Massimo Garbuio of Sydney and Andreas Schotter of IVEY.

“Massimo, Andreas and I believe that the future of learning should have a greater focus on transformational impact regardless of online versus face-to-face delivery. We also believe that the most substantial competitive advantage of CEMS is the quality and diversity of its network and that there is a need for much more true delivery collaboration. We are a productive and vibrant alliance with global reach and expertise. The new course will be set in the context of the six mega trends (economic power shift, resource security/climate change, rapid urbanisation, evolving communities, impactful technology and empower individuals) and the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. It will equip students with the skills to navigate disruption in a world where a less hierarchical and more agile lateral global collaboration is critical for organizational success,” says Ladislav Tyll, Assistant Professor at the Department of Strategy at the Faculty of Business Administration at VŠE.

“This rigorous and innovative project, is consistent with the global spirit of CEMS: three schools from three different continents teamed up with five Corporate Partners, one NGO and a number of faculty and students to realize a high quality project based on a truly collaborative approach. The project offers a solid learning experience based in both online and offline methods that will cover relevant subjects for the future of CEMS graduates such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud computing,“ says Andrea Sironi, Chair of the jury and Vice-President of Bocconi University.

“Thanks to Philippe Louvet, L’Oréal has been an historic partner of CEMS, sharing the same values of excellence, innovation and diversity since the beginning. Through this Award, we carry on our quest for innovation by working together with students, alumni, faculty and corporate partners,” says Bertrand de Laleu, VP of HR for L’Oréal.

The L’Oréal/CEMS Philippe Louvet Innovation Award was created in memory of Philippe Louvet, former Vice President Human Resources at L’Oréal as well as CEMS Strategic Advisor and Honorary Member. This award celebrates Philippe’s dedication to CEMS, his constant quest for innovation in education, and his unique ability to build bridges between business and academia.