A partnership between a business university and a global consulting firm has become a natural way to combine academic knowledge with business practice. PwC Poland is once again launching the “PwC Intensive Development Program” – a seven-month, multi-stage initiative designed to strengthen participants’ strategic, innovative, and leadership competencies. This year, Kozminski University has become the program’s main academic partner.
We have been developing our leaders’ competencies for many years. This year, we invited Kozminski University to join our internal talent development program as a substantive partner. We invest in innovation-related skills because we know that leaders shape the future – of organizations and of the solutions we deliver to clients. We create space for experimentation, collaboration, and the implementation of innovative ideas that respond to tomorrow’s challenges", says Patrycja Załuska, Talent Manager at PwC Poland, responsible for the development of key employees within the organization.
Throughout each stage of the program, participants will work on intermediate deliverables – stakeholder maps, hypothesis cards, experiment plans, and short solution pitches – in order to present not only their final results but also the process behind them. The entire structure has been designed to merge real business challenges with academic tools and implementation practice.
The workshop component has been enhanced with webinars developing meta-competencies essential to modern leaders: critical thinking, systems thinking, strategy design within the “blue ocean” logic, and the practical use of artificial intelligence in everyday work. Each session will be directly linked to the participants’ ongoing projects and conclude with an implementation task. The calendar also includes team and individual consultations – offering time for refining concepts, receiving feedback, and obtaining expert guidance. This “pause for reflection” is intended to help participants translate knowledge into decisions and decisions into measurable results.
“We focus on learning that leads to action. The program created for PwC combines academic rigor with business pragmatism – from solid research and data-driven insights, through innovation design, to rapid testing and implementation. Together, we invest in competencies that today define a company’s competitive edge,” emphasizes Klaudia Fatah-Zarzycka, Director of Corporate Training and Executive Programs at Kozminski University.
The true value of the program lies in its tailor-made design. Each stage was crafted to guide participants through the full innovation cycle – from identifying the problem to verifying conclusions – while simultaneously building soft skills such as interdisciplinary teamwork, stakeholder communication, and adaptability to change.
“Together with Kozminski University, we invest in the development of competencies that genuinely strengthen our teams: analytical thinking, data-driven work, solution design, and rapid hypothesis testing. The program is tailored to our needs – it integrates advisory and technological perspectives, enables work on real client challenges, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. We aim for measurable outcomes – in the form of better decisions, shorter time from idea to pilot, and solutions that create tangible value,” says Katarzyna Podgórna, Partner at PwC Poland.
From concept to conclusion, the program has been designed as a hands-on school of action. Participants not only learn the methods but, above all, practice applying them in a project-based environment. The final results will include validated concepts ready for further incubation within the organization. In this way, the partnership between Kozminski University and PwC Poland becomes not only an investment in people but also a catalyst for concrete innovation.
