ESCP Business School - additional session

Residential Week, organized by ESCP as part of Executive MBA at Kozminski University, is an energizing and intense time filled with engaging lectures on internationalization, innovation, startup collaboration, and other immensely relevant subjects. Highlights include visits to places like BMW motorcycle factory or MotionLab.Berlin, sparking insightful discussions and shared experiences with fellow participants. The atmosphere is both intellectually stimulating and fun, with plenty of laughter. I greatly appreciate bonding within the group as relationships with other likeminded professionals are one of the key benefits such experiences provide. The support and care from the Kozminski University team is truly exceptional.

The week spent in Berlin as part of the Executive MBA program at Kozminski University, in cooperation with ESCP, was, above all, a unique opportunity to deepen relationships with fellow classmates - people with whom I am going through this intensive development path. Joint discussions, dinners, work during classes and exchange of perspectives - all this builds something more than just an academic network of contacts - it builds a real foundation for future cooperation, support and friendship.

Classes gave us a broad, European context for many business issues. The diversity of approaches and ways of thinking was one of the greatest values of this week. This experience not only enriches our program - it complements it with an important element: contact with a different academic culture and different perspective. 

Residential Week at ESCP, held in Berlin as part of the Executive MBA program at Kozminski University, was a truly inspiring experience. The academic program focused on internationalization, entrepreneurship, and corporate–startup collaboration, offering a solid theoretical foundation. What made the greatest impact, however, were the company visits – to BMW Motorrad and MotionLab.Berlin – which gave us an authentic, practical perspective and sparked many insightful discussions. Above all, it was the diversity and openness of the group that made this week so memorable. The exchange of experiences, cultural perspectives, and business challenges created an environment that extended the learning experience far beyond academic content. It was a powerful combination of learning, connection, and inspiration that will stay with me going forward.

As part of the Executive MBA program at Kozminski University, together with my Executive MBA cohort, I had the opportunity to participate in a week‑long academic visit to the ESCP campus in Berlin, one of Europe’s leading business schools founded in Paris in 1819.

The program featured inspiring classes in Entrepreneurship, Human‑AI Collaboration, Business Model Design, and Internationalization Strategies, blending cutting‑edge theory with real managerial practice. Learning alongside ESCP faculty offered a fresh perspective on teaching methods and highlighted current European trends in management education. The visit demonstrated how modern business schools translate global perspectives into engaging, discussion‑driven learning formats.

The academic experience was complemented by a visit to MotionLab.Berlin, a dynamic innovation and startup hub reflecting the city’s entrepreneurial energy, as well as a tour of BMW’s Berlin motorcycle factory, where we observed the end‑to‑end process of assembling world‑class motorbikes within a highly orchestrated production system.

It was also a valuable time to strengthen relationships within my Executive MBA class through discussions and the discovery of inspiring professional stories. There was time to explore Berlin itself, adding cultural context and balance to an intensive academic agenda.

Altogether, this journey was a meaningful step in developing managerial competences and an unforgettable experience shared with truly remarkable people.

If I had to sum up the Berlin week of the Executive MBA program at Kozminski University and ESCP Business School in one sentence, it would be this: it is not about where, it is about who with. Berlin gave us a superb backdrop, but what proved most valuable were the human aspects: the integration, the knowledge sharing, and the conversations for which, back in Poland, amid the whirl of everyday obligations, it would be hard to find the space.

That was the paradox of this trip. In theory, we could have done all of it at home. But it took a shared week away from daily routine to give us the time we normally lack: time for conversations over dinner and for discovering the professional stories of people I usually sit next to in class. The relationships built during those days go far beyond academic networking. It was also of great value that Kozminski representatives were with us throughout the week as true partners of the journey, present in the conversations, the shared discoveries and the everyday moments on equal terms with the whole group.

From the program itself, the image that stayed with me most vividly comes from BMW's Berlin motorcycle plant. You can read dozens of case studies on operational excellence, but only when standing next to the assembly line do you see a process brought to perfection: hundreds of synchronized operations, people and automation working in a single rhythm, nothing left to chance. I walked out with a question I still ask myself today: how much of that discipline and deliberate orchestration of processes can I bring into my own organization?

From the academic part, the most valuable element was the block devoted to business internationalization, grounded in a European context and taught through the lens of real strategic decisions rather than theoretical models. It is a perspective that is hard to gain without stepping outside your own market.

I came back from Berlin with lecture notes, but above all with something that cannot be written down: stronger relationships within the cohort and the conviction that in programs like the Executive MBA, the greatest value lies in people, both fellow participants and those who create this program together with us.