TC Business School – management from experience

The story of TC Business School

The first seeds of TCBS were planted in the late 1980's when its founder, Sláva Kubátová, taught English independently of any then officially established school. The legal entity of TC was established in 1992 shortly after the Velvet revolution. Its main activities were the language, project management and intercultural trainings. TC was also widely involved in the process of developing ISO standards. We also assisted companies in applying these standards to improve their quality management, environment management and health and safety management. At that time this was an important step here towards better understanding of free market economy.

After quite an extensive experience in management and intercultural trainings within both local and multinational companies in the Czech Republic, TC was addressed in 1997 by its current partner Business School Netherlands (BSN) as a result of BSN's own research. At that time BSN was looking for a partner in the Czech Republic who was able to deliver their Action Learning MBA programme to Czech students under BSN's accreditation. The main requirements they had were the ability to adapt the content of the Dutch programme to the local (Czech) reality and deliver the programme in the native language.

TC decided to accept the offer and the first cohort started in 1998 after extensive translation and adaptation of the programme content from Dutch. Some 700 students have participated in our courses since. Out of these app. 240 have participated in the full MBA programme, the rest decided to undertake the first part of the MBA programme (General Management Programme) confirmed by a certificate (see below for the programme structure).

TCBS has significantly developed both the content and the structure of the MBA programme within the frame of the BSN's accreditation mainly developing its Action Learning style. Some of these structural and quality control changes have lately been adopted by our partner.

Thanks to the TCBS proficiency in crosscultural issues, BSN later decided to move a part of their Young Professionals MBA programme to Prague in 2004. This International Management course is delivered by TCBS tutors and the assignments (AL projects) are assessed by TCBS tutors and BSN setadvisors. The feedback from the Dutch students indicates to us that our AL style is really a new strong point of their learning experience in Prague.

In 2011 the director of the TCBS, Sláva Kubátová, was appointed to a programme manager of the Action Learning DBA programme delivered jointly by BSN and Sheffield Hallam Business School. The main reason for this - as declared by BSN - was to make sure that the course is delivered in AL methodology.

Structure of the MBA programme

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The structure and content of the MBA Basics (General Management Programme) - Stage 1

The programme is delivered in five sessions, three days each, always lead by 2 tutors. The group size is 12 - 15 students.

In order to obtain the certificate and continue in the second stage of the MBA Programme, two assignments have to be submitted. The key quality requirements are practical usability of the outputs and involvement of key stakeholders in developing the conclusions.

The content of the MBA Basics (General Management Programme):

The structure and content of the MBA programme - Stage 2 and 3

The programme is delivered in eight learning sessions, two or three days each. Two tutors provide the basic theories and lead the learning process all the time during these sessions. Before each of these sessions, the students meet in two groups for one day to discuss issues related to the areas of management to be discussed in the given session and formulate questions for the tutors for the following session. Two more one day sessions with setadvisors give opportunity to discuss specific issues related to students' Action Learning Projects. Students are strongly recommended to meet after the end of Stage 2 (the eight learning sessions) to collect feedback and support each other in their Action Learning Projects. Setadvisors attend these meetings at student's request. All sessions directly organized by TCBS apply Action Learning methodology.
On top of the group meetings and sessions, individual guidance is available for students during their work on Action Learning Projects from appointed setadvisors. Tutors and setadvisors also assist the student (mainly by e-mail feedback exchange) in planning all of his written assignments. The plan has to be confirmed by a tutor before the student starts working on the Action Learning Project.

The management areas of stage 2 and 3 of the MBA programme

The structure of the Action Learning Project and Master Project includes these items:

1. Problem
2. Goal
3. Literature Research
4. In Company Research
5. External Research - other companies
6. Alternatives
7. Implementation
8. Reflection

This structure is applied to lead the student to developing management decision with full view of the real context and also to capture the learning points occurring in the course of developing the project, which means that the Action Learning philosophy is applied as well as the knowledge of the main management theories is tested.

The Master Project must be defended by the student in front of the committee of the setadvisor, tutor and an independent expert in management.