Managers from the Polish Hotel Holding (PHH) Group have completed the first edition of the Hospitality Leadership Academy – a postgraduate programme developed exclusively for the Group in cooperation with Kozminski University. Two semesters of study combined leadership development with work on industry challenges, ranging from team and revenue management to guest experience design, data analysis and the use of artificial intelligence.
The graduation ceremony, held on 28 September, marked the culmination of a programme designed specifically for PHH Group managers. The programme combined a strategic perspective with everyday hotel management practice, with consultancy projects addressing the organisation’s needs forming an important part of the curriculum.
“In hospitality, decisions about people, finance, and technology come together in the guest experience. Developing leaders therefore requires looking at a hotel. Together with PHH, we created a programme that brings these perspectives together. We want the skills our graduates have gained to help them make sound decisions, support their teams and consciously shape service quality,” emphasises Dr Sylwia Hałas-Dej, Vice-Rector for Development and External Relations at Kozminski University and Dean of Kozminski Executive Business School.
Participants developed their knowledge of leadership, team management and workplace culture, budgeting, forecasting, and pricing policy. The programme also covered sales and distribution channels, marketing, brand communication, and building relationships with guests. Classes on guest experience design explored new approaches to hotel offerings, including wellness and wellbeing. Using data in management was another important element of the programme. Classes in data analysis and Business Intelligence complemented modules on digital technologies and AI. Participants also explored hotel safety and security, crisis management, sustainability, and social responsibility in hospitality. Lecturers from Kozminski Executive Business School and hotel industry experts, including specialists from PHH, brought together academic knowledge and industry experience. At the end of the programme, twelve teams defended projects covering topics such as the use of AI, the impact of leadership communication on team motivation, airport hotel management, waste management and the implementation of the Local Content strategy.
“We structured work on the final projects across successive stages of the programme so that participants could use their growing knowledge to analyse a chosen problem and develop recommendations. In a programme designed for a single organisation, exchanging experience is particularly valuable: it allows participants to look at familiar challenges from the perspective of other teams and hotels. We warmly congratulate our graduates on their commitment and wish them every success in applying the results of their work at PHH Group hotels,” says Klaudia Fatah, Director of Corporate Training and Programmes at Kozminski University.
