Master Students From 9 Countries Take Part in GSEM's Summer Business School

16:34, August 5, 2020

The school's participants found out more about doing business in Russia

The international summer school for grads Doing Business in Russia: Global Drivers and Local Context has ended at the Ural Federal University. It is the seventh time that it has been held by the Institute of Economics and Management of the Ural Federal University on the initiative of the Master's program International Management. 34 participants from Russia, Guinea, Ecuador, China, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Suriname, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Ghana have united under the motto "Doing Business in Russia". This year, the school was held online for the first time.

“The distance format allowed expanding the audience, attracting more interesting speakers. At the same time, competition has grown with other summer programs that are offered for free on open platforms. For example, Coursera offers courses similar in subject matter from the world's leading universities from the top ten of the QS ranking. It is quite difficult to compete with them, but we were able to find an audience interested in the Urals region,” said the program manager Lyudmila Ruzhanskaya.

This year, the school's focus was on the global changes brought about by digitalization, the pandemic and the economic crisis, which have critically altered the business environment, consumer habits and companies' business models. 20 speakers from Russia, Germany, Czech Republic and France shared their knowledge.

During the summer school, the participants attended nine lectures, among which the most relevant topic related to the coronavirus was discussed. For example, Skoda University professor Emil Velinov spoke about the ways to transform the strategy of a transnational company as a result of the impact of the pandemic. The main thesis was the fact that the introduction of world quarantine led to the accelerated development of automation of all processes to reduce contacts among people. All this puts thousands of professions at risk of extinction. The lecturer suggested the best ways to rebuild companies while maintaining decent jobs for men and women.

In addition to training, the students of the school created projects in five international groups under the guidance of tutors: experienced teachers and representatives of the business and PR industry. This year, the project idea was provided by the partners of the summer school - the organizers of the Ural Music Night music festival. The task of the participants was to find stable sources of funding for the festival.

As for result, the teams offered to broadcast the events of this event on streaming services, hold various kinds of contests and challenges, as well as collect donations and much more.

“The summer school greatly expanded my knowledge of business. This is a great opportunity for any entrepreneur who is successful in international business and is interested in training at a high level. The experts provided modern realistic international practices and shared their experience in managing international business,” said Jafar Rikan Al Mashal, an international lawyer and forensic expert from Iraq.

In addition to a rich educational program, students had a chance to play role-playing games, conduct sports training together with the coach of one of the largest sports network in the Russian Federation, Bright Fit.