The international module "Global EMBA" at MIRBIS

Despite the module tookplace at the end of last year, this event as it became the one of the most important event in the MIRBIS international life, it will be memorable not only because of the brightness of the participants, but also because of the possibility of an informal exchange of views between the MIRBIS students, faculty, and alumni.

 

From the 1st till the 9th of October, 2011 leading foreign executives - students from the universities of the Global EMBA Consortium - were trained at the Moscow International Higher Business School “MIRBIS” in the frameworks of the annual international module. 

The international MIRBIS module was devoted to the study of political and economic mechanisms of Russian and international business. Every day the students had lectures and seminars, discussed business cases, and visited companies to get a closer vision of the peculiarities of doing business in Russia.

 

On the first day of training, October 3, MIRBIS Rector Prof. Stanislav Savin welcomed the visitors from Italy, USA and Brazil. The Rector expressed his opinion about the primary role of international exchange in the globalization of the world economy, emphasized the leading role of education in training top-managers and wished the international students an informative eventful week.

 

The same day the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Federation Alexander Torshin met the members of the international programme. The first vice speaker of the Council of Federation told the foreign guests about the objectives and specificities of the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament. At the meeting were discussed such issues as anti-crisis measures in Russia, the prospects for WTO accession, demographic processes and workforce imbalance, migration policy and investment climate in Russia. Alexander Torshin sees the prospects for expanding the cooperation of the Russian Federation with foreign partners in the direct enhancing of interregional cooperation. Concluding the meeting, Alexander Torshin advised foreign businessmen to visit other Russian cities and regions to see the potential of the country and to analyze the prospects for international cooperation. Educational programme of the day ended with the lecture and seminar sessions by the Prof. Marinov on "Russia in Search of Modernization - Problems and Prospects."

During the following days the foreign guests attended the lectures: Prof. Khachaturov’s "The Russian economy - oil and gas industry yesterday, today and tomorrow,", Prof. V. Azarov’s "Russia in Global Context - Political Aspects", participated in the discussion of the business case “International Marketing in the Russian context: energy market”, which was held by the business trainer Professor P. Parfenov, and the business case “Russian Strategic Thinking” under the direction of Elena Arskaya, business trainer, CBSD consultant (Center for Business Skills Development). Besides, the attendees visited the company “Wimm-Bill-Dann” and a group of companies “IFD Kapital”.

 

In October 6 the Global EMBA group visited MIRBIS strategic partner – the URALSIB Financial Corporation. The Chairman of the Board of OJSC "URALSIB" Ildar Muslimov welcomed the participants. Michael Molokovsky, the first Vice-President of the FC “URALSIB” made a presentation, which highlighted the main directions of company activity and tasks of the conglomerate “Evolution”. According to Mikhail Molokovsky, one of the company priorities is management by values which is implemented through the corporate culture in three blocks: personal development of employees, social security of the staff and corporate social responsibility. “Today there is a shortage of qualified human resources on the market, so if you use only the material approach to employee motivation, sooner or later there will appear a company that will offer more.

We value our employees, treat them as human capital and it is important for us that the values of our staff coincide with the company values which we have developed for ourselves. People want to have a good job, which would be interesting for them, where they would feel the respect of the colleagues, with a decent salary and opportunity to develop not only professionally but also as a personality”.

  

The final part of the educational programme was a roundtable discussion on  “Corporate Social Responsibility”. The meeting was opened by Professor Stanislav V. Pirogov, who presented the bullets for the participants, his vision of the stated issues and asked questions to start the discussion: “How do you understand corporate social responsibility? How does investing in social programmes influence the market success and competitiveness of a company? What are practical regulations of corporate social responsibility in your country? Do you see the connection between social corporate responsibility and problems of social inequality and social injustice?”

Professor Pirogov said that the CSR issue is very important for our country because Russia has shifted to a new track. The place and the role of business are crucial in the social development of society. “We must comprehend the changes in business practices together with the students”. The roundtable was held in the form of a free dialogue, during which the participants expressed their ideas on the CSR issues, gave answers to acute questions of social inequality and social responsibility.

The Global EMBA students noted that all the companies they had visited in Moscow during the week presented their CSR programmes, and it amazed them. The students said how important social responsibility issues in their countries and companies was, argued about the importance of charity for corporations, thought over the financial results of social programmes. The round table was a bright result of the international module “Global Executive MBA”.

   

 

The international module is finished, the guests have left, but there is still the feeling of the unique atmosphere that appears with the free, informal communication among representatives of different countries and cultures, mutual enrichment of knowledge and experience.