The Seventh International Summer School «Doing Business in Russia» has finished

17:30, August 3, 2020

Overlook of project results and some feedback from participants

For 10 days, the participants dove into the world of business and have learned about the changes in the context of digitalization, pandemic and economic crisis. Thanks to the  presentations by experts and entrepreneurs from different business areas and different countries, the participants looked into the changes in the business environment, consumer habits and business models of companies in the fields of hospitality, sports, music, aviation, social and so on. In addition to a busy educational schedule, students had a chance to play role-playing games and participate in a 4D fitness workout from Decathlon.

Such a diverse set of events became possible thanks to the online format of the Summer School. This way was used for the very first time and gave an opportunity to create a truly international team of speakers and participants.

In addition to education and entertainment, throughout the whole period the teams have been developing the projects. This year the project idea was provided by the partners of the Summer School - the organizers of UralMusicNight festival. The main goal of the participants was to find stable funding sources for the music festival.

The first team called itself Magical Kingdom and suggested to broadcast the events of the festival on streaming services such as Okko and Youtube and monetize it. Also they recommended to find friends among the partners, try to collect donations for creating infrastructure for participants with disabilities and think about introducing special food courts.

The second team suggested focusing on social media and targeting, setting various kinds of contests and challenges. Moreover, they advised to connect KickStarter through which musicians can join each other and rehearse together.

The third team also encouraged to stream the festival through YouTube mentioning the example of Coachella, American music festival. They also suggested the alternative - TikTok, where online concerts are gaining popularity. The team proposed to collect donations from participants. Using the results of 2019 with 300,000 participants, they calculated a possible income of 6 million rubles.

The last team called itself «The Best Team» and focused on maximizing profits, creating a more comfortable environment for guests and promoting the idea of ​​«Music is available to all». The team examined 3 sets of «Ýpain points» from the point of view of guests, musicians and stakeholders. They proposed changing the value proposition by expanding the range of activities, including packages based on the level of engagement, adding a promotion opportunity for musicians to increase brand awareness. They believe it would increase both engagement profits.

The participants are very content with the Summer School. Yulia Sannikova, a student of the International Management program of GSEM UrFU, comments:

«In 2020 I was lucky participate in the International Summer School of GSEM URFU.  Despite the fact that the school was held online, it was very positive and informative! I would especially like to note the communication with foreign lecturers who highlighted the situation on the foreign markets, each in their own country, which was interesting.»

Another participant, Albina Bikmurdina, also provides her feedback:

«The Summer School for me was an opportunity to gain a unique experience of interacting with people from different countries and business fields. During the program, we studied global economic trends, mastered new management tools, reviewed several real cases on how a business is coping with the pandemic, and even developed our own project. It was very interesting! Despite the unusual online format, all school participants were involved in the work and actively participated in the discussions. There was a feeling that we were all close, although in fact we were separated by hundreds of kilometers. I was very fortunate to be part of this wonderful team this year and will definitely participate in the next year Summer School. A big thank-you to all speakers and organizers for the excellent work!»

International students also noted the relevance of the school and the value of knowledge. Jaafar Rikan Al Mashaal, an international lawyer and a judicial expert from Barah (Iraq), also shared his experience:

«My impression when I participated in summer school was really fabulous, I saw great international experts, tutors, a high international benchmark in international business. Summer school added a lot of values to me and broadened my knowledge in Business very much. It is a great gate for any entrepreneurs, those ambitious in international business and high levels in academia. All were very cooperative and understanding. I felt that I learned a lot from summer school, they can take you smoothly to international business management without the feeling of hardship, at the same time they gave you up-to-date realistic international practices. After summer school, you will have an excellent ability to handle any business trouble according to the best international business practices.»

Stanislav Berezin is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics of the Ural State University and now a successful entrepreneur, co-founder of the «Factory of Touching Stands» and a blogger. This year he was a tutor and here is his feedback: 

«The main topic of the Summer School this year was the development of a plan for streamlined and predictive fundraising for the organization and conduct of UralMisicNight festival. This made the Summer School as interesting and practical as possible. The results of the work on the case which the teams were analyzing, was interesting not only to students but also to organizators. To get a fresh look at the commercial side of the festival from young specialists is an opportunity to see new ideas and scenarios.

It was the first time in my life that I experienced being a tutor. It was even more outstanding because my group consisted entirely of Chinese students.

Here are the problems I ran into and I had to solve throughout the School.

Firstly, I had problems understanding what my main goal as a tutor was. How seriously should I get involved and correct the work of my group.

Secondly, I was very worried about the amount of time that I could and should have devoted to my new job. Due to the specifics of the business, I could not (or did not want to) devote a lot of time to this.

Third, motivation. I'm not used to doing something half power. A high sense of responsibility made me worry about the result and responsibility to the group, teachers, and the university.

How were these three points resolved?

The first is about tutoring a tutor. Frequent Zoom meetings with the organizers calmed us down, provided with the necessary answers, gave us insights in what way to work, and determined how seriously should we get involved.

The second is about the amount of time. The pandemic has taught everyone to work remotely and communicate using Zoom. This allowed us to work with organizers and teams at any time as quickly as possible and go straight to the point. No offline meetings and distraction from the main work.

The third is about motivation. The topic was help itself. Participation in the improvement of a real successful project in which the organisators themselves are interested is the best motivator for such work. For me, of course, there was also an opportunity to improve my Chinese.

I was lucky with the group. The Chinese guys turned out to be very responsible and diligent. They made it through linguistic difficulties, cultural background and developed quite a decent project with which you can work».

And finally, some feedback from the UralMusicNight representative and the project coordinator - Lyubov Bondarenko:

«We are very grateful to GSEM and the Master's program “International Management” for inviting us to become a part of the Summer School. Moreover, for the very first time in its history we became “the main contractor”. It was a great honor for the UralMusic Night Festival and a great responsibility.

It looks like in this project our dream came true to attract young people with a fresh look, creative thinking and country background, who are able to emotionally take in the project and at the same time to save the professional approach to work on specific tasks. Create a project by conducting research and data analysis, propose not only an idea, but also a business plan and its implementation.

Special thanks to the team of tutors who were carried away by the project as well as their students. Despite the difficulties associated with multiculturalism, language barrier and the difference in time zones, they conscientiously were correcting the work of the teams and were giving the freedom to think in their own speed.

We have created a very “selfish” but at the same time the most necessary task for the “Night of Music” - proposing projects to create a stable financial ecosystem for the festival which would allow developing the project and planning it in advance. Five international teams, each turned out to be unique in its own way, worked on the same problem. Accordingly, the proposed projects were different and interesting. This is largely why it was easy for the expert council to award special nominations to each team.

For the UralMusicNight team this is the first and unique experience of such collaboration which we are very satisfied with. We thank each participant of the Summer School for the time, dedication and good faith. We are sure that many ideas can be implemented within the framework of the festival. So, this is just the beginning».