Maxim Fokeev, a student of the Master's programme International Management 

«Summer school «Doing business in Russia: international perspective» have all rules to call like a visit card of business-education in Ural. Duting two weeks you are fully introduced into English environment, meeting with leaders – companies from different industries from manufacturing to IT-products for business. Lecturers from all over the world and companies visitors make this two weeks absolutely incredibly, warmly and inspiring.

I was a participant in Summer School for two years and during this time I can’t say that the program was repeating. Every year School changes: the geography of participants is expanding from Germany and Pakistan, to the Gambia and Brazil.

Program also undergoes changes every year - in addition to hard-skills related to knowledge of the Russian specifics of doing business and managerial practices, events aimed at developing Soft-skills deserve special attention. The curriculum takes the form of project seminars, discussion platforms, and the total event involves the protection of the business plan of a potential own company in Russia. All this allows you to expand the skill of cross-cultural communication, group interaction and the organization of your time (time-management) in a saturated basic educational program.

With confidence and based on my experience, I invite everyone to take part in Summer School, with its unique capabilities, not only to get an attractive line in the resume, but also from the very center of Russia - in the Urals, to learn about all the intricacies of doing business in Russia, to receive irreplaceable conversational practice, Academic and business English in a multicultural environment».

«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!»

«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».

How to make sure that you are a serious competitor? For what purpose should we know the types of negotiators? What does it mean if someone either cross his legs or touch his nose during the presentation? The participants of the sixth Summer School received answers on these and lots of other questions.

On the 9^th and 10^th of July our Summer School was visited by Dr. Ulrich Bauer and his wife Garcia-Bauer. They came to Yekaterinburg for sharing their knowledge and experience in the field of business communicating process. 

It is a well-known fact negotiations are an essential part of any relations. From the age of three we, being small children, understood that father could give us our favourite toy if we stop crying and mother was ready to allow us to go to bed later if we promise her to wash the dishes and etc. There were only two examples. However, it can be thousand. 

Every day we are forced to find an approach to different people and arrange with them. Especially, this skill is very important to business sphere because absolutely every contract signs only after negotiations. Moreover, it must be perfect to achieve your main goal – contract. 

On lecture Dr. Ulrich Bauer gave the participants clear understanding of the process of negotiations. Students knew what is the difference between haggling and negotiations, what the “bargaining chip” is. It is something that one side can use to persuade the other side to reach an agreement. Every professional negotiator has to possess several “bargaining chips” for being prepared to rejects objections from clients and to be on top. 

Also the participants of the Summer School tried to find out to which type of negotiator they belong to, working in groups and answering questions. It will be very useful for their future career despite where they are planning to work. 

Yekaterinburg, capital of Ural region, is a rapidly developing city. Every year lots of projects are launched there. They are connected with absolutely different spheres of our life: from sport to art. 

Expressively, it is no coincidence that these two aspects were mentioned above. On the 12^th of July our International Summer School was visited by Lyubov Bondarenko. This woman is deputy director of the sport club “Dinamo-fieldhockey” Yekaterinburg. Also she is a person from the team which is responsible for organization of two of the most exciting and expected events in Yekaterinburg “Ural Music Night” and festival “Old New Rock”.  Because of this Lyubov’s lecture called “Business Models of Sports Clubs and Big Art Events”.

The same happens during the festival “Old New Rock”. 

According to the Lyubov Bondarenko’s words, one of the most difficult issues is the process of organizing this event. This year this “Night” was visited by 300 000 hundred people. It is a huge number for Yekaterinburg. Moreover, there were some problems with raising money. At least, this situation was in 2015 when the history of “Ural Music Night” just has started. 

Furthermore, issue of funding is relevant for the sport club “Dinamo-fieldhockey”. Field hockey is not very popular type of sports in our region. Thus it is quite difficult to find sponsors for giving a chance for young sportsmen to go to different championships and win awards. 

Lecture of Lyubov Bondarenko let the participants know something new about events in our city, about the process of its organization and realize that being an organizer is a big responsibility. 

On the 11^th of July the participants of the International Summer School had a perfect master-class by partner of Ural Federal University. This is a company called “Rostelecom”. 

Rostelecom is the largest provider of digital services and solutions in Russia, which is presented in all market segments and covers millions of households, public and private organizations.

 Rostelecom is a leader in the market for high-speed Internet access (13.0 million subscribers) and pay-TV (10.2 million families, of which 5.4 million are connected to the Interactive TV service).  More than 1.3 million subscribers use the Rostelecom mobile connection.  The company develops digital solutions for smart home, online education, telemedicine and other services.

 Rostelecom is the leader in the market of telecommunication services for state authorities of Russia and corporate users of all levels.  More than 1.0 million legal entities use high-speed Internet and VPN access services.

The company is a recognized technology leader in innovative solutions in the areas of e-government, cybersecurity, data centers and cloud computing, biomhat etrics, healthcare, education and housing and communal services. Its mission is “to provide people with quality and convenient digital services for comfortable life and effective business”. ‘Rostelecom” builds digital Russia. It develops diffrerent types of technologies in our country, for example, Internet, television, mobile telephony, phone, video surveillance. 

Our lectors were Nikolay Kulmyakov, deputy director of Ural Marcroregional Branch of  Rostelecom – Finance Director, and Artur Baryshev. They told the participants about the company and the main problems of our society which “Rostelecom” tries to solve.

At the end of the second week of the summer school by GSEM students had a chance to see how different types of paper and packaging are produced in Ural region. They visited “Mondi” factory. 

Mondi Aramil is one of the top 10 flexible packaging companies in Russia and has more than eighteen-year experience in this area. The production facilities are located in Aramil, in 22 km south-east of Yekaterinburg (Ural Region).

It focuses on the production of high-quality packaging for all segments of food and non-food industries. Its modern equipment for film extrusion, flexo- and rotogravure printing, solvent-based and solvent-free lamination along with a number of bag making machines ensure the complete production cycle.

“Mondi” has lots of production areas. They produce PE films, BOPP films, PE/PA/EVOH/PA/PE films, 2 to 4 layer laminates based on BOPP, PET, OPA, Al, PE (EVOH) films, Flow pack, Stand-up pouches, Wicketed bags, Bags with handles and Industrial films for FFS lines. 

“Ural Airlines” is a Russian airline engaged in domestic and international air transportation for 25 years. During this time, she managed to enter the TOP 4 largest air carriers in Russia.

The company's services are used by more and more customers every year, so in 2018, passenger traffic for the first time exceeded 9 million people, which is almost 13% more than a year earlier. The carrier is based in the largest airports of the country, which allows the company to make flights to most of the major cities of Russia.