Education – relaxation above all!

In July the School will graduate its first alumni! A honorary title of the first alumni will be received by Executive MBA students.

On passing such a long and interesting way, Yuri Eremenko, Director General of Tekhnosila, one of the students, shares his impressions.

About the purpose of education:

Why did I join SKOLKOVO? I was asked this question by Full-Time MBA students half a year ago. I began to think then and realized that when I had joined the School, I had got some thoughts about it (I joined to obtain knowledge), but when I had met other students, I’d started to apprehend the process in a completely different way. When I got to know people, I understood that they were a very good circle, very good friends and there were very good professional ties. I’d thought before that I knew everyone I needed to know. Now I understand that I was wrong. My colleagues say that even my character has changed.


Work and study:

The study does not affect the work – you miss only two business days and two days off once a month. I manage to stay in touch all the time. That may annoy teachers. I have time to reply to messages, coordinate something, and make some decisions. Immediately after a regular module I get back to business and start to implement something new at once. Some people were annoyed with my absence from work and study, they understood that as soon as I was back, there would be some changes. The most striking example is that after one of the modules we restructured a work of our HR department.

About an international module in China:

A trip to China was very good, this was the last but one, international module. A student and I asked our programme to be somehow related to retail. They arranged for us to meet Director General Louis Vuitton in China and another entrepreneur who on graduating INSEAD business school established a major distributor business in China together with other graduates. All this was very interesting. But it’s another sort of experience that was important to me. We were in Sichuan, in the area where there was an earthquake two years ago. We lived in the house of the head of one of villages that was completely newly built. It was very interesting to immerse in his way of life, learn some national peculiarities from the inside. I had gone to China on business a lot of times, but that trip was a complete discovery. This sort of things diverts from routine. The routine per se stops because it can be exploded from the inside introducing new elements obtained in experiments over oneself such as an overnight stay at a village house without heating, communication and dinner with a peasant.

About educational process:

Although I had to read and write a lot, I did it with pleasure. I wouldn’t say I considered the modules as work that would tire me by the weekends. Just on the contrary, it was relaxation.