Godspeed!

Today is the beginning of an unusual trip of SKOLKOVO students! Today is the day when the Kruzenshtern barque is departing!

Just a while ago Dmitry Repin, our unchallenged captain of sea craft, connected with us.

He says that SKOLKOVO group has received instructions about emergencies, mast climbing and doing sails.
Today they will have the first sailing rush job - will help to put up the sails. He says “Everyone is excited and wants to participate”.

You can see some pictures below. As we receive more pictures, we will add them in our set on Flickr. All of them will be taken during the trip, so let's be charitabl to their quality :)

Just F***ing Do It!

The first two weeks of studying in the USA probably became one of the brightest and busiest periods of time spent at SKOLKOVO. We met successful entrepreneurs, famous scientists and defended our business projects in front of real venture investors.

SKOLKOVO Students Discover America
After the SKOLKOVO students returned from China and India, they spent two months in Moscow working on corporate projects at Russian companies. Early August a new education stage started: the entire group left for Boston for two months where we undergo training at American companies and study entrepreneurship at a b-school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan).

In fact we live and study not in Boston, but in Cambridge. This town with a population of about 100,000 people is situated over the river from Boston and was built by descendants of the Englishmen who had gone ashore America in the 17th century. Streets of Cambridge are more like London than typical American towns: the same architecture and a similar layout of streets. What Cambridge is famous for is that two of the best-known and most prestigious educational institutions in the world are located here: the Harvard University and MIT.

While it’s needless to introduce Harvard, I will tell you in more detail about MIT, where we study. With a 150-year history this is one of the most authoritative higher educational institutions in the world and a chief engineering institution in the USA. There are a great number of prominent world scientists and engineers with 75 Nobel Prize winners among MIT graduates. A high IQ of local residents is felt in the air. “Even when I’m passing by MIT, I feel a bit more intelligent”, an officer of the American consulate in Moscow who issued our visas jokes.

They like to repeat in Boston that if one sums up business of the companies that have been created involving graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the result will be compared with the 17th in succession economy in the world. It is the conversion of discoveries and inventions into money that MIT Sloan stakes on; we are taking a course of entrepreneurship there.

Geeks and angels
The area around Kendall Square in Cambridge where buildings of Microsoft and Google tower opposite each other among MIT blocks is famous for its unique “ecosystem”. This is a place where geeks from the university and people in ties from business meet. While every second person here is an engineer or a scientist, every third person is a venture investor or a business angel.

Sloan students are taught to help geeks transfer technologies on commercial rails. Professors joke that while physicists and chemists sweat over experiments in laboratories, business school students spend all their free time talking at local cafes where they are engaged in “networking” - this word acquires a sacral tint here. American people are convinced that ties determine everything in business.

Every year tens, if not hundreds of start-ups are born in Cambridge. A part of them die, but some of them manage to become an astounding success. I still remember meetings with founders of internet companies KAYAK (online booking of tickets and hotels) and Hubspot (promotion of web sites), each of which has attracted 30 mln USD of venture investments for 3-4 years of existence and shows an explosive growth of profits. “To interest investors, you need about ten simple slides showing business of your start-up and one page of financial expectations. Venture capitalists never read business plans”, Brian Hulligan at Hubsport, a co-author of Inbound marketing describing usefulness of social networks for modern business, gives a recipe for success.

Why to choose a small business school instead of a major one?

Business education is often unconsciously associated with leading world business schools that rank TOP 10: Harvard, Stanford, MIT Sloan, Wharton, INSEAD, etc… It’s believed that if one wants to get an MBA degree, he should get it only at such top institutions, with the others falling short of a high level of educational process.

Is that true? Experts point out a number of reasons why it’s useful to get business education at the b-school which is not in the TOP-10.

We present five most important advantages of small MBAs over major business schools.

1. Trend towards specialization
Hubert Silly, Founder of MBA Center, says:
“More important than the global rankings are the speciality rankings of business schools. A candidate seeking a future career in finance, for instance, would be well advised to choose a school ranked highly in finance-even if that school is not in the "Top Ten" in the overall rankings… Business schools view themselves as specific brands that can appeal to a particular segment of the MBA market”.

2. Individual approach
David Butler, the director of the post-graduate programs at ESC Rouen (France), says:
"One of the most important advantages of a smaller MBA is that they offer smaller programs with ten to twenty students in class, which ensures a better participation and interaction of the group."

3. Unique experience
Michael Houston, the interim codean of Carlson School of Management, says:
"Smaller programs frequently offer more individualized services and leadership opportunities. Some adopt a niche strategy that provides a unique experience. There is more flexibility for learning, connecting with faculty, and internship opportunities than in more prestigious MBAs."

Kamil Isayev (Intel Russia) about Innovation Design Lab

The second part of the interview with Kamil Isayev, R&D CEO, Intel Russia, who heads Innovation Design Lab together with Dmitry Repin. The first part can be found here

- Please let us know your viewpoint on Innovation Design Lab

- An idea of Innovation Design Lab consists in creating some environment on the basis of the SKOLKOVO Campus that would encourage innovations. I see Intel as an injector of ideas. Of course, ideas that we will try to implement there will be close to Intel as a company. They are IT industry, software industry and other modern trends. At the same time an innovative environment created at the Campus should conceive these ideas, process them inventively and produce some product, whether business projects, start-ups, new techniques - such products that can’t emerge in another area. In other words, we start with a set of ideas, including or first of all from Intel and/or our partners and result in business projects of various maturity with a potential to develop and turn into something innovative and new ready to become a component of that knowledge-based economy.

- Please tell us about Intel’s interest in this project

- Innovative Design Lab is especially relevant to Intel at the moment. The point is that the IT market is evolving in an interesting way. In other words, computing devices that we use are rather greatly diversified. Traditional desktops, notebooks, servers located somewhere behing the walls are not enough now; a great number of so-called mobile devices has appeared. Netbooks, tablets, iPad-lie devices and of course smart phones have greatly become intellectual devices.

Intel, China and meeting with Sam Park

As we promised, we are publishing an interview with Kamil Isaev, R&D CEO, Intel Russia, who heads Innovation Design Lab together with Dmitry Repin.

The first part of the interview will describe details of Kamil’s trip to China and his meeting with Sam Park, SKOLKOVO representative in China.
The second part (coming later this week) of the interview will be devoted to a concept of Innovation Design Lab and Intel’s interest in a joint project together with SKOLKOVO.

Have a nice reading!

— In July you went to China to visit a local Intel office. Please can you give us details of your trip?

— The trip was officially related to a start of a leadership programme in China. It’s a programme launched by Intel to develop managers, train and cultivate them as leaders. Intel is a global company, and big engineering teams are often strongly distributed. That’s why Intel pays much attention to the development of leader managers in remote countries, such as Russia and China. We were in Shanghai, where an Intel office consists over a thousand employees. It’s interesting to observe Chinese people working when you know the way Russian people work and compare corresponding peculiarities based on cultural background and specific upbringing and education of people. That was quite an interesting experience.

— Please can you expand on differences?

— There are several things that drew my attention. Within the bounds of this leadership programme people are divided into teams, receive business cases that they should discuss, suggest their solutions and after all make a final presentation for a relatively short period of time. Chinese employees usually have livelier discussions than Russian ones. In fact, it didn’t surprise me. I refer it to a peculiarity of Russian mentality. In general, we are not much of a talkative nation, we customarily think several times before saying something. Not only Chinese people but an overwhelming majority of other nations act differently – their discussions are more volcanic, extrovert. At the same time a quality of final presentations is rather comparable, i.e. I didn’t notice any striking differences between Russian and Chinese colleagues in depth, understanding, etc.

The next thing that draws your attention there is that in China a role of the Chinese government is extremely great actually in all events that take part in the country. In particular, internet is known to be in heavy control. Therefore some of e-commerce projects being launched by Intel (particularly software sales via internet) require special licenses which are difficult to obtain. One should present obvious and quite serious grounds, convince the Chinese government that all is done in compliance with applicable regulations.

The barque is to depart in just 13 days!

Suspense keeps on growing. Packing is in full swing! Make sure to take a cap or a wholly hat as the Captain of the barque advised. Be prepared for a strict order of day, a menu with no dainties, for unusual conditions of living in ten- and twenty- man bunkrooms! Also for the fact that cell phones will be on line only in shore! There will be no time for usual cell phone chats and business correspondence in Blackberry though: SKOLKOVO students are to learn laws and rules of navigation, operation of hull systems, details of spreading and dousing sails and many other things.

Who will be a chief of the bunkroom, and how will the students act under extreme conditions of living under sails? You can find the answers in our news!

Innovation Design Lab news: Tech Lecture Series

In early October 2010 SKOLKOVO FT-MBA students will start working fulltime on their start-up projects. Many of the students want to launch technology start-ups. To support this, "SKOLKOVO Technology Circle" was created as part of the Innovation Design Lab. This is an informal group of technology companies, research groups and individuals who understand the challenges of high-tech businesses and bring their technology expertise, specific technologies into SKOLKOVO start-ups.

Intel Corporation has become the first member of SKOLKOVO Technology Circle. At the first event of the Tech Lecture Series – lectures organized specifically for students, Nikolay Suyetin, Intel top specialist, has told students about the principles of semiconductor industry operation and described its development trends. Recently, students have met with Martyn Nunuparov, a "serial" inventor of high-efficiency piezo-convertors and other electronic technologies, who invited students to be partners in implementation of start-ups based on his technologies.

The lecture was told about in more detail by Dmitry Yurchenko, Full-Time MBA student:

“The first guest-speaker was Nikolay Suyetin, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, new Russia and CIS programmes development manager. He told us about his many-years’ experience in innovation and Russian specificity. This specificity takes place and unfortunately has negative character. For instance, there was the idea to import and locate health remote tracking systems that are of high importance, for example, for diabetics and senior people, being also helpful for healthy people to control their health. The idea came to its end at the stage of obtaining a licence in the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development of Russia, because of corruption – they wanted money, and Intel does not play this game.

ARCHpromenad in SKOLKOVO – more than 70 architects have come despite such heat!

August 3, SKOLKOVO Campus opened its doors for the Moscow Architectural Club (MAC), a platform for professional communication well-known among architects. About once a month the MAC inspects new architectural objects and this time it was decided to see over SKOLKOVO Campus.

The fervor heat up all around but despite that over 70 architects gained destination and acquainted with our new home enthusiastically.

The ARCHpromenad, a tour about the Campus was guided by Emil Pirumov (on foto), Managing Director of SKOLKOVO Business School and “master of the house” and Andrey Tcheltsov (“A-B Studio” architect bureau). After the promenade Andrey Tcheltsov also made a small presentation, spoke about how the project SKOLKOVO transformed over time, how the work between the “A-B Studio” and Adjaye/Associates was going, and he replied to questions from the architects as well.

Andrey Tcheltsov’s speech opened the main programme of MAC, with the principal topic called “Us to the world” – meaning the understanding of own and foreign experience. What architects can take from the world and what are they able to give it? Who to build with and what to build here and now?

Discussing the multicultural educational environment of SKOLKOVO and the project of the building by David Adjaye called up by the dynamic suprematic works of Russian artists, many architects confessed that campus was a “phenomenon of another world” and gave a great feeling of freedom. They remarked that the interior was freed up from redundant details, and emphasized the modesty of architectural solutions, which allowed to achieve clearness and omnitude in space and to integrate the Campus into the splendid natural landscape.

Trip on the «Kruzenshtern» barque – students’ opinion

The trip aboard “Kruzenstern” is approaching rapidly – it is to be held in 23 days! We decided to get to know students’ expectations of this trip.
Vartan Dilanyan, EMBA first intake student
"Once my friends and me were yachting in the islands of the Adriatic sea – this was a truly impressive trip. It freshens up very well and helps to blow the cobwebs away so it is really worth it. This is the reason why I am so glad that the school gave us such an opportunity. Moreover, the trip on the “Krusenstern” is much more interesting in this aspect: after all the months of studying in SKOLKOVO we are starting it as a true team, the team of close friends. Considering it from the standpoint of teambuilding outside school and learning process, this trip is a wonderful idea. Besides, it is fascinating to look at the different world and learn to manage something new".

Evgeny Larionov, EMBA third intake student
"I have not had any doubts to start this trip – this is a true adventure, new experience and, of course, extreme, and I am the one who loves extreme events. And, beyond any question, the people were the motivator to go. To my mind this is a wonderful idea to invite the first course, students who are about to graduate and us, the third course of the new guys. We will spend several days on board the bark and this is very effective for the team building.
The mood is perfect, we are ready for the adventures and unforeseen situations!"

Olga Pestova, EMBA third intake student
"Speaking about the motivators to go, I would say that is was an entire motivation cocktail! It is an Adventure. It is the participants – the team of yet unknown but like-minded adventurers. It is the “Krusenstern” – wealth of history and open sea. And it is SKOLKOVO – the beginning of a new trip! I am overwhelmed with the feeling of joyful anticipation! I am sure that the reality will surpass any of the expectations. The principal intrigue is what will be recalled after the trip and what tales will appear!"