SSE Russia Community

The school is 9 years old: 11 EMBA groups, 4 graduations of Entrepreneurship programme, 1 – Living company, 3 groups of branding specialists, 1 – finance and “talent” programme…

From the admission of the first participant of the Hans Rausing programme, the first one in the School, a lot of time has passed, but not much has changed in procedure and requirements. We keep searching for those who are intelligent, successful, ready for a challenge, optimistic and self confident, believing in their unique way and their abilities, those ready to conquer new horizons. There is more and more of such people. On some programmes competition emerges, on some – rises. Our alumni are everywhere: in the banks, in manufacturing companies, on oil platforms. They manage telecommunication, transport, consulting and construction companies. They sell groceries, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, furniture, safes, advertising. They work in the city government. They live in different countries.

We have a joke here in the school, that it is not possible to fly from Moscow to Stockholm without meeting someone from SSE – students, alumni, tutors.

Business education gets younger. The average age of participants in 2000-2004 (MBA General Management) was 34-35, now it is – 32- 33 (GM and SM).

Several years ago on the EMBA programme you would meet mostly top executives (in the first group – 80%) and they self-financed their study. Now one of the motivating factors of working in one or another company is an opportunity to study, develop oneself, and acquire international experience. According to our statistics up to 40% of the participants are department directors. Companies send more and more middle-top managers – the potential of the company.

A lot depends on the focus of the programme. For example, the average age of ÌÂÀ Oil&Gas participants is higher – 35-36 years. The main audience is top managers of large production companies (25-40%) and companies from the oil and gas industry (55-70%), industry that is well developed.

ÌÂÀ Strategic Marketing – is a young programme, marketing as a separate field was formed not long ago, so in the programme you will meet experts and the managers of top and middle levels. On this programme there are many more women (up to 50%).

The way to the business is often unique and interesting. Several years ago it was people with technical and economic knowledge. Our EMBA programmes have up to 80% people with such an educational background. But very often one can find those with medical, legal, philological, chemical and biological degrees, as well as military and naval.

Western education in Russia without leaving work, a Swedish diploma, convenient learning format, professors from different countries, the rich practical business experience of our guest speakers, attract not only Russian executives. 5 % to 17% of the participants in the groups are foreigners. We teach people from Great Britain and India, Switzerland and Germany, The Czech Republic and US, Hungary and the Netherlands. One of our alumni from Japan, flew to modules from Tokyo. And of course, people from Finland, Denmark, Sweden. People fly from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 8 of 15 countries from CIS are covered. The geography of Russia is represented by the participants of Oil&Gas: Arhangelsk, Ekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Neftugansk, Samara, Yakutsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Taganrog, Barnaul, Kuzbass,Vorkuta, Kostomuksha, Tomsk, Vladivostok. The number of people from Moscow grew – over 50% of the group are sometimes from the capital city. When the programmes in branding, finances and talent appeared, we got to know the best experts in these fields.

There probably is no industry our alumni do not represent. Each group has a beer tycoon, it was Vena, Heiniken, Baltica, Efes. We chew gums of our alumni, from Stimorol to Wrigley. We learn about cars, household appliances and construction materials, beauty products and cigarettes. We come to restaurants’ launch of our community members, wine tasting, buy furniture from them, use their services while traveling. We get consultations in real estate and computer knowledge, learn about new telecommunications solutions…

And soon the school is 10 years old, 14 MBA groups, 5 Entrepreneurship programme groups, 2 – in Living company, Branding, Finance, Talent programmes.. and also process and quality management, personal development. This is the SSE Russia community.