Business Education one of the Highlights of 'Russian Davos' - Ninth Gaidar Forum in RANEPA

The three-day 'Russian Davos' 2018 Gaidar Forum included various sessions on economic and political issues, as well as on issues of business education. Representatives of leading domestic and international business schools discussed the future of the industry, the specifics of training leaders in the digital economy, gender diversity in modern business and other topics. The organizers include the Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy (Gaidar Institute) and the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR).

A discussion around new trends and challenges for business education in the digital era has become one of the topical at the Forum.

     (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/634349/Ninth_Gaidar_Forum.jpg )

Executive leadership from AACSB International (AACSB) delivered several major speeches on issues that currently impact the future of business and business education and participated in various sessions and panel discussions within the Gaidar Forum at RANEPA.

Sergey Myasoedov, Vice-Rector, Director, Institute of Business Studies at RANEPA; President, RABE, who moderated the expert discussions, raised the issue of the future of business education that is crucial for the digital economy to meet the challenges of disruptive technologies and VUCA environment. He stressed that there was much discussion in the press about the role of a business school. "From this point of view I consider that our today discussion about the model of the business school of the future is of particular significance," stated Sergey Myasoedov.

Tom Robinson, President, and CEO of the AACSB International gave major speeches at two panel discussions devoted to the сhanging role of the business schools in the 21st century and the Challenges of training business leaders in the context of emerging digital economy. He outlined the latest trends in business society and business education that affect business schools and the implications for business school models going forward. According to Tom Robinson, "what's going to become the most important for business schools is providing a life-long learning. Business schools have always been connected to the business community but in order to deliver life-long learning, they will have to become even more closely connected. What we would like to see is business schools working with business community jointly to deliver bigger opportunities."

Timothy Mescon, Senior Vice-President of AACSB and Chief Officer for the EMEA region acted as a moderator for the discussion on training digital economy leaders and for a special panel dedicated to Gender diversity in business and society as key to the success in the changing world. He pointed out many positive changes in the Russian business education environment: "In the conditions of the rapidly changing world, it's crucial to identify main trends and milestones that help to be prepared for future challenges. The Gaidar Forum is one of the major platforms that provide ground for such developments."

The expert discussion, How to Train Business Leaders of the Digital Economy, was held in two parts on January 17. The participants talked about the differences between the new generation of leaders and the previous ones, and how business schools should train leaders to meet the expectations of the professional community.

President of AACSB International Tom Robinson pointed out that in the future, the basic works in most professions will be automated, therefore the professions will change, and people will rise to a higher level of intelligence, thereby increasing labor productivity.

Dean of the Antwerp Management School Paul Matthyssens talked about his vision of a business leader in the digital economy, listing their main qualities and competencies.

The experts were unanimous that the modern world is changing dramatically, and new specialists are needed with a whole range of competences from various areas.

The participants also included Sergei Cheremin, Minister of the Government of Moscow, Head of the Moscow Department for External Economic and International Relations; Ruslan Vesterovsky, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank; Santiago Garcia, Dean of the Grenoble Graduate School of Business; RANEPA Vice-Rector Sergei Myasoyedov, Director of RANEPA Institute of Business Studies and President of RABE.

During the session, Gender Diversity in Business and Society as Key to the Success in the Changing World, organized by AACSB International and RANEPA IBS, the experts discussed important issues of forming an effective gender balance in a company. This issue has been on the business agenda for many years. According to research, women, and men differently assess the qualities of good leadership in the business environment, and their understanding of how these qualities should be used in practice leads to different leadership styles. Business schools can offer a solution that will help achieve the necessary gender balance.

The moderators, Timothy Mescon and HR expert of the International Olympic Committee Marina Pochinok, and experts identified ways and methods of using business education to strengthen positive gender diversity. Experts also discussed how this would help to cope with the challenges of the VUCA world.

The discussion was also attended by Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Director for Business and Commerce Development at Coca-Cola Russia; Irina Kibina, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Old Age for Joy charity fund; Alsu Akhmetshina, director of the Higher School of Business of Kazan Federal University; Yekaterina Shulman, political analyst, associate professor at RANEPA; Irina Zguralskaya, representative of RANEPA in France; and Danica Purg, President of CEEMAN, Dean of the IEDC School of Management (Slovenia).

Corporate responsibility and modern business leaders' contribution to sustainable development were the focus of two sessions, New Technologies, and Corporate Social Responsibility: How Business Schools Can Implement Principles for Responsible Management Education and Strategic Breakthrough Triangle: the Future of Corporate Programs.

During the first panel, it was noted that in Russia, as in many other countries in Eastern and Central Europe, business representatives have controversial ideas about the social responsibility concept. At the same time in business schools, the number of academic hours allocated for the relevant courses is steadily growing.

The participants included Jonas Haertle, head of the UN PRME initiative; RISEBA Business School Rector Irina Sennikova (Latvia), UN representative for the implementation of PRME principles in business schools in Eastern and Central Europe; Yevgenia Pashkevich, Deputy Dean of RANEPA IBS; CEO of AMBA International Andrew Main Wilson; Natalia Evtikhieva, CEO of NASDOBR, and other experts.

In their reports, the experts listed a number of cultural features of Eastern and Central European countries, which influence the assimilation of the CSR concept. They also proposed ways to narrow the gap between theory and practice of corporate social responsibility.

The expert discussion, Strategic Breakthrough Triangle: the Future of Corporate Programs, aimed to search for a new paradigm of an educational program and processes demanded by business. The program "Strategic breakthrough triangle (Institute of Business Studies RANEPA - Rosatom Corporate Academy): synergetic structure and new implementation algorithm" was presented at the session. The moderators, Yulia Uzhakina, General Director of Rosatom Corporate Academy and RANEPA Vice-Rector Sergei Myasoyedov, Director of RANEPA Institute of Business Studies, President of RABE, suggested ways to stimulate the process of innovation in state corporations, and identified the properties of a modern teaching program for leaders of high-tech companies.

The participants included Azer Talybov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development; Tatyana Terentyeva, HR Director, Human Resources Department at Rosatom; Alla Vuchkovich, Executive Director for Personnel and Social Policy at Roscosmos; Yelena Myakotnikova, Corporate Director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and other experts.

The final discussion of 2018 Gaidar Forum, MBA Programs in the Era of Disruptive Technologies, gathered representatives of different business schools who shared their vision of how teaching in the modern world should change considering the new challenges. The moderators were CEO of AMBA International Andrew Main Wilson and Ashot Seferyan, Director of the Executive MBA Program at RANEPA Institute of Business Studies. Wilson presented the results of the AMBA market research in Russia and compared them with similar data for Europe.

Partner of IMD Russia and the CIS (Lausanne) Valeria Pavlyukovskaya believes that "knowledge has become a perishable product." Ongoing training, development, and practice of new skills have become a daily routine, she added. MBA programs should focus on the students' understanding and knowledge of themselves, development of agile leadership, fostering of technologically advanced leaders, regardless of their educational experience.

The participants agreed that new skills are needed in the modern world. Flexible leaders must catch trends that are only being formed, or even predict them. They must trace similarities and be able to interpret events.

The discussion was attended by Blair Sheppard, Global Leader for PwC Strategy and Leadership Development; Konstantin Krotov, First Deputy Director of the Graduate School of Management at Saint Petersburg State University; Vyacheslav Romanov, President of the Wharton Alumni Association in Russia, and others.

All sessions on the problems of business education have shown that the issue of training business executives is very relevant. Constant and rapid changes in business and the general environment require a prompt and effective response and skilled decision-making. Leading business schools direct their efforts toward the development of these qualities in modern leaders.