Touro University

Nine high-ranking government officials from the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation will travel to Colorado this week to participate in final exams and to receive MBA degrees from Colorado State University. The students, who live in the capitol city of Kazan, participated in a unique, three-year program that combined online course delivery with live classes from College of Business faculty.

In addition to participating in graduation festivities, the group will visit businesses and government agencies, including Advanced Energy, Colorado Office of Economic Development, Russian Consulate and a meeting with Gov. Hickenlooper. They also will attend a series of short courses on strategy, human relations and public policy.

Russian MBA students visit MetroWest Daily News
Thirty students from Moscow State University are spending five days in an "American Business and Practices" program at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University with in class academics and on site visits. On Thursday they toured the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham.

Yeah,you can buy it)

While many English-speaking Russian MBA applicants look to enroll at international business schools outside of Russia, with globally popular MBA destinations in Western Europe and North America proving favorable, there are many locally renowned MBA programs on offer within the country.

Internationally, the best-known MBA program in Russia is that of SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management, rated one of the top 50 programs in Europe by MBA employers and recruiters in the QS Global 200 Top Business Schools Report for Europe. However, the vast majority of Russia’s MBA programs are focused toward nurturing local students to become the countries next business leaders.

As a result, business schools such as the Academy of National Economy under the Government of Russia, the Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg State University, Moscow International Higher Business School, and Moscow University Touro are seldom recognized outside of Russia for their MBA programs.

However, the MBA degree in Russia is still very well respected, and demand for MBA graduates in the country has increased dramatically in recent years, in part as a result of the expansion of Russia’s energy and finance sectors.

MBA jobs in Russia
While MBA recruitment in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe slowed considerably during the economic troubles of recent years, the MBA jobs market in Russia remained healthy, increasing by 22% during 2010/11, according to the QS TopMBA.com Jobs and Salary Trends Report.

Elizaveta Komolova, HR consultant with recruitment agency Morgan Hunt in Moscow explains that Russian companies “are looking to hire more and more MBAs compared to recent years. An MBA is becoming a default attribute of a successful manager.


“MBAs in Russia are expected to be more practice-orientated, have more structured knowledge and a broad business network. MBAs are known for their ability to think long-term and use their business contacts for the best.”

MBA salaries in Russia
Russian based MBA graduates can enjoy the largest average salaries in Central and Eastern Europe, with the QS TopMBA.com Jobs and Salary Trends Report revealing that local employers in Russia pay MBAs, on average US$70,300. Multinational employers pay an average of US$105,000 to MBA graduates in Russia, higher than average salaries in the traditional MBA career haunts of the USA, Canada and the UK.

Interestingly, Russian MBA applicants are amongst the most realistic around the world, as the average target salary expected by them, according to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2011 is closely aligned with the average compensation paid post-qualification. This expected salary represents a 166% increase from the average pre-MBA salary of US$36,470, as reported by Russia-based MBA applicants.

topmba.com

Since the fall of Berlin Wall (twenty years ago this month), Eastern Europe has represented a kind of frontier for entrepreneurs and multinational corporations. In the once Soviet-dominated bloc, the last two decades have brought sweeping political and economic change to countries like Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, some local business schools have emerged as enticing options for international MBA students seeking a quality education at a good value, as well as a potential foothold in the region.

Many of these schools are highly regarded internationally: 14 schools across Eastern Europe and Russia are accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), one of the main international accreditation organizations. Better still for students from abroad, a number of these institutions have started to offer MBA programs entirely in English.

International students can usually expect to pay substantially less for a business education in Eastern Europe than in the United States, Britain, or Western Europe. In Poland, for example, two of the country's most sought-after business schools - the Warsaw University of Technology Business School (WUT) and the Poznań University of Economics – offer MBA programs in the range of USD 11,000-14,000.

“The good MBA programs match those ones in Western Europe as far as the quality is concerned,” says WUT Professor Witold Orłowski, “while remaining much less expensive for students.”

But cost isn’t the only motivating factor. Tadeusz Kowalski, who teaches at Poznań University, says that students are coming to Eastern Europe for the international atmosphere. An MBA here, he says, “enables a foreigner not only to expand her or his knowledge and skills, but also to make friends and learn more about a specific business environment.”

Armen Avakian, an Armenian raised in the United States, would agree. After looking at MBA options in the US, he finally settled on the MBA program at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary.

“I just kind of fit in,” says Avakian. “It fit perfectly into what I was thinking at the moment, that business isn't just business anymore, especially in Europe, Eastern Europe, and emerging regions. Business is more global.”

If Avakian was looking for a global experience, that is exactly what he found in Budapest. In a group of only 25 students in his MBA class at CEU, 19 different nationalities were represented.

“It was amazing,” he says. “When an issue came up while we were talking about a subject or a case, you would get at least 19 different perspectives on the same exact problem.”

This globalized nature of business and business education has produced a vitality in the region that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the schools there.

According to Zbigniew Turowski, director of the WUT in Warsaw, ambitious international students will fit in well in Poland, where the business atmosphere drips with opportunity. A student coming to study in Poland, says Turowski, “immediately recognizes that he or she is in this young, very dedicated community which is interested in growing industries like information communication technology and bio-technology.”

Depending on their geographical and academic interests, there are MBA programs all over the region that appeal to international students. In Germany, there’s the Central European MBA, or CeMBA at ESCP in Berlin and the part-time MBA for Central and Eastern Europe at European University Viadrina, right on the Polish-German border.

In Slovenia, check out IEDC Bled’s well-known EMBA program. The Ukrainian school IIB, located in Kiev, offers an international MBA in partnership with the University of New Brunswick. And Vlerick Leuven, in St. Petersburg, offers a very highly regarded EMBA program.

All of these programs offer valuable insight into an economically vigorous region of the world. Indeed, the relative youth of the regional MBA scene coupled with an energetic economy has created opportunities for business schools to implement new and unique curricula. Julia Davis, an American, became interested in the SKOLKOVO program in Moscow after hearing about it from a friend.

“Everything I read about this school was very attractive to me,” she says. “I liked the fact that they were looking at new ways of teaching.”

The SKOLKOVO program is a 16-month program, of which only 5 months are spent in classrooms. The rest of the time includes an internship in a Russian public-private partnership, three months working in either China or India, and then three more months in a business in the United States.

After finishing her MBA, Davis is unsure whether she’ll stay in Russia. “I didn't come here with that decided,” she says, “so it will depend on the opportunities that I'll have after that's completed.”

According to Zbigeniew Turowski at WUT in Warsaw, many students come to study in the region to try and get traction in the emerging market. He says that Poland offers many growing industries that appeal to international students.

“Any sector they are interested in,” he says, “they can find a place to learn more about this sector.” He points to aerospace and ecological products as examples of strong industries that international students are attracted to.

Armen Avakian originally wanted to go to Armenia after his MBA at CEU to work in a family business, but those plans changed once he was offered a job in Budapest evenbefore he graduated.

Now, when asked for his impressions of the program and of Budapest, Avakian says it’s the place for those looking for challenges, experiences, and opportunities. It some senses, Hungary – like the rest of the region – is still a frontier.

“You have to be a bit more of the adventurous type,” he says. “If you just want to go to a Wall Street firm and make 500,000 dollars a year and sit in your office, then this is not your place.”

infrmation by find-mba

From the Boardroom to the Dinner Table: MBAs and the Family Business
How business school can help students meet the unique challenges of family enterprises
By M. Filtz, Mar 21, 2012

1
When Ben Grossman received his MBA from Columbia Business School in 2006, he faced a tough decision: he could either take a lucrative full-time job at Goldman-Sachs or go work for his family's business.

He opted for the latter.

“I was most passionate about going to work with my family - working with my brother and my dad,” says Grossman, now the co-president of Grossman Marketing Group, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1910.

Grossman is not alone. Recent studies have shown that family businesses may account for at least a third of the United States' annual GDP; and they may employ at least a quarter of its workforce. For many sons and daughters of family business leaders, as well as non-related executives working in those enterprises, family business is big business.

But they can pose some unique challenges, especially if you're part of the family.

“If you're coming on as the next generation, you're going to be looked at differently, and you need to be conscious of that,” says Grossman. “You need to work really hard not to take anything for granted. ”

And the stakes can be higher in businesses run by your family, according to Parimal Merchant, the director of the Centre for Family Managed Business at the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research.

“A normal MBA is prepared to work in a company and make decisions,” says Merchant, “and if something goes wrong, he can resign and join another company.”

“But in a family business, if I make a decision and something goes wrong, then I have to face the music,” both in the business and potentially at home.

Some MBA programs have specialized curriculum options and other resources that meet the particular needs and challenges of students working in family enterprises. For example, UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, through its Family Enterprise Center, offers two courses designed specifically for students working in – or planning to work in – family-run businesses. These courses cover specific issues like governance, succession, and the overall evolution of a family business.

The center's co-founder and director, Cooper Biersach, says that these courses and other resources “help students synthesize what they're learning in other classes with a family business perspective,” sort of as a way to tailor the b-school experience for their specific needs.

Communication skills, for instance, can be developed in general leadership and other classes, but being able to communicate effectively with family members in a business environment can be challenging. According to Ben Grossman, with family, sometimes “you might act differently than you do in the outside world just because they know you best.”

And this familiarity can complicate business relationships. S.P. Jain's Parimal Merchant notes that this complexity can be further compounded by generational differences.

“The thinking is different,” Merchant says, “the speed of working is different, so they have to learn to appreciate each other.”

Unique challenges

When Grossman was at Columbia, there were no courses specifically designed for family business management (Columbia launched a specialized curriculum in 2007). However, Grossman has found that his MBA and his experience working for other, non-family run organizations provided invaluable perspective, as well as many of the qualities that have allowed him to excel in his family business.

“Being successful in a business – family or not family – requires a lot of the same skills,” he says. “You need to be a good listener, you need to be willing to work hard, you need to be creative, you need to be a good team member.”

But Grossman also notes some unique challenges: “In a family business, you need to be able to work well with family and make successful transitions from the boardroom to the dinner table.”

To achieve this kind of success, many programs encourage practical application of the business concepts directly into students' family businesses. Students in S.P Jain's Family Managed Business program, for example, only meet for classes one week a month. The rest of the time, they're working.

According to Parimal Merchant, this allows students to learn the material and apply it immediately, so that they finish the program with “a good understanding of management practices, and at the same time they have a good understanding of their family's business.”

Likewise, UNC's Biersach finds that students, almost immediately, start thinking about how to practically apply business school concepts to their businesses. Once students get to know each other through the family business courses, they'll often meet after their more general courses – like a marketing class, for instance – and ask each other, “how are you going to implement this in your family business?"

Indeed, Ben Grossman says that his Columbia experience has proved to be very practical. “There have been meetings where I've literally brought in my three-ring binder from class,” he says. “There are very relevant case studies, where the learnings are very applicable to that exact situation.”

Along with the relevant skills he picked up in school, Grossman credits having a close relationship with his brother – the company's other co-president – as one of the primary reasons for his company's continued success, even through a tough economic climate.

“I can't imagine having gone through the last few years without my brother,” he says. “You can't really put a price or a value on that, but I'm very lucky that I get to work with him everyday.”

http://www.find-mba.com/article/582/from-the-boardroom-to-the-dinner-table-mbas-and-the-family-business

The Business of Tech: MBA Programs in Information Technology
How an MBA program with an IT focus can help tackle emerging needs
By M. Filtz, Apr 23, 2012

1
Cloud computing. E-commerce. Mobile apps. IT is big business, and it looks like it will stay that way for some time to come.

IT-related industries like social media, game development, and even online eyeglasses sales are some of the fastest-growing worldwide. According to the US Department of Labor, the IT sector is expected to continue to add jobs, outpacing most other industries.

So, how can an MBA program help address these growing needs?

For those who already have a tech background, doing an MBA can provide a business perspective beyond day-to-day IT operations. For example, Many students begin the Management Information Systems MBA program at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business with one single technology-oriented area of expertise, such as software development.

According to Richard Franklin, who teaches on the program, the MBA helps students “get more breadth.” Not only do they “become more literate and aware of what's going on in other areas,” the program gives them the opportunity to focus on other functional areas as well, such as marketing or finance.

This combination of technical experience and a managerial skillset can be a huge career asset. Knowledge of technology is nice, but a wider understanding of the potential applications of that technology is what drives innovation and strategy at successful companies – tech-oriented or otherwise – around the world.

But a technical expertise is not required for a specialized program. At Temple University, cohorts on the Fox School of Business's information technology management (ITM) MBA concentration are a mix of students with and without technical experience. Both types of students can benefit, according to David Schuff, an associate professor in Fox's MIS department.

“You have people with a more technical background who want to advance in the current job they're in,” says Schuff. “And then people who don't have as much of a technical background are being increasingly put into positions where they have to interface with technology people.”

For those without a background in technology who want to quickly get up to speed on the nuts and bolts, there are other education options beyond an MBA. For example, Georgia State's Robinson College of Business offers a one-year Master of Science in Information Systems, which combines a basic business curriculum with more specialized courses in topics like telecommunications design and database management.

According to Ephraim McLean, director of Robinson's Center for Research in Information Systems, this kind of program is designed for “an accountant or even a history major,” who might say, “I missed the IT boat. I'm not in computing. Can I get into it?”

In many cases, technology-focused MBA programs explore technological topics through the use of real-world examples and hands-on, practical activities. McLean says that every one of Robinson's IT courses has a “field project or internship component.”

At Temple, David Schuff tries to find current, relevant angles so that students can better relate to complex or abstract subjects. For example, in a data analytics course last year, he introduced the recent film Moneyball as a discussion topic. The film documents how one baseball executive used often-ignored statistics to assemble a winning team, and immediately prompted students to wonder if the same couldn't be done inside of their own companies.

According to Schuff, they starting asking themselves, “what are the key components of a good employee, and can they be quantified in the same way that performance indicators of a good baseball player can be quantified? It crosses ethical issues with analytics issues.”

Keeping up

Data analytics – along with social media, mobile technology, and a range of other fields – represents one of many emerging topics that many businesses are increasingly facing today. Even in the wake of the tech bubble crash and elevated fears of outsourcing, the need for skilled managers with IT acumen persists.

“Basically, business runs on IT,” Katz's Richard Franklin says.

Franklin sees a need for tech-trained executives from an increasingly varied assortment of industries and specialities. It's not just about marketing people getting interested in e-commerce or mobile sales, he says, but also an emergent need for IT skills in the data-heavy financial services industry.

“Someone who has been working in the servicing side of financial services might not have any IT background at all, but sees how important it is,” says Franklin.

David Schuff similarly sees a growing demand for IT professionals in the healthcare industry. Temple Fox shares some of its core technology and information services courses with the health care information management program in Temple's College of Health Professions.

“How do you get an electronic health data record in a portable format?,” asks Schuff. “How do you efficiently move a patient through the system? It's a really interesting set of technology problems.”

These challenges speak to today's rapidly-changing IT environment, and what businesses may face in the future. But keeping up is also a challenge for business schools, too.

Katz's Richard Franklin says that each year, he is forced to “throw out” 25-30 percent of the content in the e-commerce course that he teaches.

“Is that a challenge?,” he asks rhetorically. “Yeah, but it's also fun.”

http://www.find-mba.com/article/589/the-business-of-tech-mba-programs-in-information-technology