MIM-Kyiv Business school’s unconventional ideas have often attracted The Day’s professional interest. The editors have been closely following events at MIM, and were recently invited to attend a ceremonious session of its business club. MIM-Kyiv graduates have weathered the economic storm over the past several year only because they had the right kind of knowledge and the ability to adjust to new circumstances. Anyway, that was the tune set by the emcees of the business club’s ceremonious session MIM-Kyiv ‘10. The past year has been rich in important events in Ukraine and abroad, with the economic environment becoming increasingly aggressive. Yet this appears to have had a positive effect on MIM-Kyiv, with its graduates remaining among the best in Ukraine and abroad. The Day has stressed for several years, under the motto “All Enroll in Business School!”, that we should get over the “wild capitalist” system and gradually learn how to do normal business. Last year, during a similar MIM-Kyiv session, The Day asked how long it would take to have an adequate business elite and sociopolitical changes. Their answer was that the process was underway, even if one could not see it with the naked eye. This year the editors have been happy to note its presence.
Over the past year the MIM community has become quite popular. I refer here to its website, my.mim.kiev.ua, where graduates, students, and lecturers can exchange ideas, job placement info, and business plans. The MIM community has grown stronger, as evidenced by the latest ceremonial session, where the formal part had to wait while those present maintained a lively exchange over glasses of wine. In fact, such solidarity demands quite some organizational effort — as is best known by MIM-Kyiv’s administration, headed by President Iryna Tykhomyrova. The main reason seems to be the need to rally around true values, against the backdrop of the current unfavorable business climate. Hence MIM-Kyiv’s new “intellectual cafe” feedback format. The first session took place with The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna in attendance.
“Previously it was important to know who, rather than what, noted the emcees of the Global Management Game; currently, both were important, considering that the MIM players were close to being named in the Top Five. This year, 19 MIM-Kyiv graduates are listed among Ukraine’s top business managers by the Ekonomika publishers. Obviously, this result has to do with training in the business and humanitarian fields.
“You are remarkably strong, stronger by far than we were at your age. The rankings show that you are sufficiently successful, so the question is, whether you actually need MIM. The answer is that you do, that you need it and that the MIM community needs you, [it is a place] where you can discuss the turbulent and quiet aspects, and art… We’re creating the environment in which we can keep moving forward,” said Vitalii Haiduk, Ukrainian businessman, philanthropist, member of MIM-Kyiv’s supervisory board.
MIM-Kyiv students are taught a new way of thinking, and also how to develop a strategic project while being directly involved, although when I asked whether they thought they were part of Project Ukraine, all answered in the negative. They believe that Ukraine is a continuous process rather than project, with all its pluses and minuses. “Each project has a beginning and end. It’s true that quite a few people in my Ukraine treat it as a project in which they can implement their ambitions, get the best out of it, then walk away. I’ll never adopt this attitude. To me, Ukraine isn’t a project; it is my home country,” says Serhii Shevliakov, MIM-Kyiv student and Global Management Game player.
MORALE AND ETHICS HAVE TO YIELD GOOD RESULTS
Vasyl SMETANIN, MIM-Kyiv graduate ‘11, Global Management Game winner:
“I think that we have come very close to the formation of a new business elite; MIM keeps working on it; new programs are launched, with new managers trained in every sphere. I also believe that changes for the better will soon be made in the business environment and in our state. MIM graduates are adding moral and ethic principles to business, as well as progressive managerial standards. This is sure to yield good results.”
UKRAINE IS A PROCESS, NOT A PROJECT
Serhii SHEVLIAKOV, MIM-Kyiv graduate ‘11, president, Global Management Game team:
“I don’t see Ukraine as a project, for a project has its beginning and end. I’d rather describe Ukraine as a business process. Everyone who enrolls in MIM-Kyiv wants to be a member of this process, learn to manage it, and above all, understand what this process is all about. My term of practice in Hon Kong this year led me to what could be described as a banal assumption, although I think it is very important: our world is meant for the man in the street, so I would like Ukraine to be that way, unlike what I read on some posters (e.g., “Ukraine Is For The People!”). I have never seen such slogans abroad, for this goes without saying. I wish Ukraine were that way; we must start by working to improve the domestic situation, using our teams and companies, so as to have human dignity in the first place.”
QUIET AND UNCOMPROMISING CONFIDENCE IN THE MORROW
Yurii MARTYNIUK, vice president, MIM-Kyiv:
“The Global Management Game is a very interesting project, in a number of ways. Self-made people apply for enrollment, who started as rank and file, then went up the ladder, all the way from departmental heads to company managers. They come here and have to make many changes in their daily lives; they become members of a small team and have to take orders from the team leader. Their training turns into real life, they experience personal confrontations and have to adjust to the new environment. This game lasts for six months and they have to make responsible decisions every week. This way they learn to hear others’ points of view and upgrade their professional capacity.
“Peter Drucker wrote in The Practice of Management (1954): ‘A manager sets objectives… A manager organizes… A manager motivates and communicates… A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures… A manager develops people.’
“I know 90 percent of our graduates personally. They achieve success and pay for their children to receive a quality education in Ukraine. This means that they count on our country and believe in its future. In other words, they believe that their children will find living in this country sufficiently comfortable. Apart from knowledge, there is also faith. Immanuel Kant wrote: “I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.” In my country people have held their beliefs for hundreds of years. Today’s business elite, well-to-do and cautious, isn’t much different. My daughter is among those with certificates. She has a worldview that absolutely differs from mine, a man who was born and raised under the Soviets. Hers is largely cosmopolitan. Her office is in Kyiv, but her customers are in Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, and in the West. Hers is a calm belief in Ukraine’s better future. Among these young people there appears to be a growing understanding of their country and their role in it.”
UKRAINE NEEDS EXPERTS WHO CAN SEE AND BALANCE ALL PROJECTS
Olha ROVDA, MIM-Kyiv graduate ‘11, president of Global Management Game team:
“The new-generation managers are trained to concentrate on the project at hand rather than building their own image. To yield practical results, they need adequate rules of the game. There is the big problem of the absence of such rules that allow such managers to implement their potential in Ukraine. We’re working on a number of projects in Ukraine, not on a global scale. There will be a major breakthrough after it becomes obvious that all such projects have to be united to raise this country to a higher level. We have enough national talent and to spare, but we keep to small teams that play their games in a given sphere. I am also a trained physician, so let me give you an example: it helps solve difficult cases when you know more than your medical school’s major. The same is true of the economy. We’re trying to solve separate problems without understanding that they are interrelated. We need experts who can see and balance all projects.”
SHOWING PROGRESS
Dmytro PILTIAI, MIM-Kyiv graduate ‘03; DBA 2010-11 Program student; one of the top managers by Ekonomika publishers’ rankings; director general, Dell Ukraina:
“I think this year marks a breakthrough in our business. Last year I commented on Ukraine’s absolutely unpredictable vertical of command and the resultant chaos. Today, the positive factor is that this vertical has been finally brought to order, all the way. I guess this is one of the reasons my business has been sending positive signals this year; my company has been showing better progress than the rest of the market. We were all the way down with the IT market during the crisis, but our company’s young, innovative, ambitious, charismatic leadership led the way to success. In fact, our management team proves to be far more dynamic than many others I can think of.”
