On Wednesday night, December 14, International Institute of Management (MIM) summed up the results of the past year, as always, elegant and in democratic spirit in presence of respectable guests and members of the Supervisory Board. It has become a good tradition of MIM, as well as regular victories in the International business game “Global Management Game” gained by MIM students and high positions in Top-100 of most efficient and best-paid managers in Ukraine.
The year 2011, as confirmed during the welcoming speech of Vitalii Haiduk, member of the Supervisory Board of MIM-Kyiv, Ukrainian businessman, and social activist, was successful for the Institute. In support of the abovementioned, the president of MIM Iryna Tykhomyrova said it became known that MIM received international reaccreditation for another six years. According to rating agency Eduniversal, MIM-Kyiv became one of the top 1,000 business schools of the world and the position of the Ukrainian business school is not somewhere towards the end, and even not in the middle, but on the 158th place.
MIM’s permanently high standards, as the time shows, does not depend on either economic situation, nor on the political “weather.” Many Ukrainians could use the philosophy with which people in MIM deal with difficulties. For example, the introduction of value-added tax, which practically meant the trip for business education in Ukraine, MIM perceived not as a catastrophe, which would mean that they had to give up, but as a challenge of setting a new higher plank. “Now we have to work better. In order not to let this innovation have an impact on us, we will offer new products, will work more to attract new students,” said Iryna TYKHOMYROVA, president of the MIM-Kyiv in her interview to The Day. This is the way students and staff of MIM perceive virtually all difficulties – as if they are new challenges, which will bring new experience, make you stronger and more enduring, and, thus, more competitive.
They understand that in the conditions of the present world that is changing so rapidly you should act according to the advice given by Lewis Carroll in his Through the Looking-Glass: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” Students of MIM like to say that today leader is not the one standing on the top, but the one who keeps going forward.
In MIM success is measured not by rankings or financial performance but by achievements of its graduates. Thus, they are very proud of the fact that in 2011 25 graduates of MIM-Kyiv joined the Top-100 Best Managers of Ukraine according to the publishing house Ekonomika and they hope that soon all 100 positions of the top ranking will be taken by their graduates.
COMMENTARIES
Yurii LOHUSH, vice president of Public JSC Myronivsky Khliboprodukt, member of the Supervisory Board of MIM-Kyiv:
“We remember MIM since 1988, when it was just emerging. It was during the Soviet times, state government, socialist property, and absence of markets.
“After hard work that lasted 22 years MIM begins to gain success and recognition along with it. Such a high position in an international ranking is sign of recognition. It means that MIM finally gets its place in world science. Totally new chapter of business scientific disciplines is being now written on new markets, on markets that are developing. Those markets are very dynamic. The technology of stable markets will no longer work here. One has to be very resourceful and willing to master new technologies.
“MIM is the place, where progress takes place. Just like in physics they have a collider, in economics and business there is their own collider. In my opinion, with the time attention of the scientific world will be more and more focused on this kind of market. MIM in this situation in this environment will only strengthen its positions.
“Many Ukrainian universities now train specialists for the world, which has already passed, and we are preparing professionals for the world that is still ahead of us. Today, among the hundred of top managers of Ukraine there are 25 graduates of MIM. I am certain that this number will grow. We will facilitate the creation of an icebreaker that will raise the economy of Ukraine from the crisis and will lead Ukraine to top positions.”
Sviatoslav VAKARCHUK, musician, social activist, member of the Supervisory Board of MIM-Kyiv:
“It is very nice to be in the community of people who think, who go forward, who learn and who teach. I several times have had an opportunity to speak at the meetings held in MIM. Every time, when I thanked Iryna Tykhomyrova for such an opportunity, I asked her to invite me more often. At meetings like that I learn a lot for myself.
“Another important and positive peculiarity of MIM is that its community is very well-consolidated. These are people who do not simple study together, they all are good friends. I know well how close the MIM graduates are with each other. It inspires respect and admiration.”
Oleksandr BUBEN, CEO of Public JSC Prykarpattiaoblenerho, graduate of MIM-Kyiv:
“There are two reasons that motivate people to learn. First, it is when a person feels that he has ‘gaps’ that need to be filled. Second is the desire to change one’s views on some event or function. Those two things became key factors for me and thanks to them I decided to study at MIM-Kyiv.
“Of course, there is also the third reason, which encourages young people to enter a university – it is receiving a diploma. A person wants to have a prestigious diploma and that’s why he chooses a prestigious school. However, I believe that among MIM students there are none at all or maybe only very very few of those who fall into the category of such people, who study only for the diploma.
“I have set a pretty serious pace for my team and soon realized that we began to communicate in different languages. For some reason they failed to understand me. I would get angry at this. That is why the first step in solving this problem became the decision to send them to training so that we could speak about same thing on the same level. Besides, we have corporate standards, aspiration for our employees to qualify for the demands of the new markets. That is why we sent our top managers to study at MIM. I am very pleased with the results.
“Moreover, we managed to organize comfortable conditions for studying both for the employees and for the entire enterprise. After all, it is at least quite risky to take all the ‘tops’ and send them from Ivano-Frankivsk to Kyiv. That is why we developed distance learning system together with MIM. There is equipment that allows MIM to support such initiatives and aspirations of businesses that set high standards for themselves in their development.
“Our task was self-development. Summing up the results of the year according to this criterion, I can say that we succeeded a lot in this direction. I couldn’t expect that we would achieve such a good performance at once.”
Vitalii Haiduk, public figure, member of the Supervisory Board of MIM-Kyiv:
“I am very pleased that MIM’s progress and the pace that we gained continues and produces such good results. Thanks to our MIM community and, primarily, to the Institute’s administration this year we received continuation of international accreditation, for the first time we gained really high recognition on the international arena. It could seem that 158th position in the ranking is not so high, but given that we are 158th in 1,000 best business schools of the world, it makes a huge difference. One should look at names of the schools that stand close to us in this list. Many schools that are respected in the world still remain behind MIM.
