“If you want to thrive in today's economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed”. Robert Kiyosaki
Today when I see the stock market's ups and downs my stomach churn and I know I am not alone as market fluctuations are a natural phenomenon. It is important to understand them and if you or your company has a sound financial plan you can easily track the period of market volatility and reason for it.
During my MBA days just a few words Finance, stock market or bonds would send a chill down my spine. I was very worried that I would fail the module. When our module started, I remember how our teacher Prof. Forgan said “Money comes in and money goes out”. I was thinking on that aspect and Dr Dunhill asked what I was doing and spontaneously I said thinking. She told me to open the books and look at the formulas as only thinking will not help me to understand Finance. I am grateful to my teachers and I learnt finance by involving myself more with numbers.
The Pan-Asian finance session started with Simulation game A&O (Apples and Oranges) with a great financial expert Konstantin Orlov. The students had a real financial world experience with immersive learning. Our business school is aware that students with a non-financial background may struggle to keep up if they don’t quickly acquire a working knowledge of finance so simulation can work well. We don’t replace the learning the faculty provides–we power-start the learning by providing a holistic visual understanding of Finance which becomes memorable and a strong sense of empowerment comes from these gamifications.
During this session our students had wonderful master classes from Oleg Rogalev, Global Vice President Finance, The SOUL Publishing, Cyprus with an interesting topic- “Empowering Media Innovators: Navigating the Financial Landscape of the Creator Economy”. Discussion on cryptocurrency was very interesting.
We also invited speakers Sujatha Rajagopal & Venkatasubramanian Rajagopalan, Directors, Rusfor (S) Pte Ltd. from Indian business with strong financial background. They covered the topic – “EXIM business between India and Russia in these challenging times covering sanctions, logistics and payments”. They shared their timber business experience and payment structure in this geo-political situation. Very good discussion took place during the experience sharing session.
The next day our guest speaker Sujatha Rajgopal had sent me a message which I am proud to share “I walked into the Pan- Asian MBA class quite skeptical about the response I would elicit. I had come to share my experience of the impact of the geopolitical situation on Russia’s Economy and India-Russia relationship. ‘After all,’, I thought ‘they aren’t students in the strict sense of the word, each one operating in the same Economy as I’. Besides, I had come in on a Sunday evening after a Finance module and what are the odds that they are bright and active? Well, I must admit I was taken by surprise, they not only warmed up to me, but also started actively participating in the discussion. So much so, that we started comparing notes on challenges our businesses were facing. Also, they were curious about the Indian economy and attitude of Indian people related to International trade. In all, a very rewarding and refreshing experience!”
Our Pan-Asian MBA students are always on wheels and we decided to have an educational field visit to company Karcher. Our student Alexey Krishenko, sales director for Karcher organized this visit for his peers.
The founder of the company Alfred Karcher invariably strived to find new, increasingly better solutions for every problem. This innovative focus has continued to this day which was very impressive to see. We could see the modern sustainable business of the company which contributes to a cleaner world as cleanliness is next to godliness. Today, Karcher is not just a recognizable brand, but also one of the largest foreign companies that continues to expand in Russia along with 80 countries. In Russia there are 13 own stores, as well as service centers and other facilities.
As any good business school, we pay attention to career and leadership journey of our students by equipping them with soft skills.
Karina Basharova a renowned coach covered the topics on leadership: Leading self; leading teams; leading change; leading innovation. Design thinking design which is a people-centered, cyclical approach to innovative problem-solving was covered by Nikolai Goreli. It is an umbrella approach to origination that integrates a range of mindsets, processes and tools, with the aim of multifaceted problem solving.
Just getting back to the financial track once again I want to say that the basic financial concepts are based on microeconomic and macroeconomic theories. Your money mindset affects your financial decisions and how you set your goals and priorities. Carry out calculations with numbers and they are yours!
STAY TUNED WITH US AND SEE YOU IN MARCH………………………………
Dr. Mitali Mittra
The Pan-Asian MBA students Response
Shakhov Evgeniy, Deputy Sales Director, LLC “Webinar Technologies”
The first day of the module began by meeting the excellent speaker Konstantin Orlov, whose simulation course in one day taught us how to prepare a profit and loss statement and helped us build the basis for the entire module dedicated to corporate finance.
The second day of the module replenished the knowledge base of the Pan Asian MBA module students with useful information about how the Internet content market works; Oleg Rogalev’s presentation “The SOUL Publishing” caused a heated debate amongst the audience.
Ilya Pokamestov's lectures on financial management were especially noted by the audience for the original presentation of the material.
During the module, we also met our Indian colleagues Sujatha Rajgopala and Venkatsubramanian Rajgopalan (Directors, Rusfor (S) Pte Ltd) who “opened our eyes” to the peculiarities and nuances of doing business with companies from India.
And at the end of the module, we had a truly outstanding coaching session from Karina Basharova (Executive Master Coach MCC) where we learned the basics of leadership, as well as to hear and understand each other through an exciting business game for 20 people from completely different companies and positions.
Galina Vorontsova, International Marketing Manager, BIOCAD
The Finance module was very rich and consisted not only of sessions on the basics of finance and principles of company cash management, but also master classes, a visit to the Kärcher company and a career and leadership journey session.
On the first day of the module, we looked at the work of a manufacturing company through the eyes of a financial manager through a unique simulation game “Apples & Oranges” ®️.
At the evening master classes, we met with financiers from India (Sujatha Rajgopal & Venkatasubramanian Rajagopalan), who have been working in Russia for a long time, and talked about the difficulties and ways to overcome them in the new realities.
Our fellow student Alexey Kryshchenko helped organize the visit to Kärcher. We visited four locations of the company, met with the financial director of the Russian division, and even tested Kärcher equipment in practice which was amazing.
The last day of the module was dedicated to developing soft skills such as leadership, teaching others and working in a team. Divided into groups, we tried to develop a new product for a specific target category and present it to the audience.
The module ended with a group business game, the main idea of which was a coordinated solution to a common problem - using 21 cards to build a path from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the heights of space. The game gave huge emotions, taught us to communicate and listen to each other, and trust the team.
Alexey Kryshchenko, Sales Director, Karcher
For me, the financial module turned out to be the most interesting of all. This is partly due to the fact that I often use P&L reports in my work, or maybe because in my past education, mathematics and probability theory were my favorite subjects.
The module consisted of several logical parts: on the first day, Konstantin Orlov introduced us to the main forms of financial reporting: balance sheet, and income and expense report, and also conducted a financial simulation in the form of a team game. Separately, I would like to note the combined approach to training during face-to-face sessions. Since the work schedule of some group members falls on face-to-face modules, everyone has the opportunity to connect online, and even if for some reason this is not possible, each lesson is recorded separately and can be viewed in the recording at a convenient time. My first day was held online, which allowed me to combine both the educational process and a work meeting.
The second part of the module was devoted to financial management, which Ilya Pokamestov introduced us to. Although mastering financial management in two days can be considered a very ambitious task, Ilya managed to give the fundamental principles on which financial analysis is based. For me personally, after his lecture, there was a desire to study the subject in depth separately, because in my opinion, without this knowledge, it is impossible to aspire to senior management positions in modern reality. Theoretical knowledge was complemented by the best practices of guest speakers from Russia and India, which together creates an overall picture of how finance plays a decisive role in the life of any company.
As part of the module, a visit to one of the international companies was also organized, but since I personally took part in organizing this meeting, I will omit the details and just say that I’m looking forward to visiting the companies of our module participants and looking at well-known companies from the inside.
The module was completed by Karina Basharova with a practical session on leadership as a part of soft skills session. Knowledge in this area is an integral part of my daily work. The most memorable thing for me was the author’s team game “moving up”. I will definitely hold a similar game with my team and I’m sure Karina will help us with organization and practical material.
