Executive MBA students of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) received their diplomas at the solemn ceremony on February 10. The graduation theses completed by company executives — participants of the program — are based on real projects that are going to be implemented soon. 

"Transformation of my approach to certain business cases in operation activity has become the main learning outcome. Now I have much more tools in cases where I could find only one or two solutions, and some events have a completely different meaning for me", — Dmitry Tsvetkov, ExpoForum-Design CEO, shared his impressions. — "The topic of our  final group project is "Development and Adaptation Paths for ExpoForum International in Today's Challenging Environment". The project is innovative as it is aimed at the development of alternative growth strategies for the group of companies and implementation of the financial model for the centralization of convention and exhibition events based on a non-profit organization created together with the city government. A report for stakeholders and a suggestion to the administration were prepared based on the results of the work. Implementation of the project will be possible after it has been approved by the founders and accepted at the session of the Government of Saint Petersburg, and after all the necessary legal and budget procedures have been completed.

The authors believe that creation of a non-profit organization will help to solve the challenges Saint Petersburg is facing related to the development, promotion and transparency improvement of events. The students have calculated that this will allow to increase the contribution of business tourism in Saint Petersburg's GRP by 3%, reduce expenses on events by 30%, create material and technical resource base costing 1 billion rubles without additional investments from the treasury, increase the city's investment potential by 11% and increase the tourist traffic up to 10.5 million people.

Another outstanding final project is "Enhancement of marketing activities of Praxair Volgograd in the industrial gas market of the Southern Federal District". The company produces oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen and other gasses. Until 2022 the organization was part of Praxair, an American company. In 2022 it left the Russian market, and Praxair Volgograd became an independent company. Thus, the management found themselves facing the challenge to start a rapid development in the district and search for new partners and customers — there was no need to actively develop in the domestic market before. During the learning process, the students managed to develop a new marketing strategy using approaches that are not typical for the industrial gas market.

"We interviewed the clients and found out that there's a demand for digital technologies, as people started to trust these channels long ago. We would like to use them to share how to apply the gasses we produce and how to increase the profit of a business using them. For example, a fruit and berry farm that enters the market at the same time with other similar enterprises has to sell the products at the same price, because the season is the same for all of them. Or the farm could use the technology of atmosphere packaging to keep the berries fresh longer, enter the market a month later and set another price for the product. Thus, the costs for implementation of industrial gas application technology will be covered by the price of the product. The same works for other industries: fish farming, metal production and so on. We can invite expert influencers to talk about these possibilities and attract new audiences and new clients who don't even know such technologies exist", says Dmitry Osmankin, Sales Director at Linde Gas Rus.

Executive  МВА students believe that the main learning result is the opportunity to fill in the knowledge gaps, organize the knowledge they already possess and broaden their horizons in business. Thanks to insightful work with the professors, the students began using more analytical approaches and analyzing the market deeper. Another important result is networking.

"In contrast to common programs, GSOM SPbU Executive MBA is usually chosen not only by successful business leaders, but also by those who understand the need to acquire new knowledge and skills and, most importantly, those who are able to combine learning with their activities and successfully complete it. Being in such a great team makes any tasks and challenges easily solvable! GSOM SPbU professors played the key part in drafting of the project and application of analysis and strategic management methods. I would like to express special gratitude to Olga Rafailovna Verkhovskaya for helping to organize the knowledge, Yulia Borisovna Ilina for academic advising, Vasiliy Konstantinovich Dermanov for the opportunity to see the global trends being inside of them. And, of course, to Sergey Georgievich Voronkov, ExpoForum International CEO, for his help at each step, openness in providing information and opportunity to develop real recommendations with positive effects for the whole convention and exhibition industry of Saint Petersburg and for our group of companies in particular," — noted Dmitry Tsvetkov, ExpoForum-Design CEO.

Three top managers of large companies and 12 CEOs and business owners completed Executive MBA-2023. They represent such spheres as IT, industry, logistics, wholesale trade, healthcare, tourism, science, restaurant business and exhibition activities. Four of them were promoted already during the studies.

GALLERY