On April 9, University staff and faculty participated in meetings with the Adviser to the Director General for Innovation Development of Aeroflot Andrey Polozov-Yablonsky. Meetings were held at GSOM SPbU campus at Volkhovskiy 3 and at the Faculty of Sociology. Participants discussed the cooperation of the air carrier with SPbU research groups.

 

Graduate School of Management was represented by: the Head of School Konstantin V. Krotov, Professor of the Marketing Department Vitaly I. Cherenkov, Associate Professor of the Operations Management Department Yuri V. Fedotov and Assistant Professor of the Information Technologies in Management Department Evgeny Yu. Blagov.

 

During the meeting at the Faculty of Sociology, Vitaly I. Cherenkov and Evgeny Yu. Blagov presented their vision of the cooperation with Aeroflot. One of Vitaly I. Cherenkov's proposals was about marketing audit. According to the professor, GSOM SPbU researchers were able to discover new directions in marketing audit. “This is competitive marketing intelligence, which allows to see the actions of major competitors and to outline your own ones, corporate sustainability exploring, innovation forecast, and advanced SWOT analysis,” Vitaly I. Cherenkov explained.

 

 Vitaly I. Cherenkov presents proposals for cooperation with Aeroflot

 

Moreover professor suggested that Aeroflot carry out work on obtaining B Corporation Certificate. This is evidence that the company operates in accordance with certain criteria of social and environmental performance. “There are special metrics how to get B title. We know at least five,” said GSOM SPbU representative. Also Vitaly I. Cherenkov's proposals related to neuroscience, neuromarketing and the development of unmanned aerial vehicle in the Arctic.

 

According to Vitaly I. Cherenkov, it is important to work together. “Returning to the audit, I want to say that I issued two dissertations on audit, and we were convinced that neither internal audit nor external solves the problem, but only the united teams allow us to combine the advantages of both methods and level the shortcomings. Therefore, combining the GSOM SPbU and Aeroflot competencies should give a synergistic effect,” concluded professor.

 

Evgeny Yu. Blagov talks about the capabilities of Information Technologies in Management Department

 

Evgeny Yu. Blagov told about the competencies of the Information Technologies in Management Department and proposed to involve students in joint projects. One of the topics that the department could deal with is the development and testing of a comparative analysis methodology for the level of innovative development of Aeroflot.

 

In addition to GSOM SPbU, the Department of Computer Modelling and Multiprocessor Systems, Computer science Department and World economy Department proposed their vision of cooperation. After the discussion, a closed meeting between representatives of Aeroflot company and SPbU administration was held.