Olga K. Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, Director of the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg State University (GSOM SPbU), in the segment on the VC.ru portal talked about working in Teams, launching a chatbot and online teamwork rituals. 

In the segment, Olga Dergunova noted that an online interaction format helped to increase the involvement of colleagues in some activities, and had not become a problem even for the older generation of faculty. “Every day, in one connection or another, we held a discussion of all emerging issues. We maintained and even strengthened the team spirit. The online format has helped increase the involvement of colleagues in some activities. For example, the club for the promotion of the exchange of pedagogical experience — the Knowledge café, in which no more than 20 people used to participate offline, now collects the whole faculty — about 80 professors. ” said Director of GSOM SPbU. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, all classes at GSOM SPbU's main educational programs have been conducted in an online format based on MS Teams. To create additional connection within the GSOM Family community, the Random Coffee chatbot was launched. For three weeks, almost 150 people from different cities of Russia, as well as Paris, London, Hamburg, Berlin, Rotterdam, Tallinn and Minsk, discussed their studies, careers, work in startups and corporations.