Russian marketing and advertising experts became KFU students' mentors

Summer Business Leadership Campus was held in Burevestnik Health Camp of Yelabuga Branch of KFU on July 6-12.

Russian consultants, marketing and advertising experts conducted workshops for the students of management, marketing, small business administration, and human resources management departments, including those studying at Yelabuga Branch of KFU.

Each morning was mostly devoted to theoretical lectures, whereas in the afternoon students were concentrated on hands-on workshops aimed to develop students? leadership and communicative skills. Theoretical course was based on the approaches to behavior economics (a modern scientific trend, popular around the world)

'I tell students about the economics. Plus, I do not so much concentrate on theory (as it is impossible to explain everything during a week), as I try to deliver the matrix, the scheme to systemize theoretical knowledge.  We can see how interesting it is when we look at the guys; having spent half of the night in the woods trying to overcome their fears, they come to my lectures trying to overwhelm their sleepiness,' Mikhail Khazin, well-known Russian economist, publicist, TV and radio presenter, president of Neokon Company, shared his  impressions.

The key idea of the summer school is to place as many marketing students in the conditions they will have to work in as possible.  

Natalya Kalenskaya, Doctor of Economics, Head of the KFU Department of Marketing, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, said, 'I am glad the guys liked the format of our work. It is pleasant to see how the students? self-esteem and identity change. It?s worth mentioning that we do not instruct them how to conquer the world; we teach them to be in harmony with the world, the world of business, and to be an adequate representative of the republic.' 

The students were divided into two teams; while one group was studying economics, the other one was concentrating on marketing. The classes were given by Boris Yeremin, President of the Russian Branch of International Advertising Association, Chief Editor of 'Sovetnik', the All-Russian professional PR magazine, Professor of European Institute for PR (Paris). By the way, he was very glad that the summer school was held in the open country, in Burevestnik Health Camp, as 'nature inspires assimilating knowledge'.

According to the organizers, the peculiarity of this summer school was its 24 hour working style, rather than the fact that classes and workshops were conducted by well-known economists and marketing experts.

'Guys are really studying for some time but most time is spent on self-realization. Thus, during the session, they could earn money with their creative activity; and at the end of the session they will spend it at the services facilities they will establish themselves,' explained Igor Romanov,  Cand. Sc. (Psychology), managing partner at Kontakt-Expert consulting company, business consultant with the 20 years of experience.

It should be pointed out that Igor Romanov and Grigory Trusov, the President of Kontakt-Expert consulting company, Russian leading marketing consultant, have been organizing the summer business leadership schools in Russia for several years.

Grigory Trusov said, 'This session in Yelabuga has been the most effective of all organized for the last 10 years. These are bright youngsters, we are honestly surprised and astonished by the quality of their  education; it  was great pleasure to work with them.'

And students themselves went into raptures; they had many things to get through and learn, and moreover happened to meet real experts.