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Education Is A Key To Success - If You Know What's It For

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  • Education Is A Key To Success - If You Know What's It For

    EDUCATION IS A KEY TO SUCCESS - IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S IT FOR
    Aram Gareginyan

    ArmInfo
    22.03.2010

    Interview

    ArmInfo . Interview with Dr. Bert Wolfs, director of SBS Swiss
    Business School

    In October 2009, SBS Swiss Business School became the first in
    Armenia to start an MBA program. Director of SBS shares his views
    on the prospects of Armenian economy and the ways to apply business
    theory in local conditions.

    Have you witnessed enough interest towards MBA courses in Armenia?

    We've been able to recruit the first group of MBA students in Armenia.

    Today we live in a globalized world, and countries no more live
    on their own. We did a market research, which revealed changes
    in the Armenian economy, particularly the tendency to acquire
    more professional skills. People want to know more about the best
    practices of international businesses. In our curriculum, instructed
    by a combined local and international faculty, we try to provide the
    best practices.

    Why did you choose particularly marketing discipline for Armenia?

    We've worked with the rector of RAU, Mr. Armen Darbinyan, who is
    respected both in Armenia and outside. Armenia is a small market, but
    located on the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It's a market of a great
    potential, because Armenia has got very good native products - water,
    juices and fruit, and I think local entrepreneurs are capable to do
    more business internationally, therefore we think it's a good way to
    train managers locally. We don't want managers like to go for a year
    to Switzerland and practice their studies in a foreign economy. The
    advantage of this program is that theoretical concepts are immediately
    applied in practice, so you can see how and why they work.

    How do you find the level of Armenian students?

    I'm very pleased with their professional skills. I've got experience
    of teaching in CIS countries and ...~E, and I've been positively
    surprised with Armenian attendants. The most important thing for me
    is that they are willing to learn. It's not parents or someone else
    who urges them to go and study. You see that people are driven by
    themselves, they want to study more and more.

    What plans do you have for further development of MBA business school?

    We would like to recruit more students. Now we are recruiting the
    second group, and we hope to enroll two groups a year. What we have
    to do is also to know how we are teaching the program in Russian, and
    later we may develop a mixed curriculum in Russian and English. We
    have to teach ourselves better as well, to know more about Armenian
    practice.

    What are the qualities that the students obtain when they've finished
    the studies?

    First of all, we try to change their personality. When I say that,
    everybody laughs at me. But the reason I'm saying that is every
    student that attends the courses is a specialist in a particular area
    of business. Throughout the courses, they have input from different
    industries and parts of the world, and they can take things, which
    are good for them, and apply them in their own environment. They
    also have to learn to make presentations. Some of the attendants,
    particularly those with engineering education, feel uncomfortable
    about that, because they had never done it before. And when they do
    that, it helps them to improve their communicative skills. Hopefully,
    they also understand they have to become better listeners, to be able
    to listen to their customers.

    How is a graduate going to use his knowledge in Armenia, when the
    demand for marketing skills in the country has much to grow?

    Our task is to provide them with maximum concepts and practices.

    Certain of them may not work in Armenian environment, but every
    student has to take into consider which concept might be employed
    and does they need to be adapted to the local market. This is the
    student's decision. One more advantage of Armenian market in comparison
    with advanced economies is that it still has room for growth, while
    saturated markets don't. They only can go down, and the only way for
    the Armenian market is to go up.

    Let's hope so... Enrolling people for MBA course, one may notice that
    people consider them worth of money only for an opportunity to work
    abroad or in a local branch of a foreign company. There's an evident
    lack of belief that proprietors of local companies will appreciate
    an MBA certificate.

    Here, in the first place, you advance in several skills. You get a
    better view of accounting, finance, marketing, and management. When
    you have succeeded all the courses, you must write a thesis that has to
    be focused on Armenia. You must apply the concepts you have learned to
    the local environment. Therefore I would feel very sad if the graduates
    would later leave Armenia. That's not the purpose of the courses.

    What opportunities would attract you, if you had an intention to
    start a business in Armenia?

    Armenia has a rich cultural background, which can stimulate the
    growth of tourism industry. So the government should support it by
    helping people to develop the local infrastructure. Besides, you have
    an advantage of cost: tourists are not going any more to Spain, even
    Croatia becomes too expensive, so they are going, say, to Bulgaria,
    where leisure is cheaper. It's one of unique features of Armenia, which
    is hard to find anywhere else. You have to promote your advantages,
    if you want to bring people here. On the other hand, there are certain
    products that you can export worldwide - one of them is clean water,
    the scarcity of which is evident in a lot of other countries.
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