Society

Understanding the finer points of international relations can be a valuable skill not only in service to the state, but also in business, where people of different cultures interact. In this issue of Success Builder, HSE graduate Konstantin Kaminsky, Deputy Director of Astons (London) explains how his activities as a student helped him enroll in business school, how to look for a job in London, and how to communicate on a daily basis with millionaires of all nationalities.

As businesspeople say: ‘If you’re doing what you really love, your business will succeed.’ This idea has guided SUP-club.ru founder and director Maria Smirnova. In an interview for Success Builder, she explained how people over 30 can overcome the fear of making life changes, how to make a customer happy in five minutes, where to go surfing in Moscow, and why it’s no longer shameful to be a political scientist.

The new workout culture has brought new popularity to the lonely pull-up bars that stand in residential neighborhoods across the country. Now thousands of people have discovered that they can get into shape easily, at no cost, and by working out as little as 10 minutes per day. WorkOut City Streets Fitness founder Anton Kuchumov explained how he turned street workouts into a social project, how he is getting Russia’s nuclear power plant employees in shape, and why he is no fan of fitness clubs.

In the pursuit of digital projects, interesting business niches sometimes go unfilled. Higher School of Economics graduate Mikhail Pakhomov, founder and CEO of Cosmodrome Games, turned an analog project into a profitable venture. He told Success Builder how board games are created, how to turn a hobby into a source of income, and how to buck the trend towards all things digital.

When a new direction is being formed in the market, it’s possible to recognize the hype, create the rules yourself, and get rich on your own creativity. In the latest edition of Success Builder, the director of media product development at Russian social networking site VKontakte, Arseniy Ashomko, discusses what the advertising industry looks like from the inside, how the law is useful in any field, and what makes the company VKontakte special besides the juice bar and gym.

Last year, HSE launched its new joint course with Mail.ru called Communications in IT, where the head of RBC Group’s press centre, Egor Timofeev, was an invited speaker. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Egor talks about how the roles of a journalist and a PR specialist differ, why media is hard work, how to fight fake news, and how to be part of a brand on social media.

Ekaterina Kolchina, a graduate of ICEF and London Business School, is currently the deputy CEO of Papa John’s Russia. An education in economics certainly came in handy for this. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Ekaterina talks about the human side of consulting, stereotypes about the restaurant business, and taste-related aspects of working at a pizzeria.

The profession of a trader has an aura of mystery around it. These are people with a wonderful salary who have the privilege of being part of a small community of professionals. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Denis Gribov, a trader for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, talks about how to use your own savings to break into trading, as well as how to keep your emotions at bay, trade during lunchtime, and compete with artificial intelligence.

In order to manage a company successfully, one has to truly love what the company does. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Victoria Rydina, the head of the communications division at AgroTerra Group and a graduate of HSE’s MBA programme, talks about the charm of agriculture, the secrets of ‘non-GMO’ labels, a healthy corporate lifestyle, unmanned combine harvesters, and agronomists with tablets.

Despite the fact that written texts are losing to visual imagery in today’s media, people who have a way with words are still in high demand. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Pavel Sokolov, a graduate of the HSE Faculty of Communications, Media, and Design and the editor-in-chief of the Eksmo publishing house website, discusses what is currently happening in the world of books, what comprises the duty of a Russian intellectual, and how to be both a manager and a playwright.