Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Just stumbled upon an interesting article in Economist - School of the dark arts. It is about, if not the best, at least the most touted, Russian business school – Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO. The school has been known since its founding in 2006 as a pet project of the Russian government and the collaborating oligarchs. It has been well-funded, fiercely-promoted and frequently-attended by the Russian and international business and political celebrities, including Medvedev, Putin, Schwarzenegger and many others. The school is, in a very Russian, even if somewhat twisted way, a response to the Harvards and LBS’s of the world.
The meat of the article is about a different perspective on business education taken by the school. That is, different from the approaches taken by the school’s Western counterparts. To quote the dean of the school, Wilfried Vanhonacker: “Western schools focus on knowledge. We focus on how to get things done.” Sounds very appealing on its face value, until you read further what it actually means in the context of an article. And it means that the school is preparing its graduates to function in so-called “difficult economies”, such as Russia, India, China and Brazil – the famous BRIC, which are typically plagued with “…institutional gaps, limited availability of talent and graft.” To further confirm what it actually means, here is another quote from the article: “There is no ethical proselytising. …Skolkovo does not harbour “rather arrogant ambitions” to change Russia’s business environment.”
This approach to “getting the things done” is in a quite stark contrast to the latest trends in the Western business education with emphasis on sustainability, corporate social responsibility and ethics. For reference, read my post about the interview with the dean of George Washington School of Business that touches upon these issues at GWSB, and more broadly in American business education.
What is even more interesting, this “down to earth, get your hands dirty” approach of SKOLKOVO is contradictory to the very aspirations and proclamations of Wilfried Vanhonacker, the school’s dean, just two short years ago. In 2009 he made on the list of 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics published by Ethisphere, “a leading international think-tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.”
Vanhonacker was listed under category Thought Leadership and credited with the SKOLKOVO’s announcement “that it will focus on anti-corruption, a welcome change to the high profile reports of alleged corruption that came from Russia [that] year.”
As the article in Economist states, “the school unabashedly takes a different perspective from its Western counterparts.” Apparently, the reverence to the anti-corruption and business ethics sentiment in 2009 was done only sheepishly. ;-(
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. Anyways, embedded at the end of this post is the interview from Businessweek. If you have other “why’s?” about MBA, here is my post on “
I looked up the group paper, but professor’s notes were mostly illegible. I guess, I will never really know what were his thoughts on grading us lower than we expected 
