Trip Application
Read the application information carefully before completing the on-line Russia Trip Application.
"It's one thing to learn about international business in a classroom- it's entirely another to experience it firsthand.
The chance to interact with professionals in Russia and immersion in the culture gave me a more complete perspective on the business climate of the country."
Stephanie Sims
MBA Candidate, Class of 2009
Nizhny Novgorod/Moscow Russia
Why Russia?
Although the Russian economy is now experiencing the same economic and social stresses as the rest of the world and is facing significant challenges, the potential of its abundance of strategic raw materials and energy resources, its low labor costs, and its highly educated workforce is undiminished and will allow the country to bounce back when the global economy starts to turn around. All indications continue to point to the fact that Russia is destined to become increasingly important as a strategic partner for American companies in years to come.
However, the relative lack of understanding of the Russian economy, culture, and political system by American managers and policy makers continues to place the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage relative to Europeans who have had strong business relationships with Russian companies for many years.
Only a few top U.S. business schools are offering their MBA students the opportunity to experience Russian business and culture for themselves via a study trip, and few of these trips provide an in-depth program of visits to industrial companies. The Hough Graduate School of Business is fortunate to have excellent contacts in Russia that allowed us to design a strong program of company and institutional visits last year. For the 2009 study trip, the visit and seminar schedule should be even better because it includes visits in both Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
Virtually everyone who participated last year agreed that the MBA Study Trip to Russia in October 2008 was a resounding success. Students gained tremendous insight into the culture and attitudes of Russians and were able to visit and experience first-hand a range of companies and State institutions. These experiences gave the participants in the study trip a much better idea of Russian realities and business potential than they could ever get reading articles or listening to lectures by American professors. They also got the chance to get to know average Russians socially and to experience student and young professional culture as it really exists for many people in Russia.
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Why Nizhny Novgorod?
The Russian city in which many of the activities will be based is Nizhny Novgorod. Located at the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers 325 km southeast of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod is the third largest city in European Russia, but one with which few people are familiar. It was founded in 1221 and soon evolved into a major trade and financial center (known in olden times as the "pocketbook" of Russia).
During Soviet times, Stalin renamed the city Gorky (after Maxim Gorky) and closed the city to foreigners. It remains a major center of hi-tech defense production with over 100 defense enterprises and research institutions located in the city. The Russian Federal Nuclear Center and the Institute of Applied Physics are in Nizhny Novgorod (one of the reasons why Andrey Sakharov, the father of the Russian H-bomb and an activist for political change in the last years of the Soviet Union, was sent into exile to the city), and MIG aircraft and nuclear submarines are still made there. The old name of the city was restored in 1991 and it was opened to foreigners.
Since 1991, the city has been on the forefront of privatization, restructuring, and defense industry conversion. Today it is one of the main Russian centers for entrepreneurship and venture capital. Many international institutions, such as the IFC, IBRD, EBRD, USAID, TACIS, etc., and western companies, such as Intel, Ingersoll-Rand, Wella AG, Proctor & Gamble, etc., have located operations there.
We will have an opportunity in Nizhny Novgorod and the surrounding area to visit both Russian and foreign-owned industrial and service companies. Two of the most important reasons for focusing on Nizhny Novgorod, though, are the lack of tourists and the extent to which you will be able to experience life in the “real” Russia and gain significant cultural insight into the values and practices of the Russian people.
Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world for business travel and the traffic is horrendous (which can be verified by last year’s group). For these reasons, we will only spend three days in Moscow (one on arrival in Russia and two more at the end of the trip) focusing more on the political and cultural dimensions of the country. While we will visit two companies and have a seminar given by a prominent Russian official, much of our time in Moscow will be devoted to exploring places in the city with which everyone is familiar and without which a trip to Russia would be incomplete (such as the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and Red Square). You will also have free time to experience this vibrant city at night.
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Getting to Russia
Because of visa requirements and the very strict (and oftentimes almost arbitrary) customs and immigration processes at the ports of entry/exit into/from the Russian Federation, it will be necessary for all participants in the program to travel to and from Russia as a group. Flights will be on Delta Airlines from Orlando to Moscow, and onward by train to Nizhny Novgorod after spending one night in Moscow.
At the conclusion of the visits in Nizhny Novgorod, we will take an overnight (sleeper car) train back to Moscow, spend two days experiencing the city, stay at a local tourist hotel, and then fly back the next day from Moscow to Orlando on Delta. Bus transportation will be provided for participants leaving from
Gainesville to/from the Orlando airport. Any participants leaving from locations other than Gainesville will be required to meet the group at the Orlando airport 3 hours prior to the flight. Delta does not allow any deviations from the group schedule, so staying over in Russia after the study trip ends will not be possible.
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