Visit of students from German Academic Scholarship Foundation

On the 15^th of April, IEMS hosted a group of 25 students holding a scholarship from German Academic Scholarship Foundation (The Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) as part of their educational visit to Moscow to learn about Russia’s policy, economy, business as well as history and culture. Oleg Remyga, Head of China Studies Lab, gave a presentation on Russia’s pivot to the East, while Ekaterina Molchanova, Head of Global Strategy Studies, spoke about emerging Russian mid-size firms conquering local and global markets.

The special part of the visit was the meeting with Kirill Prudnikov and Dmitriy Kolesnikov, SKOLKOVO MBA’s graduates and founders of Smeat (www.smeat-snacks.ru). The company specializing in production of 100% natural meat snacks targets the emerging niche of “eating-on-the-go” segment. First entering the market in February 2016, Smeat is present in over 60 points of sale, targeting to reach 1000 by the end of the year and actively looking for partners to sell internationally. In their presentation, Kirill and Dmitriy touched upon the overall landscape of entrepreneurship in Russia as well as shared their experience of why they decided to leave the corporate world and start their own company in these turbulent economic times.