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.