December 2, 2008, St. Petersburg
On November 21 Arcadia, Inc., one of the leading custom software development and IT-consulting companies of St. Petersburg, welcomed a group of European students again. Arcadia’s participation in learning programs of foreign universities has become a good tradition. The company management is confident that co-operation not only with Russian but also with foreign universities deepens and strengthens international business links and creates good image of Russian business abroad, as today’s students are going to become managers, specialists and businessmen in future.
This time Arcadia received a group of students representing ESTIEM — the organization of European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management. They came to St. Petersburg for a few days to see the city, its culture and business. As usual, Director on business development Svetlana Kazanskaya made a presentation for students telling them about the company, custom software development business, IT-consulting etc. After that the students asked their own questions about the company, its activity and about Russia in general.
Arcadia hosts such groups several times a year. Such trips are quite usual for European universities and training companies. You can speak about peculiarities of national character and business, but this will stay mere words until you see, hear and meet the country “in person”.
The longest collaboration of Arcadia with a foreign university — the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences — started 5 years ago. Twice a year a group of students comes to St. Petersburg to see Russian life, culture and business. The students visit a number of Russian companies (Arcadia, Inc., Novaya Era, Baltika brewery, Russian office of Ruukki, Finno-Russian innovation centre), see cultural places of interest and get acquainted with realities of a megapolis with much larger population than in Helsinki. See also October, 21 news.
Especially fruitful co-operation of Arcadia and Cass Business School took place in 2006-2007 years. 5 specialists in finance and software development, going through EMBA training, visited Arcadia for practical training. The students, who already had a good deal of business experience by the time, examined business processes and activities of Arcadia and gave recommendations on their improvement. This co-operation was mutually beneficial: the students had “non-toy” sample for training, while Arcadia received a number of fresh ideas for business development. The sympathy was mutual as well. See also article about MBA students' visit.
One more recent sample of such co-operation — participation of Ardin Software and Arcadia, Inc. in organization of a business trip of Finnish businessmen to St. Petersburg which was part of Fintra training program. Our guests were representatives of Finnish companies, who developed innovation products and services and would like to expand their business to Russia. Their trip included not only sightseeing and checking theoretical knowledge about Russia and Russian people, but also first steps in establishing mutually beneficial business links with Russian companies. The result of the visit was positive: negotiations were more or less successful, St. Petersburg pleased the guests by sunny days (so rare in November!), and Mariinsky theater and other places of interest were delightful, as usual.
Arcadia is going to maintain collaboration with foreign universities in future as well. Thus, Arcadia contributes to a good image of Russian business abroad. Sometimes, communication with foreign students even takes an unexpected turn: eg, Finnish students, after asking about salaries of IT-specialists, just in case asked if Arcadia employs foreigners… This is a sign that. on the one hand, salary level in Russian IT is becoming closer and closer to European level (though it is still several times lower), and on the other hand, that Russian software developers are competing with Europe more and more by quality but not only by price.
German students in Arcadia, Inc.
Additional info:
ESTIEM, the organization of European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management, represents more than 45,000 students in 25 countries and is the only Europe-wide network linking 62 IEM (Industrial Engineering and Management) universities.
Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences was formed in August 2008 as a result of merger of EVTEK University of Applied Sciences and Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia. The Metropolia has four fields of study: technology, health care and social services, economics and business administration, and culture, all of which will provide teaching also in English.
Cass Business School is one of Europe’s leading providers of business and management education, consultancy and research.
Fintra (Finland) — international business management training company, leading training company of Finland.