For a group of participants from Renova, Advanced Strategic Management (ASM) offered new ways of thinking both personally and culturally.

Nine leaders from the Renova Group of Companies recently completed ASM, the three-week intensive program for executives who want to drive sustainable business results. The Renova Group is a stakeholder and strategic investor of leading Russian and international companies in the oil, metals & mining, electricity, housing & utilities, media, machine engineering, construction, chemicals and financial sectors. In mid-2007 the assets of Renova Group amounted to $17.9 billion in value. As a result of completing ASM, the participants from Renova returned to their home country with new perspectives.

Elena Kolosok, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Renova’s company IES – Integrated Energy Systems – was particularly enthusiastic about her own development as a result of doing the program.

“This has been important to me personally,” she said. “I had got to the point where I needed to take the next step in learning how to be a better manager and leader. Through ASM I was able to take away practical skills that will help me in the future.”

Kolosok referred to program exercises, such as coming up with ideas in a short amount of time and a group hike through the Swiss Alps, as catalysts for such takeaways.

Meanwhile, Eugene Chudnovsky, Vice President of Renova Projects, said “Faculty made us think about things that we didn’t necessarily think about before. They asked the questions and then it was on us to come up with the answers. As a result, I now have a new point of view on how corporate culture impacts my company.”

The ASM program aims to provide participants with an interconnected view of business and the world in which it operates, as a means of developing leadership skills. This emphasis, combined with an international environment, gave the Renova participants valuable insights.

“The cross cultural integration has been good for us and has been a source of learning,” said Anna Ryzhova, Deputy Director of Corporate Projects.

“We learned that the stereotypes others have of Russia don’t coincide with reality,” added Kolosok. “One participant admitted to me that all he knew of Russian business was the mafia. It is good to have the opportunity to introduce ourselves and explain our life and company and try to break down such perceptions.”

Such a realization further emphasized to the Renova participants the importance of Russian executives enrolling in business school programs such as ASM at IMD.

“We need to reduce the cultural differences,” explained Eugene Willewald, Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Renova. “Russians do not have a long history of doing business with executives abroad. It is important that different international companies understand how we think, behave and act – and vice versa.”

“Advanced Strategic Management helps business leaders align their perceptions and view of the world, markets, industries and consumers with actual reality,” stated Professor Thomas Malnight, Program Director. “I am confident that through the various exercises completed during ASM and that will continue as part of the post-program follow-up work, participants will develop a better picture of their actual business situation.”

Part of the cultural exchange during the ASM program also provided new ideas on how to look at industry related issues from the perspective of different countries. During the program, Kolosok was able to meet with a Spanish counterpart who worked for the equivalent of Integrated Energy Systems in Spain.

“It was interesting to get his insights on how he does things in Spain. There were some ideas that I picked up that could be implemented in Russia.”

The program was a result of a discussion that Renova maintained with IMD about sending their executives to Lausanne as part of the company’s internal educational training program called Vanguard Leadership.

“IMD was able to meet each one of our objectives in terms of dates, program content and allowing us to bring a team,” said Oleg Alekseev, Director of Corporate Projects. “The time came for us when we realized that we needed to take part in such a program in order to take our company to the next level.”

“In Russia we are seeing the emergence of exciting and ambitious new companies like Renova, who realize that they need the best executive education to compete in the international arena,” said Richard Francis, IMD Vice President for Russia, Eastern Europe, Greater China and Northeast Asia. “Russian companies have become more and more of a fixture at IMD in recent years. This trend will only continue as Russia continues to play an even greater role in the global economy.”