Global Shift Expedition Program Participants From Skolkovo School Of Management Visit India

From March 20 to March 24, Russian entrepreneurs representing various fields and industries visited India. Their purpose was to analyse the business context of the Indian market and understand the possible working vectors and opportunities available in the region.

The expedition participants had a chance to visit two cities: Delhi and Bangalore. During these visits, they became acquainted with the economic phenomena of India and learned about the most important trends and issues in the field of innovation.

The entire structure of the Global Shift Expedition consisted of several formats:

1) Expert Speed Dating
Within this module, expedition participants became acquainted with Indian experts and leaders from various fields (HR, IT, marketing, B2B, and legal). Guests of the event presented their cases while the participants had the opportunity to choose the most exciting topics offered by experts and discuss them in detail. In addition, they were able to fully experience the world of specific and unique features of doing business in India. They learned about the advantages and pitfalls of the Indian market while exploring all possible gaps and issues which may arise when working in these markets.

Here are the most prominent experts and companies participating in the event: FICCI, Invest India, SBER, Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in India, Mishra Sahu Jain & Associates (Legal), Luc Jones (Head of Senior Level Permanent Staffing – India), Sangeeta Devni (Government Regulations), Manish Chhabra (Customer Experience & Global Operations Leader | Ex Dell & Amazon), Saravana Man (Global Head – Innovation/Accelerator | Serial Entrepreneur | MIT, IIMB Alumnus), Nijish Nair (Growth Leader | Building Viral Growth Strategies for Brands in SAAS), Praveen Nair (International Team – HR), Nidhiya V Raj (Head-Startup & VC Ecosystems, South Asia at NVIDIA), Samar Singh (Kingfisher, Business Consultant, Start UP Advisor, Fund Raising, Thought Leader, Professional Public Speaker, Life Coach), Umeysh Ramalingachar & Evgeny Konev (SpicyRocket experts and Global Shift Expedition partners)

2) Family visits
In the second stage, expedition participants were divided into teams and had a chance to directly visit Indian families at their places of residences to immerse themselves in the local lifestyle, study the key features of consumption, and talk with representatives of various families, including a lawyer, a clothes seller, a businessman.

3) Speeches delivered by businesspeople and academics
In addition, the Global Shift Expedition Program included several lectures from prominent Indian professors and entrepreneurs and visits to world-famous business schools.

4) Site visits
Moreover, the expedition participants had the chance to visit several companies from various sectors, including Anscer Robotics, Teleglobal International, MAP (Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore). They also met with founder of Finin, Suman Gandham. Global Shifters had a chance to experience vibrant local life and culture in Delhi and Bangalore through sightseeing, visiting cinema and exploring various retail formats, as well as taking yoga classes every morning.

5) Working on pitches, projects and training workshops
During this stage, entrepreneurs had a chance to become researchers and analyse the experience of local companies and model new ways of implementing entrepreneurial solutions.

While research activity is often unfamiliar to entrepreneurs, at the same time, market research has become a fundamental process for every global company. It allows one to move to the next stage of designing a global strategy while saving time and money.

At the final stage of the expedition, there was a pitch session with the audience consisting of successful Indian entrepreneurs and representatives of various industries, as well as potential partners and investors.

"If you want to expand your business into new markets, anyway you will go investigate new areas. We can explore the territory and take strategic decisions about future business development much more quickly and cheaply with the Expedition format," says Nikolay Verkhovsky, Academic Director at the Global Shift Program.

India is globally one of the fastest growing economies and is based on a variety of developed sectors. Over a short period of time it has achieved significant success in agriculture, both light manufacturing and heavy industries, innovations, high tech, start-ups and many other fields.

The trading turnover between India and Russia has increased by almost 2,5 times in 2022, and I am sure it has potential to grow further. That is why we strive to get to know Indian culture and business processes better and better. SKOLKOVO School of Management helps prepare the leaders, who will bring a new stage of development of our relations», says Alexander Kim, Head of SKOLKOVO School of Management.

(Above mentioned article is a Consumer Connect Initiative, This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of IDPL, and IDPL claims no responsibility whatsoever.)