HSE University Students to Help Russian Brands Enter Chinese Market

Wang Yue

Photo courtesy of Wang Yue

Foreign students from HSE University recently took part in the project of the School of Entrepreneurship for international students ‘Start your business with Moscow!’. Wang Yue, 31, first-year student of the HSE GSB Master's programme in International Management from China, became one of the most active participants in the project. She shared her impressions of participating in the training with the HSE News Service.

The project ‘Start your business with Moscow!’ is aimed at developing business skills and subsequent employment of the most successful and talented graduates of Russian universities from foreign countries. The organiser of the project is the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Fifteen students from HSE University submitted applications, and ten of them were selected to participate in the course.

Wang Yue

When I studied at Xi'an International Studies University (XISU) in China, I majored in Russian language and literature, and since then I have always had the desire to learn more about Russian culture and traditions.

I initially planned to study management in China because I had already worked for many years and I wanted to use my work experience as a basis for gaining more specialised theoretical knowledge.

Then, by chance, a friend told me what a great university HSE is, and I decided to ​​return to school and continue my studies. Next I learned about the International Management programme at HSE University and the opportunity to come to beautiful Moscow, so I made the choice to come here without much hesitation.

I really like the people in Moscow and can see that they are very friendly and good-natured

Russian, one of the top three most difficult languages ​​in the world, is still a challenge for me. At the moment my language skills allow me to carry out everyday conversations, but my vocabulary may not be sufficient enough to engage in more professional conversations.

My project within the 'Start your business in Moscow!’ school is to help Russian brands enter the Chinese market. We have a friend in our class who is the founder of a perfume brand, which I found very interesting. I asked if I could use his brand as my own internationalisation project. Not only did he agree, but he also provided me with a lot of information about their brand and products, which helped me out a lot!

The course consisted of six modules and included training on the following topics:

• Team building, networking, and project work
• Financial, legal, and accounting support
• Business modelling and planning
• Marketing
• Sales
• Project management

The project modules are very useful for those who want to start a business in Russia, as they cover the necessary knowledge such as relevant laws, how to pay taxes, etc, and leave enough time for a live question and answer session with students.

In general, combining project training modules with master's studies is not particularly complicated; the biggest challenge was Russian being my second foreign language

I am very glad that I had the opportunity to attend this course in addition to my studies, and I hope that similar courses will be available. I think that, with the further strengthening of friendship and cooperation between Russia and China, it is likely that after graduating from university I will be able to work in the field of Russian-Chinese trade.