Monday, June 25, 2012

Open Communication

These days are so long and jam-packed with activities that by the time I get to the end of the day, it's hard to even remember how the day began. We started off today with a visit to the strategic communications firm PBN Hill+Knowlton. President Susan Thurman even stopped by our meeting to tell us about her experience in starting PBN (before the merger), and about her move from the US to the Russian market. Below is a photo from inside the PBN Hill+Knowlton office building.


After lunch on Arbat Street (my third time there), we headed over to the Canadian Embassy (second time there). It was here that we mostly learned about the role of the Canadian Embassy in Russia.

Once that visit ended, my team walked to what we thought was the right direction for our meeting with a Russian entrepreneur for our assignment. Though we weren't going the right way, we managed to get a couple nice pictures during our walk (see below).

In front of the Kremlin

Saint Basil's Cathedral

As soon as we made it to the proper location for Cafe Mechta ("Dream Cafe"), we were happy to meet Vladimir Kanin, entrepreneur and CEO of Optiflame Solutions. Vladimir taught us a lot about his business, the renewable energy sector, what it is like to operate within the Russian market, international business practices, his upcoming project with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his relationship with the Skolkovo Innovation Centre. It was interesting to begin the day with a communications firm and to end it with an entrepreneur saying that communication was the most important factor in business. I would like to thank Vladimir for taking the time to meet with us, as well as my classmate Anastasia for arranging the meeting.

This entry was originally posted on the HEC Montreal Campus Abroad blog here.

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