From the author: Interview with the Internet portal "My Kaliningrad", 2012. One of the most pressing topics in the business sphere today is the education of entrepreneurs and assistance to young professionals in starting your business. To implement these tasks, a lot of money is spent from the federal and regional budgets, all kinds of forums, trainings, master classes are held, business incubators, technology parks and other institutions are opened that can help “startups” occupy a good, competitive niche in the Russian and world markets. Questions about how to train businessmen and what to pay attention to when promoting a product were answered by Ekaterina Nechaeva, an expert at the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a trainer-consultant at the Gdansk Foundation for the Education of Managers and the Faculty of Economics and Entrepreneurship at KSTU. - You conduct seminars at the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce -Chamber of Industry, what do you think, does an entrepreneur need a higher education or can he get by with business courses? - It’s a good question, and initially it may seem that a definite answer cannot be given. After all, a lot depends on the model, size of the business, frequency and degree of manifestation of its activity in the external environment: say, whether it is a trade tent or a credit organization. Of course, basic professional knowledge and the ability to work with information are needed. However, entrepreneurship is, first of all, a gift that only nature, and not a university, can bestow. Another question is that business skills, initially formed, as they say, by life experience, can be found and developed in oneself. Contributing to this is the main goal of specialized business trainings and coaching sessions that provide an individual approach. So, may my university colleagues forgive me, my answer: obtaining a higher education is not mandatory for an entrepreneur. In addition, the mere presence of a higher education does not mean anything. I generally don’t understand how some people flaunt the number of higher educations: “I have two”, “and I have three”... - Ekaterina, you, as a trainer-consultant of the Gdansk Foundation for Management Education and a teacher at KSTU, can comment on how the Russian education of entrepreneurs differs from the European one ? - Gdańsk Foundation for Management Education is the second largest and most famous business school in Poland. About 200 people received diplomas from the MBA (Master of Business Administration) program alone in October of this year. Therefore, it would probably be wrong to compare the education received by students there with Russian education as a whole. But from experience working in other countries, I can say that the main difference is in the practice-oriented nature of the classes and the forms of presentation of the material being studied. It is impossible to teach a person to swim by showing him pictures of a figure on the water and explaining the principle of operation of the muscles involved, and even more so by limiting himself to only “reading from the pulpit a story” about how others swim. You need the water itself, right? Likewise, classes in foreign schools require, first of all, the active participation of students and the development of the necessary skills under the careful guidance and monitoring of the teacher. A real teacher instructs and guides, but you have to “swim the distance” on your own. This is how the necessary experience will be formed. The second aspect - the form of presentation of the material - is not only about the use of multimedia presentations, as is commonly believed in our country. This is again about activity, only now teaching. For example: demonstrating the life path as a concept, my colleague from Erasmus University (Rotterdam), a leading European specialist in the field of personnel management and leadership, academician and professor Bill Collins, while speaking to students in my presence... ran in place, which completely fascinated me . Participants in my seminars and trainings, as well as master’s students, also know that I rarely sit still during classes, although it is physically difficult, especially if the training lasts 10 hours.But what to do - without pain there are no results! - Are experienced businessmen coming to you or people just starting out in business? - As a rule, experienced businessmen do not always have enough time for themselves, but, understanding the importance of additional education, they send managers of their companies to training. Ambitious young directors and even students come, in a good way. Several times parents (fathers) who studied with me sent their adult children to the next course - this is a very interesting fact. - At one of the seminars you explain the difference between the image and reputation of a company - what is the peculiarity of each? - As they say: all that glitters is not gold. Image is a component of marketing for a company or an individual: a certain created image aimed at a mass audience. Without a competent approach to its formation, it will be difficult to take a place in the market. Without a reputation, it will not be possible to hold this place. This concept relates to leadership and speaks of authority, and therefore the degree of trust in you. It is reputation that can influence the decision-making of your partners, the opinion of professionals and experts - those who, by the nature of their activities, interact not so much with an image, but with a real object hidden behind a successful decoration. They guide you wisely, and if the company is not a fly-by-night company, if you came into business not just to “hit a one-day jackpot”, but are committed to stability and growth, then the reputation of your company is exactly what you should pay attention to initially and at all stages of development Special attention. - In what ways can a company achieve a good reputation? - Firstly, a competent approach to reputation management will help you rise to a high level. Although, due to the still weak development of competitive mechanisms, this direction is relatively new for Russian society, economic growth and Russia’s accession to the WTO impose new demands on the domestic management model. Secondly, you and your team members must comply with the rules of business ethics. Of course, creating and maintaining a good reputation requires a lot of time and effort, and a competent specialist knows this. But there is no need to reinvent the wheel - reputation technologies developed by Western specialists can be successfully applied in Russia. Their use plays a vital role both in relations with business partners and in relations with the staff of your own company. This is, first of all, a well-developed strategy for building trust, respect, maintaining and protecting audience loyalty to your brand, name, mark. - What do you think is a brand? - Just for this you still need to grow up. A brand is something that is already in the minds of consumers. They no longer need to explain who you are through advertising, promotions or other marketing tactics - they have a fully formed idea of ​​all your characteristics and their own associated associations and expectations. A brand is something that is beyond doubt, does not require much thought, and lives up to expectations. It makes it easier to understand the product and simplifies the choice, of course, to your advantage. Creating a brand and its positioning is an art based on deep knowledge of the market, competitive mechanisms, and business intuition. And since the cost of a mistake can be huge, many companies prefer not to do it themselves, but turn to experts. - In your opinion, what is the state of business relations between Russia and Europe? - There are still many difficulties, and I often write about them in articles and on my microblog on Twitter. On the one hand, it would seem that there is a desire to cooperate on both sides. But look what's happening. The Western approach is characterized by consistency: leading companies, first of all, hire cross-cultural consultants and trainers, and their top managers attend specialized educational courses in order to learn how to work with “Russians” and avoid possible costly mistakes or misunderstandings.